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This is page 404 of Spotify. Even though the style of page 404 is consistent with Spotify. You can see from this simple thing that the designers of the Spotify are diligent. So is the design of page 404 important or not? 

“The typical trigger for an error 404 message is when website content has been removed or moved to another URL.” Whether designing web pages or designing apps, users may encounter 404 errors in the process of using the website or the application you designed. 

The reason why the design of the 404 error page is also crucial due to customer experiences. 

Most users are afraid to see the 404 error page, which means that the page corresponding to this link no longer exists, or the search results are wrong. However, if you can design the 404 error page correctly and even surprisingly, it can not only solve users’ problems but also bring more traffic to your website or application.

So here I want to take several good designs or the 404 error page as examples to share my opinions on designing a good 404 error page.

1. Proving useful links

Airbnb provides a list of likely helpful links in the 404 error page. At least let customers feel better when they find they are not in a dead-end even though they didn’t find the content they want as expected. And such design also creates space for the website to recommend their best content for users on page 404, help them better explore other content of your website. 

Another interesting thing here is ‘Oops’. Most page 404 is saying sorry to customers. ‘Oops’ can easy the embarrassment to some extent.

2. Providing searching bar

It makes more sense to add a searching box to page 404, which can also help visitors solve problems. Also, the searching box improves the site traffic. 

3. The proper sense of humor

There is no doubt that joking is a good way to relieve embarrassment. But excessive banter often backfires. Because people’s sense of humor is not necessarily ‘consistent’. The same joke may have different effects on different visitors. 

For the final Making assignment, I decided to make an infographic for the mobile app prototype (Vintage) I produced for my Entrepreneurial Journalism class. This infographic could act as a nice addition for my business pitch or for a handout during the presentation. The design process is explained through headings for each draft.

1st Draft: My 1st draft was ultimately concerned with creating a layout that matches the message the mobile app business plan conveys by purposely lining text and pictures into an aesthetically-pleasing style.

2nd Draft: This draft made use of small designs to outline the text and pictures within the infographic.

3rd Draft: This draft used lush, plain tones of color to match the vintage look and vision. 

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Final Draft: Final edits and creative choices were made to produce the desired result.

After designing an application and a website, I decided to make a logo this time. And this logo is also designed for my business plan-Visible News. At first, I want to explain briefly what Visible news does. To be straightforward, journalism students or beginning journalists can upload their news videos on this online platform, and news agencies or media companies can select good news videos and even directly hire talented news videographers on this platform. That’s why I plan to add the icons of a videographer on my logo. Because I think a logo should symbolize a brand or an organization in the market. When customers watch the logo, and the logo can help customers to understand what this brand or organization is doing. After I read some articles about how to design a logo, I conclude several main points of creating a good logo. Here is the list of tips: 1. Match the purpose of your business A logo designer should understand the purpose of the business or the company and always remember that the logo should match the purpose. That’s why I choose dark bronde as the main color of my logo. Because Visible News is an online job market, and customers should know that such a platform is professional from the logo. That’s also why I use the icon of a videographer in my logo, to tell the customers that Visible News focuses on video making.

Font design of my logo

There are two pictures, the first one is the old version and the second one is the final version of my logo. The reason why I decided to use a more modern and concise, even more, the solid font is that my target audiences are young generations. Based on data support, we can know that my target audience is 18-29 years old. They are the relatively younger generation in society. 

Elegant and Memorable

I’m not going to lie, this one was really fun to make. 

I have been running low on ideas for these makings, and so I decided to create something more driven by tools and technology this time, rather than content. At a career fair a few weeks ago, I was asked, “what do you mean by new technology? Which technologies are going to drive the future?” 

I thought it was a great question, and I was initially thrown by it - it’s not the type of question that I usually get asked at job fairs, but I quickly realized that I have an answer already. I think that if companies (especially communication companies) aren’t already investing majorly in AR, then they are going to be behind in the next few years. 

But this conversation made me realize that I haven’t been investing in AR, and I know almost nothing about it. So, this week I am dipping my toe into those Augmented waters. 

I found a tool called Zappar and signed up for a 30-day free trial. I explored their online tool and a downloadable one. Essentially, they have developed a simplified version of AR creation software and that’s what I used to create this week’s making. 

It’s pretty straightforward, and reminds me a bit of XD - a set number of objects and some basic animations that can be turned into pretty cool mock-ups. Here’s a screen recording of what I made:

Basically, this AR experience is 2 different ‘scenes’ with a button to take you through them. It was pretty fun to build. 

I also took some time to explore their downloadable software ZapWorks Studio. It’s a much more advanced tool for developing AR content.