When thinking about how to implement my design mockups and what kinds of changes might need to be made, I realized that I should probably have included in my design rationale blogpost,
the reasons for the significant departure from my wireframes in my mockups.
1. Homepage Design: My original home page was designed around a feature exhibit and project information. The mockup home page is designed around the original exhibit navigation scheme. The five images for navigation are consistent with the wireframes, but the navigation has been reconfigured.
2. Navigation: When working with the wireframes, I decided on navigation links that changed a little bit from page to page. This seemed to make sense. Every element was a fun little building block that I could move anywhere I wanted. So I did.
Also when switching between wireframes, consistency seemed stale and I felt the need to modify each page. When creating the mockups, I noticed the opposite effect. Switching navigation link positions seemed visually awkward. Also, consistent elements from page to page did not seem stale. Repetition had the effect of letting the title and navigation elements take a bit of a backseat and held a simple reassurance.
3. Logo: I hadn’t thought about the logo much before our design discussions. I had a simple title flanked by two images in my wireframes. But I decided to take on a name for the site and design a logo to go with it. This was not a major change from the wireframes, but I thought I’d mention it.
Conclusion: I am sure that my mockups won’t be exactly realized once the pages are up and running. But maybe that’s not an altogether bad thing.
