Ok so my web site name is officially creativityisalive.com and I’m loving it. I initially uploaded my ATEC Wordpress onto the homepage but quickly removed it because I wanted to get started on the right foot. I was so eager to have something on the site I was willing to put anything up. I didn’t want a web site that was all pictures with no context but I don’t want my site to be too wordy and cluttered either. I looked to see what agencies and websites had been winning awards and gaining notoriety to get a feel for what did and didn’t work, but that hard part was going to be making something my own. By drawing out my design and thinking about what both I and my personas would want to see it helped me create something I’d be proud to visit and host. I have laid out a fairly simple skeleton for my homepage and each “kind” of page that you will be able to navigate to as well. I uploaded all of the sheets in pdf format if you want to see anything that I describe or if you want to see my terrible handwriting. Problems making PDF so i’m putting a link to my flickr account where you can view each page individually. Click Here For Website Skeleton.
I spent some time thinking of what my logo would be and I’ve designed my own, it will be the word CREATIVITY but written in a way where it reads the same rotated at 180 degrees. I started doing those kind of things as a kid and who knew it would pay off? But anyways, I’ll have the logo at the top of every page rotating every 15 seconds or so. I’ll incorporate a small picture of myself, my twitter id and other personal links on the home page and my about/contact page only leaving it off anything else. My site’s homepage will be, for all intensive purposes, my blog. I will show a video/pic/slogan etc . . . of an advertising campaign or marketing ploy and I will then break down to the audience what I did and didn’t like about it. From there I’ll write what I would have like to have seen and proceed to create my own version of it. I doubt I’ll be doing this at first for every post but that’s the idea. Under each post will be a link to write a comment and another link if you want to upload your own version too.
Another page will be where you will go for the forum/discussion portion of my site. Here there will be a list of ads so you can find what kind or specific ad you’re looking for. It will be sortable by company name, type of media (pic/vid/art etc . . .), tag/category, date added, date edited/added content, number of ppl who’ve contributed, rating. This page will navigate you to all of the ads I’ve put on the site along with my and other people’s uploaded versions. I also am thinking of a creative way to display this same content which will look something like a wheel-of-fortune to navigate the ads on the database. It’s only an idea for know and I will have the basic viewing available either way.
Once you click on an ad you want to see you’ll see my original blog post at the top with my comments and own version. Under that will be the latest uploaded version of that ad. Each uploaded ad, mine included, will have it’s own comments linked specifically to that ad to avoid confusion.
I will also have a Top 10 (not exactly sure on the number) of user-generated ads, not including mine. I will base it off the user ratings and will have to figure out a way to make sure one user doesn’t rate his 100 times over. That will have a small image or preview that can be expanded if you hover over it, then the rating, the author’s name/nickname, the date it was added and the original company that sported the ad.
The final page will be my About/Contact page. I’ll start out with a paragraph about what the site is for and why I created it. Then I’ll have a brief bio and my experience with a PDF attachment at the bottom. On the sidebar I’ll have my picture again with my contact e-mail, twitter id, linkedin site and other personal sites.
Additional Details: I’m going to navigate people who want to upload and rate user-generated content to a login page. This way I can better manage who uploads content and see if anyone is uploading anything that’s inappropriate. Also this will not allow people to vote for themselves thousands of time. Of course there are loopholes but this is my first safety measure. And on this site it will let people know that they can always choose to not login for free and still comment on uploads. The last site will be some kind of error page with text saying I’m sorry for the problem and with my contact e-mail if the problem persists so I can fix it.
Is this your site structure blog post? It sure does look like it — so I’m going to leave a comment!
You certainly have things detailed out as far as the content structure goes for your site. I’m even impressed that you are thinking about already including ads. I liked the link to the web award site and I will be going there later today to get some ideas for my own website. I can’t wait to see your final “Creativity” logo and see that 180 degree thing in action. Great job so far!
Do you have marketing experience? If so, how will you convey your experience to your followers? What will make them believe you?
This is the big problem with running a website dedicated to ad-creation, especially since you’re setting this up for you to be a sort of ad-critic.
I understand that you’re trying to take a Digg approach to ad-creation, but how else can that set you apart? Only Digg has been able to succeed on a really wide scale like that.
But I do like the idea about a Wheel of Fortune menu selector. I would like to see this worked up in Flash or something to play around with.
Angelo,
Congrats on getting the domain name you wanted. Using CREATIVITY and having it rotate to show that no matter how you look at it is the same is very creative, but having it rotate every 15 seconds might turn your users off. Personally when there is something flashing or moving and I see it in my peripheral vision is frustrating and I want to turn it off. So maybe only having it move when they first get to your site, or when they move to another page?
good luck
miriam