Mobile Site Layout

I have started to design a mobile site to go along with my main website.

The toolbar at the top looks similar to the website, but there are some changes in layout and functionality. By pressing the arrow below the icons, it brings down a menu full of other icons that the user has set up in their customisation options. The way the site info is laid out is also different from the site, to make it look more like a mobile app (As well as the search bar).

More Design Work

I've been spending most of my project time thinking up new designs for the Yahoo homepage, especially when coming up with the customisable homepage.

This is the default homepage layout. The blue bar under the toolbar is a video advertisement for the new My Yahoo, which I have made in order to give My Yahoo more exposure. Again, the content for the site has been simplified to take up less space.

This is an example of a customised page. The toolbar shows customisation of icons. They can be dragged and dropped. It also shows some of the widgets that can be used, such as a bookmark bar and a place to leave notes.

My Yahoo

Whilst looking around Yahoo's site, I cam across 'My Yahoo'.

This part of Yahoo was actually hard to find on the homepage, as it was hidden under the section of the site that shows more of Yahoo's pages. It was not shown on the homepage at all.

I feel that this part o Yahoo has potential, but needs to be redesigned a lot. Because of this, I should focus on making My Yahoo more noticed.

Refining Designs

After sketching out ideas, I have made a mockup of the toolbar to see what it would look like digitally.

Although I am liking the idea of the toolbar, it still doesn't feel completely finished. I shall go back and tweak the design a bit more, and possibly experiment with different colours.

First Designs

I have been thinking about site layout ideas in my sketchbook, and I have came up with a vague idea of what I want my site to look like.

I have been thinking about changing the logo, as the current one looks a bit outdated. This is a design for the default homepage, before being logged in for customisation features. The layout of the main stie has been changed a bit so there are not too many things cluttering the homepage.

More Research

I have looked at other popular homepages that were considered competition by Yahoo. The similarities between these two sites is that their homepage looks simple, with very little text.

 

Facebook's homepage when you are not logged in is meant to encourage you to sign up to see content. It is easy to follow, as the way to sign up is shown clearly on the page. There is little imagery used on the page apart from the world map to show the connectivity of people of Facebook.

Google's homepage is even more simple than Facebook. Google's homepage has remained unchanged since the site began, and its simplicity has its success. As soon as people open their browser, they will most likely want to search for something. Google being a page with just a search function gives the user exactly what they want.

Class Discussion

The idea for my initial idea went over well. The idea was to make a fully customisable homepage, which has things like bookmarks etc. to take you to other websites. The customisation idea has many options for design, and I think I will stick with this design as it answers the brief and is very open in terms for how to design it.

Very First Ideas

So far, I have looked around Yahoo's current website, picking out its strengths and faults. One of the most glaring flaws I can find is that it is very cluttered and not very user friendly, and does not target the audience they have set on the brief, which is 13-18 year olds.
My first idea is to make a fully customisable webpage, where the user has control of the content. The site will have to be stripped down to look more minimal, and would have to feature things that would cater to the target audience.
Back when I has a teenager, I liked to use Bebo and one of the main features of that site was that you could customise the skin and content on your profile. This is sort of what I would like to do with Yahoo's site, and give the user their own unique experience with the site.

Meeting YCN

As part of this project, we got a chance to visit YCN up in London.  During the visit, we were told about what YCN does, and more information about the competition itself, as well as having the change to ask questions ourselves.
Most of the talk was about YCN's own projects, and what they have done recently. This included a video for Arsenal fans on a newsletter. One of the most important things I learned on the trip to YCN was about the pdf I will have to submit at the end of the project. As the pdf is going to feature our work, it must be of high quality, and have a well thought out design.

YCN Brief - Yahoo!

Objectives

In numbers: To increase the percent of Yahoo! users to set Yahoo! as their homepage.
In perception: I’m inspired to makeYahoo! the place I start my internet journey every day. 

The Creative Challenge
Yahoo! is the original .com start-up, the first internet site that made sense at scale of the sprawling mass that is the internet.The core element of this success is the Yahoo! homepage. In a single page it is able to capture the most important things you need in your daily internet life - to communicate, to find out, to explore. Google and Facebook are now more popular homepages - so there is now a need to inspire our users, particularly those new to the internet, about to set an email address for the first time, to again setYahoo! as their homepage. 

A dry list of benefits is not going to persuade them - but beautiful, engaging, fun, digital creative, illustrating those benefits just might.This work should be able to appear onYahoo! and across tablet, mobile and desktop as a minimum - but the brief is open to exploring new ways (particularly digital) to reach our target audience. These may be ways that everyone’s been ignoring for years, are unfashionable,
or simply bonkers - but our target audience set a high bar for their attention daily and we need to meet it. 

Target Audience
13-18 year olds.
They are getting a smartphone for the first time, they have ready access to a tablet - even if its through school.They love and use Facebook,Twitter and Instagram in that order (and need an email address to use them).They’re already adept at filtering the multiple messages that they’ve been sent since they were born, chopping, making their own, shifting between different personas online and offline, with their friends and family. Authenticity is key. 

Creative Requirements
A digital creative campaign:

• Do ensure that your idea works across all of the multiple creative canvases at adspecs.yahoo.co.uk
• Please think beyond these formats into what you think will engage this audience on any screen - or where a screen could go.
  
  
  Proposition

Everyday indispensable fun. 

Supporting Comments
Wherever you are, and whichever screen - our homepage gives you every day something more entertaining and inspiring:

• The most interesting thing that’s happening today (for you).
  
• Whether you should wear a coat or put the sun-tan lotion on.
  
• Search the web for what you’re looking for.
  
• Connect with your friends - more thoughtful with mail, more instant with
  messenger, more collective with groups. In Conclusion
  Please put simple classic engagement over heavy, tech intensive work.Think about place - where would it be unexpected, interesting and relevant for your work to be displayed?Think about your everyday habits in the real world - how that can be translated digitally
  In the project pack you will find brief guidelines on how to use theYahoo! logos to ensure your work has the best chance to be able to go live.
  Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information
  For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information in the Student Awards section of theYCN website.
  Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack on theYCN website – www.ycn.org