OUGD503 STUDY TASK 1 - YAHOO REDESIGN

This study task was to redesign the Yahoo! website, updating it to compete with other search engines, such as Google and Bing. Yahoo! wanted to target young people who are just starting to use the internet, so they are brought up with it and continue using it, as this is a more manageable task than persuading users of other search engines to change to them. 

Research

As you can see their existing website includes a lot of useful information, however there is a bit too much going on, making it hard for you to focus on one thing. 

In contrast the Google homepage is very minimal and uncluttered, with the logo and search box taking prominence in the centre of the page. All the other tools you may need are neatly tucked away in tabs on the top right corner, easily accessible.

Bing takes a more photographic approach, where you can flick through different photographs using the arrows and information about each photograph pops up, which is a clever way of engaging with the user, and loading them with information as well. Similar to Google, the search box takes prominence in the top left corner, with other features hidden away in the top left corner, so you can access then when and if you want.

MSN is more similar to Yahoo!, with information already shown on the login page, the search box being hidden at the top, which is actually powered by Bing. There is less information shown here than on Yahoo!, however it still looks a bit overwhelming compared to Google and Bing.

Ask Jeeves is an older search engine, which adopts the minimalist appearance, with the search bar again taking prominence, however there is a lack of imagery, and an overload of text, which makes it look a bit text heavy and doesn't attract you to look through the tabs.

Duck Duck Go is another minimalist, contemporary search engine, which takes a more personal approach, created only in 2008. Again the search box is the feature, which is a common similarity between the more successful search engines. The logo is also a centre feature, so you cannot forget it.

One entry for the Google redesign inspired this study task, as it is interesting how this designer has used the o's in Google to for the search bar, making the search box out of Google, creating a contemporary and updated approach. This idea could be applied to the Yahoo! logo, as Yahoo also uses two o's in it's logo.

Idea generation

Brainstorming ideas helped to define what exactly the Yahoo! website should look like, what qualities it should adopt, and what from it's original website design it should keep. It was decided the redesign should be hugely simplified, less busy, customisable, to the user can create it to suit their exact needs, more fun and creative, perhaps interactive. It could also sponsor high schools, for example make high schools use yahoo mail as their school email account. It should be more image based, with abbreviated news articles, and much more teenage friendly, as this is the target audience.

Initial designs were created based on the information from the mind map created, experimenting with layout and what should or shouldn't be included, and what the general aesthetic of the website should be.

As a group we took turns at creating layouts for the website, so everyone had a fair input.

Logo redesign
Although the brief didn't specify whether we had to stick to the same colour scheme, as a group we chose to produce the Yahoo! logo in a mint green to blue gradient, to appeal more to the younger generation, and to reflect communication and approachability, which we felt purple didn't achieve.

Producing the logo as an icon would also be useful for it's application on tablet and mobile platforms, where it would be an app rather than a website. Creating the background in a gradient and the logo itself in white helps the icon to stand out, and not get lost as it could do with a white background.

We also created an app icon with just the first letterform of the Yahoo! logo alongside the exclamation mark, to appear more like an icon, as often app icons don't feature the whole logo but one letter of it.

Website initial digital designs
Each member of the group created one or more digital design for the website, so that we had a pool of designs to choose the most effective from.

Application of logo
We applied the icon logo to the iPhone start screen, to see how it looks when next to other application icons, whether it fits in, or stands out, or even just blends into the background. With the use of blue/green, this is quite a common colour for logos, and this has resulted in it fitting a bit too well in with other icons on the phone screen.

This is the final website design we chose, as it is clear and concise, and easily adaptable to make it your own. 

Presentation summarising development and findings.