Creative Online Art Platform

Application of Media in creative context

Brief introduction | one

This section explains the basic elements of this assignment which includes aim, audience, messages, requirements, further considerations, budget and deadlines.

Aim|one

The main purpose of this assignment is to build up a paper based online platform or effective tool to foster and stimulate the presence, exhibition, communication and management of art on the Internet. Another objective is to investigate the design process considering all the stages of development other than technical implementation. Through this hypothetical application, the research and innovation in the field of social technologies and artistic practice will be encouraged. Meanwhile, it provides art galleries with web solutions responding to the concept of Web 2.0, and to provide opportunities to enhance their online presence and networking potential. (IDAT 302  2008-2009, Joasia Krysa, 2008)

Audience|two

Audience refers to a group of people who are interested in this application or may be influenced; for instance, artists, art dealers, art students, and art enthusiasts. These groups of people link with this online art platform in different ways. Artists may want to share their artworks online and communicate with other artists. Students need to learn the skills from other people’s work. Art dealers use this platform to expand their business and art enthusiasts can search for their favourite art works. This platform provides a space for people to share works and opinions. It is the “paradise” for everyone especially the art enthusiasts.

Spirit|three

This paper based hypothetical practice is trying to show a message to everyone that this is a free, flexible, active and enjoyable online platform. Everyone is welcome to join in this big family. People should feel free to communicate with others and the spirit of this platform is friendly and opened.

Requirements|four

A good website (online platform) should contain the following aspects:

§  A clear and well defined structure

§  A attractive interface

§  Low cost

§  User friendly

§  Steady network

§  Freed to share artwork

§  Easy to manage

§  Technical

§  Marketing

Budget|five

The cost of a website is variable because there are so many elements related to the cost. (Toucher Web Design) However, there are three main cost elements involve in the creation of a web site. The first is a minor cost that includes the registration of the domain name and the amount of money need to pay the web hosting company to rent the Internet space for hosting the site. The second is the payment for someone or a company to actually create the site. The third element is the maintenance fee which depends on how often the changes are required to be made to the site when it is complete.

Because this website involves with business processes therefore it requires a business domain name and hosting. Normally, the cost will be about £15 – £20 per month (1&1 Internet Ltd.) which depends on what system you want to choose. This amount of money includes the domain names, e-mail, web space, website building, Booster, marketing tools and security features. However, if this website needs to be achieved by an external web design company, the cost will be hard to predict because it bases on the final design features and working hours. But the total amount of budget should be controlled within £10,000. This will include the hosting fees, design fees and maintenance fees.

Deadlines|six

It will take about one year to design this website and an extra year to build, test, revise and maintain. Therefore, after two years, it can be accessed by public.

We assume the web site will be designed by an external company, and the task list is shown below:

Initial preparation stage

§  The initial contract

§  The corporate identity

Design stage

§  The initial design

§  Design refinement

§  The content

Build stage

§  The site build

§  Out for comment

Test/Revise stage

§  Browser compatibility testing

§  Validation

It’s done!!

Maintenance Stage

The following table gives a more detailed schedule:

Sample research for online art platforms|one

In order to understand the current situation and development trend of the online art gallery, I need to do some research in this field before I start to design my own website. Through the analysis, I found out that most of the existing online art platform include functions such as artists’ index, art for sale, join in membership and events. However, there are some unusual functions like exhibitions and magazines.  In terms of structure, most of the website applied the traditional subfield layout. The biggest advantage of this kind of layout is that it makes the content displays very clearly so people can easily find the information they need. However, the problem with this method is that the webpage may seem boring and rigid.  When people are browsing art websites, they may respect something different and attractive; therefore the website designer should spend more time on making the web sites interesting.

Case Studies-FineArtSurry|two

FineArtSurry.com is an international Online Fine Art Gallery bringing the works of some of the country’s best Contemporary Artists. This website has a wide and diverse selection of paintings from the 1700s to the present day. Also, it is a multi-functional website which allows people to browse, buy, sell artworks and communicate with artists.  I analyse this website page by page and pick up some typical pages to do the further explanation.

Homepage

http://www.fineartsurrey.com/

The screenshot above is the home page of FineArtSurry.com. As you can see, this is a comprehensive and multi-functional website. This website cover all the basic functions such as art for sale, artists index, artist registration, press releases and member login, etc. However, this website has some very helpful functions which haven’t been widely used by other websites like language support and newsletter subscription. The language support function enables non-English speakers assess the web pages which directly increase the amount of people who browse this website. Additionally, if people want to get the latest art news, it can be achieved through submit the personal details via newsletter subscription function. In a word, the home page of FineArtSurry.com is simple, clear and user-friendly. 

Art for Sale Page

This is the website’s art for sale page. Instead list all the available artworks, FineArtSurry lets people define the type of artwork they want to browser. The search engine allows user narrow down the scope of artwork in seven aspects: media type, subject, period, price (choose price range), status (for sale or sold), sort by price (High-low/Low-high) and items per page. Through define these elements, website will only display the items which have been chosen and people can save lots of time.

Artists Index Page

This page is very similar to the art for sale page. It also enables people predefine the artists they want to browse. The only difference between this page and the previous page is that this search engine allows people access the whole index. 

Members Login Page

This page divides into two parts: the left side is for the existing members and the left side is for the new members. The whole page is clear and easy to understand. However, the only drawback is this website doesn’t support people login on the homepage which means whenever people want to login or register, they have to enter this page.

Newsletter Subscription Page

The newsletter subscription page lists all the possible items which will help the website define what information the person wants to receive. Those elements include: personal information like name and e-mail address, interests, art types and favorite artists. By submitting the information, the website will receive a report about this person then send newsletters back to the person’s inbox. 

 

Through analyse the above examples, I believe that the 2D website will be the best choice for me because they are clear, user friendly and well organised, for instance, Fine Art Surry. Online art platform is a place to share sparkling ideas and artworks therefore people will expect some different web pages. Therefore I will put an attractive flash on the main page to let people get interested in this web site.

For the rest of the pages, I will design them in the traditional way; the idea of the site will be similar to Fine Art Surry and Saatchi Gallery.

For each of the page, there will be a navigation bar on the side which allows people access the other sectors easily and quickly. The main space of the page will be the content for each sector. For example, if the page is about artworks from a same artist, then the main space of the web page will be filling with different artworks.

However, although the rest of the pages will be simpler compare with the main page, for different group of pages, the theme will be slightly different. For instance, the style and colours between artists and artworks will be different; the registration page and message board will also be different.

As it is mentioned in the aim of this project, this proposal is aimed at provide art galleries with web solutions responding to the concept of Web 2.0, therefore it is very necessary to understand the concept of Web 2.0 before decide the features of Art Era.

This principle is first raised by John Battelle at the first Web 2.0 conference, in October 2004. Web 2.0 is demonstrated through several principles which are listed below:

§  The Web as Platform

§  Harnessing Collective Intelligence

§  Blogging and the Wisdom of Crowds

§  Data is the Next Intel Inside

§  End of the Software Release Cycle

§  Lightweight Programming Models

§  Innovation in Assembly

§  Software Above the Level of a Single Device

§  Rich User Experience

Figure 1: Web 2.0 Meme Map

(Source: http://www.oreillynet.com/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/graphics/figure1.jpg )

The figure above shows a “meme map” of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at O’Reilly Media. It is very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate our from the Web 2.0 core.

Overall, the summarization of the core competencies of Web 2.0 are: service, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability; control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them; trusting users as co-developers; harnessing collective intelligence; leveraging the long tail through customer self-service; software above the level of a single device; lightweight user interface, development models, and business models. (Tim O’Reilly,  September 2005)

To put it simply, Web 2.0 means users participate with the process of website creation, and the website should maximize the user experiences. Associate with this particular website, the features should be more involved with the users, enabling them to create their own context rather than set up a frame and ask them to follow. The features of Art Era are displayed below:

User Registration|one

This feature not only allows existing members login to the website, but also allows new member register with the website.

“Forget password?” feature —> If the member forget the password, then they can get the password back via e-mail.

“Remember me ” feature —> This feature enables Art Era record login information therefore users can login the website without type in the username and password.

User management|two

User management is a special design for Art Era’s members. The detailed features are listed below:

“Display of number users, online users” feature —> Allows user view the number of current users and who is online.

“Online status setting” feature —> This is links with the first function which allows users choose their online status. If users don’t want to be visible, they can choose “appear to be offline”.

“Edit account” feature —> Users can change their personal information via this function such as display name, display picture, date of birth, login password, security question/answer, display language, e-mail address, etc. Additionally, because this website involves the online transaction, therefore the financial information will be the most sensitive part in the database. When users are trying to access the financial information, the website will pop-up a new window and ask user to type in the answer for a confidential question. Besides, user can edit their personal details, however if the page is idle for more than 2 minutes, then an auto logout function will come into event.

“Messages management” features —> This feature enables users receive/sent/edit their short messages which means users can contact with artists/art dealers/art enthusiasts via online short messages. This feature also promotes the users’ privacy.

“Self expandable friends/contact list ” feature —> Users can add or delete people from the list. They can also add pictures and comments for each person if they want.

“Basket” feature —> Allows people view the history data and current order status.

Art Associated Modules|three

“Art News/Events/Exhibitions” feature —>List if all the news and events happened recently and all the upcoming exhibitions. Also give detailed introductions for these exhibitions. The feature links automated RSS feeds and manual data input.

“Art Galleries/colleges ” feature —> Introduce the famous art galleries and art colleges around the world. Give name, address, contact information, map, and detailed introductions such as characteristics, styles, etc.

“HTML Newsletters and automated e-mail function ” feature —> Send to the members who are willingly to receive news e-mails. The website has automated tools which can fill in the recipients’ addresses and content on itself. This function is particular useful when there is a new art gallery going to open or a big art event occurred.

Interactive Image Gallery|four

“Browsable Categories” feature —> Include artists’ name, artwork title, year, size, collection, price and all of the other basic descriptions. People are allowed to predefine the categories they want to browse. The name list will be based on the alphabet.

“Photo/Image management” feature —> Users can upload or download the arts and photos from the website and the information associates with them. For instance, title, artist, gallery, year and price, etc.. Art Era also allowed users tagging these photos. Users can also delete their uploaded file if they want.

“Art vote system” feature —> This feature links with Web 2.0 principles. People are allowed to vote their favourite paintings. There are five levels: one is the lowest (worst) and five is the highest (best). People can also add comment below the art works or send messages to the artists and this function will be linked with the “Messages management” feature.

“Search Engine” feature —> It plays a very important role in the whole website because it not only allows users search within the website but also enable them search based on other search engines like Google, Yahoo and Flickr.

Help section|five

Help section include the all the questions what may be asked by the users and the scope covers every section of the website. On the top of each page, there will be button which links with help function. If the user’s questions cannot be solved they can always send an e-mail to the support department and get some help.

Online Transaction/E-commerce|six

“credit card/debit card/Pay pal” feature —> People can buy art using credit card/debit card/pay pal and pose questions to seller. Once the transaction is successful, people will get a customer reference number and invoice. The information will be stored in the database as the proof for sale.

“POS” feature —> Point of sale system tracks sales and print invoices and inventory

“Contact and Feedback Form” feature —> System will automatic create a feedback form which include all the sale information in it. Another purpose for this form is people can give comments so we know which part of the transaction process need to be improved.

Maintenance|seven

“Troubleshooting” feature —> During normal operation, error information is gathered to allow for successful debugging and maintenance of the website.

Tim O’Reilly, (2005), What is Web 2.0, http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1, [Access date: 30 November 2008]

The content within is solely my own, unless otherwise stated; or duely referenced.