Briefing
The clients were looking for a website to showcase their production, which consists of movies and corporate audiovisual content. They set two goals:
1. to create an easy-to-manage web application that they could use autonomously on a daily basis to add content;
2. to incorporate their existing brand identity throughout the website, including logo, colors, icons and visual patterns.
1. to create an easy-to-manage web application that they could use autonomously on a daily basis to add content;
2. to incorporate their existing brand identity throughout the website, including logo, colors, icons and visual patterns.
Process
For this website, I aimed to design a clear user interface that would make the beautiful yellow of the branding instantly pop out. I also tried to keep every component elegant and linear in order to make the videos standout, since they represent the main product of GinkoFilm. It wasn't difficult to come up with a nice and simple design, since the original brand identity was well developed and the structure of the website very clear.
The real challenge, instead, was designing the backend, because the clients wanted to be fully autonomous in uploading the content, but at the same time they needed to integrate videos from Vimeo and YouTube, and I wasn't feeling confortable in making them paste a pre-generated iframe, because the error margin was too high. In fact, the clients made it clear that they're not familiar with web development and IT in general, so I figured it out that a small typographic error would have compromised the entire code.
What I did, instead, was to let them paste the video ID in a form field, and use it to generate an iframe in the code: that was much easier to handle, since an ID contains no more than ten characters. I created two separated fields for Vimeo and YouTube, and they were good to go!
The real challenge, instead, was designing the backend, because the clients wanted to be fully autonomous in uploading the content, but at the same time they needed to integrate videos from Vimeo and YouTube, and I wasn't feeling confortable in making them paste a pre-generated iframe, because the error margin was too high. In fact, the clients made it clear that they're not familiar with web development and IT in general, so I figured it out that a small typographic error would have compromised the entire code.
What I did, instead, was to let them paste the video ID in a form field, and use it to generate an iframe in the code: that was much easier to handle, since an ID contains no more than ten characters. I created two separated fields for Vimeo and YouTube, and they were good to go!
Output
The final product is a nice, elegant and very easy-to-navigate website: the user has immediately a clear idea of what the company does and which kind of products they offer. What's complex, instead, is the backend, with all the detailed information relative to the Films and the Works.
What makes it even more successful, is that the clients are able to use it on a daily basis even without any IT knowledge. By far, they haven't had any problem with the content upload, and I'm very proud of it, because their alternative would have been a heavy and outdated visual composer template.
What makes it even more successful, is that the clients are able to use it on a daily basis even without any IT knowledge. By far, they haven't had any problem with the content upload, and I'm very proud of it, because their alternative would have been a heavy and outdated visual composer template.
