Target Audience

Identifying Lux' users

We identified Lux Light Festival's three main users as being:

1. Families- Parents interesting in providing entertainments for the kids, way to escape home.
2. Wellington Locals- Who are interested in joining a free event that is located in their city, stumble upon artists works, students, business professionals on their way home.
3. Tourists- Away from home, exploring and experiencing Wellington at night from a different perspective.

When we identified these three main user groups, our next step was to design wireframes for our website that will help these three groups, and  guide them easily, but in different ways that engage them.

Breaking down the mood board

From observing our mood board, we were given the task to describe our potential idea to redesign the Lux website in three words: 

• Luminous - Evident from the inspiration of James Turell's works, and how he incorporates gradients and luminous colours and manages to make them flow well.

• Motion-  Animation inspiration from the tracking page before the home page on websites. This will engage and excite the user, and help to incorporate interactivity on the website.

• Stimulating- Inspiration from the use of colour, and the flow of gradients.

After applying these three terms to our mood board, we then broke down the mood board by choosing in order what the most important images are that represent our terms and intentions the best.

Mood board inspiration

A collection of artist models and image inspiration

We have gathered a collection of images and artists that inspired us for the design of the Lux website. We were inspired by James Turell's installations, as they show portray light and gradients in a subtle but effective way. His work is also illuminating, which is an aspect we are interested in, and want to experiment with in our design. 

We then found inspiration of layout and maps which we were interested in interpreting into our design, such as the use of colour, and the simplicity of the contents. We are also interested in the typography and animation from some of the home pages of websites we have gathered.

Website Authenticity

Authentic Websites

Eco Store's website is true to their brand, focusing on ethical and environmental aspects of their products. E.g good soap for a good cause, fundraising for communities, and an ingredients list showing the ingredients used in each product and which 'nasty chemicals' they have avoided.

The website for Supreme Coffee is clean and minimal, reflecting the brands position as a more serious, classic, coffee, compared to other high end brands e.g. Havana. 

The New York Times’ website is simple and has a similar feel to a traditional newspaper. They are a highly respected and trusted news source and their website reflects that. It isn’t trying to provide entertainment, it is designed to deliver the story. 

 UnAuthentic

Stuff on the other hand comes across as unauthentic as it isn't clear what it is offering. It has all the sections of a news site but often prioritises celebrity news as main stories. Often I visit it looking for news but end up getting side tracked into something irrelevant.

Client wants/needs Lux Lights festival

-Light shows are big business, attracting tourists is essential.

-LUX is a show that demonstrates high production, quality and integrity. The website will need to reflect this.

-Photos are very important. The audience/viewer needs to see exactly what they are going to and what they’re in for.

-It is important that the website shows and promotes; Event promotion & awareness, Event engagement and Event schedules. These 3 elements will draw in an audience easily.

-Needs to make LUX attractive to an external audience as well as the usual Wellingtonians.

-LUX attracts a broad demographic. It is crucial that the website satisfies all different kinds of people.

-The event is fun, energetic and innovative. It is important that the audience gets a sense that there is a lot going on.

-Features and functionality are a main element in drawing people to this event. This includes media such as images/videos, mobile capability and map. The map is extra important as the viewer needs to see where to go/what to do. However it also doesn't need to show too much, as this will leave an element of surprise.

-A problem the current website has is not being able to adjust to fit a smaller screen; mobile, iPad etc. This must be fixed with the new website.

James Turrell

James Turrell is an American artist concerned with light and space. He has worked directly with light and space to create artworks that engage viewers with the limits and wonder of human perception. Turrell an avid pilot who has logged over 12,000 hours flying, considers the sky as his studio, material and canvas.

"I make spaces that apprehend light for our perception, and in some ways gather it, or seem to hold it... my work is about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing"

James Turrell

- His work is very modernist due to its formalist and minimal qualities.

- I like how he uses light as a medium alone to create art which is interesting and interactive.

LUX analysis

Overall we felt that the current LUX website is extremely unsuccessful. It's very hard to navigate and it doesn't aesthetically represent LUX as an event. There is a massive lack of heirachy, for example the fact that 'Expressions of interest open now!' has more emphasis than the info about the event (which should be most important). The logos are distracting and way too large. The background is white and very boring, not reflecting a light festival at all. Many different elements which contradict what LUX is trying to say to it's audience