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i understand what you are saying, but in this case it is unimportant weather the user likes pink bunny rabits or morbid sanctuaries, im not talking about PERSONAL likes and dislikes, im talking about TECHNICAL disadvantages

anyways i fully understand what marketing is, i do the same as you for a living, and im not talking about marketing towards a certain audience, im talking about designing (which in itself is different from marketing) with the technical specifications of users in mind to make sure your site is usable and/or not annoying to users

take my site for example, its not marketed for any audience other than to be my portfolio, so its marketed towards me in the basic sense of it all, but it is designed for the "average" user, which is why it is smaller and rather simple, so that most, if not all users can have good access to my site

i couldnt care less about a persons personal tastes for a site that is MINE, i would consider and research everything youve said if i were designing a site for a company or for someone else, MY site is MY portfolio, it is not intended to cater to someone elses tastes, but it IS inteded to be built to cater to someone elses technical needs

i think you are confusing that

if i were designing for a company i most definately would be researching their base customers, their tastes, etc for the project, but like ive said multiple times that is completely different than technical needs

i dont know how to explain myself clearer

sorry
 
oh and i wish to apologize to trip for side tracking his thread, like i said before i absolutely love the design from an artistic point, my only complain was a rather small one that turned into a big deal

im sorry :)
 
well if there were standards i guess thats what i would be talking about ;)

technical specs i mean are, like what browser they are using, whats their capability for css, for java, for javascript, for dhtml, for flash etc. how many colors their monitor uses, the resolution of their monitor, the size of the window in which they browse the internet

where as i think you are talking about is more based around the tastes of the user, or how old or young the user is, or what ethnic background they come from, what their interests are etc etc

while both sets of user information are useful to know for a corporate site which markets to the masses or even to a specific group of people, a personal site, such as mine or trips is more about the creator than about the user, and IMO the only time the user comes into play is so that the user can manuever within the site with ease, other than that if they dont like it well they can leave, because its not for them ;) but this is just IMO i cannot speak for trip himself

and dont worry, its very hard to defend myself, im just trying to make clear the differences in what you and i are trying to say ;)
 
here is an oversimplified and possibly overexaggerated example ;)

magazine A could have good content, but designed average, and it is made with the same format as all magazines for the most part that is the binding on the left (for the states) and reads left to right, and has pages

magazine B has good content, and has an excelent design, but the magazine is layed out where the binding is on the botton and the text reads from bottom to top

this is the difference between "artistic" design, where the pictures are pretty etc but the object might not be functional and "functional" design where the pictures are nice, but the overall object functions well

another IMO the sites you listed (well at least the first 3 since i was lazy and just wanted click links) were examples of sites that are very artisticly designed, but their functionality is lacking IMO, the site designs were confusing, but they looked good, i had no clue where to go or what to do, but whatever i was doing i was looking at something pretty

but unfortunately, im one that doesnt stay at sites that confuse me, even if they are pretty, if their site functionality was better then i would love to be at the site...

its something to me has been lost in this day of flashy web design, the designers have lost touch with functionality, just because the designer knows how to navigate the site, or can see the important parts of a site, or can run the flash animations etc doesnt mean that the end user can...

anyways this is blowing things out of proportion, trips site is very functional besides my one little tiny pet peeve hehe, and it may just be my pet peeve and no one elses, who knows :) but its functionality vs marketing what we are getting at (i think ;))

any clearer yet? :confused: sorry if im so confusing :)
 
well they may be boundry breakers in the world of functionality but if it makes it a chore for the user to figure out where to go, i think thats bad functionality IMO

as far as my audience

my audience is way too general for me to create something group specific, my audience includes, clients, general population, family, friends, anyone looking for digital artwork etc

i dont cater myself to certain clients over others on purpose, the style of my site might turn some on and some off, but really i dont have a specific enough audience (ive designed for anything from a carpet repair guy, to womens underwear advert) to really gear my site towards any certain group of people....

but as a default my site is geared towards those who are more interested in photography, just because my work ends up being photographic in nature unless uneeded...

so i suppose my site was marketed towards me in the end, which is what it is for, its mostly my personal portfolio... other than that its rather worthless hehe
 
I must say...this is quite inspiring, really! I don't mind much that the thread has gone a bit off course, but i have learned quite a bit in the process so let's help eachother out a bit and try to help me figure out my target audience for my website. Where should we start?
 
Keep the info coming!

I'm going to start thinking about a wide range of people that I can include in my list of "targets", and then work my way down to a few tiny more specific people and see if that helps. Quick note: I'm posting all of this because I'm thinking, again, of re-doing the site more professionaly.)

Another thing that goes along with the topic of target audiences, that I'm having trouble with is this: so let's say we're going to design cars. All cars all the time. For those big paying clients out there like Nissan and BMW. Now what? How can we design a website/portfolio that will attract the attention of design hunters from these kind of corporations? What do we need to include in the overall website design? What can we leave out?

Much help is greatly appricated from anybody and everybody! Everybody's input is very important here!
 
trip the man speaks the truth for the most part, although he misunderstands my site ;)

my site isnt really an advertising or marketing piece as you would like to make it out to be trip

its very hard to find in the sea of other designers out there on the web, and i deal mostly with print anyways, so my website is a support tool for me to give a client who wants to see my portfolio quickly

you could and probably will say, "the more reason to market then!" but then i will tell you that if i made my portfolio with someone else in mind, i would be living a lie and as an artist thats something that shouldnt happen. so this is why my "marketing" is really superficial and general, because its not really marketed towards anyone because its not supposed to be :)

no one will ever come across my site with the intention of looking for something, 95% of my hits on my site are from direct link, the others come from hits from links on forums, and like .01% come from search engines

anyways trip, i think your design of your site over all is a great one, and i admire it, i think you should stick with it really, just on the main page get rid of the welcome window, or incorperate it into your news section and bring the news section up, the larger more horixontal box of the welcome section just seems to ruin flow, so i think incorperating it with the news section at the top would help, ive enjoyed your illustrations and only wish i could do the same :)

i say complete this site and see where it goes, often as designers we forget that in order for our sites to be useful they have to be done hehe i think ive redesigned my site about 5 times in the last year, it was never the same or even "up" for more than a few weeks, ive decided with this last design to just keep it simple and to keep it "up" otherwise its embarrasing for a potential client to be linked to my site and see an "under construction" sign hehe, anyways i cant wait to redesign mine as well, i grow tired of it, and honestly i dont like parts of it, but im gritting my teeth and sticking with it for a while just so i can get it out there finally (ive gotten more hits in this month than i did with the previous 4 months combined)
 
lol, Ok...

I've decided on a type of audience, which is: small business owners. I want to do logo/webpage/ad design for small businesses. Where do I go from here?

On the topic of my current website preview: I like it, I do...but is it the kind of "professional looking" thing that small business owners would like to visit when in need of an answer to their problem?
 
hmmm, in my opinion then you could have two sites

you need something simple and professional looking IMO to attract small business owners looking for logos etc, one thing you need to make sure you have are logos in your portfolio, the rest follows

your current preview IMO is a great site for a personal portfolio, but im not sure how it is to attract customers, you know what i mean?

im not HUGE on the web so my opinion might be wrong, i deal i mostly print :)
 
I see what you're saying, but I think I'm going to keep this subject open for a few more comments before I decide on what to do.
 
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