Over the course of this semester Alex and I’s project ‘La Vie Etc.’ which, is a girl’s advice column has grown and developed widely. A lot of thought, design, trial and contemplation has gone into this project and coming to the conclusion of this semester Alex and I couldn’t be happier with the process and end result. Our website design has definitely been a top priority on our list. When constructing the layout online and through paper prototyping it was key, we created an attractive and easy to navigate design. In order to achieve this our website comprised three key menus; ‘Home’, ‘Journal’ and ‘Gallery’. Once on the ‘Journal’ page we included a sub-section of headings including; All posts, University, Personal Life and Etc.
Essentially, this simplified the website as, if readers were particularly looking for university-based articles, they could click the university button and they would be provided with a list of articles. In saying this, we did come across some difficulty with using wix.com as our website was not accessible when using the university Wi-Fi. However, we overcame this obstacle by informing readers via our tweets and Instagram posts. Creating an attractive website design was particularly important for viewer engagement as readers are more likely to explore a website if the design is appealing to them.
In addition to this, a major part of our project was promotion and sharing via various social media platforms. As well as our weekly tweets informing followers of our updates and exciting news, Alex and I have also been posting stories, weekly quotes, pictures and suggestion polls via our Instagram page @toalexandkira. For us it was essential to keep up our online profiles as by posting frequently would ultimately reach more individuals who would follow our Twitter and Instagram account. Since posting our articles on social media our website La Vie Etc. has been growing in viewers. We wanted to be strategic in what order we would promote specific articles. For instance, since uni exams and assessments are approaching, we published ‘Our Tips to Stay Organised’ towards the conclusion of the semester as this is where it may be most relevant.
Instagram became our main platform on which we promoted our website and updated readers on new articles. This was mainly due to convenience and it created a more personal atmosphere; the majority of the feedback we received was sent through via Instagram private messages. Our biggest engagement rose from Instagram as we often received DMs with positive feedback on our articles as well as suggestions to potential topics viewers would like to see.
It’s crazy to see how much this project has grown and how much fun Alex and I have had putting our ideas into a live project. Considering the positive feedback, we have received and the amount of views on our articles I would love to continue this project and see where it takes us!
xx
Leonard K 