A peek at zoo graphic design

Now the fun part: building the artifact! I've got plenty of work ahead of me, from drawing the characters to making the game to building the website, not to mention all that extra research. Before I jump in too deep, I thought I'd whip together a quick post with some of my ideas and early-stage work so far. I especially want to keep my eyes open for neat sources of inspiration.

The zoo aesthetic

I'd like to pattern my web design after your typical zoo homepage. Kids are already familiar with those bright colors, big photographs, and welcoming pages full of fun facts. Zoos are about both fun and education, which seems appropriate for my project, which deals with difficult issues but hopes to do so in a friendly, enjoyable way. You'll see that many zoo websites have a lot in common: similar colors, similar layouts, animals featured prominently on the homepage, emphasis on adventure, and enticing the visitor to come see for themselves:













This last one is a little different, and I love the concept. The visitor can click on different sections of land to go to that space. I'd like to incorporate something similar into my artifact (perhaps not as fancy as this one) to make the navigation more interactive.



Flowcharts

Here's a chart of what I'm envisioning for the opening steps:



...and a summary of what I'm planning to include in the website:



Character designs

Each character will be a cartoon-style animal, with a personality and a back story. They each have a positive feature (the parrot is friendly, the fox is smart, the flamingo is beautiful...) but they all have moments when they feel sad and upset. Since kids are used to seeing animals and relating to their stories, this could be a way of introducing ideas like sadness, depression, and anxiety. Here are some line drawings of what the characters might look like:



So that's it for now...I'll keep posting more drawings and design steps as they come along!