Client:
Gavin Marshall
Description:
Website to promote a new novel from an aspiring author.
Technology:
XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, PHP
The Brief:
- Design a website to promote a new novel.
- The website design should reflect the dark and moody atmosphere of the book.
- The website should tie in with a writer's forum to encourage traffic to flow between the two.
Details/Discussion:
Design.
The appearance of this website is critical. As the site is only two pages long, and people really do judge a book by its cover, the impact and message has to be instant and clear.
A specially commissioned, hand-drawn illustration provides the "wham!", and sets the mood for the website; which reflects the tone of the novel itself.
Structure.
Less is more in terms of the structure for this website. One page provides a short synopsis of the novel, and the second gives a short introduction to the author himself.
The other main structural feature is the many links to the author's profile on the writer's forum, www.authonomy.com, where visitors are able to read the first 12 chapters of the book and leave comments. This connection is important for increasing the traffic between the two sites, providing a method of interaction with the visitor, and ultimately promoting the novel.
Instead of a separate contact page I used JavaScript to create a box that appears to reveal the author's email address.
Discuss
Further discussion of the styles and techniques used to create this website can be found on my blog. Please feel free to leave any comments of you may have.