The Daily Meal | Founding Designer, 2011 - Kacy Colson

The Daily Meal | Founding Designer, 2011

PROBLEM:

Conceptualize, design, and launch a new online media outlet based on food.

SOLUTIONS:

Built wireframes and sitemaps
Designed all templates: editorial, landing pages, listings, user-generated content, user-profiles, search and community features.
Created interactive elements, slideshows, and search widgets
Wrote HTML & CSS files for Drupal developers to turn into nodes

Initial Concepts

I was brought on before funding to create concepts for presentations. The design brief was simply to create a media website based on food, with space for display ads.

I created a few homepages and article page designs to begin the process.

wireframes & Architecture

The design/development did not follow a traditional wireframe-to-prototype process. The backend CMS was being built as the front-end design was in progress. The editorial content and ad requirements were moving pieces being put into place simultaneously.

I developed wireframes and site maps for each template type. Pixel dimensions were especially important for ad space and first screen view on desktop. For context, the site was launched just before responsive design.

BRAndiNG and TEMPlATE dESIGN

Once the name The Daily Meal was chosen, we were able to go ahead with branding design and start finalizing the look and feel of the site.

As was the style in the 2010’s, the site focused heavily on community involvement, with lots of bells and whistles to share, save and interact with the content.

We knew what elements needed to appear on the page and how it should work. But design iterations continued.

Production and Launch

Initially, there were no front-end developers on the project. I was tasked with hand coding HTML and CSS for the Drupal developers to turn into nodes/modules for the product.

These designs were ‘skinned’ with CSS. Once the look and feel was finalized, the site was ready for production.

I was heavily involved in the QA process, making sure the functional templates matched the final designs.