Our Client
- Client Name: Nan Nan
- Contact Person: Jennifer Henbest
Our client, Nan Nan, is an artist from Yangon, Myanmar, and we were introduced to her by Jennifer Henbest, an art teacher who teaches at Osaka International School in Japan. Jennifer Henbest met Nan Nan during her time at Myanmar International School, and this website will be made as a way of supporting Nan Nan. In addition to being an artist, Nan Nan also runs an art school for children on the weekends. She sells her artwork in order to pay for the rent and for the art assistants helping her at the school. Through feedback from both Nan Nan and Jennifer Henbest, we plan to create a website called "Nan Nan Art Studio."
Purpose and Goals
The website’s purpose is to spread global awareness of Nan Nan’s life and artwork and to inspire people from abroad to help Nan Nan and Myanmar out. Thus, our goal is to inform and intrigue users about Nan Nan’s life and artwork inspired by Myanmar’s contemporary art forms and culture, through a biography about her, a description about Myanmar’s art and materials, a gallery of Nan Nan’s art, as well as a description of her art studio. Another goal to fulfill such a purpose is to provide users with the opportunity to take action, such as donating and volunteering; therefore, we will provide contact information, a donation wish list, as well as a volunteer form which interested users will be able to fill out. Another goal which will be fulfilled by Nan Nan after we have completed our version of the website this semester is to sell Nan Nan’s artwork online; with the help of Jennifer Henbest, Nan Nan therefore plans to include E-commerce features in the future.
Audience
The website’s main audience will be those who are interested in learning about the work that Nan Nan does. This audience will include those who are interested in Myanmar art and would like to browse through Nan Nan’s gallery for inspiration and pleasure. It would also include art teachers and students at Osaka International School, who would use the website to learn about Myanmar and receive inspiration for their own art project. Finally, it would include potential donors and volunteers, who would briefly like to learn about Myanmar and Nan Nan’s life, as well as get explicit information about the ways in which they can help.
Content of the Website and Organization
- "About" This section will provide a brief biography about Nan Nan and the work that she does. This pagewill help us achieve the goal of informing and intriguing users about Nan Nan’s life. This page will provide art teachers, students, and potential donors and volunteers with their first impression of Nan Nan; thus, we plan to keep this page compelling yet simple and easy to read.
- "Inspirations" This section will include information about Myanmar’s art and culture, as well as unique art materials used, such as South East Asian lacquer, pottery, gold leafs, rubies, gems, teak, and old parts of torn-down buildings. This page will fulfill the goal of informing users about Myanmar’s contemporary art forms and culture. Through detailed descriptions about the art materials used, we plan to create an informative, educational page which will help students learn about art from different cultures and which will be interesting for those who are interested in Myanmar art.
- "Nan Nan’s Artwork"
- "Paintings"
- "Sculptures"
- "Designs and Crafts"
This section will include three subsections, each with pictures of Nan Nan’s artwork, which will each have a small caption. The "Designs and Crafts" page will include pictures of artwork such as furniture, screens, lamps, jewelry, small beaded animals, craft toys and dolls. These pages will help achieve our goal of informing and intriguing users about Nan Nan’s artwork. We will make sure that these pages load quickly, because it will be used by teachers during class time, as well as by people interested in Myanmar art who are browsing the gallery for pleasure. - "About Atutu"
- "About the School"
- "Children’s Artwork"
This section, "About Atutu", will include two subsections. Atutu is the name of the school, and it means 'together' in Burmese. These pages will help us achieve the goal of informing and intriguing users about Nan Nan’s life dedicated to art and education. It will meet the needs of those who are interested in volunteering or donating to the school by providing detailed information about the school. Some of the elements we hope to include are the school philosophy, a schedule of classes, class offerings, and information about the teacher assistants. Such information, along with the children’s artwork, will make the school come alive and provide donors and volunteers with a better understanding of the school. - "Contact Us/Support Us" This page will include contact, donation and volunteer information, such as an e-mail address, volunteer application form, donation wish list, and a possible link to a FB page or PDF with information about volunteering. We may also include a link to the "Just Giving" donation website, if Nan Nan chooses to make an account. This will help us fulfill the goal of providing users with the opportunity to take action. It will therefore specifically meet the needs of potential donors and volunteers by giving them concrete details about how they can help out.
Footnote: The website may also include a footnote at the end of each page with Nan Nan’s contact information or a statement like, "If interested in supporting Nan Nan, contact her at "…".
Specific Preferences
- Nan Nan would like the website to have a simple, clean look, possibly white with a texture. She would like such a background, because too complex of a background could potentially detract from the power of the artwork itself. She also believes that such a look would be more professional and reflect the concept of this website as an artist’s website, more than just an art school website which may have a more playful look to it.
- Nan Nan would like to have her artwork displayed in sections.
- Nan Nan and Jennifer Henbest have specifically told us that they would like to be able to modify the content of the website. Thus, we plan to use Javascript to write the content.
- The content of the website should emphasize the paintings and sculpture.
- If possible, our client would like to include some content in the local language, although this is not a requirement.
Final Location of the Website
Jennifer Henbest will donate the domain name and the hosting fees. She has informed us that the domain name will eventually be www.nannanartstudio.com.
Technical Difficulties
We plan to post many pictures in the gallery sections of our website, so we may run into the technical problem regarding slowly-loading webpages. Such a website will be frustrating for users, so we will need to make sure to avoid such a problem by being conscious about the size and number of the photographs we use.