Southeast Columbus Environment
I chose to do my final project on southeast Columbus’s environment because I had just written a research paper on it for my history class. I have done extensive research on it and by the end of the research and paper I realized that I was very invested in that particular environment and the businesses in it. I was not so much invested because it was an assignment or because I wanted a good grade, I realized that I was actually really interested in what I had found and I want other people to know about it, especially those living in that area. It tied in perfectly with this project because I could make a website on my findings and that way, if anyone were to type anything in google pertaining to it my website may pop up and they can learn more than just the basic environment.
I also think my topic worked out perfectly for this project because a lot of what I talk about includes visualizations. When people think of environment, they often think of grass or tress or water right away. Which is part of the things I included in my website but definitely not everything. I think being able to split up my paragraphs and topics within my research into separate pages and making them “pretty” really adds to the effect. It is a lot easier to digest dense research when they are separated with image and colors.
However, it was not easy to come up with how I wanted to convey my research. They did not have an exact design for the type of information I was publishing. The free website base Wix allowed me to “customize” my website by answering certain questions. The format they suggested was very similar to a city business one but instead of trying to find one that would go with the environment, which I knew would be hard, I decided to work with it. I chose to do that because I wanted the website to be visually appealing and fun in a way and not super boring with just tons of research information and a couple pictures here and there.
I have three main sections included in my research and they are major environmental impacts from businesses, major environmental issues and environmental initiatives. With these three sections, I made each into a separate page. Each section or page includes a variety of businesses, issues, or initiatives that I touched on so I decided to make each one a subpage so that it is very easy to navigate, looks clean and concise, and is not overwhelming.
For the design, I included a lot of different visualizations because a lot of the things that I mentioned in my research were places or areas that people should know what they look like if they are reading about it. For such visualizations, I either created the images, used one image of the actual place or I included a video that I either made or found.
For the images I created, the main “header” image is the one of the black and white Columbus with the southeast section left colored. I really like this image because it relays exactly what I wanted to show. That is the exact region that all my research is on so when people see that, they know the borders and what is included within it. It’s also a screenshot of a map so if they are not familiar with that region they can look at everything that is included. The other two images I think really describe the region are the two I put next to that map image. Whitehall and Bexley are the two main cities in this area so I found a map image with the each city labeled and then filled in the state with images that represent the city. For the other images I created, I made a collage of the business that I talked about. I used their logos and “highlighted”, or painted, the area in the clip I used of an article about the Superfund Site. The last image I made was of the issues. I blended them all together and put text over them so it was clear which one was which. I made this image so it was a dramatic and clear example of what I was talking about so people could be aware of how much harm they cause.
The video I made was designed to give an overview of that region. I wanted to replicate those short clips that give you a “tour” of the city from the point of a helicopter or something similar. I wanted it to have music and inviting images that are often an intro to a city or similar to travel video that makes you want to learn more or go to that city and explore. I included almost everything I talked about in the video as well as all the other scenic places there and cool building the region includes.