Analysing a New Environment

Redbubble is an online marketplace/community for creatively inclined people to sell their art to the general public. Originally based in Australia, the site has been running since early 2007. It started out as an idea to bring on-demand printing to Australians - originally focussed on custom t-shirt printing, and eventually moving into calendars, cards, stickers and more.

The process

Landing on the Redbubble home page - www.redbubble.com - it's obvious that the site values the artwork of it's thousands of members. A large, changing main image of selected artwork takes centre stage, with links to the main categories underneath. There are links to Explore, Shop, Community, Login, Signup etc to help navigate to specific parts of the environment.

New members can sign up with a simple form to get them started. Unlike many other sign up forms, the RB form has only 5 fields to complete, plus a security image/text box. After that, users can set up their accounts as buyers or sellers (or both). Adding an avatar, basic details and a brief description about yourself, connecting to facebook and inputting tax details for sellers is all relatively straightforward. Every step is explained in language easy to understand for the average person - not too technical, but not over simplified either.

Once an designer/artist has set up their account the steps to upload artwork is very straightforward. A bright red button saying "ADD YOUR WORK" appears on the main screen of their RB account. From there, they select what type of work they want to upload - art & photography; t-shirts, hoodies & stickers; calendars; writing; or journals. On selecting t-shirts, a new screen reveals 2 link buttons - a template with instructions on setting up the artwork, and the "fancy uploader" link to select the file.

The next screen allows the user to put in the details of their work - title, description, tags (for organising), privacy options, what kind of products the art is for (t-shirts, kids clothes, or stickers), colour options, default style & colour (for display), print location and markup. Then, all the artist has to do it click 'save & publish' and the t-shirt/sticker is ready on the RB website for purchasing!

The feel

Overall, the whole Redbubble site is very 'basic' and easy to use. The processes for signing up and submitting artwork is very straightforward, and explained along the way with easy to follow instructions and links to further information when available. The language is easy to understand - not overly technical - and maintains a friendly tone of voice that relates to the individual user like a one-on-one conversation, informal 'peer' style.

The design of the site is uncluttered, leaving the artwork to speak for itself. The amount of information on each page is kept to a minimum, making it easy to find specific links or sections on a page, yet the pages never seem bare or lacking. Navigation between pages is simple and easy to follow. The process of uploading artwork for sale is so easy, no wonder there are thousands of artists using the site to sell their work.

The experience

Using Redbubble is relatively similar to other social network/sharing websites. The process of uploading artwork is very much like uploading photos to Flickr or Facebook, just with different information added onto the image. Instead of tagging people or putting in camera data, there is product options, pricing markups, colour variations etc. The options when uploading images doesn't overwhelm or overload.

Because there are similarities in data uploading & management between Redbubble and image sharing sites, users are likely to be familiar with the process of uploading images, and therefore not intimidated by it. The straightforward, instructional language gives all the details without overloading.

Overall, Redbubble is a successful, functional application/website making it easy for artists and designers to have their work seen and bought by people the world over.

New Environments & Me

When I started looking at what subjects were available, this subject, Design for New Environments, stood out as being outside of my comfort zone - something that both excites and scares me at the same time. As a primarily print focussed graphic designer, I am not often exposed to design for electronic media or 'new environments'. I can design layouts for websites - informational pages for clients offering a multitude of products and services - but for more than pretty buttons and colour schemes and I am not really sure which way to go.

So what experience do I have with new environments?

I was happy to be one of the first of my friends to get a Gmail account when they released the service in Beta stage on the invitation only basis. I also relied on the web service Backpack to keep my study and work life in order. Nowadays I use the calendar on my iPhone, linked with the calendar in my Gmail account, to keep track of my appointments, and I can check my emails, get Facebook and Twitter feeds and weather updates direct to the palm of my hand.

Like some of my fellow class mates, I was late joining the new environment/social media bandwagon. I refused to get a Facebook account for a long time, just like I had refused to join MySpace before that. I eventually caved in and joined Facebook as a way to keep in touch with my friends and family both interstate and overseas. In fact, Facebook is the reason that my husband and I got together. After 10 years apart, we rekindled our friendship online, and we were married last October - just over 2 years after becoming Facebook "friends".

Obviously I am grateful for these new environments helping me to find my soulmate. The sense of community and involvement that comes with social media can be wonderful and empowering, humanity tying us together across the globe, though I do wonder how healthy it is to be spending so much time online, plugged into the rest of the world via the internet. I am constantly connected to people, some that I have never met in person, which you'd think would mean that I never felt lonely. Quite the opposite in fact, when there is no one else online I can feel more alone than if I never had the friends in the first place.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I don't get to use new environments much for most of my work. The very small graphic design/marketing company I work for doesn't have a blog on the outdated company website. My boss refers to Facebook as having a "face page" (which just goes to show how behind the times the company is!).

I also have a second job, freelancing at Channel 9 studios where I use various news and image websites to source material for stories. Viewers can text in news tips and photos taken from their mobile phones can be uploaded to the Channel 9 Perth Facebook page - which we can then use in the 6pm News bulletins.


I am going to have to wrap it up for now. This post is already several days overdue thanks to technical issues and work/life hassles in general, and I have so much more to say still. But it will have to wait for another day...

Back to the grind...

2011 sees me start another year of study towards my Master of Design. After taking the second half of 2010 away from study (to get married - yay!) I am looking forward to getting back into it.

I am a bit scared too, though.

I worry that I have once again 'bitten off more than I can chew', or some such metaphor. It seems rather silly of me to enrol in 2 subjects, technically a full time load, while I am working full time AND on weekends. But I don't want to be working towards my Masters for the next 5 years. I am almost halfway through - 5 subjects done so far, 7 to go - and this will be my third year at it. I must admit am pretty happy that I have managed to do it so far. And have managed to get much better marks than I could hope for too!

Initially I was driven to enrol in the Masters program because I wanted to learn all the things about design that were skipped over in my Tafe studies. Although the practical education from the Advanced Diploma allowed me to set out as a graphic designer and feel like I actually know what I am doing, I felt that understanding the theory behind design, the why and how it works, is crucial to being a 'good' designer.

Another factor in my feeling of dread is that I am in the middle of searching for a new job to replace the full time one that I hate, as well as trying to find somewhere new to live. It's a bit of a mad house at home at the moment, but as much as I would like to sit around vegging on the couch after work, I have committed myself to learning and discovering and exploring. And I am rather excited about it!