THE LYCOS COOKBOOK
Lets cook!
Why a Cookbook?
Why call it a cookbook and not a design manual? Well, the simple reason was that I didn't want to create an absolute rule book, but more a book of inspiration. The great thing about a cookbook is, that even though most times it's fairly important that you follow some basic instructions to the dot, you also use it for inspiration, and if the dish needs a little extra spice you can do so, you can combine two recipes and come up with a brand new original one, etc.
It's exactly the same thing, when you are designing. I want the designers to be able to make qualified decisions on their own, as this in the end makes them take greater pride in their work and keeps the focus high when designing. And like in a cookbook, some things can easily be done a little bit different, and some things actually need to.
Who is this cookbook for?
This manual is intended for those of us within Lycos that work with design on an everyday basis; those of us who create designs for online and offline products, campaigns or printed materials.
In order for the portal to be one universe we have to agree on a variety of basics that we all do, in order to make the user's experience of the design and the options both pleasant and consistent.
This Cookbook contains the rules and directions which you as a designer have to follow to make the portal a unit. The Cookbook must be used when creating new design as well as modifying or modernizing current designs. It describes all the basic design templates and design components which we use and must be used as a reference, when new approaches are tried.
The extent of the cookbook
In the cookbook you are able to find:
- The corporate identity
- Understanding our online products
- Making a portal level design
- The technical implementation
- Sign off procedure
Four examples from the cookbook
The contents are always kept updated and an online version is available for downloading. The Cookbook we have today is more then 80 pages long in total.
Introduction of the cookbook
Since the designers were the ones who were going to build the Portal, they were introduced to the cookbook almost 6 months before the rest of the company. We had 3 workshops; held in Copenhagen Stockholm and London, and the purpose was to show some of the very first drafts and ideas to get the first feedback for the designers across Europe.
Normally a Lycos workshop is something very long and with way to many PowerPoint's, so we decided to make something very different. A whole theme was made to change the spirit and to make these workshops something special. Going from "Design Revolution", "We are all cooks" and "003" - all with its own special theme.
The rest of Lycos was introduced to the design ideas on what we called "the roadshow" where I traveled around most of Europe telling people about the new design.
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