Surf's up for post grad Design student

Being a keen surfer, that community was front of mind for post-grad student Gabe Cook-Bonney, when he was challenged with coming up with a new website as part of his web design course.

Gabe's studying towards a Graduate Diploma in Design (Specialty) at Otago Polytechnic, after recently graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Otago.

It was there the 21 year old was introduced to the world of web design through a Digital Marketing paper, and the area took his interest as a potential career pathway.

"I enjoyed the fast-paced learning, but there's nothing quite like this [polytechnic design] programme on offer at the university level. It's more practical and theory work there than a lot of creative sort of stuff," he says.

"So I wanted to come here to learn about UX and UI design, which is how people use a website or an app."

As part of his 6 week course in Advanced Design Techniques 1: Web Design, Gabe was set the challenge of creating a fully functional (but demonstration) website.

That project gave him hands-on experience in designing and coding his first site using HTML and CSS, while tapping into a topic he knew well.

Gabe lives beside St Clair beach and sees a lot of international travellers parked up in their vans, checking out the surf. He wondered if there might be a "resource gap" for these visitors that he could help with.

"I know a lot of them are actually quite good at surfing, they're not necessarily beginners.  Which kindof led me to thinking, maybe they want to know where some better sports are?" he says.

"They've obviously got their vans so they can drive around the city. So I just wanted to give information on spots that may be more suited to their abilities, like Aramoana or Murderers [Murdering Bay].. some more advanced spots."

Gabe created a "theoretical" website during his course, which could support these surf travellers while also helping out novice surfers in the city.

The Dunedin Surf Guide website is a comprehensive resource, offering beach recommendations, surfing spot tips, beginner resources, and an interactive map.

However, the site's currently just a prototype website for study purposes, meaning it's not "live" on the world wide web.  Due to time contraints, Gabe pulled in a range of images from other sources, but completed all the branding and UX/UI design work himself, and says its been "an incredible learning journey".

"This project has been an excellent opportunity to hone my web design skills, while exploring how digital platforms can improve the user experience."

He's not the only university graduate to continue their design studies "just down the road", with other ākonga focusing on specialities like graphic design, product design, and game design.

Gabe's now busy with his second course of the year, focussed on App design. He's working alongside classmates on a client app, and hopes to move onto his own project and a possible internship later in the year to gain more "real world" experience as he embarks on his career.