BillyCam – Web Design Project

Concept

I wanted the website to feel like a pool hall – cozy, colourful, dimly lit and inviting. I used appropriate imagery and colours to create that atmosphere.

At the same time, there was quite a bit of website functionality that needed to be designed for. Streaming of the pool games was after all the main concept of the product. For that reason I included home page video thumbnails that would display the latest streams and games.

Process

I started with looking at lots and lots of pool hall photos. I wanted to source images, as well as get a sense of the colours and general atmosphere of these places. I chose a dark forest green, a bright mustard yellow, and a deep burgundy red as the primary colours. I also wanted to avoid using pure white as much as possible, so I chose a very light grey instead for backgrounds. I though white would be harsh on the eyes in a pool hall or bar, where most people would be using this website to watch a game stream.

I decided to use Nunito Sans Bold as the header font because I wanted the text to be easily legible over sometimes complex background images. I paired that heading font with Baskerville for the body copy. I thought it gave the website a nod to classic print material.

Result

I think the website looks and feels like a billiards hall, where you would expect to find good conversation among old friends. I considered the use cases of the website while designing it, and that helps the target audience feel right at home. Here’s BillyCam!