This blog is set for our class to share interesting links and useful information throughout the semester. Feel free to post things related to our class at anytime.
For our first week's homework, post the link to the web site you found that works overall in terms of interface design, functionality and meeting the need of its targeted audience. If you were to redesign the website, what can you do to upgrade it? Remember, be constructive in your criticism. "It looks nice" "It looks pretty" are not acceptable. Talk about composition, typeface/size choices, image qualities, easy usability, navigation etc. In terms of length, I'm looking into minimum of 3 sentences each.
For extra points, find a website that doesn't work well. Again, give a constructive feedback plus how you can improve the website if you were the web designer given the task to redesign it.
Another important info for next week, please bring a flash drive to save your files.
Lesley Steele's Homework and Bonus
ReplyDeleteLab homework september 1st
Good website:
www.netflix.com
i think netflix is a good website because of its simplicity, form, content, presentation, and its ability to interchange the feeling of work and play in a movie search engine. For example, if looking for a required film to watch for a class, netflix easily provides the tools to do so and yet the notion is nostalgic like a child looking for candy in a candy store. Anyways, netflix being what it is, a website advertising film and the moving image; photos are used to represent the movies, and the quality of these images are exceptional. The function of the website is to introduce movies to a broader audience and sell netflix memberships. All the functions on the site work appropriately such as scrolling over a movie to read its synopsis, searching for a movie title, saving movies to a favorites list and overall browsing and finding new movies to watch. netflix, like apple uses a toolbar at the top of the page for all the movement and direction the user can browse. the information is centered, scrolling up and down. The netflix logo isn't obnoxiously big, however it delicately fits in the top left corner of the screen. the color red attracts attention, which is the background color of the page, however the centered panel is colored a beige tone which presents comfort and has a nice blend with the red. I like this website because visually it serves its purpose and gives you once again the aura of being in a virtual, urban block buster right in your own home. the only thing i would improve on if i were on the design team is two tabs that are the right hand corner of the page. One tab says your name and the other says your account and help. sometimes its confusing knowing which button serves what function. the tab with (your name) is only used to sign out, however at first glance a user would assume its a tab leading to another page when its really not, resulting in idle frustration. If netflix improved on that i think it would be a huge improvement to the site.
Bonus Points/ Bad website:
havenworks.com
Everything bad crashed and burned on this website. first of all its clutter upon clutter of text, outrageously tiny images, unnecessary colored text, distracting ads everywhere, awkward layout and a horrible attempt at creating a functional, clear and organized website. My eyes dont know where to look at first on this site, or how to navigate the website correctly because of the lack of clarity and structure. it makes me feel as if the website is spam right away when i see how unorganized it is. The placement of all the text and images is shifted completely to the left hand side leaving awkward negative space on the right side. if this website was going to be improved, firstly the designer would have to think before anything else. the purpose of the website has to be clearly recognizable,navigable, and at least interesting enough to click images without the fear of crashing your computer with spam.
Katy's Homework #1
ReplyDeleteOkay so I'm a little lost on how to actually post on the blog so I'm submitting my hw as a comment post.
Good website: www.macgamestore.com
I believe this site is a good example of balance between text and image. They had a lot of information to cover but were able to organize it in a way that does not look cluttered. The left side panels cover "Cool Stuff," "Categories," "New Releases," and "Coming Soon" while the right side shows "Newest Release" where there is a short summary of what the newest game on the list is about, and "Bestsellers." I think this is a smart way to separate the information, one side dealing all the different categories they have and the other for recommended games. The color choice is also well thought out. The site has blue-ish green shade and tint theme with one panel a soft yellow for the title of the site. Something I would change is that in the middle between the left and right panels is where they show the images of the newest games however someone first arriving at the site will not know that since there is no indication why these games are showcased. Also some text seems to be to close to the color of its background.
Bad website: www.mrbottles.com
This site tries too hard to use all the different gadgets that a website can make. Many things are unnecessary but they use it because I believe they think it makes the site 'cooler' for example, a boat/lifesaver follows as I scroll through the site. When you first arrive, there is a virtual man talking to me. Not only is this tacky, with so much to look at when you enter the site, you can't concentrate on what he is saying. There is also a huge amount of text that is also hard to read because of all the clutter in the background. When dealing with a lot of text, it is better if the background that the text is on is a solid color rather than an image. The designer definitely needs to edit down and think about whether something is really necessary or just adding to the clutter.