ARTM2210 Intro to Web Design
Just another Intro to… siteArchive for Bi-Weekly Review
Restaurant/Club
The smiling moose. Their website is laid out well. It is easy to find the information you are looking for. Their navigation bar at the top states everything clearly and is easy to find. The composition is well done. They have their contact info at the top right and is easily noticed when navigating. The navigation is easy and very understandable. Since it is a restaurant and an entertainment venue it is very similar to what we want to do. I liked the cycling images and the text and graphics look great. I love the composure of the website and think it is a good website to take some tips from to improve ours. Since it is essentially the same thing we want to make with our business this website speaks the most to me.
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Final Bi Weekly
Hours Spent
Research:2 hours
Design:4 hours
Coding:30 minutes…(then gave up)
We spent about 2 hours as a group coming up with the idea of a club/restaurant. In which we decided items such as the menu, color scheme, name, and other elements of the site and establishment. I researched some different bar to get a feel for what kind of environment they had and to see how they were designed. This was beneficial when I was designing the Logo and buttons for the website going off of the color scheme we had originally chosen. With the design it featured many different elements for just the logo. Including use of the colors and the font chosen, to change it to accommodate the theme. Dreaweaver hates me except for during the finals.
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Influences in our Final Project
When creating a final project, there were many sites used as influences in the decision on how to approach the final. Almost all fashion websites have a plain white background because they want the focus on the clothing rather than a busy background.
One of the major influences used was Nastygal.com. On the final project, the homepage had a slideshow and this was influenced by Nastygal.com Nastygal.com had nothing more than a slideshow on the hompage to display, what kind of outfits the company had. The hompage is the most important page to draw the viewers in and taking the time to make sure that the colors and everything was just right. Nastygal.com was the guidances for the homepage. A different jquery code was used, but the influences from the site where there.
In trying to find a place for a logo, it was a hard a decision. Continuing to visit fashion websites forever21.com came about. Their logo was simple and put on the upper left hand of the websites. This worked very well for the site and again the focus was on the clothing. Everyone reads left to right so being able to see the simple logo first does not take away from it. Logos are important because it helps viewers be able to recognize the site and when deciding on how to place the logo it took many consideration but following what forever21.com did was the final decision.
In creating the graphic of a girl on the white background denim.gasjeans.com was a factor. In seeing a model have the same background as the website it pops out and feels like the model is in the website. denim.gasjeans.com is an amazing site with beautiful jquery, but they were used as a reflection of what could make a model pop on the page and make it seem life like.
For the blog page, the influence was just the way a blog is displayed. Simply with someone one writing and than a picture to display what the writing was about. Pages such as tumblr.com and blogster.com have many fashion writers within the blog sites.
In creating this final project searching the internet high and low was a start but after seeing other types of fashion websites, taking a different spin on them was the challenge. Making a website always has influences but not making them your own is the challenge. This project really helped learn coding well, and it was a great learning experience!
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Review 5
Bi-weekly Review 5
PulpFingers,com is a company that designs iPhone, iPad, and iPod apps. Navigation through this site is extremely simple, as the primary nav bar is located directly at the top of the page horizontally under the logo. Being a one page site, the user has to manually scroll up the page to get back to the nav bar once they’ve hit the bottom. Being that the page isn’t too long, this is a minor inconvenience. The slight texture makes the page interesting despite it’s limited color scheme. I did notice that any header is a off white color, making navigation even easier. The tiny bit of jquery used to animate links here and there make Pulpfingers an overall appealing site.
cargocollective.com is designer ALen Pavlovic’s personal site. The primary nav bar flows vertically under his logo, and remains on the page no matter where the user navigates. Also, the images to the right of the primary nav serve as a secondary navigation method using graphics from each project. This made diving in and rooting through his work easier as I knew what i was going to expect from him as an artist from the get go.
pelicandesign.ru/ is Vitaly Iiyasov’s personal website. Navigation once again flows horizontally across the top of the page, and remains in place on each new page. The site is clear cut and visually interesting, as the first place the viewer is taken to when typing in the address is the portfolio page. Navigation back to the previous page requires hitting backspace or clicking the back nav arrow, which I found a little inconvenient. Also, there was no way to navigate to the next larger image when a smaller one is clicked, which disrupted the viewing experience.
morethan20.com is the awesome site of photographers alyssa and rich. Navigation runs across the topmost border of the page, which scrolls down to the section specified. The fact that it’s a Peter Pan reference caught my attention as soon as I saw the name, and the paper like texture and color scheme worked perfectly with the idea of their company being casual, fun, and whimsical. I’m pretty sure i’ll keep this site in mind when it comes time to make my own photo site.
duggard.com is a vintage store run by James Graves, Casey Spitnale and Mackenzie Barker. Navigation is as simple as can be as there are only 4 links to click, and they remain horizontal above the content of the store, about us, and checkout pages. Simpleness of the site makes it very user friendly, which is what most look for in an online store. There’s nothing extremely flashy about it, and they do a great job of bringing the vintage inspiration that fuels their products into their site.
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Bi-Weekly Review 7
For Our final group project we chose to do a fusion restaurant that included a beer and ice cream based menu. When comparing our website to other beer and ice cream sites, i think we did well at accomplishing our goal of simplicity in the style and design of our website. Im going to review my two favorite beer and ice cream sites.
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream– The first thing you notice when you enter their site is there use of animation and vibrant colors. They use a horizontal navigation bar that stays at the top of the screen on every page you enter. The navigation bar also incorporates some very interesting roll overs. The website is also very children friendly. There are a lot of pictures that would entice kids to look around more. Overall the website is very affective, as it is very user friendly and is easily navigated.
Blue Moon Brewing Company– Blue moon has one of the most interesting and visual friendly website. The whole site is flash based (Im Pretty Sure). We the user first opens the site they are required to put in their date of birth to verify they are 21. After that, the website loads like a book, and the navigation bar is vertical along the side of the book, as if they were tabs. When someone clicks on a tab, it will turn the exact number of pages to get to the tab you click. The website is very well thought out. The only downside is the tabs are somewhat hard to read, but the looks over weight that downside. Overall it is one of the best beer sites “I” have ever seen.
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Klavon’s Ice Cream vs. Bittersweet
Klavon’s Ice Cream is a local Pittsburgh ice cream store located in the Strip District. The Klavon’s website is has a three page format that contains all of the information as well as images on the first page, and menus on the second and third. The homepage’s background is a tiled, monochromatic (brown) version of their logo that is also placed in the top left corner in black and white. The top of the homepage contains contact information as well as an address for the store. Underneath the heading information are two brightly colored rectangles (red and yellow) to catch viewers’ attention, one being change of store hours, the other being a button for a menu that leads to another page. The next section of information has brown text (slightly darker than the background) and a gif of moving candy next to the text. Then there is a slue of different sized images placed in the center of the homepage, with more gifs and brightly colored buttons underneath. The small red button on the right side is a second menu with ice cream flavors. The bottom of the page has black text explaining the history of the store as well as regular store hours. It is difficult to navigate Klavon’s page, because the menus are not easily accessible. Instead of being placed in an easy place to find, they are thrown sporadically around the homepage. The information is not placed well for viewers to easily find, because it is sectioned off randomly and lacks organization.
The Bittersweet homepage sections off each page with a button and an image. The entire page is on the center of the screen and placed on a simple white background to help show each image. Clicking on either an image or button will allow users to go to the section of information selected. It is easy to navigate to different sections because the buttons on the bottom are placed in the same area on each page. Also, the logo button on the top takes viewers to the homepage. The information is sectioned off into smaller categories so it is easier to read. Each section uses the same typeface and color against a simple white background for clear legibility. However, there is no visual hierarchy to show importance of the text for each page. Each page has all of the information placed in the same area for consistency.
The layout of the Bittersweet homepage is easier to navigate than Klavon’s. The information is sectioned off on each individual page along with the homepage for Bittersweet. Klavon’s website seems as if it is a single page layout at first, but then viewers have to dig around to find there are two separate menu pages located within the homepage. The Klavon website spreads the information throughout the page without showing users where to find particular things someone visiting a local ice cream store’s website would hope to find, such as flavors, history, store hours, etc. However, the initial store information placed on the top has bigger text than the rest of the page, so if the viewer is having too much trouble navigating the page and becomes frustrated, they can call the store. In comparison, information on the Bittersweet page is easier to find than on the Klavon’s website.
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Sports site 2 us open
Sports site review 2
I found the US open tennis site through a search, it was rated one of the best sports sites for 2010. After looking at it and using it i can see why it is good. There is a good amount of information however it is all clearly layout and organized. There is a lot of information but it seem to fit well in a nice clean style that is clean, there is also nice good use of photos in the background and main page. News is quick and easy to find through the moving gallery on the main page.
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Sports site post 1
Sport site review 1 Pittsburgh Penguins
This site is well run and has a lot of feathers for the user to us such as flash video of game highlights and locker room media. One thing i do not like about the Pittsburgh Penguins site is that it seem busy and has a lot of information to go through. Also the ads are all of the place, it takes away from its potential clean look. It should be noted that all NHL sites seem to follow a set of guidelines for basic design features. Although from that the sites can be further customized.
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Bi-Weekly Review 7
http://www.nineonninepgh.com/index.html
Nine on Nine is a European-style restaurant located on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The website is very modern and sleek. Simple whites and grays are used, with an orange added in to certain links as well as the logo through the site. It is overall very simplistic, yet stylish and complex at the same time. The horizontal navigation at the top contains links to “home”, “about us”, “menus”, “event planning”, “news and events”, and “reservations”. The contact information is on the bottom right corner of the container. There are images on each page, in the center and to the right that are uniform throughout. The high tech aspect and cleanliness of the website give the visitor the idea that the restaurant is very cutting edge and fancy.
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Final Review: Jam Base
JamBase is a music base website that has features including artists, shows, articles, photos, festivals etc. This website has valuable resources for users looking for information about the music event. One of the first things a viewer may notice is that the advertisements and show-finders pick up their location and display the concerts closet to them. For example, the website says Pittsburgh Pa currently. This is an easy way to capture the audiences attention because they see something relating to them.
The navigational of the site is set up with a navigation bar across the top. These options include artsist, shows, articles, photos, contests, forums, and festivals. Once the visitors click on a new link, there is no breadcrumbing to show you how to get back. The home page is disorganized because there is too much information crowding the site. There are boxes including show finder, newswire, contests, and advertisement over-filling the page. The layout would benefit from more space in between the entire site.
The overall design on the site feels dated. The color scheme is a monotone gray with small accents of blue and orange. The accents are not noticeable enough bring up the overall grey tone of the page. The page is reminiscent of an old Microsoft Window color scheme. Some boxes are rounded while others are not. The website does not feel modern enough.
Specifically looking at the festival page the color scheme changes to a green. This does not match the color scheme on the home page. There is a feature festival section that includes jquery of the picture that visitors can click on. The rest of the festivals are listed in list that continues multiple pages. Visitors are given the option the search for a festival which would make it easier.
Overall jambase.com is a valid website when looking for music information about live concerts.. The website looks to be design by a web designer with out any graphic knowledge. The layout, color scheme, and overall unity need to be improved.
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Daouda’s Final Bi-weekly review
For our final project, my group and I are working on a website for the RMU basketball team. Thus, I decided to analyze a college basketball team for my final review. Having spent more than 8 years in the DMV area (DC Maryland Virginia) I decided to pick the Maryland “Terps” basketball team. The website color scheme is mainly black, red, yellow and white, referring to the university colors. The background is an extreme close up of the flag on basketball arena the floor. The main navigational tools are on top, they have drop down menus, at the bottom of those there are more navigational tools. The homepage is really crowded with information and ad. The homepage is really crowded with information and ad, it make it hard to navigates, it I would be more efficient if there were less noise on the homepage
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Nakama
http://eatatnakama.com/pittsburgh/
Nakama is a japanese steakhouse and sushi restaurant. It offers some of the best hibachi around Pittsburgh, and is the first choice for most Pittsburghers who love hibachi. The home page has a large picture of the restaurant, and a menu on the left with the primary navigation. The background has a grainy wood texture. On the top left is navigation for the restaurant locations, as well as social networking links. The company’s logo is watermarked over the image of the restaurant. The “Menu” page offers external links to each of their menus. The site is very user-friendly, while keeping a sleek look throughout and giving the impression that it is indeed a high class restaurant. Most asian cuisine restaurants are sometimes hard to read because they get lost in translation, but this is not the case with Nakama since it is American owned.
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P.F. Chang’s
P.F. Chang’s is a popular and affordable chain of Chinese Restaurants. The P.F. Chang’s website attempts to evoke a feeling of the far east with a use of rich texture and color that makes the viewer feel wealthy and warm.
An immediate flaw noticeable on the website is an abrupt ending to the bottom of the page, at least when viewed on Google Chrome. There is a bar at the bottom of the page with a red fabric texture that is very interesting but it stops and the rest of the page is simply filled with a burgundy color. This is an easy oversite but a company as large and well funded as this should be able to afford to ensure such small flaws do not interfere.
The website otherwise is quite elegant. The colors are rich and warm and the use of burgundy and tan give the impression of Chinese design qualities. The navigation on the website is simple and straight forward but doesn’t really lead the viewer to any particular areas of the site but instead lets the visitor wander around. It would be useful to have a situation in which there is at least a little bit of bread crumbing that gets the viewer to the intended material.
Overall the P.F. Chang’s website is elegant and has a strong Chinese feeling but it is plagued by a few small, but annoying bugs. The bottom of the page issue and the lack of any bread crumbing makes the viewer feel a little lost and like one is viewing a less then professional website.
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The Sewickley Hotel-Brock Switzer
The Sewickley Hotel is a tavern style restaurant in Sewickley, PA. The restaurant features a variety of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner from many different nationalities. Much of this website links a user to pages outside of the website itself. For example, the “directions” link takes a visitor directly to google maps with the address of the restaurant typed in. Another example is the menus which take the user to a PDF file with the menus that can be saved and/or printed. This feature is both convenient and at the same time distracting and makes navigating quite difficult. When visitors to the site are forced to leave it with several links and then press back to get into the site again it is easy to get distracted and lose interest in the content on the main site. A simple fix would be to have the menu actually present on the site but provide patrons the option to go to a printable PDF version at their leisure. The map could follow a similar solution in which the “directions” link on the page takes a visitor to an actual page on the site with information as to the restaurants location but also has a link on the page that the user can click on to bring up the adress in google maps.
Another problem this website faces is that the content and links are very small and do not expand to fit the size of any window. The size makes it somewhat difficult to read and makes it feel less complete and professional. Simply repeating the background and expanding the content area slightly would make the site feel more open and free as well as give off a sense of completion and professionalism.
One very positive aspect of this webpage is the color pallet. It feels very rich and deep with reds and oranges. The homepage text mentions the “warm and cozy” atmosphere that the restaurant offers and the color pallet helps add to that sense of warmth and friendly environments.
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Last Bi-Weekly Review – Alex Antonacci
Live nation is a website that sells concert tickets to people around the world. Starting at the top the first thing the user will see when they visit is a large search bar where they can input any artist, show or venue and Live Nation will narrow down the results to make finding what they want easier. So before the site goer even decides to scroll down they can already find what they want in the fastest amount of time with this search bar. Most websites hide their search bar in the a small area on the menu at the right, but Live Nation takes full advantage of its capabilities. Its horizontal menu can take the user to all shows, watch videos, fan photos, venues, VIP, merchandise, sign in and my cart. Underneath the menu is Live Nation’s featured section, which holds four upcoming events that constantly switch to show equal importance. The user even has the option to scroll faster by clicking one on the squares in the bottom right hand corner of the picture.
To the right of the slideshow is a list of the top selling events in the area that the user lives in. This display temps the visitor to click on one of their favorite bands on the list to see if they could make the concert since everyone else is going.
Below that is the on sale and the on sale soon section so the user will know when they are able to buy tickets or if they still have some time. Below the slide show also provides a temptation showing the visitor that if they sign in and make an account, Live Nation will provide them with concert recommendations.
The website keeps it simple and only uses three colors: red black and white. The text is also simplistic with the exception of the logo where the “I” in Live Nation looks like the figure of a concert goer. The search menu, which continues on every page in the same place, has a dark background picture of a large most pit. Below the menu is a similar picture except that this one is less noticeable put in black and white and distorted so the user can only the the outline of the people.
Live Nation’s layout is an organized grid helping the user every step of the way. It holds a great set up even if the user docent make an account, but if they later decide to Live Nation makes personal recommendations and then makes the site uniquely form to each visitor.
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Review of the restaurant, China Gourmet – http://www.chinagourmetnj.com/
Since I reviewed a French gourmet restaurant previously, I thought it was best to evaluate a Chinese gourmet eatery. Also, since Delicieux is up, live, and running, it was nice to visually compare each of the sites side by side in comparison. So, here is my final and last review of the, China Gourmet:
Located in West Orange, NJ, the China Gourmet goes that extra mile on design and interaction. A few positives that the website has is its layout, jquery, and online ordering feature. One distinct flaw that the website unfortunately has its overuse of various fonts.
POSITIVES
Layout – The boxy design is organized, yet, well controlled. With everything maintained inside the main red box, it gives the website consistency, as well as organization. It also gives the viewer a chance to thoroughly enjoy the artistic details that surround the main box, including the Chinese dragons, chopsticks, glowing lantern, and textured backgrounds.
Jquery – The entire website contains a ton of jquery. From the loading page, to the navigation buttons, to the content, jquery plays a huge role in this site. It honestly pushes the envelope. For example, whenever the viewer clicks on the “About Us” page, whatever content was inside the main box disappears, and then the new content slides down from top to bottom transitionally. This feature is visually appealing, while pushing the limits. It is almost as if the web designer went as far as he/she could go without it being annoying or burdensome.
Online Ordering – This restaurant contains something different compared to the other sites that have been reviewed. They feature an online ordering system. When clicking on the “Online Order” tab, the site directs you to some information, where you can then click on a link to place your order. When redirected, the site gives the viewer prices of all their dishes with an “add to cart” button, where your total will begin to add up. This feature is something very unique, which gives the restaurant the opportunity to stay within the current technological times.
NEGATIVES
Font – As far as fonts, there are simply too many going on at once. For example, the main title, located at the very top of the page. This font is very artsy and appropriate, however the glow makes it extremely hard to read. Also, when going through the site in its entirety (through sub-sites and main-sites), the number of fonts turned out to be somewhere around seven. Seven different fonts are a bit extreme and overpowering. The site would be visually more successful with around two or three.
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Bosco’s Guitar ~ AFI Short Film
The website for the AFI Thesis short film, Bosco’s Guitar is a simple, yet effective page that accurately informs visitors about the short film, who is involved, and how they can help. The opening page shows a list of the links, features a promotional image, and has the title of the short film at the top in a childish font. This website has many positive and negative aspects to it, and perhaps it is best to discuss the websites weaknesses first.
One obvious problem is that the page was not designed for different browsers. The page is not centered and does not move when the website is expanded to a larger browser size. A plain, white background is revealed when the browser is enlarged. They should have either designed the page to resize with the browser or implement a better design where the image blends into the background. Another major issue is the resolution of the photos. Many of them are very low and the image looks slightly blurry as a result. That is a common sense issue they should have been resolved before the site ever went online. The site could also use some aspects of advanced web design. There is virtually no use of jquery or any interactivity outside of hovering over links. The design could implement more layering with opacities and gradients to make the page feel more three dimensional and sophisticated. In addition, it would be nice to see a trailer on the home page (or any page) since it is a site for a short film, and also it would be a nice touch to add a section for screening venues.
What the site lacks in sophistication, in makes up for in simplicity and ease of navigation. Every one of the sections of the page is clearly identified and the entire site can be navigated in a matter of seconds. Each page has the same navigation bar located on it, even though its location changes from the home page. Visitors can quickly find out what the film is about, that it’s created through AFI, who’s involved, who inspired the project, and how visitor’s can help contribute. The section where the site excels is the section dedicated to the crew. The page features links to each member and what their role in the production was. On their individual page, there is a brief bio, a picture, and a quote from them about the project. Aesthetically, one nice aspect of the page is the consistent grayish-purple and yellow color scheme used throughout the site giving it a unique rustic and impoverished look. Overall, the website for Bosco’s Guitar is a great example of both what to do right and what should be done better for a short film website. The simplicity of the site is great and makes it an effortless browsing experience, but the site simply needs to be taken a few steps further by adding some more pages with trailers and screening times and also some added depth in terms of aesthetic appeal.
~Written By John Marshall
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Bi-Weekly Review
For my final bi-weekly review, I have reviewed the website http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201201/why-we-dream. This site really relates to our final project and has a good take on what dreams are really about. http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201201/why-we-dream really goes in-depth of what to think about when people are asleep. With the images and links to other websites this site really captures our philosophy on what we want to portray to the viewers with our website. We are going for an overall good and simple layout of a short film for our website. This website has a lot going on. With all the images, links and ads on this particular site, it makes it a very detailed website. The simple background and simple text on the page really make the page come alive and draws the viewer into the site. Coming across this site was difficult because most sites really do not have websites on dreams and reality. There is simplicity and I really think that this makes the site worth the time of interest. I believe that there is way to many ads on this page. It draws your attention away from the site and doesn’t represent the site very well at all!! After clicking the links they take you away fromt http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201201/why-we-dream and take you to a different perspective on the author of the image and they tell you how they feel about dreams. It takes you to an article which in this case can be a good thing, but a bad thing at the same time. Lengthy articles can really draw the audience away from the site. With the simple images, text and layout. http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201201/why-we-dream really takes you in detail about what dreams are really about and what to expect form them. From a layout perspective it really needs more color, different style fonts and more detail. There is way to much going on in this website for a viewer to be interested for more than 30 seconds. http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201201/why-we-dream gets the point across, but it can use more work to really make an impression with the viewers.
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Bi-Weekly 7
For my bi-weekly review, I continue to look at different movie sites to help set up our site. The gallery is set up differently on the HUNGER GAMES and TITANIC sites. The Hunger Games has one picture at a time and it takes up the whole screen. Also the same thing goes along with the Titanic site. It catches the viewer eyes and helps them to go through the site and look at all the pictures. The viewers are always interested in learning more about the actors and what happens in the movies and pictures give them idea what to expect.
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Multipage Blog
For this biweekly blog on restaurant websites I have chosen, http://www.burgatorybar.com/, because it is one of my favorite restaurants. It is a simple site that is mainly aimed at showing the menu items to the customer. The opening page features a picture of their burger with a mini text box containing the restaurant’s mission statement. The links to the other pages are located in a box in the upper right corner as well as links to their social networking in the bottom right corner. There are five selections in the upper box; hungry, our spots, lets chat, our gear and happenings. The links all take you to an identical background page with the information varying depending upon the link. The information is mainly presented in text boxes.
Overall I think it is an all right site. It is nothing that is out of the ordinary which is not much of a worry for Burgatory. The restaurant really speaks for itself and I feel their webpage should be used mainly to highlight upcoming news and information about the growing chain.
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bi-weekly review 7
The final website was basically inspired on a restaurant for people that usually go out and stay out until late so that is why it calls “The Munchies”. The researches were based on different websites such as, applebees.com, chillies.com and olivegarden.com. These websites helped to create a layout for The Munchies website and a style for the site. Also researches about the menu like prices and dishes helped a lot when we put together the menu site. Each of those restaurant website have a different idea and that it what made the munchies, different ideas put together.
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Final Bi-weekly Review
For the restaurant, The Munchie’s, many of the basics came from sites such applebees.com, and olivegarden.com. A drop down menu in the navigation bar seemed to be very important. Also having a contact us, location, and an about us page was crucial. The home pages from these three sites all had pictures of offered items. The Munchie’s also has this on the home page.
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Bi-Weekly Review 6- Music Festival Junkies
Our website deals with a summer music festival series listing, comparing, and contrasting a few different music festivals based on cost, distance, and music genres. The site Music Festival Junkies lists nearly all the music festivals in Europe, The United States, and Canada in chronological order on the home page. This list is surrounded by various blogs, tweets, articles, and band line-ups. There is a bar with drop down menus beneath their very simple banner that offers further categorizing. Navigating with this bar one can find lists of the top 10 Mega festivals, camping festivals, unique festivals, and Canadian festivals under one tab. Then going to the right it has links to lists of United States Music festivals, European music festivals (sub menu of UK festivals), Canadian festivals, then has news on lineups and scenes, and finally the MFJ 50, a list of fifty of the festivals they most recommend. If one clicks through any list to a music festival it offers a brief dossier when and where the festival is, how much it costs, whether or not there is camping, give a list of the lineup and a short description of the atmosphere that one would encounter there and a link to the official site. On the right side there is a filter which expands to show different categories of festivals then one can click to expand the desired attribute to filter by, month, genre, or location then one chooses the category from the expanded stipulations, and the site offers a list of possible matches to the filter. Aesthetically the site doesn’t use anything flashy focusing more on bare bones easy navigation for the user. Overall the functionality of the site is great and offers an abundance of information on each festival, the methods that the site uses to lead people to the desired festival are swift and effective and the aesthetics don’t distract the user from the links that they should use.
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Bi-Weekly Review
For my bi-weekly review, I looked at different movie website to get an idea for the final project. By looking at different sites, I got an idea on how to set up our: the color, the layout, the texture, the font, and the structure on how the reviewer can navigate page to page. The website for the HUNGER GAMES and TITANIC helped out a lot because it attracts a lot of people to the site and the information they have will satisfy them. The websites let the reviewer know what is happening.
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Borderline Films
Borderline films is a New York based production company created by three NYU graduates, Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, and Josh Mund. They produce music videos, commercials, short films, and feature films. The companies website features examples of their work, short biographies on each of the directors, an about us page, a news page, a twitter link, and a contact page. In terms of navigation, the site is excellent due to its simplicity. It is effortless to get to each section of the site and explore the entire site in less than a minute. Nothing is distracting or confusing on the entire site, and every component serves a purpose. Overall, it has a very clear visual hierarchy, and requires little to no thought to navigate. However, aesthetically, the page is very plain and needs some improvement.
The website seems like it could be template. It is effect and simple, but it does not stand out at all. The website could definitely use a texture or some form of a gradient in the background. Also, some other effects such as shadows and blurring elements would be nice to make the site more three-dimensional. The color palette is very dull with different shades of grey and accented colors, red and green. It does not feel like the company has a branded identity through their website. They need to develop a defining color palette and font face to brand themselves. With the plain background, simple font face, and boring palette, the experience of browsing the site is not memorable. The site does feature a sleek use of j-query and rollover effects on pictures and videos. When a link is clicked, the items on the new page cross dissolve onto the page one element at the time. When linked videos and pictures are rolled over, they slowly increase their brightness. These subtle effects make the page a more interactive experience, and without them the site would be extremely basic. The website is successful because users can watch their videos and learn more about their company by using a simple, yet effect navigation system, but the overall page needs to be taken a step further aesthetically to give their company an online identity.
~Written by John Marshall
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Bi-weekly review 6
For my sixth bi-weekly review, I decided to look at a computer giant, Apple (www.Apple.com). The apple web site is very simple and elegant at the same time. It has a bright white color with a shiny texture to it as a background and picture of an ipad with a hand actually using it as the central and only picture. The font they use is grey in color; the main navigational tools are at the very top of the page and are set on a dark grey box. They both have a chromatic texture to them also. Whenever you scroll over the buttons, they get highlighted in dark grey. At the bottom of the page there are videos and different links.
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Restaruant Review
For my final project, my group decided to make a restaurant web page. To start generating ideas for the site, I looked at many restaurant sites and found a lot of similar things. All of the sites had a navigation bar the ran horizontally across the top of the page. In the navigation bar, there was a menu button, location, contact us, and about us button. Since it seemed like many restaurants used this feature, we decided to use it for our web site. The site I liked the most was Applebee’s website. When I moved my cursor over the menu tab, a drop down menu appeared that had different categories of food to choose from. I could click on appetizers, burgers, drinks, pasta, etc. If I chose drinks for example, I would click on that button and I would be taken to a page that listed all of the drinks available at Applebees. One thing that I really liked about this site was that there were pictures of all of the food items. I like to be able to see what something looks like before I order it. The site uses the appropriate colors and font to match the restaurant. The Applebees website it the site that I have been referencing while creating our final web site.
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Pollstar
Pollstar is a website dedicated to concert listings around the world. Its horizontal menu can take the user to their personal account, concertwire, photos, reviews, hotstar and store. Underneath the menu is a thick search bar where the consumer may type in an artist, band, venue or city when searching for a possible event to attend. Under the find an event rectangle is an eye catching scroll bar, which is constantly moving to the left with average ticket prices.
Below that is Pollstar’s featured section which holds four upcoming events which constantly switch to show equal importance and display a paragraph of text matched with a headline and photograph. From the the user can scroll down more to find recent listings, concertwire, site activity, latest photos, recent hotstars and most viewed.
The website does not use an overload of colors, instead they keep it cool with tones of blue and black and white. The text is also simplistic with the exception of the logo and the company catch phrase “The Concert Hotwire” which is in a handwritten font.
Pollstar’s layout is evenly distributed in an organized grid. They make the website easy for the patron to find what they want to find within it in a timely fashion.
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Bi Weekly Review
For my review my group is doing a film website about a short film that one of our group members are working on. This short film is about dreams and reality. How they correspond and make life difficult and not as easy as people think. I have reviewed the website dreams.com. dreams.com is a very different site compared to the typical website in todays world. dreams.com has lots of variety and links to how dreams work. It is very understandable to what dreams.com is trying to get across to the viewer. The colors of the text and links really stand out. They are a bright blue and the links are on the side of the page and at the top of the page. With all the detail and links the front page really has not to much going on. To navigate more and find information out, you have to click on the links and further they take you to a different page with more information about dreams and how you can learn more. When you click the links they take you to a numerous sites and really has nothing to do with dreams.com Dreams.com is a guideline for dreams and it gives you basic information and makes you look into the links to gain more information. Besides the links are really not that helpful. Dreams.com has a good layout and eye catching color to grab the viewers attention when they enter the site. Also the image that is used on the front page is well placed and creates a flow and makes dreams.com come to life. Dreams.com isn’t the best site, but with the images, links and color and can hold its own and make the point across to the viewer.
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Vans Warped Tour Website
The Vans Warped Tour is a summer concert series that travels around the United States. With over 90 bands and 40 stops, this is one of the largest series in the country. All the music is based around the rock sound. The target audiences are teenagers and young adults. This website is relevant to research when building another website dealing with summer concert series.
The Vans Warped Tour website is set up in a traditional setup with links along the top of the page. This is an easy navigation technique for visitors to use. The navigation bar is crowded though as they are 11 link listed across. Once a visitor click on one of the links, they are taken to the new page. There is no bread crumbing and the navigation bar still remains on the top of the page. To return to a previous page, the visitor must use the back button provided by the Internet browser or re-click on a link up top. The right side of the page is filled with advertisements for the website to create profit.
The color scheme and illustrations of the Vans Warped Tour change every year. Currently the overall theme older styled relying on ornamentations and a muted color palette of greys. There are accent colors of red, blue and gold. Some may not find the artwork relevant to the theme of rock music and summer. The color scheme and artwork is not eye catching and has no sense of hierarchy.
Because the Vans Warped tour is aimed toward younger generation, the website has some cool extra aimed towards them. There is a specific photograph and video section that shows the excitement of previous tours. Once you click on a specific city, you are given more information about attending Warped Tour if it is your first time. There is also an online store for visitors to buy apparel. The online store was not up to date as it included the summer 2011 logo.
The Vans Warped Tour website is a summer concert website that easily displays information about the tour. Visitors can learn more, buy tickets and share their previous experiences. The color scheme changes annually but currently is a muted color palette. Overall this website is valuable to review for anyone making a summer concert series website.
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