ARTM2210 Intro to Web Design
Just another Intro to… siteArchive for Student Work
Rachael Bald Bi-Weekly 1
Rachael Bald
Intro to Web Design
Professor Ames
1/23/2014
Bi-Weekly Review
I chose the web site JustFab, this website has many different things that are available to buy. They are most known for their shoes, which are very nice in quality and cheaper to buy. Going to their site they have multiple tabs that go to the different products that you wish to view. Looking at the products they are very organized and detailed to the product that you wish to look at. Going under the shoes tab, there are multiple different types of shoes by categories.
Going under the boots section, I chose a heeled boot to put it into the shopping tab. To be able to purchase this product first you have to sign into the website. You have to join their website, after making an account. With making the account you get a special deal with the company for being a first time user. They let you have two pairs of shoes for $39.95, this brings people to buy two pairs instead of one. After putting the items into the shopping cart they ask if you would like to shop more or if you are finished shopping. If you are finished shopping then click the finished button and this then leads you to the payment info. Going along with the reading This site makes it semi difficult for people to instantly purchase their products.
Which the reading says is a good thing because people should not be able to just put their product into the shopping cart and boom done. This site shows that they have safety things that make you go through all the steps in order to be able to purchase the product they want. This site also keeps it clean so people who are not very aquatinted with the internet they have an easy time looking for their products. This site does not have words that could be confusing to consumers. The colors are basic because their products are more colorful. This keeps the eye feeling comfortable and not seeing so many colors that they can not process which color is important. This website makes it very easy to buy the product that you are looking for.
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Monthly Review 1
http://shop.nhl.com/
I chose shop.nhl.com for my review. It is the Nation Hockey Leagues main apparel and merchandise website. The color scheme of the website is mainly basic and black and white as to not favor a particular team color. They give you options to shop buy jerseys, hats, etc, right at the top so it is easy to find is you are looking for something in particular. I selected a jersey off the front page that took me to another page with the jersey enlarged and the first thing that caught my eye was a big blue button that said “ADD TO CART”. This basically tells me that they don’t want you to think too much and click the nice big pretty button. After you click add to cart it directs you to another page where the “continue shopping” or “secure checkout” buttons are similar to the “add to cart” button. Overall I believe that the website basically bolds and highlights the main buttons to get in buy your merchandise and get out.
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Monthly Review 1 – Superherostuff.com
I hate crowds and long days of traveling from store to store searching endlessly for something, especially during the holidays. Online shopping has become my primary way of purchasing items for myself or for gifts. Also, because I would consider myself a nerd, it makes it easier to find apparel and other items of my favorite pop-culture subjects.
One of my favorite places is superherostuff.com. It has apparel and merchandise for superheroes, star wars, and other sci-fi or pop culture franchises. I never gave much thought to the layout of the site before reading a bit of “Don’t Make Me Think.” My initial thought of the site is that it’s a mixed bag.
I can see how initially it might be overwhelming with the colors and images of all the superheroes at the top. However, the site does a good job of categorizing based on merchandise type or franchise. If you are a shopper looking for a gift, the categorization makes it easy to browse based on merchandise type, or if you are looking for someone’s favorite hero, looking at all the merchandise with that hero on it. The most confusing aspect might be whether or not you understand that the images of the superheroes at the top actually link to all the merchandise with that particular hero. Once you click on a hero, you come to a page that lists all the merchandise types, or you can scroll to see the most popular items or all the merchandise. On this page is also navigation on the left that allows you to categorize based on merchandise type, and a drop down to choose other heroes.
At the top of all the pages is a search bar that does a really good job helping a user understand that merchandise is categorized by type or franchise. As soon as you type the first letter, it begins trying to figure out what you are looking for. It drops down a menu matching your search that shows product categories, hero or villain, popular searches that match, and products that match your search. As you type more letters, it refines its results. The other nice thing is the thumbnails in the search menu drop down. If it’s a character you’re searching for, it shows a thumbnail that you can click on. It also shows thumbnails of products that may match your search, that you can click to navigate to the appropriate page.
Ultimately, when you get past how busy the home page looks, the links and categories help you narrow your search in any way you need to find the product you may be looking for.
-Chris Mielo
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Review Target (Donna Muschar)
The website I have chosen is Target for review. Target is a department and grocery store that is in competition with stores such as Kmart and Walmart. Target usually puts a theme for their sale of the week on the homepage, this weeks is a sale on furniture. They also include a section on the right of the page for additional featured sales.
Color scheme is white and red. Target tries to base their brand identity on fast fun and friendly service along with being community and family oriented.
Search features include a search bar and categories of product. After mousing over a category, a small sub category menu pops up to further narrow your search. A coupons section and popular items section is shown on the bottom of the homepage too. After selecting Active Wear for women a sale Selection is shown along with a scroll bar below for popular picks in the active wear section. The Active wear sale banner allows users to view active wear from mens and kids too, in case the user would want to search under those categories for others in their family.
Many of the pages use the tactic of displaying sales as what you would see first under any category. Upon selecting a product multiple views are available with the product then price, then size and color choices showing up. Has a clear hierarchy for the eye to follow. A free promotion “Buy 50$ get free shipping” appears next to the “add to cart” button. The button itself is in pink, not really sure why it strays away from the color scheme.
After an item is added a screen comes up that clearly shows what you have bought, cost and color. It allows you to continue shopping, explore popular items or proceed to checkout. After you push the check out it takes you to another screen that allows you to do more shopping or check by where to ship it then continue the checking out. The top of the screen throughout the check out process offers a phone number and a option to view FAQ about checking out. The next screen allows users to sign in (unless you did already on the homepage.) Then from their you continue to checkout in a sequential manner.
I like Targets website and the store, everything is defined clearly and allows users to navigate easily through several options. There is no confusion as to where you need to go to view products.
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Monthly Review 1
Where would the world be if there wasn’t online shopping? It allows even the shut ins to get what they want/need. I chose Kpoptown.com as my monthly review this time. Its an online store for merchandise of different Korean bands.
When you open the main homepage, your brain is overloaded by bright colors. The majority of the page is a bright pink and white, but as you scroll down changes and add some bright blue. There is so much information on the screen that it takes so long to process it all. There’s no real organization at all. There’s different categories to shop by in a pink bar across the top. Cd, collectible, by artist, jewelry, accessory, cosmetics, brand, fashion, lenses, wigs, and food. There is no real organization to the categories as well. The homepage is so long that half of it won’t even be seen. It is not simple in any way. Half way down there is a discount code and there is another one all the way at the bottom. I suppose its like a reward for reading the whole page, but its really not useful. Mid-top of the page is a set of pictures, but they scroll by so quickly, that you don’t really have a chance to look at it That was just the homepage.
So I recently went to a U-Kiss concert and I decided to look for a U-Kiss light stick. I clicked on the search bar, since I wasn’t even gonna mess with searching through the categories, but sadly it turned up no results. The annoying the was that it didn’t even offer suggestions to something similar. Feeling slightly less enthusiastic, I searched for just light stick, just to see what options were available. The results pulled up several pictures of different light stick options. They all had their prices listed underneath their picture which was a nice feature. I chose the Super Junior light stick because that is a group I am familiar with.
When you click on it and open the item info page, it shows you information about it, the discount that was applied, the different members you could choose from, and pictures of the item from different angles. On the left hand side, there is a side bar that lists different items for different artists, not similar at all to the item I was viewing. I added the product to the cart which flew the picture to where the cart was located which made it easier to find on the page.
At check out, there was once again to much information on the page. In bright red letters, the site advises you to make sure what you are ordering is not a pre-ordering item and to choose USD for payment since this site caters to many different countries. The cart itself shows the light stick that I’m pretending to buy, that it is available, the number I’m buying, and the total price of that item, plus the shipping cost. It then gives you the option to include any coupons and vouchers, including the ones on the homepage most people probably didn’t see. It also shows items other customers bought as a last ditch attempt to get you to buy more. It then asks you to make an account, put in the delivery and billing addresses, asks you again to make sure it is not a pre-order and that the currency is in USD, choosing the delivery options, and payment methods. And that is all on one page. It scrolls and scrolls. The page shouldn’t be that long. All of that would have been much easier on the eyes if it had been over several pages. It then takes you to where you can pay by pay pal.
My assessment of the site? It is way to complicated for the computer illiterate. Since I have had experience with the shopping on the site, I was able to navigate it pretty easily. However, someone who has no experience in the subject matter whatsoever would have a terrible time trying to buy something. I think the only reason this store is still running is because it is the only one I’ve come across that sells the products.
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Monthly Review #1 – Sean Gavin
I did my research on DicksSportingGoods.com, They are a very, very popular website with a lot of options for you to pick from. After I did the reading in the book I realized that nearly everything they said was exactly right about how most people view and search through websites. The book talked about how most people don’t really read anything on websites and kind of just skim through the pages looking for exactly what they want unless they are browsing around. Also how a lot of people can become confused on the website pages because they are unsure about the options that are in front of them, therefore leading them to get frustrated and go check out another site. I was interested in finding and purchasing some new football gloves for wide receivers, Cutters to be exact. When I first clicked onto the website it was very organized even with various options everywhere on the page. At the top, right in front of your eyes they have a bar going across with every category and item that they offer. If you move your mouse over top of the category or click on it, it will open up with many more simplfied categories in which you can pick from. Although the categories have many more subcategories, you can still easily process what you are looking at because it is very organized. Also on the main page, they have all the discounts and specials blown up so you literally can not miss them. At the very, very top they have a search bar where you can search anything that you are interested in or are curious at looking at. I searched football gloves into the search bar and instantly every brand of football gloves showed up for me to choose from. On the side it again listed all the brands for me to pick from, which was where I saw the Cutters Gloves. The website gave me the options to zoom in and out on the gloves and also gave me different angles to view the gloves at. I could also pick what size and color that I wanted to get or view. On the side of the gloves they gave you a brief and quick write up about the gloves and a rating bar. After all that I then simply added the gloves to my cart and continued to purchase. No thought process or second guessing went through my mind when doing all of this. You then go to “Proceed To Checkout” to continue your order where it then leads you to another page where you can add all your information, delivery options, payment methods, review and submit, and then order confirmation. Overall I think that DicksSportingGoods.com is a great, well put together, and organized website for people to easily access. Even if you have never used a computer before you could easily figure out Dick’s Sporting Goods website. I have been on many, many websites before, some that are good and some that are completely terrible and very confusing. There really wasn’t one thing that I could complain about with the website and I am a big fan of it.
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Monthly Review #1: Newegg
I decided to take a look at newegg.com for my monthly review. While I didn’t have too much trouble finding an item that satisfied my needs, I definitely think the usability could make some marked improvements but following the principles summarized in pg 10-29 of Dont Make Me Think!
For my item, i decided to look into buying a graphics card for a gaming PC. A few of my requirements were that it had to be Intel based, power some where in the middle to upper range, and at least 2GB of dedicated memory. Upon going to the newegg.com home page I was surprised at how many navigation elements were present and couldn’t help but feel that much of it could be consolidated or reorganized. Shopping is mainly governed by one tiered nav bar on the left side of the page. It lists categories with menus that fan out to make more specialized choices. These fanned out menus, in turn, have their own headers. This section in itself isn’t too difficult to use when you realize the shear quantity of product categories Newegg offers. That being said, I think some improvements could be made. For example, the fanned menus have a set height and display choices one after another in vertical columns with each new category heading being displayed directly after the last item in the previous category. These means that category headings are displayed randomly inside the menu as opposed to at the top of each column where they might be easier to recognize. Also, some of the fanned menus seem to use bold blue headings with gray subheadings and some seem to use just the bold blue or the gray. This leads to more confusion in regards to navigation hierarchy. Beyond this main bar, there are several more navigation blocks on the home page. There is a small horizontal one centered at the top that seems to be vaguely purposed towards user tasks. It lists “My Account” and “My Newegg” which do seem related if not rather redundant. Latest Email Deals and Gift Cards are also lumped into this bar. At the very top of the page is the shopping card and “login/register” links. I think this link’s existence conflicts with the last bar I talked about. Clicking “Login” takes you to the same exact page as clicking “My Account” does when you aren’t logged in. Why include both of these links when they are likely to confuse the users’ eyes?
Since I didn’t have a specific product in mind for my search, I decided to use the left nav bar to find a suitable item. Under Computer Hardware, and then under the Computer Components subheading I saw “Video Cards and Video Devices.” This seemed like the logical place for graphics/video cards so I clicked there and, sure enough, was brought to the right page. On this new page my eye immediately went to the left because that was were the previous navigation had been. Although the new menu had different styling, it was what I needed. I looked past the bitcoin mining promotion and featured products on the page itself and clicked “Desktop Graphic Cards” on the left nav. Finally now on the left side of the screen I had a huge list of options for narrowing down my search. The very first one being the name of GPU itself. I ran into a moment of hesitation here because all of the ones listed before clicking the expand button were Radeon (AMD) whereas I wasted GeForce (Intel). Because I couldn’t see any GeForce before clicking the expand, it made me wonder for a second where the Intel GPU’s were listed. There was, however, a Chipet Manufacturer option lower down that allowed me to select NVIDIA (Intel) to narrow down my search without selecting a specific GPU. From there it was easy to specify the kind of card I was looking for. I used the option on the left nav to select an Intel Card with 2GB of memory for $200-$300. I settled one an MSI card after reading reviews and clicked add to cart.
The shopping cart experience was much more straightforward. After going through to view my cart, I noticed that it automatically added the free game I got with my card which I thought was a nice touch. From there it was simply a matter of adding my billing and shipping information, entering any promotional/coupon codes, and clicking confirm.
All in all, I think Newegg’s site will be usable enough for most people but suffers from bloating due to just how many products it offers. The navigation has the right elements, they just need to be organized further with more emphasis placed on where users’ eyes tend to go and how people look at navigation. I think even with their volume of products, the amount of top level navigation on the homepage could be greatly decreased.
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Monthly Review #1
Brandi Calhoun
JustFab.com
Of course when you are a commuter student and have multiple breaks in between your classes, with no dorm room or apartment to go back to, and you are just plain tired of school work, you always end up online shopping to pass the time. Well, that’s the case for me at least. I spend a lot of my time on my MacBook on campus, and it’s using Adobe software, social networking, or online shopping.
Recently, I’ve seen advertisements on Facebook for “JustFab.com.” As I’m scrolling through my news feed, this advertisement just keeps popping up and taunting me. It was telling me that all shoe styles (boots, flats, heels, wedges, sandals) were only $39.95 and always free shipping. It also informed me that you receive 20% off your first item. So obviously I clicked.
I really wanted a pair of chestnut colored boots with gold embellishments. I found where it listed the shoes, which was a bit confusing because it was under the drop down menu “Top Sellers,” along with “Handbags,” “Jewelry,” and “Denim.” Once I found the shoe department though, there were options of which type of shoes I was looking for, so automatically I clicked “Boots.” Once I clicked “Boots,” it gave me even more options on what type of boot I was looking for (like flat, ankle, knee-high, combat, wide calf). I was moreover looking for flat boots. I started scrolling down through the boots and what do you know? I found the perfect pair that I had imagined in my mind.
The thumbnails of each boot were very clear and when you roll your mouse over the image, the image changes to the boot being worn, which is extremely nice because you can see how high the boot goes on your leg, etc. I clicked on the “Buy now” button and I was easily able to view different angles of the boot, different colors, and reviews of the boot. I picked my size and clicked “Add to Bag.” A little pop up menu came up telling me that the item was waiting for me in my shopping cart. All I had to do was click the “X” in the corner and I could go right back to shopping, instead of some websites, where they leave you off in your cart so you cannot easily go right back to where you were shopping.
BUT, instead of shopping more, I went right to my cart and went through their easy payment process. I got 20% off my perfect pair of boots and also free shipping. They arrived in just under a week and fit perfectly (they do offer free exchanges also, just in case). I’d say it was a steal; quick and easy also.
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Monthly Review #1 – Madison Kozlowski
The website I chose to review was Etsy.com. I have never ordered anything from this site but I have heard of multiple people that have. Etsy is a page that allows crafters and people with specialty skills to sell their products on this site and grow their business. Because of the immense number of creative members there is a very unique and wide range of products sold on the site, including but not limited to, specialty gifts, food, art, furniture, men, women and children’s apparel, and wedding accessories.
The site was extremely simple to use and straight-forward. The first thing I saw when I opened the page was the search bar in the center at the top of the page asking me, “What are you looking for?”. Directly under that was a bar of product options/departments to help make the users selection easier. I clicked on jewelry and the site once again helped me make a decision while browsing. The jewelry section was broken down once more into different categories in alphabetical order. Sections of jewelry like Body, Bracelets, Brooches, Earrings ect. were displayed. After choosing your style, it was very easy to browse the products for many reasons. Each pair of earrings had a decent sized picture, accompanied by the username of the seller, and the price. You can also refine your search by limiting the products to vintage, homemade or all, as well as choose a price range and a location of where the items are made. I found it interesting to type Pittsburgh and see what products came up. I proceeded to put an item in the cart and was pleasantly surprised to see a comment section in the shopping cart where you can write a note to the seller with any additional information or special requests. This feature made my purchase feel personal and I felt like they seller, as well as the entire Etsy business, appreciated my purchase.
Overall I was very surprised at the usability of this website. It is not nearly as popular as other retail sites like Amazon, Overstock and Eastbay. Even my Grandfather, who has never used a computer in his entire life, would be able to successfully navigate this website and make a purchase. I never felt confused or overwhelmed while browsing the site. All of Etsy’s trigger words were straight-forward and the homepage was easily navigable. Chapters 1 and 2 were very enlightening as to why this website may be set up the way it is. The textbook highlighted that users love to skim web pages. I noticed that there was no section describing the website or any paragraphs at all. Nothing on the website was more than a few sentences long, which is ideal for all users who skim. The text also spoke about ‘optimal choices’ and how most humans don’t make the best choice on a page due to the Back button. Etsy provided many choices on the home page that were clear-cut and if I had a product I was looking for, I believe it would have been uncomplicated to find, without having to use the back button.
I cannot think of any criticism to the site other than it was rather bland with hardly any color. However, this may be being used as a technique to make the site easier to use and have a less overwhelming feel. I may feel this way because I am used to navigating ecommerce sites that I wouldn’t be bothered by more colors. Either way, Etsy surprised me by its overall navigability and simplicity.
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Monthly Review : Aliexpress
I’m all about being cheap when shopping online, always trying to keep in within my budget. So when I discovered Aliexpress, I knew I hit the mother load. It’s a wonderful site that lets you buy almost anything, aside from perishable food, you can purchase hair products, wedding dresses, car accessories, almost anything you can think of, they might have. Best part about this site, is that most items come with free shipping, and who doesn’t love free shipping. Of course only if you have the patience to wait about thirty days, since it’s shipped directly from china.
The site itself is clean and very organized, which is probably what attracted me to it in the first place. It allows the user to browse through endless categories and merchandise, the site makes it easier if you want it in a certain size and or color(s) which I think makes shopping an even more enjoyable process, or if your just looking for a specific item or something in that general area. Everything is easy to navigate through, and very direct. You’ll have to set up an account if you want to buy things, but it’s free so no worries. When you search for things, you have the option of making it into a list view or a grid view, it’s up to the buyer to decide which view would enhance their shopping experience, and a girl like me like to have her options open.
Usually once your item of desire has arrived, you have the option of leaving a star rating and a comment, if you choose not to that is fine as well. The rating is what helps the item to be recognize, sort of the positive and negatives feedback that usually helps buyers decide if they wish to buy it or not, or the buyer could use the rating to judge the quality of the seller.
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Final monthly review – Dave Conrad
Gueros Taco Bar uses a rugged/modern style on their website and primarily lures the viewer in with images of entrees served. The colors used follow a beige and green color scheme that very well compliments the pictures that are on a slideshow. Important information in bold and colored red, but doesn’t take away from the overall color combinations in relation to the scheme used. Everything is easy to read and the site is very easy to navigate through. The navigation bar on the left side of the screen remains in place while the rest of the information viewed changes based on the selection. Some imagery repeats as you scroll down in all the other selections, but it’s not cut off or anything.
Compared to the designs that are coming on in our final project, our page is planned to stand out with it’s uniqueness and playfulness. I plan to have vibrant colors used and give the website a comfortable feel with entree items to grab the viewer’s attention. Utilizing slideshows for the gallery, as well as making the overall layout of different pages unique in relation to the main page while still maintaining the same feel, in my opinion, will help in making our website standout.
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Monthly Review #4
For this assignment, I chose to look at the website for a restaurant called Oriental Table. It’s a Chinese restaurant like my group did for our final project without the Italian side (since that combination does not exist anywhere). The website stuck out to me because it’s nothing too special and honestly, there seems to be a good amount to talk about on it. To start out, it’s very boring and dull. Color wise, it doesn’t fit well because after reading the section on colors in the Principles of Beautiful Web Design. The website is mostly made up of maroon, light red (pinkish), with bright yellow and black typography. The color red is a very dramatic color, and the maroon color on the website does not reflect that when I look at the website. Dark red if more of a rich color that makes me think of a fancy evening and like the article mentioned, I think of wine, not fast food-like chinese food. Also, yellow is a bright color which gives the feeling of happiness and energy. The fact that this website is really boring and has nothing to it, shows the exact opposite of energetic. The website also has no texture to it. The multiple rectangular boxes are just solid colors. If they added shadows around the boxes, that would create some texture, but there is no form of depth seen on the website. The biggest problem I have with the navigation on this site is that when you click on a new page of the site, there is no button to get back to that previous page unless you press the back button near the browser. I actually found myself on the menu page thinking there were no other pages included in the site. On the menu page though, while it’s a really long list, there is a button that can take the user right back to the top of the page at the bottom of each section. The buttons at the top do not show where the user is located on the page though. It becomes highlighted when you hover over it, yet it does not stay that way when you click on it.
I believe that the website that my group created for our final project will stand out more than this website because we have most of the components mentioned that this website does not. We have the color which is seen on every page of our website. The colors we used are bright and vibrant to attract people to our restaurant. We also have a textured pattern for out background. Just like Oriental Table, we don’t have a way of knowing where the user is located on the site, but we have a way to get back to the original page and all of the other pages which is easier than pressing the back button at the top.
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Monthly Review #4
I choose to do Bravo restaurant (http://www.bravoitalian.com/index.html) an Italian restaurant that we based our project off of.
the picture on the background is a base colored brick wall that makes you feel like you are in an Italian restaurant. then all the colors of the foreground are similar to it to keep to the color scheme. This adds consistency to make the actual images that they use show more. this can allow the user not to be surprised by any new color thrown into the webpage. The way they have the menus page is neat and clean in its set up the way they use they image to use as a button is nice, and it shows the hidden menu. Bravo’s website is set up nicely and efficiently where the user can navigate it without feeling lost or losing there place so that allows them to enjoy the website with out any mystery meat that can make them lose their place. But the color is neutral so you don’t have any odd feelings going into the website. this allows for a non bias view of the websites.
Over all the bravos website uses all the navigation well, color well and makes it an Italian feel, but besides the texture in the background and the simple 3px bold borders there is nothing that makes it pop or catch your attention
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Final Monthly Review
For our reference website we choose the Medieval Times dinner and tournament. The restaurants concept is focused around giving an authentic jousting tournament and dinner. For our fusion restaurant we decided to focus the food more on a Mexican taste but having the atmosphere more of a Renaissance feel.
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament have matched their website to that of the atmosphere with the restaurant. The main page shows only images of the jousting tournaments, not much of the food. That maybe because the whole restaurant is more about the experience of being there more than eating the food. The color schemes follow the colors of the knights attire; they use red, yellow, green, black, hints of blue, etc., solid primary colors on their webpage. They have chosen to only have three other pages: About the Show, Choose your Castle, and Bill of Fare.
The website is easy to navigate as a whole. They have the kind of graphics we were trying to use on our website (the opening scroll, the drop downs etc.), it adds to the feel of renaissance or medieval times. Although one of their downfalls is the fact that once you try to chose a location (Choose your Castle) you can’t seem to get back to the main page easily. There is a small close map that goes unnoticed, it would be easier if you could click the title for example to return. Once you do find the links they are incorporated into the design nicely (on the curtain pull for example). It would just be easy if you could click the title to return. The only time you can click the title is when you try to purchase tickets.
Compared to our website “The Knights Sombrero”, it follows a similar color theme that happens to be our restaurants theme colors, the Mexican and the Medieval. Ours will stand out because of the Mexican influence when it comes to food. With our fusion of Mexican and Medieval we choose to make our menu style similar to that, ie. the word choices and items offered. We also offer more pages to check out different things.
Overall, I think it represents the restaurant nicely.
Chelsea White
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Final Monthly Review
Nirvana Fusion
http://www.nirvanafusionpa.com/index.php
I chose this website because it was closely related to my final project. It is a fusion restaurant for different types of asian cuisine. The website is very vibrant and colorful. The color scheme was similar to my final project site with the bold colors of green and red with accents of white. The photos also stand out and add a lot of color to the homepage. The background is a neutral color that really makes the rest of the site and the color scheme pop.
The background is also textured which adds a good feel to the site. It gives a feeling of the restaurants theme and goes nicely with it. I feel this is something we could have incorporated to the final project and make the design overall better and more pleasing to look at. The navigation is well placed and labeled for the viewer.
The navigation bar has a hover that changes colors when the mouse goes over it. This is a similar element in my final projects navigation bar, though mine could have been improved by making it bigger and combining links to make it more simplified. I like the way Nirvana’s is designed. I feel that is simple but works well.
I feel this website is highly effective at guiding a user through it. I had no problem navigating the site everything was right where it needed to be. I feel that my final project website could incorporate this method, making the pages quick and easy to access and follow.
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Applebees by jonathan zelechowski
The Restaurant website I choose to do was Applebee’s. the one thing that I noticed when I first opened the website was the color. It uses a variety of bright colors that I feel are very visually pleasing. the texture of the website is very easy to read because it goes with the colors, I also thought that the quality of the text also was very good and added to the texture of the text and the color. I like the use of orange and red on the website it was a very good choice of colors and I think it worked very well.
the navigation of the website is very easy because I noticed at the top of the webpage they have the three main tabs, menu, gift cards, and location. when I clicked on the menu page it takes to the page that has appetizers, entrees, and desserts which you can then click on to see the full menu. the gift cards tab is very simple when you click on it the different gift card options come up. overall I found the navigation to be very simple and easy to use because it was all right there, the only thing I would change is the color.
the webpage is very easy to guide the user through it because nothing is really hard to find it is all right there in each individual tab. I found everything pretty easy to get to. compared to are groups restaurant website I think it stands out more and is better then Applebee’s because are website has more colors and Applebee’s has the same three in the homepage and every tab for the different options. I fell are restaurant webpage also has more options then just the three that Applebee’s does.
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Final Monthly Review: Smokey Bones
After stumbling onto the Smokey Bones website, it had something that intrigued me to take my coat off and stay a while. I started browsing throughout the site, and then I noticed that the page is just one single page, with a navigation bar using jQuery for the whole page. After realizing this I started to wonder if this layout and concept was a smart decision. This layout works very well for this site but there is so much on the only page that it starts to make the user web-sick after venturing from click to click. Although the jQuery is impressive and really cool, I think there’s too much information on one page and could be improved with a more simple layout or by adding multiple pages. As for the navigation, the user can very easily click on the tabs on the top of the screen and be swept down to where they want to go.
The color & texture on this website is one of the strongest aspects about this page. The color scheme sets the mood very well. Since Smokey Bones is a bar & restaurant, it embraces the dark aspect of a bar but adds a sophisticated twist with the pinch of red. The main color palette is black and red, which fits perfectly for the theme and feel of the restaurant. As mentioned in Chapter 2 of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, red was a wise choice because the color red increases human metabolism. Additionally, each different ‘page’ has a different background and color scheme which works well with dividing the different sections with obvious subject changes. The textures on the food and backgrounds bring the page to life and make the page more classy and fun (if that’s possible).
Overall, this website is very easy and simple to navigate through while still achieving a fun, upbeat atmosphere without even leaving the comfort of your keyboard. Although the site is fun to navigate through and watch the cheeseburger fall and your beer to be gone, the user starts to feel nauseas from all of the scrolling and fast movement of the jQuery since there is only one page. The color scheme and textures add to the websites as a whole and help achieve the fun, yet sophisticated atmosphere. Lastly, this site impresses you and keeps surprising you even after the love-at-first-click phase.
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Mad Mex vs The Knight’s Sombrero
For the final monthly review I did a website for the restaurant Mad Mex http://www.madmex.com/ . This restaurant is related to the final project because it is a fusion restaurant that has American food mixed with Mexican, Southeast Asian, and Spanish. In The Principles of Beautiful Web Design texture is said to be “anything that gives a distinctive appearance or feel to the surface of a design or object” Mad Mex’s website is very minimal at doing that. The page does have boxes separating sections with different colors, and there is also a slide show that shows two pictures, besides that there isn’t much to say about the texture of this site, it is very lacking. On page 111 of The Principles of Beautiful Wed Design there is an example of a minimal textured page, John Gruber’s Daring Fireball site. Mad Mex is not even that, they have more than this website but less than a nicely textured page. On john Gruber’s website he has removed all distractions that are unnecessary so you have to focus on the writing. On my groups final website Knight’s Sombrero we proved a lot of texture with our flag that gives off the feeling that it is moving.
When looking at the color of Mad Mex’s website, you get this laid back Mexican feel. The green, red, and white colors in general are all the colors of the Mexican flag. The colors the website uses isn’t as bright as the Mexican flag though, so that is where the more laid back feel comes in to play. When comparing The Knight’s Sombrero and Mad Mex, the Knight’s Sombrero does have a darker color scheme like Mad Mex but Knight Sombrero pops out more at the viewer instead of giving the laid back feel.
Navigation is always a key element to have done right when creating a website. The book Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug says on page 60 that the website needs to have their navigation in a standard place where the viewer can locate them quickly with a minimum effort put forth. Also having the navigation distinguished from the rest of the page will help viewers find the navigation with minimum effort. Mad Mex does have their tabs for their other pages in a good location that doesn’t have the viewer looking all over the page for. The only problem I find with the navigation is that the letters are colored just a few shades lighter then what their background color is. This makes the words pop out the the viewer less. If the website did not have their navigation at the top in an obvious place for viewers to find then because of the color, the words would be lost and so would the viewer. In the Knight’s Sombrero website the words are big and readable, and are also located around the central item, the flag. This provides the viewer with and easy time finding where to go and what to click on.
Amy Shubilla, Final Monthly review
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Monthly Review 4
When looking at websites at the beginning of our final project, there was one we all really liked and that was the fat head’s website. This restaurant website is what we basically based our layout on. We felt that the layout and color scheme worked really well for a bar and grill which is what our restaurant was. The navigation of this site was very easy to use and follow as well as clear visually which is how we wanted to work this project. From there we pretty much took off with ideas for images and navigation. When looking at this website, we all agreed that the color scheme worked really well. We liked the simplicity of the black and white layout with the colored imagery. It gave off a very simplistic appearance. A scheme that appeals to both men and women.
Now the texture used was something we weren’t sure how to approach. On fat head’s site, they made their heading image appear grainy giving it the feeling of aged signage. It feels old and comes across as a place that has been around for years. When we thought about adapting that same feeling into our web page, we didn’t really like it. We liked our take on our imagery as clear and vibrant colors.
Now deciding on the navigation of the page was the easy part as far as decisions go. Actually coding it was the harder part. But we really liked how the heading tabs were always at the top with the main logo in the center. It allowed you to easily maneuver through the site without forgetting what page you were on. However, on fat head’s site the sub heads were simply words that highlighted when you were on the page, so we decided to take it a step further. We made sub tabs that resembled the main logo and had them go from grey to color when you were on the page. That way the heading would be clearer.
Overall, our project is very similar to the fat head’s site but there were aspects where we improved upon some things. In the end, I think we executed our final project very well.
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Monthly Review #4
The restaurant I picked to relate Chitalian’s website is Olive Garden and Hunan. Chitalian is the fusion between Italian and Chinese, therefore I thought best to have critique two restaurants instead of just one. The critiques that will be given are on color scheme, texture and navigation. All three of these critiques give us a feel for what the restaurant is about.
Let’s first start with color scheme. For Olive Garden, their color scheme is yellow, and white with a hint of brown in there. The Color scheme of the website is an analogous scheme, which is choosing colors that are right next to one another. Yellow is the main color for the website, again showing the happiness of the restaurant. For the whole background of the website, it is a darkened yellow, it’s not too bright that hurt your eyes. Having the background that one color can show off the enjoyment customers have while at Olive Garden. White is the second main color, which some people would think of just being plain and boring, because white is a background color for many things. The white color shows off Italy as a pure and perfect country, it definitely shows off the simple beauty the Italian culture has.
Hunan Chinese Restaurant’s color scheme is complementary, by having colors that are opposite of one another. The main color that they have chosen for their site is green. Thinking of the color green, many will go straight to nature, whether its trees or grass or even flowers. Putting together brown and green would be more as nature rather than black and green, which can be techier. Yet, green can show off as freshness and wealthy as well. I like them choosing green because Chinese tends to be fresher because they use a lot of herbs and seafood for their foods. Also, they show off by being wealthy because China is a wealthy country overall. Hunan’s also have white, which can show off pureness to how the restaurant is. The only way the color scheme is complementary is because for the text they highlighted some of it with a red color.
Moving onto texture, Olive Garden choose to have a rustic look to their website. The whole background has the texture of being an old wall from a random building in Italy. The logo itself looks like being on a weathered piece of parchment. Since the logo and the background are close to the same color the logo has a shadow behind it. That seems to be the only texture from the website, because each page is just plain and simple with black text and a white background. I mean each page is clean looking with the white background and text, that doesn’t make it hard to see what is on each page.
Hunan’s Chinese restaurant has no texture whatsoever. The only texture I see from the website is a small container that has a light green background with a white design. Then the only picture they have is of the inside of the restaurant, and the there is a white border around it with a drop shadow effect. The book, Principles of Beautiful Web Design, mentions that eliminating texture might just establish the websites own personality and character. Where I guess with them having no texture they show off how clean and proper their restaurant is.
The last part is navigation, which is important because in the book, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug, he mentions that navigation puts a ground under our feet or gives us handrails to hold on. Krug also says there are five ways to keep navigation consistent. One is “a way home,” which means that the website always needs a home button. Olive Gardens way to get to the homepage is their logo, you just click on the logo saying Olive Garden in the top left corner. Hunan’s has a Home tab in the navigation bar and clicking on the title of the restaurant will take you back. Second is to have “a way to search.” Olive Garden does have a search box to find a restaurant that is near the customer. On the other hand, Hunan’s is missing a search box. Therefore, it would be difficult to search anything specific. Third is to keep the website’s identification. If someone keeps clicking on tabs from a site and then don’t see a logo or name they will wonder how they got out of the page so quickly. Now for Olive Garden and Hunan’s they both keep their ID’s on each of their pages, therefore no customer gets lost. Fourth is to have sections, which are the primary navigation to main sections. Olive Garden has plenty of sections from each main section. For example the Recipes section can be clicked on and goes to have choices for beverages, appetizers, main dishes, desserts, pizza, sauces, side dishes, vegetables and soup. Those sub sections help look more specifically to what the customer wants. Hunan’s has no sub section for main section. Each section just has all the content right on the page. Finally, the last one is Utilities those link important elements that aren’t really part of the content hierarchy. If you want to buy a gift card from Olive Garden it’ll take you to a page to submit your payment for the gift card. They also have a site map where you click where you are from and it takes you to that specific cities website and specials. Hunan’s just has a site map that gives a Google maps image and you click on it to show directions on how to get there. Each website shows their unique personalities for their restaurant and both show easy and simple navigations through their sites.
Now onto Chitalian’s website of color, texture and navigation. Chitalian’s colors are mainly red, green, white and black, and a tint of yellow. The red, green, and white show off each cultures flag. The Chinese flag is red and yellow and the Italian flag is red, green and white. Therefore the common color for both is red. The color red can mean passionate and dramatic, showing how passionate of this new idea for food style and dramatic because the food styles are from the completely two different countries. Also, the hint of yellow adds in some happiness, allowing the viewer see that the owners are happy to try this new fusion. Like Olive Garden, the yellow isn’t too bright that will scare away the customers. Now, the two main colors would be red and green, which can be scary, because when I think of red and green I think of Christmas colors and the holidays coming up. Yet, Chitalian doesn’t show that at all, the colors are not as bright to have a sense of a holiday theme. Chitalian right away has texture right in the background. The texture looks more of wood, which can show the nature of the Chinese culture and a cooking style to the Italian culture. The flag on the homepage has some depth in the actual image. The title Chitalian seems to be cut into the image, by showing the shadows in the actual text. Another little texture from the website is for each page, the title of the page has a light gray container behind it. You can’t really notice it, but to add some depth to it, there could have been a drop shadow from the container, to make the border pop out a little more. The drop shadow would help as well to not make it a two dimensional image but a three dimensional one instead.
Chitalian out stands both Olive Garden and Hunan is because there is versatility. The difference between Chitalian and Olive Garden that Chitalian is more clean cut then Olive Garden, there is a simple and clean font with a clean background. It is not too challenging to navigate through the website, there are not too many tabs that could take you away from the website. Unlike Olive Garden you could easily just click through a million tabs and then easily get lost. The difference between Chitalian and Hunan is that Hunan is too basic. Again Chitalian has a texture background to give a to give some versatility and have it interesting to look out. Customers would like the website because of the simplicity of the navigation and the interesting look of the website itself.
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Dave Conrad Monthly Review #3
http://bravofranco.com/ http://sixpennkitchen.com/
Bravo Franco’s website is designed to give an elegant feel and does so pretty well. The color scheme make the site appear unified and easy to focus on. The only downfall, in my opinion, is under dinner menu, the links are bright red and don’t flow well with the rest of the site. It is clear that they are links so it assists the website in being able to easily navigate. Links are clear as well as visual hierarchy. The page is also broken up very well. The main ascetic aspect of the site is clear, and right underneath, distinguished by a bold dark color that is balanced with the header of the page, is a welcome/about us message, hours of operation, and menu. The main emphasis of the page is the pictures of the food which is the first thing your eyes go towards when viewing this page.
Six Penn Kitchen uses photos as emphasis as well, but are more engaging as the dark, plain background assists in drawing your attention the vibrant colorful photos in the middle of the page. Six Penn’s has a vary visual based site that in comparison to to bravo franco seems less fancy, but less boring. Both site portray the feel that they are going for very well. Navigation in both sites is very easy and very simple to figure out.
Overall, Six Penn did a better job in getting and keeping my attention as it seems more fast paced, middle class, and unorganized. Those three adjectives personally appeal more to me than posh, high class, and fancy, which are all adjectives that mean pretty much the same thing, but all in all I don’t get anything else besides “fancy” when I see the bravo franco page.
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Monthly Review 3
Bravofranco: Everything on the site is well placed and well organization. All the links are bold and stand out. It is very visually appealing. The photos at the center of the page really draw your attention. The color scheme is simple but works nicely with the feel of the restaurant. The design elements of the page make everything tie together. I feel the page is well designed, everything works and it is where it needs to be. This site follow Krug’s second rule, which is mindless amounts of clicks on a site. Everything is simple and straightforward and goes where you want it too. This helps the user navigate quickly to where they need to go.
no9park: This site has a more sophisticated design and look. The style is very neutral and the typefaces chosen give a classic feel, emphasizing the restaurant is more upscale. I feel they created this style on the webpage very well. The images are large and take up most of the page and also change which gives variety. Every link opens up in the center and leads you to each subpage. Everything is very minimal on the homepage. I feel this site follow Krug’s third rule well, which is omit needless words. There are very few words on the homepage everything is straight to the point and all the information you need. No paragraphs on the main frame layout. This makes it easy for the user to see the important information they need to know about this restaurant.
Overall, I my opinion I like the more simplistic feel of no9park’s webpage everything was very simple for their page making it very user friendly. Bravofranco used more unnecessary words I felt at the bottom and I liked how no9park made their’s more simplistic. I liked the design of bravofranco better it gave it a different feel. Both websites captured their own style really well, it went along with what kind of restaurant they were.
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Monthly Review #3
For this monthly review, I decided to compare the Burgatory website and the Six Penn Kitchen website. The two are very different when it comes to balance, unity, emphasis and layout. On the main page for Burgatory, the burger is the major emphasis on the page. It’s directly in the middle and is blown up bigger than any of the other images. This works well because Burgatory is know for their burgers obviously. The Six Penn Kitchen page doesn’t have one specific image or text that stands out to create emphasis though. While Six Penn Kitchen doesn’t have much emphasis on one specific thing, it does have a good sense of balance throughout the website whereas Burgatory doesn’t as much. On Six Penn Kitchen’s menu page, the pictures and text are both evenly balanced with each other along with the other pages. Burgatory’s home page is not balanced as well. It’s other pages, like the menu pages, are evenly balanced though. They include the menu in the middles with equal text and images on the side bars. As for unity, both pages depict it well with their consistency with text and images. Both Burgatory and Six Penn Kitchen keep the same color scheme throughout the website along with the same background image/color. For both websites, they have a strong layout. They are consistent throughout each page of the websites too. They are both laid out differently, but both work well.
Also, both websites have an easy to access button that leads straight back to the homepage for the user which is one thing Krug emphasized in the reading. On Burgatory’s website, the “B” on each pages represents the button to go back to the homepage while Six Penn Kitchen’s website has it’s logo in the middle of the top menu bar that serves as it’s homepage button. On Six Penn’s website, there is a clear indication of what page the user is on because on the menu bar, the font changes to a green color when you are located on that page. When a user is scrolling through the Burgatory website, the side menu bar drops down and again highlights whatever page they are on. This helps the user see where they came from and where they are located on the website. Neither page has a search bar however. This seems to be ok since it is a restaurant website, but it could be useful to the user in some cases. Overall though, both websites have a good sense of design based on unity, emphasis, balance, and layout.
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Nov. 12 Monthly Review
Ethan Petyo
Monthly Review (nov. 12th)
For this months review i decided to compare between Dogfish heads brewpub and fatheads. I chose the two based off of similarity in the restaurants. Both have their own breweries and bottle and draft their own beers. So to start i decided to take a look at fatheads first. What i found interesting was how clean the site looks at first glance. They have in very bold visible type the address and location of Fatheads. Below that the search engine categorized by menu , beer , locations , merchandise, etc. Under that you will find their slideshow , with some very good photography of the food,drinks and establishment. when you put your arrow on top of any type on the page in interacts by glowing orange. The contrast of Orange on grey works very well , making it extremely visible and clear to read. When you click on any of the categories in the search bar at the top it brings you to a page with clear pictures and info on the beer on tap , the food thats being served or any social media or merchandising products for sale. These categories are further categorized after clicking on them. for example when clicking on “menu” it shows you a list separating wings from burgers and sandwiches , and wraps , etc. overall Fatheads is a very easy site to navigate through.
The same cannot be said for Dogfish head. right from the very start my eyes had trouble figuring out where to look and what exactly i was looking at. Everything on the homepage is set up like a bulletin board including the clutter. the search bar at the top is rather convenient , but when you click on something like the restaurant link it takes you immediately to the list of tap and bottled beer. It seems smart to do it this way because at a restaurant you would order drinks first then food. Im not sure that was the approach they ment to take but if so its rather confusing. there is so much information about their beer products on the website that it seems like overkill for them to place the entire list as the first thing you see under menu. Once you find menu on the side bar and click on it , then your directed to a 5 set list of other menus. for example it lists Main menu , kids menu , specials and once again whats on tap , and thats all you see unless you click again. However the information of the beer on dogfish’s site is rather helpful. You get a good explanation of the beer and its information (abv , Alc %). The menu is set up very nice also , and looks really well designed with all the info you need there.
Overall the design work on both sites are very good , dogfish being my personal favorite in that category however overall Fatheads seemed much easier to find information on and navigate through as well as successfully organizing everything which dogfish failed to do.
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Monthly Review #3: Fat Head’s Brewery & The Cheesecake Factory
After reading chapter 6 of “Don’t Make Me Think,” I started browsing for a pair of local restaurants to compare and contrast and I came across the Fat Head’s Brewery website and I was immediately impressed by their simple and effective home page. Automatically, I was drawn to the emphasized large, circle logos that take up most of the room on the page. The layout is simple, yet genius with very minimal text while achieving easy navigation by giving the user the option to choose the location they want to indulge in. Once you choose your location, it takes you to a location-specific page with the same theme and a similar layout to the homepage. Along the top and bottom are subtitles that will take you to more subpages, such as Menu, Beer, Gift cards, etc. To add to the overall composition and layout, located in the middle of the page is a slideshow of pictures that is visually and aesthetically pleasing. Another effective choice is that each page is clearly labeled with headings and subheadings that gives the user a sense of location throughout the site. For example, if the user is on the Pittsburgh page, and they click on the button labeled ‘Beer,’ the big circle logo has moved to the left side and the header becomes a large heading labeled ‘Fat Head’s Craft Beers’ and this composition is repeated through each tab on the navigation bar. Each page is well balanced and keeps the same theme throughout all of the subpages. The content is well organized and easy to navigate while being nested in the correct locations.
In comparison to Fat Head’s, The Cheesecake Factory takes a somewhat different, but similar approach to their website by maintaining the style and theme throughout all the pages by making sure the layout is tight and balanced. The first thing the user notices is the emphasized large slideshow of pictures to show the food that they serve and showcase their specials. The layout is very simple and organized and allows the user to browse each of the tabs at the top of the page in the navigation bar (Menu, Locations, Gift cards, etc.). On each page, the title of the restaurant is shown so the user knows what site they are at, but the subtitle is not large or emphasized, so in order to find out what subpage the user is on, they must read, or think, to know where they are. For example, when the user is on the ‘Menu’ page, the next heading shown on the page is in large, red font reads ‘Welcome’ which would be more effective if the heading read ‘Menu’ to ensure a taste of location security instead of questioning the button accuracy. The contained content is well organized in subcategories along the left side (Menu page) and makes it easy for the user to click on exactly what they want.
Overall, both websites have a unique approach to organizing and emphasizing their spaces. Both websites offer different strengths and weaknesses, but I believe that Fat Head’s is a more effective, functional website because of their stylized labeled headings and subheadings on each of their subpages. Fat Head’s websites provides a more homey collective atmosphere while achieving a functional and interesting layout and design. In brief, each site brings something different to the table, but at the end of the day, The Cheesecake Factory proves that you cannot have your cheesecake and eat it too.
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com
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Monthly Review 3: A Comparison of Bravo Franco Ristorante and Six Penn Kitchen
Today, many restaurants have their own websites to connect with their guests; two such local restaurants are Bravo Franco Ristorante and Six Penn Kitchen. Unlike Justine’s, whose site was featured on “Web Pages that Suck”, both sites are well-organized and user-friendly. Both sites fulfill the principle of unity, discussed in Chapter 1 of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. This is accomplished, for example, through proximity and repetition on the menu pages. They also implement balance, also discussed in Chapter 1. While not fully symmetrical, they still feel complete; if they were scales, they would not tip. However, they do differ somewhat in terms of emphasis. While Six Penn emphasizes sections within pages, the pages themselves lack true title other than a rather subtle change in the banner. It requires some thought to know where one is on the site. Bravo Franco, on the other hand, gives each page a title, displayed on top in a large font size, requiring little to no thought.
Both sites also implement Steve Krug’s five “things” quite well. They have little to distract from the content, and the content itself well-organized on both sites. They use the convention of grouping together certain types of dishes, like appetizers and entrées, breaking the pages into clear sections. They achieve this convention by using a visual hierarchy. One can also see this on Bravo Franco’s wine page, where their wines are divided first into how they are served, then categories, and finally the specific types. Finally, they seem equal in how they show links. The links on the banner, while not blatantly obvious, require little thought to recognize them as links.
While both are designed well, I have to say Bravo Franco kept my interest more than Six Penn. First off, it feels slightly more organized, as it has clear titles on its pages while Six Penn does not. The other reasons are more aesthetic. Despite its organization, Six Penn’s lack of texture made the site feel a little flat, and its color scheme includes a rather sickly green, instead of a hearty green associate with good vegetables. The textures and colors on Bravo Franco’s page, on the other hand, give the site dimension and even make me a little hungry. That is a sign that a restaurant’s page has done its job.
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Monthly Review Restaurants Webpage
I choose to review Burgatorybar.com and bravofranco.com. I explored Bravo Franco Ristorante, they are known for their fine dining establishments. The webpage is kept very simple and classic, the colors are visually pleasing. It is very easy to navigate around throughout the website based on what you are looking for. Everything is very plainly laid out, unlike the picture of the actual restaurant. The restaurant is green and and black but with little touches of the restaurant. It just seems like a bad photo choice to represent the restaurant.
Next I reviewed Burgatory’s Website, if you have ever been to the restaurant then you would be able to see that the website caters to it very well. The website itself is a replica of the menus. The bad part is on certain information like locations you can’t click to see like maps or anything although with the set-up you would assume you could do exactly that.
Out of the two I think Burgatory gives a better idea of their message as a restaurant. The images, the color schemes, the menu. Although in balancing the visuals of the whole webpage Bravo Franco’s is easier to look at. Burgatory does do well with emphasizing there burgers and shakes and that’s their main focus.
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Kristen Kudla Monthly Review 3 11/5
The two local restaurants that I chose to compare were Burgatory and Quaker Steak and Lube. Now both of these establishments produce roughly the same products and have very similar dinning environments, so one would assume that their websites would be too. This is not the case.
When arriving at Burgatory’s website the eye is instantly drawn to the huge bugger in the middle of the page. This is counter balanced by the iconic Burgatory B on the left and the tabs square on the right. Beneath that is a simple description of what the restaurant is and even the daily specials are easily located and legible all while drawing your eye to it and not being to over done. The page is easily navigable with simple words to click on and take you to what page you would like. A unique way that they go at taking you to the menu page is by scrolling over the burger itself. When doing this little caption boxes pop up with unique things about their burgers along with the menu key. When you click on that, it takes you straight to the burger menu page that is laid out very simply and very similar to their actual menu in the restaurants, and located in the menu box to the right are every thing else they have to offer. Over all, Burgatory’s website is very well balanced and with layout by the use of their color palate, the highlight of their key products, and overall cohesiveness of the site.
Quaker Steak and Lube’s website on the other hand, completely one eighty from Burgatory. When you first arrive at Quaker Steak’s website, there is a huge box with smaller boxes within that. In each cube is a different navigational point of the site, and this idea works well except that each cube has to much going on. The larger one that takes up the entire top half is a changing banner with each different thing that they offer. This is a huge fault because the slides go way to fast and some may be simple, but others have way to much going on that it makes it very difficult to read. Another thing that makes the home page lesser then Burgatory is that Quaker Steak’s logo is very small and just pushed to the side. Also, at the top of the page are tabs for their locations, menu, etc, but they are so small that they are taken over by the obnoxious amount of other information. Once you can navigate your way to what ever you’re looking for, the other pages are underwhelming, and I mean very. Due to the excess of information on the home page, you expect the others to be the same but it’s not. From the menu page to the promotions page, the same exact font and color is used but the what was chosen is so hard to read after a while that it pushes the viewer from continuing on the page. Over all, Quaker Steak and Lube’s website is very poorly laid out and the home page alone would deter someone from navigating any further. Although the majority of the website can be improved, they did do well with some aspects. The balance of certain things on the pages was well thought out followed by the use of pictures and slides. This can help draw a customer in if they can get past the awkward navigation.
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Monthly Review #3
The third website reviews are about restaurants and how their website looks and interacts. The two websites I chose are Bravo Franco Ristorante and Six Penn Kitchen. Let’s start with Bravo first, the first look of it for me was the color scheme was in the brown and tan range. The background for the whole website was texture and even the navigation bar with texture with a dark brown color. Then right in the middle of the navigation bar is the title of the restaurant, which was bigger than the rest of the tabs. Below the navigation bar has 3 big pictures of the restaurant and food.
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Burgatory VS Six Penn Kitchen
I will be comparing the two restaurants Burgatory and Six Penn Kitchen. As soon as a viewer opens the Burgatory wed site they are hit with a giant picture of a burger immediately inviting you in to see what burgers they have to offer. If a viewer does not like burgers or does not find the one picture on the home page appealing then they may just be turned off and find another restaurant. This burger though does create an emphasis right off the bat for Burgatory’s burgers.
At first glance of Six Penn Kitchen’s web site the viewer does not see a big emphasis on anything, the whole page molds together. This is a good a bad thing. Some viewers may find this inviting and will want to dig deeper to find what Six Penn Kitchen is all about. Other viewers though may find the web site boring and just go on to another restaurant with outgiving Six Penn a chance.
Six Penn Kitchen has a nice sense of unity with their layout. The pages balance each other with their elegant photos or their text. Nothing on the pages stands out as not being needed or different then the rest. The black background, style of photos and text all create a unity between the pages. The layout gives a classy feel to the restaurant before the viewer even looks at the photos of the restaurant itself.
Burgatory has a sense of unity through its layouts by having the logo and navigation bar on almost every page. The colors of the pages also unify the pages together. The Burgatory layout varies in quality, on the home page the viewer is drawn in immediately by the giant pictures on the pages. The Menu page just blends in with the background and is hard to read. The “Our Gear” and “Happenings” pages does look slightly better with the additions of pictures but the text is still hard to read. The pictures provide emphasis but everything is lacking.
Out of the two sites though, Six Penn Kitchen is the more appealing layout of the two, in my opinion. I do like the navigation and style the Burgatory wed site gives but the site as a whole is not that appealing.
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