ARTM2210 Intro to Web Design
Just another Intro to… siteArchive for Spring 2013 a
Monthly Review 4
The project that I chose to evaluate was my single page website. My site was a fable titled “The Jay and the Peacock”. To illustrate this fable I chose to use a colorful, hand done, illustrated style. My project embodied certain design principles, but there were some design facets that could be improved upon in order to best guide the user through the content.
Each specific screen on this fable site was carefully formulated to create balance. The website contained multiple elements on every individual screen. Each one was organized and placed together as not to offset the screen, thus creating a sense of balance, specifically horizontal balance. This guided the user by not allowing their eye to get stuck in one place, thus encouraging perpetual movement.
Unity in this page was a result of the color scheme, typography, and site style. The same general color scheme and typography were utilized in each screen, which helped the entire site to seem like it belonged together. The website’s style was consistent throughout all of the site’s screens. Each illustration showed the same thick black outlines and grainy, handmade fill. Therefore, due to the website’s style, a strong sense of unity was created.
Most screens throughout the website placed emphasis on each text box. The contrast of the white text boxes with black outlines on pink backgrounds draws the eye. There is also emphasis placed on the text boxes due to the sharp contrast of its geometric shape to the organic shapes surrounding it. This direction of emphasis is very effective because it will assure that the viewer reads the story.
The layout of the fable website was remotely successful. The placement of each individual screen element was extremely balanced, therefore reaching success. However, there are certain changes that could still be made. The website should be modified so that it opens to a screen that fits perfectly in the window, no matter what size that window is. Likewise, the whole screen should also get smaller or larger as the user resizes their browsing window, still continuing to fit the screen. This will help direct the user to the content, as it will eliminate empty white space that could be distracting.
The color scheme displayed in my project was vibrant but not overpowering. The pink, green, and blue give the website a fun, whimsical, childlike feel. Whereas the black outlines, white sections, and gray portion tone down these bright colors to ensure that they do not become overwhelming. Therefore this balanced color scheme achieved the goal of appealing to children without being too intense. The consistency of the color scheme also helps to direct the user because it is harmonious rather than distracting.
Texture was visible throughout each screen of this page. The text inside the box created the strongest texture on the page, starkly contrasting the bare, un-textured background. The hand done, grainy texture of the birds and feathers on each page slightly contrasted the flat color of the background. This created a hierarchy within the website first drawing the eye to the text, then to the birds and feathers, and then to the background elements.
The navigation of the site was somewhat successful, but could be improved. The navigation is currently clear and understandable on most screens. But, on the title screen, the navigation button needs to attract the user more. Since the link to begin the story is near the bottom right of the screen, it does not demand attention. It may be more convenient for the viewer if the link and the arrowhead that it rests on moved down into place from a higher point upon opening the page. This movement will draw the user’s eye and make navigation more successful.
As previously stated, the fable website embodies a number of design principles which make it successful in properly directing the user to the content. These principles include balance, unity, emphasis, color scheme, and texture. However, as mentioned above, certain principles such as layout and navigation could be improved in order to perfect proper direction. Overall, this website was successful, but could improve with a few slight changes.
From this project I learned several new coding techniques such as, how to correctly navigate a single page website. This may be useful the next time I create a website. I have also learned that hierarchy must be shown using every single design principle in order to best direct the viewer. I will remember these lessons and utilize them in future design projects.
Comments off
Final Review – Single Page Site
For my last review I chose to reflect on my Briar Rose single page site.
I think I did a decent job at balancing out the most important elements of the page as far as size goes. The header is large, but not too large that it drowns out the image slider; the navigation, while at the bottom as the page, is still visible and clearly navigation. If I were going to do the project again I would take out the roses on the top header, they look awkward and I do believe they throw the balance of the page off slightly; the eye gets stuck on them. I believe the whole page is very unified; everything looks as if it belongs together. All of the content is in the same graphics style and made from the same color palette, which helps a lot. I really liked the layout of my page from the image slider down to the navigation. I liked the idea of the user scrolling through the graphics as if reading a storybook. If I were to do this project again I would make the storybook aspect more prominent, possibly by finding a more engaging JQuery plug-in that actually looked as if the user was flipping pages. As I mentioned before, the color palette I used really unifies my page; all the content is made from neon and pastel colors. I think that my color choice really adds to the story line and over-all feel of the page, it gives it a child-like feel. My page hardly virtually no texture to it whatsoever, all of the content is very smooth and cartoon looking, which is exactly how I wanted it to be. I think the navigation of the page is very effective. The user has two options for viewing the storyline: the buttons at the bottom of the page and the arrows on either side of the image slider. One big improvement that I would make to the page is making sure that users knew to hover over each image to get the words to appear.
My biggest lesson learned during this project is how to apply and manipulate JQuery to my advantage.
Comments off
Final Monthly Review
For this Final Review I chose our group project site, deja-shoe, that I was very please with how clean, functional and open that the site got much of a positive feel from the class.
Balance, Unity, Emphasis, and Layout, Color, Texture and Navigation:
The balance was centered and even across the page. With the logo in the center giving the actual page an anchor that the sides of the page feel symmetrical and even. That does enhance the emphasis of sleek, simple and professional which was key to the unity of the site’s identity. Layout was based much on other shopping sites and giving us a good direction for design since you don’t have to reinvent the wheel but just adapt it to your ideas and style. Color seemed to be the biggest gripe from most and we at first had a hard time agreeing on a color that appealed to everyone but the Blue that was chosen wasn’t vintage and very facebook in shade. Our site looks very smooth and the color does pop because it is more vibrant than the other colors associated with ‘vintage’ (browns, oranges, rustic accents, pastels,…etc) and we could alter that to give the site a better sense of style. The Navigation was something that I really liked because everything was click and go, while not having to hunt for links or button to find to get what you want.
Improvements would be expanding the content, upgrading content, changing the colors to give it a more ‘Vintage’ feeling while keeping the positives of the navigation and maybe give some texture in places will give the site a more aged look. It come to my mind the look of a 1970’s VW Van, faded orange paint with rust accumulations along the body of the frame of the vehicle, a very dingy sun beaten off white for the roof, and dirt/dust on the tires as so you have a brownish/black. These colors could be incorporated along with a pastel blue as that they would contrast and be more appealing while giving the site it’s own personality and identity away from Facebook.
Comments off
Final Review
For my final review, i chose my single page site based off of Jack and the Beanstalk. This site uses balance and unity to its advantage in the way that it keeps texture, navigation and graphics the same throughout the whole experience. All of the images have the same feel to them, and once a user navigates for the first time, it will never change. The navigation is displayed in a creative manner, and is still easy to understand. To begin the story, an apropos button is displayed for the user to do so. In order to climb the beanstalk, the user needs only to click the buttons that say climb. No area of the page is too cluttered, while no area is too empty either. The color of the site has an inviting, fairy tale feel to it, which emphasizes the story and gets the user more involved and intrigued. The colors that stand out the most are within the parts of the images/story that mean the most, and no colors are distracting and hard to look at. The layout of the page is different and unique, as it starts the user at the top, then immediately to the bottom, in which they work their way back to the top to start the story all over again.
To improve this site, I could implement animations to enhance the user’s experience. Since Jack brings items down the beanstalk in the story, they could equally be shown falling the beanstalk through animation. A character could be placed at the bottom of the beanstalk, and whenever “climb” is pressed, the character could dynamically rise and look as if it’s actually climbing the stalk. Sound effects could also be added to enhance the experience of the story.
Comments off
Monthly Review 4: Kiviung
For the final monthly review, I will be reviewing my single-page site, Kiviung. I designed the site to function like a virtual storybook, and I feel that it meets that goal very well. Each of the panels is framed to create a visually interesting image. These images are balanced because they make full use of the entire frame. The storm scene is a good example of this, as is sandwiches Kiviung between the clouds and the sea, showing that he is in danger. The framing also establishes a concept that while the frame is a united piece unto itself, it is also the sum of its parts. Kiviung frequently appears in the foreground, an effect which creates depth of field and also indicates Kiviung’s sight line as the action in the background. It also puts emphasis on what Kiviung is looking at, thereby aiding in telling the story. The color palette is primarily made of of blues, as this suggests the cold weather of the Sub-Arctic region in which the story is set. I used vector rather than texture because the plain art style prevented the viewer from geting distracted. Texture was implied on the log to make sure it was seen as a log, but texture use was minimal otherwise. The navigation consists of big arrows, which go back and forth like pages in a story book. It is very intuitive.
The one thing I think I would change most is consistency in navigation. The arrows are not always in the same place, and this set some people off. Sometimes the arrows were only off by a handful of pixels, which could be especially annoying. I would also make sure that the text was consistently in the same place, and also that it would always appear, something that on some browsers it didn’t do. I would probably use external style sheets for each frame if I did this project again, because much time was spent sifting through CSS trying to find what I was looking for.
Comments off
Final Review – Single-page site critique
I chose to critique my single-page site, illustrating the folklore “Old Sultan.” The layout of my site is very simple. I illustrated each scene within a picture frame, so the user feels as though a story is being told. In terms of design, I believe it was very successful. I kept the style of illustration the same throughout each scene to create unity from one frame to the next. Texture, however, is not something I incorporated as well. Most of my illustrations were flat in color and lines were used to create as much texture as possible. Although this is the case, I find the contrast between the illustrations and the texture of the frame to work well overall. As per the actual story text, I wanted this part to be emphasized the most. Since most of my images were flat, adding a simple drop shadow element to the text box made it pop off the webpage.
As far as navigation, I placed arrows within the text box so the user can read each section of the story. Each frame had multiple “slides” of text; to illustrate this I animated some of the elements. This way multiple scenes could be incorporated and easily understood within each frame. However, a bit more work and thought could have been put into it. I was so caught up with getting the jQuery to function correctly, that I overlooked important aspects that the user may want to take advantage of. I did not include an option for the user to go back to the previous part of the text. If they wanted to go back and reread a certain section, they were unable to. Instead, the user has to refresh the page and start from the beginning. I didn’t think about how the user is not going to be as well informed about the page as I am; this large mistake will most likely confuse the user, or cause them to get lost.
For future projects, I need to decide on the navigation I will be using and how I want to the user to move through the site before I begin designing anything. I got half way through and realized that there were problems, but it was too late to fix them. Overall, I am very happy with the way the site turned out visually. The aspect I would love to redo is the navigation technique that I used.
Comments off
Final Review
For my final review I decided to review my single page website, King Thrusbeard.
The balance of my page I would say is okay. I designed it in a way so that everything on the page that you were looking at was balanced and that it would draw your eye across the screen. By placing the scrolls at the top and the bottom of the pages, alternating them, is one way I made my page balanced. Another way I think I made my webpage balanced was by making the corresponding graphics about the same size as the scrolls, unless they were the background of the scene.
The overall unity of my page can be seen in the style of the graphics being used. They are all vector art and are all very simple. The colors are similar to tie everything together even more. To not clash with the unity of the page, the only emphasis is seen in the arrow users are supposed to click to navigate through the story. The arrows are a black color and stand out from the pastel and dull colors used in the graphics and the light tan used as the scroll color.
As mentioned before the colors are all similar to tie the page together and are dull or pastel colors so it is more appealing to look at. The layout of the page is simple and easy to follow and so is the navigation. I used arrows to show the users were to click to continue through the story. On the first slide I even stated, “Click to read story” so readers would know what to do from there on
Overall I liked my page but there is a lot that I would change. I would have used a different font and made the scrolls a lot smaller so people would be inclined to read them. I would have made the scenes in a frame instead of a continuous line where you could see the next scene and sometimes avoid using the navigation. I would have added more CSS so the arrows would have changed colors so readers would want to click on them and continue reading. Overall I think my page was successful, but knowing what I know now I would make the changes I pointed out so readers would actually want to read the story.
Comments off
4th Monthly Review: Déjà Shoe
Upon reentering my group’s website for Déjà Shoe, I found that I am still proud of what we had accomplished. The amount of time and effort put into the project shows greatly in each page. Though there is always room for improvement, we were able to meet the main requirements for a successful website. To prove this statement, I will compare it with the information I read in the book called “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.” These chapters put great empathizes in the importance of navigation, hierarchy, and unity.
Navigating through our website is fairly easy for viewers to achieve. We stuck to the traditional layout, with the use of a header, footer and side navigation bar, so that new users will still be familiar with our site. In addition, we added breadcrumbs on several of the more in-depth pages to prevent them from getting lost. I also feel that the majority of our buttons are obvious that they are clickable because I used a hover tag for them. Besides the easy navigation, the use of hierarchy improves our site as well.
In the first chapter of the book mentioned above, it discussed the importance of the use of emphasis. It suggested that one should create a focal point for the items they want to stand out. To accomplish this, we stressed the importance of our headings and logo by placing them in the top center of our page. We figured that area was the best place to grab the viewers’ attention. Other methods we used to create hierarchy were color contrast and isolation of elements. We were able to incorporate these techniques in every page, which helped with unifying our site together.
When clicking through the Déjà Shoe website, all of our pages have a clean, professional look, without many distractions. The elements on our site are arranged well so there is an asymmetrical balance. The book recognizes the need for viewers to recognize that each page belongs to the website. I feel we have succeeded in doing so because we kept the same look throughout our site. The layout, navigation, hierarchy, and balance all flow well together. The main issue our group realized was that we made a poor decision in our use of color and lack of texture.
We discovered during critique that the blue we chose to use is very similar to the one used for Facebook. Many of our classmates expressed that this issue was distracting and caused them to think of Facebook rather than Déjà Shoe. For future projects, I will make sure I do not repeat this mistake. In addition, we did not really use texture in our website. If we incorporated this approach, our site could be more interesting. However, we would need to find the right balance, as to not take away from the sight as a whole. Overall, I feel our site was creative and nicely organized.
Comments off
Final Review
For the final review I choose to write about my final project, Anytime Vintage.
My groups Anytime Vintage website has all the elements such as, balance, unity, emphasis, layout, color, texture and Navigation. I believe that our website was well balanced because we had the side bar and listed what we had on our side bar and then we always had images of our shoes in the middle of the page. For unity my group made sure that everything was very evened like having the pages look the same for when you clicked for a new category. For emphasis we had a CSS effect that when you hovered around an image of a shoe one would show up the colors its suppose to be and the others would turn black and white so that, that one shoe would stand out to you and you could learn more about it. For our layout, I believe that our layout was very simple and is easy to follow but at the same time is was suppose to keep your attention. For our color we chose to do different colored browns, and like tan/coral colors, we chose those colors because we wanted to make it have a vintage look to it and I feel like we did a good job at doing so. For the texture part of our website we had a brown leather background because it ties in with the whole shoe website and also when people see leather they think of old..such as how leather has to be aged and back in the days most things were made out of the leather so that is why we chose that texture. Finally for our navigation we chose to do a simple navigation website so it is easy to get too and so you know where to click. Our’s is very basic i feel like because when you go to our homepage you have a choice to either click the side bar and go from there or click on the images of the didn’t shoes that are centered on our homepage and that will navigate you to that category as well. To critique the effectiveness of our websites at guiding the user through the content was pretty self-explainatory.. when you go to the home page we have a short description of what our website is and how to use it and it goes from there. You could click the different types of shoes and we put descriptions of the shoes and how they were vintage and what was more modern about them today and then we provided a website for where you could get the pair of shoes. The improvements we could make for this website is put more information about it and tell people how we started our anytime vintage website.
I believe that our text for our description for the homepage could be a tad bit bigger than what it is now. Lessons i’ve learned while doing this project that it takes a lot of effort and everyone needs to be willing to help out. Overall, I think that our group did a great job at designing anytime vintage and we made it easy to get our point across. We all worked very well together.
Comments off
Deja Shoe
Group Members:
M Harris
Josef Landon
Matt Martin
Kelsey Pledger
Site Info
URL: dejashoestore.com
Cost: $9.99
Host: GoDaddy
Host Cost: Deluxe ($4.49/month)
Comments off
Final Review
For my final review, I have decided to critique my single page site, Rapunzel.
When it comes to balance, I believe my single page has accomplished that. The way the castle is in relativity to the window panes works very well and is balanced. The braid coming down from Rapunzel’s hair gives the whole page a more balanced feel. If it would not have been there, it would have been more on the unbalanced side because of the grey brick castle in contrast with the colored window pane scenes. There would have been too much open space. Overall, I think the site is balanced both when it comes down to lines and how the colors are. They go together quite well.
As for unity and emphasis, I think my Rapunzel single page has accomplished both. The site has a lot of unity. Everything goes well together and gives a harmonious, balanced, and complete whole.The window panes are meant to stand out, adding emphasis to the story to go along with the text. They match nicely with the rest of the site, but emphasize different parts of the story appropriately.
The layout itself is very simple and not real complex. It is simple, but modern and very sophisticated in its own way. Very kid friendly looking and plays around with silhouettes and text. Color throughout the single page is very clean, but colorful and gentle to the eyes. No neon colors or very pale colors. My only issue is the way the gradient acted when I split the one big image up into three parts. The gradient did not stay the way it had been, and I am not quite sure how to fix that. Overall, the colors go quite well together and give the site some eye candy when it comes to its appearance with the colors and graphics.
In my single page site I had no navigation. I could have added navigation, but chose not to due to time constraints and the fact that I did not think I needed to. The story is very straightforward and not extremely long, so just scrolling works just fine.
An improvement that could be made is fixing that gradient for one. I am still not sure why it did that the way it did. Another improvement would be to split the images up even more to make loading somewhat faster.
One lesson that I learned with doing this single page site is that I need to split images up more and utilize the slice tool. It would have helped me much more from the start. Another lesson I learned is that not everything can be transferred between Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks. Some things I wanted in one program would not transfer very well or at all to another. I wish they worked together more.
Comments off
Monthly Review 3 – Shoe Site
The two sites I chose were www.manoloblahnik.com and us.jimmychoo.com. Manolo Blahnik has a simple layout and no clutter. The text/navigation clearly stands out because there’s is nothing around it, so it’s highly emphasized. The color scheme and layout help to bring a sense of unity to the page; everything feels like it belongs. With Jimmy Choo’s website, balance is well-exploited by having three small thumbnails offsetting a larger one, and text is evenly distributed and there’s no clutter. The layout is easy to understand and looks professional. The colors, font families, and images bring the site together and makes it feel complete. All their main selling points and sales are emphasized by a scrolling marquee of images which draw the user in. In Krug’s book, he talks about a site correctly utilizing a site ID, search options, sections, page name and local navigation. The site ID’s are clearly displayed on both sites. Searching is easy to start on Jimmy Choo’s site, but not on Manolo Blahnik’s, possibly because the user can’t directly purchase from the site. The major sections and divisions of each site are clearly stated and displayed in the local navigations, and it is simple to find out what page is currently being viewed. Although Manolo Blahnik’s site is simpler, I feel Jimmy Choo’s site better utilizes the principles Krug talks about in “Don’t Make Me Think”. I’ve used many sites similar to it, so everything makes more sense to me and I feel like I know the website.
Comments off
Jake Niehl and the Dealthy shoe sites
For this weeks’ monthly review, I’ve decided on Zappos.com and allenedmonds.com. Both are clothing and apparel sites which draw attention to their respective products. That being said, there are some key differences in each site. So how do they compare? To the next paragraph, boy (or girl) wonder!
Zappos is much more of a traditional layout with an emphasis on text based shopping. Images accompany certain tags, but the main focus is readability and clarity for the user. It’s only once you have gotten into the meat of the site that you start to see more images along with a slight variation on the actual layout of the page. Considering the central balance of the site along with a general color and style scheme that is consistent throughout the entirety of the site, it is apparent that Zappos is looking for more function than style, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
AllenEdmonds on the contrary is very much an image based site. By utilizing scroll-over text-to-images along with a consistent and interesting scheme, AllenEdmonds manages to change general layout without destroying the balance of the site. That being said, the balance of the site is somewhat off-kilter. Any time a scroll text-to-image is used, said image can become overpowering and tends to throw off the entire balance of the page. Also the emphasis seems to be more placed on images rather than functionality, as it can become overbearing to see so many varying images, especially when you are attempting to search throughout the site.
Overall I think both sites have a strong presence of unifying aspects (stylistically and functionally) but at their core they are two very different sites. Zappos is content with placing emphasis on the text and format of the page while AllenEdmonds is much more concerned with the stylistic and visual based approach to their site. Again, both are very strong in their design, but ultimately I believe that Zappos, while somewhat under-stylized, is the better site. Aesthetic means nothing without functionality.
Comments off
Monthly Review 3
For my third monthly review, I chose to describe and compare two websites on their usability and layout. For reference, I used Steve Krug’s book on website usability called “Don’t Make Me Think.” Krug recommends trying the trunk test to see if a website has good navigation. The site will pass if the viewer can easily find the site ID, search button, sections, page name, and the local navigation. The websites I chose to analyze were www.thefryecompany.com and www.allenedmonds.com.
I examined The Frye Company’s website first. When opening the site, I found myself automatically attracted to the aesthetic quality. The simple color palette of earthy browns and greens matched the overall feel for their vintage shoes. I especially liked the large image carousal that took most of the main page because it added emphasis to the products themselves. For the majority of the pages, the designer used a well-balanced, symmetrical layout. There is little clutter and the simplicity makes it easier for the viewers to find what they need. Their choice of colors, type, imagery and overall layout unifies very well together and gets the theme across to the consumers. As for Krug’s trunk test, the site did not completely pass. I easily found the site ID, search button, and sections. However, when it came to the page titles and local navigation, I feel they could have done better. The page titles were hard to find, but I did eventually noticed that the designer slightly bolded the section title. The local navigation is under a dropdown menu. It works, but I prefer to have a column navigation option for when I am scrolling through the gallery products. In addition, there is no usage of breadcrumbs. Overall, this site has a pleasing design, but needs a little work on the usability.
My first impression of Allen Edmonds’ website is that there is too much going on. I am a huge fan of simplicity, especially in color choice and layout. I feel they could narrow down their usage of neutral tones, and work on emphasizing what is most important on their site. There use of asymmetrical balance works, but if they kept a similar layout throughout all the pages it would unify them better. When it comes to Krug’s trunk test, this site passed easily. I was able to find everything right where they should be. The designer even used breadcrumbs as a back up in case the viewer got confused. This site’s usability was great; now all they need to do is make it more pleasing to the viewer’s eye.
After analyzing both websites, I found that each one was lacking in what the other site had. The Frye Company’s site had the pleasing look, but poor navigation. The Allen Edmonds’ site was the opposite. I found myself still more attracted to the look of the first site, and probably more willing as a customer to muddle through the navigation.
Comments off
Monthly Review #3
Monthly Review #3: Don’t Make Me Think: Pages 50-93,choose two of the following:
zappos.com- thefryecompany.com
colehaan.commanoloblahnik.comjimmychoo.com- allenedmonds.com
Explore each of your choices, then describe and compare the two sites use of Balance, Unity, Emphasis, and Layout. How do they use these principles and implement Krug’s five important “things” to make sure users see and understand the site? Is one site more effective than the other at drawing your attention, and why?
So I choose The Frye Company and Allen Edmonds, each site looks and feels smooth and styled. The Frye Company really fills the browser’s page and somehow makes you feel there despite the fact that it is no real place(the site). They have the page filled with leather-y tones and no real white space which I liked since sometimes website’s use of White distracts, bores, or makes you feel constrained within the site’s navigation. Allen Edmonds does use white-space as it’s backdrop and uses colorful divs/ads to make you want to click and browse for merchandise.
Emphasis in the navigation are a huge part of the site’s feeling. Frye Comp has large and bold text in the navigation bar while Allen Edmonds navigation is small, tighter and kind of dull.
Each Layout is common among shopping websites, each presents a rollover that pops up over certain categories. Then presents searchable items for sale. Once you choose a item and click, Frye displays huge high quality photos of the product while Allen Edmonds site does have a large photo of the product but also has a lot of descriptive text for the product which Frye does not.
Comments off
Monthly Review 3
For my third monthly review I chose to compare jimmychoo.com to thefryecompany.com.
The first thing I noticed about the Jimmy Choo website is the search bar in the top left-hand corner of the page. Although I like the fact that the search bar is easy to find, I’m not sure that it should be the most attention-grabbing item on the page. The layout of the items and sections on this website is really great, in my opinion. The text is small and subtle, but still readable, leaving the attention on the products. The color palette is composed of soft, light colors that also help keep the focus strictly on the products. In what I am assuming was an attempt to avoid the navigation from becoming too text-heavy, the designer of jimmychoo.com decided to add pictures as a part of some of the contextual navigation. For example, when a user clicks on the “Accessories” link, rather than a pop-up or menu appearing, three pictures do; wallets, sunglasses, and all accessories. This really helps balance the flow of the site and keeps it from becoming boring and repetitive. The Jimmy Choo site does make use of breadcrumbs, however, I think that it is somewhat poorly executed. According to Krug, emphasis should be drawn to the last item to ensure that the user knows exactly where he or she is; the last breadcrumb on the Jimmy Choo site barely changes and should be slightly more attention grabbing to become more effective. One thing that I really like about the Jimmy Choo website is the fact that when you switch over to the men’s apparel the site color changes from feminine pink tones to much darker greys. Although the colors change, the site layout stays the same and the site ID is clearly visible which lets the user know that although they are on the same website, they have ventured into a different section.
The Frye Company website really gives a warm welcome to the user with an earthy color palette. I can easily spot the search bar, as well as the shopping cart and checkout, without feeling like the feature is overpowering. At first glance I really thought I was going to like this navigation much better than Jimmy Choo’s, however, upon further searching I found The Frye Company navigation to be choppy and hard to follow. There is very little local navigation and an overpowering amount of global nav. I was expecting a site with such a vast global navigation to be huge with a ton of local options to narrow down my searching. No breadcrumbs are used anywhere on the site, which is annoying. Mix that with the fact the there is no local navigation and you have a recipe for making the user frustrated and lost.
I think that The Frye Company website certainly beats the Jimmy Choo website in terms of a visually pleasing background and layout, however, I feel that overall the Jimmy Choo website makes for a better user experience. Not only was the color palette optimized to keep attention focused on the products, but the navigation flows wonderfully and helps the user stay on track and find what they need. It is super easy to get a visual mind-map of the Jimmy Choo website thanks to the effective use of breadcrumbing; plenty of “you are here” indicators. The site ID is clearly visable, and even when switching from women’s to men’s apparel it is clear that the user is still on a branch of the same site. The local navigation is very thorough and gives the user multiple options at every level, as well as the ability to combine and subtract local navigation links to optimize product searching.
Comments off
Monthly Review 3
For my third monthly review I decided to analyze and compare the websites of Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.
The Manolo Blahnik website is a clean crisp website, with a nice subtle nude background. When you first go to the site all you see are the categories you can choose from, which include: Biography, Collection, News, Where to Buy, and Contact. Clicking on the Biography link, replacing the picture on the home page the options “The Man” and “The Shoes” appears with the context continuing to the right of it and another picture further to the right. As you move down the through the categories the same channel occurs, with the exception that there are more option of shoes to look at when you get into the Collection category. Manolo Blahnik’s website shows the viewer the hierarchy of the website and is easy to navigate through both forwards and backwards, the only thing it is lacking in Steve Krug’s trunk test is there is no search bar that is seen throughout the entire website.
The other website I decided to look at was the Jimmy Choo website which is more extensive than Manolo Blahnik. It has a search bar in the upper left hand corner and the name “Jimmy Choo,” the site id is always centered at the top. There are different categories to shop under, each having their own drop down bar to choose even more specifically what is being looked for. Once you start to go further into the site, a “You are here” bar appears to show where you are, but it doesn’t match up with the path you took to get there. For instance I just chose shoes and chose boots and clicked on a boot, and the path back towards home does not take me back the way I came and was a little confusing because going back one step took me somewhere completely else. Other than the “you are here” not following the same way back as it did forward, Jimmy Choo’s website is fairly easy to use, has nice aesthetics, and a nice display of navigation for how “big” the website is.
When comparing both of the sites, the best shopping site is the Jimmy Choo site. They have a way for you to purchase the shoes right on the website without taking you to another site to order the shoes like the Manolo Blahnik website does. When it comes to navigation and how to go through the different levels of the site I like how the Manolo Blahnik website works; it’s an easy forward and backward chain that you can’t get lost in. The Jimmy Choo site confuses me with the way they have the site history set up and how you cant go back the same way you came. Overall my I think the Manolo Blahnik website worked better in navigation and the Jimmy Choo did better on a way to purchase the products on the website.
Comments off
Monthly Review 3
The first site I chose was Manoloblahnik.com. This simple, but elegant, one-page website, is very limited in its design. The homepage has the title and global navigation on the left, and one photograph on the right. When one of the options is selected, another list of navigation appears to the right. The selected section changes so that the user knows where they are within the navigation. Once a final option is chosen, the content appears where the picture was on the homepage. The user is unable to scroll, and has to click arrow buttons to go back and forth between the content. This is especially frustrating when attempting to scroll through a body of text. The navigation is simple and easy, but accessing the content is difficult.
The total feel of the page is successful. The balance of content and navigation is the most unique part of this website, which is not seen very often. The flow of the content is unified until the “Where to buy” section is reached. The elegance of the page is lost, maybe because of the amount of content that is needed in this section. If this information were organized in the same way as the rest of the content, such contrast wouldn’t be noticed. Perhaps it is because this section is lacking a photo. With such a small amount of content, a small and simple layout works well.
In contrast, Thefryecompany.com uses a more generic type of navigation, one seen on most websites. The website name and the global navigation live at the top of the page. As one rolls over a section, another secondary navigation panel drops down. There one can select the type of shoe they are looking for. Upon selection, the user is taken to the next page, where the shoes are listed, and the global navigation header is highlighted. Options to refine the search, or customize the shoes via color, size, etc. are also given. However, there is no indication anywhere on the page telling the user what secondary navigation link they selected. The user could be in the new arrivals section and have no way of knowing so. Breadcrumbs are necessary when a website has a lot of content.
The layout here is nothing unique, as compared to the previously mentioned website. The navigation is at the top of the page, which was previously mentioned, and the content lives underneath of it. All of the options at the top of the page are very similar in size and color, which makes it hard to determine which are more important. As one gets further into the website, emphasis should be made on the global navigation so the user can easily get back to where they came from.
Both websites work well because they have two contrasting purposes. The first site is mainly for information, and the second site’s purpose is to sell something. As far as eye-catching, Manoloblahnik.com wins the medal. The user does not have to look around very far to find what they came there for, but on Thefryecompany.com things are a little different. There are many different things going on to distract the user, which takes away from the reason they visited the site in the first place.
Comments off
Monthly Review
Explore each of your choices, then describe and compare the two sites use of Balance, Unity, Emphasis, and Layout. How do they use these principles and implement Krug’s five important “things” to make sure users see and understand the site? Is one site more effective than the other at drawing your attention, and why?
The two sites that I chose to do were JimmyChoo and Zappos.
The first thing I recoginzed when I looked at the websites is that JimmyChoo seems to be more organized and appealing to the eye than Zappos. The Zappo website is very busy and hard to focus your attention on one specific thing. JimmyChoo is focused the elegance on todays trends where as Zappo’s seems to fit the needs of the day to day grind.
According to Krugs five important things JimmyChoo’s and Zappo’s both follow the proper navigation layout. When I look at the website of Zappo’s I feel like I am very overwhelmed with options where as JimmyChoo’s is well organized and focused of specific items. JimmyChoo’s and Zappo’s clearly define the location of where you are at on the site. JimmyChoo’s is a better option for what websites stand for and should look like.
Comments off
Monthly Review 3: Jimmy Choo & Cole Haan
The websites I chose for this review are Jimmy Choo and Cole Haan. Both are widely known shoe designers. Very popular shoe designers for those who can actually afford $150 or more for a pair of shoes.
Both websites have a similar layout. Both have a similar square and rectangular site with the set up of the different photos of shoes being advertised. The colors are very simple and plain as well. Cole Haan uses white mainly, with bits of bright color, but that is very minimal. Jimmy Choo also uses very simple and plain colors, mainly using tan and white. Bright colors are not really used, minus those that are in some of the actual shoes being advertised and the high contrast in some photos. Menu is simple and appears to be in a Times New Roman font on Jimmy Choo while a more san serif kind of font on Cole Haan. Both work very well and are very effective. There is even a search menu to “Shop By” on Jimmy Choo to narrow down what you are looking for. Cole Haan does not have this, so it requires more thinking when trying to find exactly what you are looking for. There should be a search like thing like Jimmy Choo has. The more a customer has to think, the more uninterested they become, and say “Forget about it.” when it comes to finding exactly what they are looking for.
Both are also very balanced, layout wise, with keeping it simple and minimalistic. Basic, plain colors are used for the most part. The sub-navigation does not pop out in a bright color. I wish it did because it would make it stand out as Krug says it should in ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. There are some hover colors for the main links for Cole Haan, which does help seperate them. Different font sizes and varied spacing also help. Jimmy Choo, on the other hand, features more of a sub-navigation with links that are the same font size and spacing to that of the main links. However, Jimmy Choo’s search is much more indepth than Cole Haan’s, which is very helpful when shopping for something specific, as mentioned earlier.
As for unity, both of these sites are very united. They both tie together all on their own and create a harmonious, balanced, and complete whole. Even the navigation on both of those sites has unity. The navigation design for both of them is a simple, plain menu (so is the sub-menu that drops down). It helps to create unity between each of the sites and tie in to each of the layouts.
As emphasis, both sites have some elements that stand out from the others. Both sites have an emphasis on shoes and that shows. Cole Haan uses some brighter colors to emphasize the shoes within the photographs and advertisements used to show the various shoes.. Jimmy Choo uses high contrast photos and some bits of bright color to emphasize and make them stand out from the rest of the page. Neither of these sites use tabs, which in my opinion is a problem. Tabs really help to organize and utilize all aspects of the site. They also help to make various parts of the site stand out when it comes to the navigation. Krug also agrees that tabs are a very good thing, according to what he says in ‘Don’t Make Me Think’.
What is interesting is that Cole Haan does not use breadcrumbs really. So, when you’re on one page, you don’t know how you got there, or remember how you got there. That is when breadcrumbs come in, and that does not help that Cole Haan does not have them. Jimmy Choo does utilize breadcrumbs, which is a very good thing.
These principles and Krug’s five important “things” to make users see and understand the site make both of these sites very different. Jimmy Choo utilizes all of those important things and the principles, making for a very successful and well designed site. From breadcrumbs to tabs and beyond, both of these sites vary. Cole Haan is the complete opposite and does not use a bunch of these important things like breadcrumbs and tabs. It makes their site much more difficult to navigate and as a result, is a worse design.
In my opinion, I feel that Jimmy Choo for the most part is more effective at drawing my attention. The reason being is because of their very specific search and their entire layout is more comprehensive to a degree compared to that of Cole Haan. Jimmy Choo also has a slightly more colorful background to add to their layout design, which makes it stand out a little more.
Comments off
Site Review Number Two: Single Page Site
For my second site review, I chose to critique the website maidstonedrivinglessons.com. I chose this site because it is not a great example of a single page site. I spent more than 2 minutes trying to figure out what to do with it before I realized there was a tiny navigation menu to use at the top. The only thing I wanted to do with this site was drive the car. I tried all the tricks I knew. Then I was informed that it drives itself when you use the navigation bar. This bothers me because I thought the site would be more fun to navigate.
The site is not all bad, though. The graphics are very pleasing and the background interacts with the foreground well to give us the feeling that everything is moving on a 3D plane. It is also neat how the car drives past the same background but you don’t really notice until you’ve played around on the site for a little bit. This site could easily be improved by making the navigation links much larger and giving the use some direction so that they aren’t mashing the right arrow hoping to play driver with the little red car. This site makes me think. Me no Gusta.
Comments off
Review 2
Hey everybody!
So, for this month’s review I decided to take a look at http://www.niquewoodhouse.com. Before delving into the stylish look of this self site, a quick thought:
This guy is good.
First, you have changing palettes matching different projects. Each with very well picked colors. For the children’s/MTV ad stuff, he used a really rich yellow, while for products such as the razor, he used a basic black.
Secondly, I really love the navigation system. Instead of a normal one page (where there is simply one direction, or no direction), this guy made an entire board of images to shift between. With each animation, it feels seamless as though you’re flipping through a catalog.
In the end, expertly done and definitely a cool site.
Comments off
Monthly Review #2
For Monthly Review #2, I chose http://minimalmonkey.com/ and this site was featured on onepagelove.com.
This site’s simple use of solid colors for each posting of an article is clean and attractive. The colors help signify different post by the creator and the texture is flat and geometrical. Shading is used as an activity more then a accent. Colors pop-up more when the post is selected and surrounding post become dimmer. The site starts from the Left and scrolls right through-out the website’s time line of posts. The ’tile’-ing of each post makes everything smooth and easy to read.
Comments off
Monthly Review 2 – Windows of New York
I chose to review http://www.windowsofnewyork.com. This single-page website caught my eye because of it’s simplicity and unique topic. Jose Guizar, a graphic designer in New York City, has studied and illustrated the many unique windows he has seen throughout the city.
The Windows of New York website does not present a complicated scrolling method. One simply scrolls down to view each unique window. On any other page this may be too simple; however, I found this approach to be effective. It ties in with the simplistic look of the site very well. There is an “about” link at the top of the page, which sends you down to the site’s description. Instead of it being at the top or bottom of the page, this section is three quarters of the way down. It is followed by a couple more window illustrations. I found this to be off putting. To me it seems like a mistake. I supposed a block of text isn’t the last thing he wanted us to see. Perhaps he wanted our final view of the page to be one of his illustrations. If this was placed at the beginning, people may have moved on more quickly, not wanting to read the description first. He successfully kept our attention where he wanted it.
As you continue to scroll, there is an arrow button on the top right that takes you back up to the top of the page. This is helpful, for you don’t have to manually scroll back to the top. A menu of some sort would be very helpful as well. A list at the top of the page indicating the several locations in which he found window inspiration would be a nice touch. Page jumps have already been used in other ways around the site, so why doesn’t the designer give us an option to go to a specific location without having to scroll all the way through?
Although I would find that to be useful, having to manually scroll through all of the illustrations forces your eye to notice the beautiful contrast between each location and it’s window pair. I spend a significant amount of time analyzing each window because of their incredible detail. Paired with the simple, single-colored background, these illustrations look amazingly realistic, and pop off the screen. Not one window is like another, which, like I mentioned before, creates beautiful contrast as your scroll. The clean, geometric shapes against the background create an effective texture and add to the overall feel of the site.
To take such an ordinary object we often overlook, and make it visually appealing is a difficult task. In my opinion, Guizar succeeded simply and beautifully. He mentioned that his hope was to “never stop looking up,” and I believe he has accomplished that goal, for me at least.
Comments off
Monthly Review 2 – jiouhe.com
For my second monthly review I chose to look at http://jiouhe.com. Based on the title, I can gather that this is a consultancy service website, however since it is in another language I cannot understand any of the other text.
This site is very simple, the background is stark white with absolutely no texture. The color scheme used is a very muted collection of pink, green, blue, red, and yellow; the same colors used in the company logo. The user can only scroll up and down to navigate; clever coding makes it seem as if the page is twisting and turning about, which keeps it exciting. As the user scrolls downward, textured geometric shapes expand and contract alongside thought bubbles containing information. Since I cannot read the information, I can only assume that each time the geometric shapes change color, the content topic changes as well.
As I scrolled further downward, I noticed that every time I moved into a different category, the category name would be highlighted pink in a bar at the top of the page that could be seen no matter where I was in the site. I really liked their unique way of giving the user a site map that was subtle, yet helpful. I then realized that those category names were also links that would take me to the appropriate section; this type of navigation is incredibly helpful. Jiouhe.com is a vast site with a lot of content, but the nicely structured navigation helps make the site seem more manageable to the user.
One thing that I did not like about the website is the fact that when the user gets to the “Projects” section, the white background changes to black. In this section they also introduce a bright coral color into the color scheme. I understand that they want to highlight this section of their site, after all, their projects pages is likely the first thing a potential client is going to look at, however, I think that they could have used the color scheme already in place to make the highlighted Projects section way more effective. This section just does not flow with the rest of the page because of the poor color choices; a shame considering how great the other aspects of the site are.
Although I couldn’t even read the content of the site, I got a pretty good idea of where I was in the site by the effective use of color as a wayfinding tool. The highlighting navigational links also helped me out a great deal when I was exploring the site.
Comments off
Monthly Review
For the second monthly review I decided to look at and analyze the color, texture and navigation of the website festaitalianafrederick.com. It is a one page website that I found on onepagelove.com.
The colors of the website include a yellow-orange, red-orange, baby blue, chocolate brown, and a dull yellow-green. The first color you see is two shades of the yellow-orange in an alternating pattern with a chefs hat and mustache welcoming you to the site. Just as it states in chapter two of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, both orange and yellow are a more informal color, which is the exact feeling I started to get when I first opened the webpage. As you scroll down or select the next section, the background is white with the text in the chocolate brown color. The brightness of the white kind of took me by surprise, but gave the effect that I should focus on what was on the section of the page. Keeping the navigation bar (the chocolate brown with white text), and a white bar with the logo on it at the top, as you scroll down the next section changes to the other colors with the two-shade pattern. I found that keeping the white bar at the top annoying and distracting because my eye continued to focus on that rather than the content underneath it. The use of the other colors were alright, the baby blue and the yellow-green seemed out of place, but using the red-orange with the blue helped to tie the blue in. The green section of the page I just continued to scroll past it because it didn’t seem to match anything else. Overall I like the colors, I just don’t think they conveyed the message that the site wanted to.
When it comes to texture, the use of the pattern in the background is subtle enough, yet noticeable and adds to the webpage. The Only thing I found distracting was that through the color changes the shapes did not match up breaking the sections up even more, halting the flow of the page. On the first section with the plain white background they broke up sections by using dotted lines, which helps make the content stand out, but it still flows with the rest of the page.
The navigation of the site is pretty simple. You can either start to scroll down or to “enter” the site click on the chefs hat and t scrolls for you. Besides just scrolling, as I states earlier there’s a navigation bar to choose what section of the page you want to go to and it just scrolls there for you. The navigation is pretty easy; it didn’t make me think that much, but more than I probably should have.
The overall look of festaitalianafrederick.com is okay; the navigation is easy, just being able to scroll through if you don’t know you can click to navigate. The colors did seem a little out of place and the fact that the pattern isn’t consistent throughout the page, just changing colors was distracting to me. It’s a simple one page website that works but could be fixed to make just that little bit better.
Comments off
Monthly Review 2: Single Page Site
I chose www.windowsofnewyork.com. The site has almost no texture. There is no movement, no depth, no volume, limited shape, no rotation, and is a very minimal website. It has a series of colored, rectangular sections, each with a illustration of a window. The colors don’t necessarily fit a color scheme, but they do illustrate division and separation. The change in color doesn’t give a sense of movement, but more of a stop-and-go feeling. The illustrations have some texture to them, to give a feeling of a 3D window, but the website overall doesn’t have any, just simple colors and few horizontal rules. To navigate, you have to scroll up and down. There are not buttons to click that take you to the next section. There is, however, an arrow that takes you to the top of the page. The site is easy to understand because of the use of color as dividers. The site’s repetition makes it easy to understand the flow of the site, and what is likely to be next whenever you scroll.
Comments off
Monthly Review #2: Ian James Cox’s One Page Site
For this monthly review, I have chosen to review Ian James Cox’s one page site. Ian James Cox is a freelance digital designer who has worked with many different companies and projects.
I feel that his site is very dynamic and creative in its own little ways. The colors work very well together and the texturing is excellent. His site is pretty much primarily monochromatic, featuring neutral colors of gray, white, and black. However, there are some little bits of color with each piece of work he animates along his site. Those little pieces of work have bright and vibrant colors, but do not seem to take away from the site. They do stand out though, which is good. The bright colors evoke an energetic emotion, especially with the BBC CBeebies where it is a bunch of bright yellow that is animated to a degree. The little bits of color really add to the otherwise neutral, monochromatic site. In my opinion, the little bits of bright color make the site more attractive and want to pull me in more. The colors are not obnoxious or extremely distracting as well.
This site also features texturing. The background looks to be a crumpled piece of paper kind of texture. It helps give a dimensional feel to it so it’s not like it’s only text against a gray background. There is one solid black line that appears drawn by a Sharpie throughout the site. It evokes a sense of movement and excitement, awaiting for what will come up next as the line whips around when scrolling. This Sharpie-like drawn line makes it look like the line is really drawn on paper with the textured background.
Animation wise, the movements are smooth and precise with the scrolling. All the user has to do is scroll downward to move the page along, even to make it go right or left. However, I do feel that the animation for scrolling has gone too far. When it started to go left or right, I automatically wanted to scroll left or right rather than up and down. Obviously it did not get me anywhere though and I figured out quickly that you had to keep scrolling downward to get it to advance. The benefit of the doubt is that if you do not feel like scrolling, there is a small menu on the left side of the page with links that you can click to do to different parts of the site that otherwise you would be scrolling down to. The buttons are very well done for the most part. I wish there was something that would happen when you hover on the links though so you know they are links. However, when you click on the links, they do highlight themselves when they navigate to those parts.
The fonts are very easy to read, and are fun. They look as though they have been handwritten with a marker so they blend well with the overall theme of the site. The site elements that make the entire site easy to scan, read, and understand the content are the illustrations/animations that go along with each piece of work Ian James Cox has done, and the color scheme that brings out different elements that he wants to emphasize.
Overall, this site of Ian James Cox’s is a very dynamic one for a one page site. It has great elements that make it fun and innovative. It is a very creative site for a portfolio site and definitely has some eye candy.
Comments off
Monthly Review Topic 2 – Cute HTML School
For the second monthly review topic, I chose to review the site cutehtmlschool.com. This site is dedicated to creating awareness for a movement that hopes to teach children to learn HTML. The project is in early stages, so while the site asks for donations there is no way to give any money. There are, however, social media links that can be used to promote the cause.
The color scheme is established on the first of the five section. There are four main colors: white, pink, and two shades of light blue. These colors are “cotton candy” colors. They give the site a fun feel and a cutesy vibe, which plays toward the kid-oriented nature of the project. This first section has a white background, with the other three colors lining the top in a bunting pattern. The colors also appear in the typography of the Cute HTML School name. Each of the informational sections is one of the three colors: first the darker blue, then the lighter blue, and then the pink. The final section mirrors the first, with the same white background and the bunting, which is along the bottom rather than the top.
The site’s backgrounds all use subtle textures, which prevent the backgrounds from becoming visually boring or jarring, while still maintaining the sort of feel a solid background would bring. The first and last sections use an array of grey dots to create texture. The darker blue section uses an ABC pattern, suggesting the educational nature of the project. The lighter blue uses a plain checkered pattern. The pink section makes use of a more intricate pattern involving small zigzags and diamonds.
Navigation is very simple and logical. Each section has a downward facing arrow which leads to the next section, with the final section containing an arrow which leads back to the top. The first button includes some animation elements, which add to the cutesy feel of the page. Since this site is mostly pitching a concept rather than an actual program, there is not a lot of information to be had. What information there is is well laid-out in bullet points. You learn exactly what they hope to achieve, what they need funding for, and what you, the user, can do to help their cause.
Overall, I found the site to be quite effective. It’s purely a mission statement at this point, but considering the intuitive design elements of this page, I would certainly trust the developers to teach HTML and CSS principles.
Comments off
Monthly Review #2
For my second monthly review, I chose to evaluate the single page Gutshof Klostern website. It can be found either by going on http://onepagelove.com/ or by using the actual URL address, http://www.gutshof-klostern.de. This site was written in German; therefore, I had to translate it to be able to read the content. For this analysis, I will be focusing on how well the website incorporates color and texture, and the overall usability of the site.
At first glance, I found this site to be creative and colorful. I was drawn in by the design and the aesthetic quality. The color palette consists of several shades and tints of brown, maroon, green, pink and blue. The maroon color was used mainly for the headings. As written in the second chapter of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, “The darker shades of red, such as burgundy and maroon, have a rich, indulgent feel about them.” Due to this statement, I feel that this color choice was a good idea because it might help the viewers feel more indulgent about buying sweets. As for green, the chapter mentioned that it is associated with the environment and symbolizes growth and freshness. This color works well because it helps give off the idea that their products are fresh and organic. It was used to represent leaves throughout the page. Pink was used in moderation for petals and some text. For me, this color symbolizes romance and sweetness. I am assuming holidays are some of their busiest times; therefore, this color was a good choice as well. The one color I was not thrilled about was blue. Returning to the chapter mentioned earlier, it says that blue has a way of decreasing appetite because it is not a common color found in food. When scanning through their page, I found the blue font and butterfly to be out of place with the rest of the elements. Finally, the color brown was used the most in the website. Like most neutral tones, it does a good job of unifying all the colors together. Besides doing a decent job at choosing the right colors, this website also utilizes several good textures.
Texture was one of the first things I noticed about this site. The main textures used for the background were wood paneling and burlap. There were also a variety of other smaller ones added to the plants and food products. The wood paneling was used in several areas to create a rustic, natural feel to the page. By angling this texture, the designer was able to create depth of field. I like this effect because it is common for websites to appear flat and boring. For the rest of the page the background is beige burlap. In a way, this texture works because it does not overpower the content. However, I am little confused on how fits into the theme. As for the plants, my only issue is that some of the petals, leaves, and coffee beans have a blurry look to them. I figured this was done on purpose to continue the idea of depth of field. Personally, I feel that was not the best way to go about it because the blurry look appears fake and it detracts from the design. Overall, the designer attempted to use textures well, but there are a few changes that could be made to improve the design.
As for the usability of the site, my response is about the same. The designer did a good job on creating suitable navigation, but there were a few issues with readability. For navigation, viewers have the option to either scroll downwards or press the tabs at the top to jump to each section. Both ways worked smoothly. The designer used many different fonts throughout the page. I found the one particular calligraphy font to be difficult to read, and it clashed with the font used for the tabs. In addition, I feel the brown button used to show the contact information would be better placed somewhere other than the bottom middle of the page. It covers up the content as the viewer scrolls down. These problems are minor and can easily be fixed.
The designer of the Gutshof Klostern website did good job at capturing the attention of the viewers. For the most part, the color palette and textures worked harmoniously together. The overall usability of the site was good as well. It was mentioned on the website that it was still under construction. Therefore, I am sure some of the problems I have mentioned have already been noted before.
Comments off