Design Refined

I've been a fan of Hi-Res since 2001. Over the years they've provided cutting edge web design, and utilized flash in new creative ways. They did the website for Donnie Darko, Amon Tobin, Diesel Jeans, and a plethora of other independent films, musical artists, and design firms.
They are one of the oldest web design firms, and still remain one of the most creative.
Check out the website that they designed for Beck; it's interesting segues and comedic menu remind me of a interactive DVD design.

http://hi-res.net/

Paul Symons

Site of Week

http://www.tmz.com/

~~Vince's Contact Information~~

FYI,

You can now also email me as well as Dr. John for SOTW purposes. How fun! Contact information is in my profile. Just click on my name on the list of authors that you see to the right of this post and send away!

Blog 4.1 - Posting Instructions

1) ONE POST per person by Monday @ 6 PM.
2) The post should be given an appropriate TITLE.
3) Each post should contain AT LEAST one link.
4) This link should try to illustrate an idea from the week's reading.
5) You may add up to TWO additional links per week.
6) LABEL each post w/ your REAL last name.
7) Blogger will automatically sign each post w/ your USER name.

buy and hold

The website I chose was buyandhold which is a website where you can buy stocks and research them.

-Sarah McHie-

A Mess

www.fortwayne.com

The first thing you notice about this website is an annoying audio commercial. To find it and shut it off you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and push the pause button on the video. Then you navigate back up to the top and you don't really know where to start. There is a lot of small text all over the page and many medium sized headlines some that you can click on some that you can't. Thankfully they have a red rollover highlight or I don't think I would have left the home page and I kind of wish I didn't because when you return to the home page you have to go back and shut off the stupid audio again. One thing about the site that is decent is the hierarchy setup of buttons down the left side and across the top, but that's about it.

Can't create a link

www.sba.gov

I consider the U.S. Small Business Administration site a good web page. The navigation bars are well placed and easy to understand. The dropdown bars are "well behaved." What I like most is the color scheme. It doesn't look like a government website. It seems friendlier.

On a side note, I can't get a link posted in this blog. I've spent longer trying to figure that out than I did writing this post. I know there is supposed to be an icon in the posting window. There isn't one, also the hot key doesn't work. I'm sure the rest of the class didn't need to know this, but I am sick of looking like an idiot.

**figured it out in class**

Myspace is garbage.

http://www.myspace.com

Everyone has seen it something like 500 times before, but take a second look at Myspace's layout. It was one of the first sites to do social networking, so they were kind of improvising at the time and added things incrementally, but overall there's stuff just sprawled out all over the page in a nonsensical fashion. Their web design seems like it was aided by smacking a cow on the behind and letting it roam.

-Mitch Sanders

I was just going through a list of sites that are very bad and I found this one interesting because they are telling people about usability for websites, yet there site sucks. Its a European Union site, so that might have something to do with it? I basically thought that it was a little horrid and cluttered.

http://www.usabilitynet.org

Dog Days of September

One site I check on a nightly basis is mlb.com, the site of Major League Baseball. The site definitely has a clear visual hierarchy with a single dominant picture on the page. The picture is of the top stories of the day so it is justified in being there, however, it's not immediately obvious that you are able to change the main story picture at will. This takes a bit of thinking. There should probably be a "Top Stories" header. The information is organized well, because most fans are most likely going to be interested in the night's scores and the latest news which are at the top of the screen on the left and right respectively.

So, overall the site does a good job of initial information hierarchy. However, the second dominate element is either an ad or some contest, but it's difficult to tell at first and not something I want to click on because it looks like it could be an ad. Either way it is unclear and require way too much thinking.

The rest of the information, below the fold is kind of oddly organized in my opinion, because it seems that the standings should be played up bigger. However, here once again, the headings are quite clear (Video, Fantasy, etc.) and people know what they are clicking. The site effectively uses bulleted lists to display and organize information.

Clearly defined areas

A website that I find myself visiting every once in a while is www.download.com. It's a good website for finding free software and shareware.

What I like about this site is that there are clearly defined areas. For example, if you're looking for software relating to spyware, you know where to find it because there is a category for it to the left of the page. Also, there are a number of sub-categories for each category as well. I think that if you can easily find what you're looking for, the website definitely has good design elements.

Tea Cups

I actually found a Site about Tea Cups! and it is pretty easy to navigate until you hit something then it just takes you to a different site. So it seems like it is a good easy site to use until you use it!



http://www.teacups.com/eflp/tea+cups/pid63754/D65598/C17313

Website

This website I like to go to has some of the ingrediants we talked about in class such as easy navigation. But it does have some drawbacks. It has some "busyness" and I doubt anyone would read the columns on the right unless they were into this website's subject.


http://www.theshortsdepartment.bravehost.com/

Simplicity and the "wicked worn look"

I've always been a fan of the grunge/worn look popularized by Cameron Moll as "That Wick Worn Look". One site whose design I have always enjoyed is Red Labor. A portfolio, art gallery, store, and blog, Red Labor's site is easy to navigate, and a great example of the worn look.

Red Labor

It's cool, but hard to follow

I put this website up because it goes along with what we were talking in class on thursday. Websites that navigate in a left to right formation as opposed to an up/down formation are harder to follow. It's a useful site, don't get me wrong. It just takes a while for me to find anything that I need.

bluevertigo.com.ar



Michael J Straub