Assignment 9

from: www.ebay.com

This is when I ordered my new phone charge from Ebay. The visual ques I saw were things like the buy now, the prices, the time left (which in some cases gave a sense of urgency. ). I felt pretty secure using this site because I have both ebay buyers protection and the added protection of having a pay pal account. With pay pal you aren't liable for certain charges if you can prove you didn't approve them. I got three emails from this purchase. I got one from ebay letting me know I won an item. One from pay pal informing me my account was being charged. And One from my seller letting me know how to contact them if there were any issues an that my payment was received and approved. There were I think two receipts. I would use this site again. Maybe not the seller. The shipping was a little slow. I was pretty satisfied with everything. Nothing really made me question the purchase other than "is that picture what I'm gonna get or is it a lie....?" The process was simple, not so simple that you didn't have much input but simple enough that it wasn't a headache and I'm willing to do it again. The end.

Assignment 16

The background was ugly and didn't go with the site. The colors were clashing and there was no repeating theme. The Nav only had three buttons and wasn't of much use, and didn't provide much information. The banner looked weird between those too pictures so I joined them to make it look a little better. The was a contact thing in the content box, I took it out and put it on the nav because I thought it was ugly there. Those are my changes.

Assignment 24

Assignment 23

found: http://www.secondbaptistgermantown.org/

This website is really plain and doesn't display properly in chrome. Its weird to me because it's like a regular website at the top, but then as I scroll down its more like a blog. It was a little confusing. There is WAY to much content on the index page. Like I was scrolling down for a while. The header picture is really grainy, I thought they would use a better photo. It's says they are making adjustments to the website, but I'm not sure when that update was posted. They use the same header and stuff for all the pages, so the changes in the content are subtle, like I didn't realize that i navigated to another page until I saw that the h1 text under the banner changed. They are using word press and pre-made themes so they are kinda hands off with everything I think. I don't what else to really say. It doesn't really match the church from what I remember. It was really vibrant and had a lot going on when I went (almost 4 years ago). There was always some kind of event going on, a lot of music, and the sermons were really interesting and the preaching was high energy. There was also a lot going on between the church and the community and I think they way the site is doesn't reflect that. I don't know if that's how the church is now, but that's what I remember.

Assignment 22

Assignment 21

Topicana: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#0x22Pw0w0w0w0

I picked this because I saw orange and blue as the main colors on the current page. I think that the green logo would go nicely with the orange and since its a juice company I think that the colors are bright and vibrant and fit well.

Warehouse Thingy: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#3i12Pw0w0w0w0

I like this because it is a simple color, isn't to bright, or too boring. Its not to playful, and it's looks like a nice color to me. And blue is my favorite color. >_>;;

Medical People: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#3R22Pw0w0w0w0

I liked this one because it isn't that boring, and I think if used correctly it can look pretty professional. Also for some reason, when I think of scrubs, I think of a color blue.

Skate Shop: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#4e12Pw0w0w0w0

I picked this because when I think of mellow I think of wine. So I think an nice deep dark color would do good a mellow, plus it's a common color I see as an accent on skateboard gear.

Aid Non Profit: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#0011Bw0w0w0w0

RED RED RED RED. Red means stop. Red means blood. Red is dangerous, the color of choice for the red cross, RED ALERT. Red usually means something bad, serious or important. (DON'T PRESS THE RED BUTTON). So yeah, I think red and white would do good here.

Assignment 20

www.apple.com

I think the apple website is sexy.

The Nav Bar: I like it because it's "brand specific". I think that what you called it. The nav bar looks like the it fits with any apple product or program. When you look at it, you know it's apple.

I like that the categories are broken down into simple things and that there is a search bar right there. I also like that they use the apple logo as the home button on the nav bar. There is a slight gradient on the nav bar, and I think a slight drop shadow. I think that looks good. Really good. So smooth and smexy.

Content: Well on the front page right now, there is an add for the Mac Book Air. I like they're use of this add space because it's very big, but minimalist, and it's like the first think my eye sees on the page since it's usually the biggest element. I'm a huge fan of minimalism because when done right, its uber easy to find what I'm looking for. I love it. The presentation of the add space is just well done to me because it's so simple and to the point but to me, it also look really pretty.

Rest of the page: There are a few compartmentalized elements at the bottom for the page for other products and information. I like them, I think they fit well with the minimalistic look of the page. They have quick links to the lesser talked about items like the iLife suite and Apple TV and the engraving service. Even tho most people aren't looking for that stuff, if you are one of the few who are, it's right there. It like that too.

I just noticed that there is a small news highlights bar. I thought it was tabs for the compartments at first but then I saw it was changing. I think thats pretty cool too, but a little hard to notice.

I think this is a good user interface because it uses high contrast, it's minimalistic, the site basically flows. The whole page is just clean, easy to navigate, easy to read, and aesthetically pleasing.

Podcast 11

Found: http://boagworld.com/bites/new-skills

I never thought of needing other skills to be able to design websites other than knowlege of coding and what looks good on a web page. After reading this I learned that there is more too it.

This article/ podcast says there are 5 core skills that can help you out a lot as a designer:

Knowledge of:

-Marketing

-Psychology

-Strategy

-Copyrighting

-Contextual Awareness

After reading I think it makes a lot of sense to know these things. Like you should know how to market your product so you know how to implement that in your website. The psychology makes a lot of sense since I read an article/ podcast not to long ago about how using companies use psychology to basically guide users in a way on their sites. I though that was pretty cool. Strategy makes sense because you basically have to strategies what you are going to do on your website. I know you are supposed to do a lot of planing and drawing out what you are supposed to do before you get into coding. The contextual awareness think makes sense since now a days everyone has a mobile device with internet capabilities on it (me included). So you do have to plan for how your site would look on those different mediums. Copyrighting, I didn't get so much. I mean I do, but that's more legal stuff to me. Blegh to that.

Project 3- Wireframe

http://colorschemedesigner.com/#0112P--K-vywt4w0--

Assignment 19

Assignment 18

http://www.krijtenberg.nl/

I think this website is cool and plain at the same time. I like that the it's seems pretty minimal but at the same time that makes it a little plain. I think the nav is cool since it's like business cards on the table, but there isn't much else going on. Since it's a website for a photographer I thought there would be more previlant examples of his work, instead of like that thumbnail in the corner. The alt text on the nav is good. There aren't any overstates or anything, no cool text decoration or anything like that. Thats why I think it's plain.

The portfolio page was cool but I don't think it loaded properly in my browser since I couldn't school down and the image was cut of so it didn't load right or something. Could be my browser could be a coding error?

OH! Another thing I noticed was that his nav wasn't constant. I thought that was weird.

All In all I think it's an okay site just really plain.

Podcast 10

Found: http://boagworld.com/design/no-more-websites

This is about making posters. The process of making posters is the almost the same as making a process.

"Posters have to be:

• Visually attractive in order to grab attention.
• Easy to take in at a glance
• Provide more information to the more interested reader

In other words they need to be…

• Engaging
• Usable
• Scanable
• Have a clear information hierarchy "

The author thinks this is how you should follow these steps to create good website. After reading that I think it's true. Like You need to think of all of those things in the design process. There are some designers who specifically model their websites after a posters. I think that's a smart thing to do especially when you are working on a website that you want to pop and stuff. Or when you are worrying about the fold of a page.

I think that I can try this kind of tactic when designing a site since when I think about it makes a lot of sense.

Project 3- Phase 1

I've looked around the internet for music download sites (mainly asian) and the majority of them are blogs. They all have navigation on the side, usually the alphabet and a search bar. Each post has a picture of the album art, track listing, date it was released, and of course a download link, with one or two mirrors. Since I'm not trying to do a blog I think I might do something just a little different. LIke have two main content things on the index. On for news, and the other for like most recent releases. I will keep the navigation and the search the same.

The header usually has a really nice banner featuring a popular artist (or artists) and the name of the blog or site. There is also a lot of time like an asian theme, be it color or like the way the graphics are. I want to use an asian them, but it be like red and white for the most part. I'm not too sure about that.

There is usually partner banners on the side for sister/ partner sites advertisements, along with the disclaimer to avoid legal troubles. Some sites have a link to actually BUY the music, but I don't think I'll have that.

I've also notice a lot of these kinds of site have news on various artists personal lives. Things like what movie they are in, family stuff, or what anime their song is used in. There are also usually links to PV music videos when they are released.

I want to incorporate all of these things but try to keep it minimalist and pretty clean and simple.