Final critique

Well the year is over. I started this class with absolutely no idea what I was doing with myself. I was so completely lost and felt like I was behind the entire class. I feel like I have redeemed myself a bit with my final project. I am really excited about what I have produced and am proud of myself. That was all that I wanted from this class. I said that in one of my earlier blogs, that all I wanted was something to be proud of. So this makes me happy.

Enough about me though. There were so many in the class that were remarkable. Aren't we supposed to be in a level ONE internet design class? haha. Some of the projects in this class are incredibly professional looking. Two of them that stood out a lot to me were Gary's and Daniel's. Both of these pages were wonderful. They both had a very nice Flash intro that built itself into the basic design of the page. Both of them had a lot of information to show, especially Daniel's, and were able to organize this text and pictures into a very clean and easily navigated layout. I really enjoyed the use of thumbnails by Gary. They were big enough to be obvious for most people who use a computer. The use of the colors was also good. I agreed with Daniel when he felt that he should lighten up the colors a bit; it looks kind of morbid to me. On the other hand he was working for a client (his dad) who had a specific look in his mind. Daniel did the right thing and made it how the client wanted it to be done.

I think that the majority of the class did a great job and.....have a good summer!

site exploration....Tanagram Partners

I randomly chose the Tanagram Partners' website from the list that Karl gave us. I really liked what I saw. The index page is a very clean linear grid like structure. I really like how simple it is; it makes it very easy to navigate through. The buttons are labeled very well and highlight when rolled over. The company itself has some very impressive designs that they have done for other companies. I like how they organized they products. They put them in numbered pages so it was clear that the viewer could see more than the opening pages.

In their designs they use a nice mix of pictures and graphics (which I assume they also created). For their branding methods, they don't go out on the limb very much. They seem to stay in a pretty confined and traditional space. This is perfectly okay. Many companies want something simple for their branding. Tanagram is able to make a simple logo that works very nicely into the rest of the branding scheme (the stationary, business cards, website, etc.).

I like the movement they have on their site. When you click on a link the title moves up. It starts from a list at the bottom of the page to a list at the top. As the title moves up, the information the particular title covers simple is revealed between the tile and the line for the next title. This element adds a little something to the page. I like the visual static look of the page, but adding this movement really brings an interactive life to it too.

Here are two of the project Tanagram Partners created that I particularly enjoyed:

• http://tanagrampartners.com/case_studies/index.php?section=9&case=11
• http://tanagrampartners.com/portfolio_project/index.php?section=1&category=16&client=&project=82&page=1

site exploration...HIllman Curtis

Since we have been reading the Hillman Curtis book, when I saw his name on the list of websites I decided it check it out. At first I was not all that impressed with what came up; I wasn’t quite sure were to start. He positioned his work at the very top of the page, which I basically jut looked over; I looked under the picture first. Once I found where his projects worked, everything become a lot more uniform and I was easily able to find what I wanted to see. I was actually much further impressed with the sites he had created for although companies more than the site that he designed for himself. This struck me as odd. I would figure someone would want to make a good FIRST impression. For me I was put off by the first impression and I had to actually look through the site to be attracted to the designer.

In his book he seemed like he would have very edging and eye-catching designs, yet it is actually pretty dull. The background is gray/blue and the heart in his logo (the human heart that is) seems depressing. I understand that he is expressing himself someway through this design, but it is for his business. Many companies would pick and artist that seems eager and excited not depressed when it comes to their work. In terms of the usability design, like I mentioned earlier, I was kind of lost when I first got to the page, but other than that, he has nice roll highlighting rollovers at the top of the page. For his work, I think I would have liked it a little better if a viewer rolled over the image, the title, or the description that it would highlight (instead of just the title).

I hate to say it but the bottom line is, this site didn’t meet my expectations. Maybe if it was an artist I had known nothing about before hand I could have like the site. But I was impressed with the book so I thought I would like the site too. Actually come to think of it, his site defiantly seems to match the cover of his book. That is interesting, actually funny. He uses photos on the index page of the site as well with the slightest amount of movement (this I did like). This is just one of those sights that will get may different opinions in response.

final proposal

About a year ago my aunt Dana started a new spa in her hometown of Encinitas. She had worked at a previous spa for many years. When she finally decided to start her own business, she had a good amount of money and a good clientele following. Because she had the money and the guests from the beginning; her business never went through the struggling phase. it has been going strong since the day it opened. When I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for my final project, I realized that she didn’t have a website. Although her day spa, Keen Spa, is doing very well, having a website is great for bring in new clients. I talked to her and she was very excited; we are pretty much get to help each other out which I am happy about.
I am building this site primary as advertisement for her. She will be able to add the webaddress on her business cards and make it easier for people to research her business without having to actually call and talk to a person (which many people are apprehensive about). The great thing about Dana's spa is it mixes luxury with nature, yet also has a kick of modern in it. Basically everything is very natural and has a fung-shui/beachy feel, yet there are random splashes of color to give life to the spa. Her decor along with the wonderful humorous staff attracts groups of all ages. I want to site to have a very classy and glamorous feel yet defiantly the color and splash of youth that she has included in the spaneed to be apparent. It seems like it may be difficult to include these two different motifs it one site, but we will see what happens.
I have decided that I am going to try my best and create this site in Flash. I am hoping the best for myself. Haha. I am thinking that I will have five pages; a welcome/ intro, a services, location/contact, a calendar, and a store products. The welcome will be the usual description of the spa, maybe a little bio about my aunt. The services would include the different kinds of treatments that someone could purchase from massages to facials and the rates. Obviously the location/contact would have the basic address, map, and phone number information. The calendar will be supplied to remind people of special occasions; the perfect time to buy gift certificates for loved ones. It will also include any specials that are going on. Although there is not a large product store in the spa, I still think it is worth mentioning. She sells products from around the world so it would be nice to be able to see what she has. I really want to include some good pictures of the spa and Dana (to make it more personal), but I'm not quite sure how well her pictures will turn out and if she would be able to get me any. If she is unable to get me any good visuals I will use generic pictures of nature and luxury and play around on photo shop to get what I feel would depict the spa correctly.
The site defiantly needs to be easy to navigate through. Yes, the spa is designed for adolescents to elderly, yet it is usually the adult not the teen that will look for a spa online. I assume this only because spas are pricey and most teen do not have that kind of money. Because the users of the sight will be older, it smart to design a simple navigation. I want to use Flash to my advantage and create a site that is very interesting when it first opens (plants grow, text falling into place, etc) but then once everything has stopped moving to make it very simple to navigate through. A simple menu bar that are clearly labeled, seem to be the best way to design the sight.
I will definalty be trying to be ahead of the game this time. I am predicting that I will have a lot of question having to do with how I can use Flash and I don;t want to wait until the last minute when the rest of the class will be doing the same thing. Taking on this site for my final project not only makes me work hard for a good grade, but also to make a usable site for my aunt (not to mention try to impress my family, Ha)

Midterm Review

midterms are absolutely amazing. I am very impressed with how they turned out. I was really drawn to the sites that were based on cafes. I had done a café site and found it interesting to see what everyone included into the site and especially how the menu was designed. I know that it was difficult for me to include what I wanted in the menu and I didn't have nearly as much information as the Nuts N' Berries menu. When I was taking a look, I really liked how Marvin Arreola set up his menu. It is all on one page, but he realized that there was too much information to just slap everything on a page and make the user scroll up and down. He included a menu bar to navigate throughout the menu selections at the bottom of each food type category. I found that really helpful when I was looking around.

Another site that absolutely amazed me was Yuko Kishida's portfolio site. I started to laugh when I saw how absolutely wonderful he splash page was compared to mine. I wish that I could have pulled something off like that. If I was looking for someone to create a site for my business this splash page along would grab my attention well enough to make me look though the rest of her stuff: this is what I did. This was what was disappointing to me. There was nothing else on the page. I'm sure there was a reason for this (lack of time, bad server, etc.). If the buttons on her home page would have worked this would have been a very impressive site.

I think the best site so for, not only the actual design, but the material in it is Jessica Haberman's. I was so impressed with it. I really enjoyed the visual design. In terms of usability, I really liked once you were inside either the paint, drawing, or photo sections how the swatches highlight when you scroll over them. If that wasn't there I don’t think many could figure out that they get larger. I think that this is a very good touch to the site.

There were a few things that I noticed needed work on. Some of the menus are pretty hard to see; there were two major mistakes, either the text blended in with the background or the text was just entirely too small. There were also some problems with buttons. I don't know why it would be intentional to have buttons that look AMLOST the same; it looks like a mistake. They either need to be made the same or completely different. There was also a site that used a bit of Flash at the bottom. It was the name of the business, Bestec, but it was going too fast. I wouldn’t have been able to know what it said if I hadn't read the top (where it actually wasn't very apparent).

When it comes to my site, I think I would have tried to incorporate more Flash. It scares me though. When I was doing this site, I was just trying to make something. I think that I got a little bit more confidence (even though it is kind of simple) so hopefully I can build up my courage and take this next site on. I really want to have something I am really proud of by the time I leave this class. This time I am going to try and get things done early so at the end I can ask Karl all of my questions. Lol.

PHP

According to Wikipedia, PHP is ac scripted programming language that can be used to create websites. PHP is actually short for “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor”; the initials were originally from “Personal Home Page Tools” which was the earliest version of the program. It is a reflective programming language that has been used mainly for developing server-side applications, which is a web server technology in which a user’s request is satisfied by directly connecting on the web server to generate dynamic HTML pages. Recently is has been used foe a broader range of other software applications. An example of this kind of software was actually what was used to create Wikipedia.

PHP allows interaction with a large number of relational database management systems and runs on most major operating systems.

The combination of efforts and ideas from many contributors has lead to this product of PHP. It is licensed under the PHP License, a BSD-style license, which is one of the most widely used licenses for free software.

PHP has become very popular in the Web industry as a way of making and serving inexpensive, reliable, scalable, protected web applications. As mentioned earlier, dynamic websites are able to be produced instead of a static HTML page. Normal HTML is purely descriptive. It can not work as a variable. Hence output will be the same every time. Dynamic web pages, on the other hand, entails on-demand web page building (http://www.zend.com/zend/art/intro.php#Heading10). PHP would not only allow a user to change the language of a web page but also the colors. There are many possibilities with this new system; it is great.

Midterm Review...Chipotle!

After looking through many of the websites, I went with my original inclination, Chipotle. This was my original site of choice primarily because I love the restaurant but with more thought because of their advertising design. Lucky for me, I found that I really enjoyed this sight more than any other.
The Chipotle site is very simple and clean looking. This is basically what the designer was trying to accomplish. The site is trying to communicate a simplicity and freshness in the restaurant and the food. If that wasn't conveyed well enough through the design those words are actually written in the site menu and opening mission statement. There is a wonderful use of white space on the screen which gives a great sense of cleanliness. For the images and text that is shown there is a good use of unity in the few number of colors used throughout all of the pages. Since the colors are dark (dark red and black) they contrast nicely with the white background and make it easy to read to page.
The simplicity of this site, it is quite easy for a browser to navigate through. Even my mother, who is quite computer illiterate could find her way through the Chipotle site (if she could only find her way to the site to start with). It is crucial that this site is easy to navigate through since it is made for the everyday citizen. There are many people out there who are very bad when it come to the common sense to find what they are looking for on the internet. This site makes it very clear, especially in its new campaign "Don't Stand in Line." One of the first things to pop up and move across the screen in a large burrito that shows the "Don't Stand in Line" slogan on it. To make it even easier it says "Click Here. Honestly, how easy can it get?
In the first few seconds on the site, I was a bit scared there was going to be too much use of flash in the entire thing. It turns out that I was wrong, and for the best. The animation at the beginning was just the right length and size. The designer was able to create a little complexity without taking away from the general simplicity. The use of Flash was apparent in the previously mentioned "Don't Stand in Line" button. It is actually a pretty humorous opener to have a big silver burrito float across the screen. This short length of animated humor is actually taken throughout the site. In many of the links within the menus a quick animation is shown and then the text can be read. Having animation on every screen can be overwhelming but I think that the designers did a good job in the sense that the picture became static one the text was presented. Organizing it in such a manner gives the browser a little entertainment and then allows them to read without confusion and interruption. Along with the Flash program there seems to be a good use of CSS. Using CSS in the site really helps pull everything together. The site becomes more consistent and allows elements of text to fit well and identify with each other.
Besides the chipotle website having a menu bar with the main page links at the top of the first page, there is also a secondary menu in the upper left hand corner for smaller linking pages. These menus offered two pages that I found very intriguing; these were the "line" button in the upper menu and the "play" button in the side menu. Both of these pages had good browser interaction available. In the "line" page, the browsers could move the mouse around the page to see exactly what was in each ingredient that could be put in the burrito. In the "play" page, the browser was given the chance to look at all of the advertisements the Chipotle Company uses. The viewer clicks on a square and a side picture pops up; it was also very smart to change the color of the square once it was hit. There are about 150 different pictures and it would be very frustrating to keep clicking the same box repeatedly. Incorporating the viewers into the design of the site is very important. The advertisements, for example, were very clever and kept me entertained and on the one specific page for about five minutes. The longer a company can keep a browser on the page the better.
When is comes to computer compatibility, it seems like the designer was able to achieve a site that could be viewed in many different screen sizes. All of the visuals are on the left side of the screen with plenty of room to be able to view from a small screen. Due to the animations, there could be a problem when it comes to modem speeds. I did however look at the site from three different locations, including my home which tends to have a slow internet connection, and the site ran smoothly.
I found this site very fun to visit. I actually showed it to a couple of my friends and my roommates (who all share my love of Chipotle's food). I was completely memorized by the interaction of the site, which it tends to have more of than the normal fast food website. I liked the simple aesthetics and felt that is communicated the intended message of freshness and simplicity in the food. I see a challenge for the site to get customers to keep visiting because the menu never changes and there is never limited time menu offers to publicize but highlighting the "Don't Stand in Line" slogan throughout the site gives it a purpose; easily ordering online is a great reason to keep coming back to the site. For me, it is not the ordering online however, it is the advertisements that are going to keep me coming back.

Check it our yourself.....get addicted:
http://www.chipotle.com

I Point Review

When I was finished with this project I was very curious to see how everyone else completed the site. I came into this class knowing only a very little to nothing about the different programs we used to create our sites, but I noticed that many people knew quite a bit about them. I was excited to see what everyone had done but was also scared to see how far behind I was.
When I was looking through the sites I was very impressed. I was however drawn to a couple of them. I particularly liked Yuko Kishida's and Lizee Lucero. Both of these sites had a great use of white space, especially Lizee's. I feel that the incorporation of this whiteness on the page really helps with an organized look to the site. I feel that both of these are well structured and are very clear. It is important to have a site that doesn't intimidate the viewer and welcomes them in to the page. I feel that both of these sites have a friendly feel to them. Yuko's incorporation of many colors has an especially friendly, but almost childish feel to it; it could be the combination of the almost carefree type of logo in combination with the many colors. But all in all it is still very professional looking.
I think what really works well for both of these sites is the framing of the page. they both used black backgrounds and a white table for a ll of the information. On top of the distinct contract in colors, the white table for both of the sites isn't 90 degree angles; they are either curved edges or a swish to the side.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of other sites that made me feel that I really need to catch up with the rest of the talent in the class, I just really took a liking to these two sites. If I had to chose between the two of them, though, I would chose Lizee's. I know that the emotion of the picture was discussed in class, but in all honestly I took it as hard working not unfriendly. If my partners at the firm took it as unfriendly, we could easily ask her to change it. It is only a minor change. I feel that there was a good amount of color used and the entire site was well laid out and easy to navigate though.