CambriaNK

Final critique

2006-05-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

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:

site exploration...HIllman Curtis

2006-04-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-04-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-03-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

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.

usability vs. graphic design

2006-03-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

The war between usability experts and graphic designers never really occurred to me until the blog topic came about. It is defiantly a legitimate argument between the two sides. This article expresses both sides quite clearly and equally. The usability experts feel that the web is an “ill used database.” It is in need of sites that have speedy downloads and are okay to be text based. Graphic designers on the other hand feel that the web is an “ill used platform.” They feel that design is necessary are else sites would just be text plans.

While I was reading this I knew that I would need to form some opinion to write about and try to choose one of the sides to agree with. In all honestly I would read a paragraph, feel like I knew which side I agreed with, read the next paragraph, and then chose the other side.

Being a graphic design major it seems that I should defiantly chose the graphic design side. I would be a trader to my future career. But one of the things that I have been taught in my graphic design classes it’s the importance to be clear and communicate a message through design. It is our responsibility as the designer to create a clear and understandable forum for a viewer to navigate. This is usability. Usability experts want quick and “easy to understand” sites. The graphic designer is using this concept in all of his/her designs. I guess what I am ultimately getting to is that usability is the foundation and form with which a graphic designer designs. It seems obvious that the two rely on each other to create an impressive site. No one would use a site they were unable to easily move through. On the other hand there is no attraction to the site without visual aesthetics.

Site Exploration...Firstborn Multimedia

2006-03-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

I chose to take a good look at the Firstborn site. When I first opened the site I was actually intimidated from it. There was so much movement in the set of I felt like I wouldn’t be able to maneuver though the site. But once everything was set into place, I found that everything was very clearly marked and so well organized that it was actually very easy to navigate through.

The menu that is shown is very simple and straight to the point. When I am looking at a site one of the first things that will turn me off from it is when I click on a link and page packed with text shows up. This design firm did a great job of preventing this sensation. When a link from the original menu is clicked on another menu pops up. For here these links lead the viewer to a paragraph or two about the firm. With this set up the viewer doesn’t have to read what they feel is unnecessary yet are more likely to read the entirety of the information because it appears to be less text than it actually is.

On of the most important things I look for when I’m looking at a design firm is the portfolio. The firm may be very friendly and easy to work with but if I don’t like the work they produce then what is the point of working with them. The portfolio is very clearly labeled on the first page. I think that it is very thoughtful to arrange their work in three different ways. Yes, it is all the same work but providing the information in this way allows the site to adapt to the needs of the viewer. The viewer is again very pleased at the ease they are able to find exactly what they are looking for.

The style for the First born site really takes advantage of the new technologies that are used for web design. Flash seems to be used in every possible way. It is just amazing. When I look at it scares me and makes me realized how much there is to learn about the programs and as a designer makes me feel inadequate. As a viewer though, I am completely drawn to the modern simplicity of the site. That’s right I said simplicity. Even though there is so much going on in each page, it is so well organized that it is able to be conveyed with a simple look. This is a feat that the designers accomplished in its own.

I really like this site. It’s just “cool.” That is basically the best way to describe it. It uses complicated programs to make a very interesting and inspirational site. If I was looking for a design firm; Firstborn would have me hands down. I highly recommend you all check it out.

http://www.firstbornmultimedia.com

midterm proposal

2006-03-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

When I started thinking about what I was going to do for my midterm project I immediately knew that I wanted to do a Café site. I started with a modern theme. I was thinking an upper class vegetarian sit down restaurant. I was picturing something classy that you would go to for a nice date. I wanted a very modern and contemporary feel but as I was trying to think of a name I thought of "Paper Bag."

With the name came a bunch of ideas. I started to lean more towards casual food. It would be a restaurant that could be eaten in but most likely taken out. The basic idea is to order in the restaurant, or on the phone or internet. The food will be "picnic food" but all vegetarian. "Picnic food" will consist of veggie sandwiches and soy meat sandwiches. There would also be salads and soups also with fruit salads and fruit smoothies. All of these foods will then be put into brown paper bags for people to be able to take out to parks and beaches for picnics.

The site will have a clean design to it. There will be few colors to make it look organized and simple. The colors will be browns and tan to emphasis the bag color and the natural foods. I understand that a picnic is associated with children so I will try and manipulate the site by using mature colors and photos to aim towards an adult audience.

In the site menu I will include the restaurant menu, location/contacts, park locations where it would be nice to have picnics, catering and ordering services, and a glossary of food. When it comes to vegetarian food, many of the names of the substitutes and sauces are unfamiliar to most people; a glossary will clarify the menu without the need t ask a waiter or waitress.

I am very excited to make a site for this café. I am actually having a lot of fun making the menu and creating the theme of the café. Being able to out that into images is even better. I hope it turns out as good as I am picturing it.

Concept and theme

2006-03-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

A theme is very important to a design. In the computing and design world, Wikipedia defines a theme as a preset package containing graphical form details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system. Graphic themes for specific purpose are often referred to as skins. They communicate at a much deeper level than the literal meaning. Themes are needed in order to give a design a meaning more than something nice to look at. It should be intriguing and ask something of the viewer. Curtis finds the theme by talking and especially listening to the client. He draws a target on a piece of paper and jots down key words and phrases that excite the client. He uses this paper to organize thoughts and to specific questions that were left unanswered. He looks for themes in movies and advertisements and then analyses them (High Fidelity). Doing this throughout normal life will obviously help one identify themes in their own work, and give examples of what has worked in the public eye so far to help guide the design.

In plain terms a concept in an idea; it is a thought, notion, or entity that serves to select a category or class of entities. A concept is the basic element of a proposal. It is the support that is used to illustrate the theme. A designer's job is to take this idea and visually express it to the public. Curtis starts his conceptual process with sketches. From here he is able to identify what can be worked on and produced. Then he starts storyboarding. In this step he tries to create the story, to portray the theme, from beginning to end. He takes what he has come up with and then presents it to his client. The client knows what they like and don't like and will tell you. This is the best way to get feed back. Set up an open forum for discussion about the product so far and the designer will know whether he/she is on the right track or needs to start over. A key to the concept is to keep it simple; make it basic but reflective of the entire theme. Curtis emphasizes the importance of continual conception. He notes that it is also helpful to look at daily advertisements and commercials to try and get inside of the creators mind and figure out how they came up with their ideas.

A theme and a concept are dependent on each other. In order for a theme to be communicated a concept must be used and in order for a concept to have meaning a theme must be included. An example would be a theme of innocence and childhood. The concept of this theme may be to have all children wear white of like pastel clothing. White has always represented innocents and purity so the audience would subconsciously identify this association.

Comparing Cafe Sites

2006-03-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

I am planning on designing a website for a vegetarian café with a modern contemporary atmosphere. I looked at a number of sites that had somewhat they same feel that I am envisioning for my site. I took a look at three different sites; two of which I searched for a modern vegetarian café and the other an organic vegetarian café.

The Candle Cafe and the Café Sunflower sites were the two sites with a modern twist to them. Even though these two sites were categorized together they both have two quite different design structures. The Candle Café site uses very deep colors (burgundy, navy blue, etc). It uses very linear square designs to organize the page. To make the links more interesting roll over effects are put into place. I enjoy the contrast between the deep colors and the vibrant pictures of the food. This use of color helps portray the food as exciting. I really feel that vegetarian food has been misjudged in the past for being "boring." This site uses imagery to show that vegetarian cuisine has a lot of flavors and can be stimulating and taste wonderful. Not only is the index page to the site well organized but so are the links. They menu was set up very nicely and listed the ingredients of each item (which is very important considering there is not a waiter/waitress to ask); I really thought it was clever to include a pop up that showed the specials of the day.

The Café Sunflower site leaned in a somewhat different direction in terms of design. The page didn't seem as warm (which the warm colors had portrayed in the Candle Café site). The designer of the site used brighter colors, which is completely understandable considering the café is named after a flower. There was a good use of yellow and red. There was a good site map at the top of the page that was easy to guild through and in each of these links a new menu for that specific page showed up on the left side of the browser window. I can see the effort to organize the site but it still felt like there was too much information on each page. The menu on the side took me to a certain place on the page and there was a "back to top" link, but the page was incredibly long. It just seemed awkward. I felt that the "awards" page didn't look very professional; they were sans of the actual paper awards that were used as poor images.

The third site I chose was Real Food Daily; it was the one that was listed as "organic foods." The first difference in the design was the colors that were used; they were organic. This is obviously very appropriate for the café. The background was a light cream color, which immediately gives off a warm vibe, and the other colors were warm shades of green and red. The actually design set up was very practical. The menu was uniformly presented to the side of the page with the title on the top. I enjoyed the simplicity of the home page which continued into the linked pages. The entire set up was very organized. Titles stood out appropriately and guided the viewer through the page. One of the best pages that was included (that I will use in my site) is the "glossary." It is very true when it comes to vegetarian food there are many substituted and new foods that the average person would not know what it was. Adding a glossary to the site will help clarify the menu for someone without the help of a waiter or waitress.

I know I focused a lot on the colors that were used in the pages, but I feel that that is one of the most important elements to the immediate feel of the page. I understand that the set up of the page and the user friendliness of the site is very important, but I am going to make sure that the viewer feels invited and at home with the site at first glance.

technological exploration (technological singularity)

2006-03-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

Reflecting through the technological changes in the past few decades and looking at technology's exponential growth, it seems very obviously to say that technology is drastically changing the future. Some of the ideas that are starting to be produced are unbelievable. In the artical "As We May Live" (http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html) by Vernor Vinge, there is an introduction of the idea of an ubiquitous computing "smart" house where computation is embedded into the environment to create a natural union between nature and technology. This house would have computers, microphones, cameras, sensors, and network cables incorporated into every room. With these technological objects the house would be able to remind the residents of appointments, keep track of family members, and even talk to other people in a different part of the room through intercoms just by saying their names.

Yes there are benefits to cameras throughout the house such as checking on a family members' well beings or creating a automatic family album out of film footage (which I found interesting), but there are people who don't liked to be watched so closely and feel that it would be an invasion of privacy. I know for myself that I wouldn't want cameras or microphones throughout my home; however, making a phone call with the mention of a name is very convenient.

If advances such as these occur, it seems that privacy would diminish. Mark Weiser, a "father of ubiquitous computing," discusses the problem of location privacy and the ease at which UbiComp advancements could give out that personal information. Although some may find it nice to have someone checking on you at any time of day, others may not. Also there is a worry of whether occupants of a "smart" house would feel like they were being controlled by the mechanisms instead of the mechanisms working for them to simplify life.

The subject of Technology Singularity actually scares me a little. This concept of the future of technology expects a quick increase of technological change. The thought states that consciousness will not be confined to the human brain anymore and will be able to be interlaced with computer networks. The fact that humans ma, in the near future be able to produce a machine that can out think our race poses a threat to our existence. It is true at the moment that humans have the upper hand of knowledge considering that we can teach ourselves new concepts, unlike the machine that must be programmed. It seems inevitable, though, that if the human goal is to produce a creation that has this human consciousness, it will happen. It seems that scientists aren't considering the future as much as they should; they are overlooking a threat. I know I am not an expert on the subject, but it seems that if a computer has the common sense of the human brain yet is much more intelligent, that it would ultimately dominate humans; that's a frightening thought.

Another worry that could be brought up if Technological Singularity comes about is how humans would exist. The human race is brought up believing that we are superior in nature (to other animals). If in the future there are machines working together without programming and with a higher intelligence levels than the human, mankind will no longer be superior. According to F. Heylighen's "The Socio-technological Singularity," the changes in our superiority will be accompanied by the changes in the "rules of the world" and will be beyond recognition. How will we deal with that? Will mass fear and depression result? With this integration of computers into the environment and taking the simplification and "enhancement" of our lives to such a great extent will we just become lazy?

LINKS:

Mark Weiser (UbiComp)
http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiCACM.html

F. Heylighen (technological Singularity)
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SINGULAR.html

WIKIPEDIA:
UbiComp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubicomp

Technological Singularity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

it's all about the process

2006-02-13T00:47:00.000-08:00

There are some very strong key points when it comes to the process of designing for a client. Hillman Curtis' MTIV book, he describes what he feels are the essential parts to the process. He mentions that it is very important to pay attention to the clients' histories, their ways of communicating, and their needs in order to gain confidence. One must not separate from the client; persuasion is the key.

He starts with unity. Unite is the foundation of any team effort; it is all about cooperation. The lines of communication must stay open between oneself and the client; this is harder than it may seem. Creating an environment of assorted talent will advance success. He then moves on to the theme. The theme is the transcendent message with lasting strength. It is a story that communicates an idea. One must identify and organize the themes they are trying to convey in every aspect of the design. Here is when he mentions concepts which he feels are the most important feature to a design. Creating a visible concept is practically a fluke. The more you work on thinking conceptually the better one will become with it. Always look for good ideas; critically look at commercials and advertisements for inspiration.

Curtis' uses the phrase "eat the audience" to describe the next stage in his process. This phrase refers to incorporating everyone involved in the project; this includes the audience. Instead of trying to express oneself, the focus should be on communicating a message to the audience. One must use instinct when designing making sure to not be offensive and to be attentive to the audience. He uses filters make sure the design is user friendly. "The design has to 'work'." One must respect the medium and work with the filters in order to have a site that is workable. One must consider the power, speed, and client knowledge in order to create a simple to use site.

Last but defiantly not least he feels justification is the key to an overall accomplished design. Justifying is a issue of communication with co-workers and being open to comments; one must be flexible. Justifying each element will create logic and confidence in the design.

Taking a look at Razorfish design firm, they start their process with the realization that to reach a customer is requires interaction at every stage to create integrated and interactive solutions. They start with strategy where they look to design to complement the business plan and brand. Customers expect to interact with a company through different mediums (television, Web, in-store, or phone).

Razorfish also acknowledges that insight to the audience enhances the success of the site. Understanding the specified audience's motivations, interests, likes, and dislikes will help produce a better solution for the design. They then find the best way to show off the company using the information they collected about the audience. Their goal is to develop a strong and capturing site. To take advantage of communication time and to make sure their clients will be able to work and alter the site they focus on using and teaching the technology they are using to them. This also helps the clients move ahead of their competitors. What sets them apart from many other design firms is their data-driven method of designing and reporting feedback to the clients.

A second design firm, 415, has four basic steps in their strategy to designing. First they analyze the project so they are able to understand what is being asked of them (is it simple or complex). Once information has been collected from the client, it is time to design. Here they try to accomplish the goals of a user friendly system with good communicative visuals and room to expand in the future. By this point a good idea has been made, and it is now time for implementation (production). The design is approved and completed in this step and then it is time for refinement. Here designers and clients come back together to make sure all goals were met and to make any necessary changes.

What I have found when looking at these firms and what Curtis had to say, is it all starts with having a wonderful communication line between the client and the designer. If these lines are not strong it will be hard to get the information from the client about their audience and the goals they wish to accomplish. Throughout the project there should be an easy way to contact each other and in the finals stages the designer must be able to swallow his/her pride. If the client feels that something is missing or there is too much to the design, the designer may have to compromise and go with the client's suggestions.

Razorfish
http://razorfish.com/
415
http://www.415.com

Usability

2006-02-05T21:00:00.001-08:00

Web usability is the measure of designing a site for your visitors instead of for yourself or your client. The site is easy for the visitor to use and makes them feel comfortable and more chance to revisit the site. Good usability is crucial to a site's success. Wikipedia defines usability as a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool in order to achieve a particular goal; it can also be defined by the principles behind an object's efficiency and clarity.

Usability testing refers to the means of measuring how well people can use an object for it's intended purpose. This testing uncovers difficulties that developers should improve the design and test it again. These problems include users having difficulty understanding instructions, working with parts of the design, and interpreting feedback. Designers must hold off the pressures for a beautiful design and focus on the needs of the people.

According to Web design expert Jakob Nielsen usability is the part o usefulness that is made of instinctive navigation, efficiency, memoribilities, few errors, and satisfaction. To design a clear and simple navigation system the designer must consider the questions: Where am I? Where have I been? And where can I go? The site must be kept consistent and use user friendly text (large enough and appropriate colors). It is important to keep direction clearly focused throughout the site; links should be obvious and make sure to keep the visitor inside of the site; all links should open in a new browser window. Making sure the objective of the site is apparent whether selling a brand or spreading a theory is essential along with the keeping the site entertaining. To keep the website interesting the use of programs, such as Flash, help create an engaging and hands on experience for the visitor.

Definition of Usability

Definition of Usability testing

Website usability check list

Flash website

Here are the basics of RSS

2006-01-31T23:30:00.000-08:00

RSS is a part of XML, extensible markup language, which is the general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages. The purpose of RSS is to describe different kinds of data and dialects used by website and blogs. The RSS format provides web content or summaries of web content with the links to the full versions of the information. RSS also allows a website's frequent visitors to keep track of the new information on the site with the use of aggregators. The content RSS allows Internet users to subscribe to websites that have RSS feeds; these feeds are usually only to sites which consistently changing information such as a news website. For someone to be able to use this technology, the owners must create or obtain the correct software that is machine readable in XML format. RSS subscriptions are free.

An aggregator is a type of software that retrieves information that is gathered in the form of a web feed such as RSS. They cut the time and effort needed to repeatedly check websites for updates. The job the aggregator is to subscribe to a feed, search for new content, and recover the content; this is also referred as being "pulled" to the user. Slowly, yet surely, aggregators are being built into sites such as Google and browsers such as Safari and Mozilla Firefox. Aggregators are very popular in the blogging world. Since blog content is available in RSS, it is easy to keep up with favorite blog topics (aka my classmate's blogs).

This new technology is very convenient and saves a lot of time for a frequent Internet user. New updated information is being handed to the browser (with links containing more information about he subject) without any effort.

Check out this site for more on RSS: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

interesting website

2006-01-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

A site that I frequent often that I find pretty interesting is the official web site for Drive-thru Records. I really enjoy how the designer of this site incoorperated the theme of the companies name (the drive-thru) into the overall design. When looked at it quickly I can see the use of the Illustrator tool to create the simplistic background and the Flash program to add the blinking lights around the sign. As you click through the site, you can basically find any information about the bands covered by Drive-thru.

The colors are all over the place, and even though it is an easy site to browse through, when looking specifically at the design of the page, there is an unorganized feel. On the first page alone there are about forty links that connect the viewer to a new smaller viewing pages, and from there countless chains of links are found. Not only is the page filled with information and good graphics, but there are many pictures ranging from personal band photos to professional photos from shows and music videos.

I think the reson I enjoy this site so much is because it has an retro feel to it. The company and the designers had decided to take a step back in time and promote the good old days; there seems to be more a focus on fun and friendliness than a proper "cutting edge" type of organization. This is quite a different approach than many other music companies. An example of a mature organized music website is Virgin Records. By looking at the two different sites it is easy to see what each companies target audience is; Drive-thru seems focused towards teenagers while Virgin has a more sophisticated feel that adults would be drawn too.