Category: ARTM2210 Intro to Web

David Schurman

Monthly Review 2

Intro to Web Design

 

The single page website that I chose to analyze is Mort Modern https://mort-modern.losttype.com/.  Throughout the website, the colors used are yellow, pink, purple, blue, green, and black. These colors are all slightly shaded which makes the website come together.  The texture of this site makes it look unique.  Each style font is broken up into sections.  Other images have drop shadows and borders which help the texture pop off the page. To navigate through this website all you do is scroll down.  Each style font is broken up into sections separated by color. Two design elements that I noticed on the site are unity and alignment.  Unity could have easily been lost in this website with the variety of fonts and styles used.  The designers did a good job in making everything come together. Alignment elements are arranged in a way that helps the viewer naturally scan the page.  I really enjoy this website. The overall design looks really cool.  I think the colors and texture create unity. My favorite part of the website is how you can interact with the font. For example, the user can change the font text from sample to any word they like. This allows the viewer to see the font before they buy it.

For this month’s review, I chose a single page site that has been highlighted on http://onepagelove.com/. The site is called Photoshop for designers that don’t use photoshop, which I thought was a funny and clever name. The layout and color used on the site reminded me a lot of the Adobe/ creative cloud emails that I receive regularly.The contrast between the black , white, and accent color is also aesthetically pleasing. The site really does not use any texture.To navigate from one section to the next the user must simply scroll up and down, the content is separated by colors. I really think that the colors play a big part of the readability as well as the contrasted typeface, and the simplicity of the whole site.The bottom of the site also includes a coming soon list, and although it is a bit long it is nice to see what is coming. This feature also keeps the user coming back for more.

 

After visiting the onepagelove.com site, I chose to analyze “Moe Amaya’s Portfolio.” In terms of color, it is pretty simple with a white background and bright blue text. The shapes that are included to the homepage add some texture and detail. In terms of navigation, this site is kind of difficult to use. Some of the links listed do not work. They are not really well organized either. The site scrolls from top to bottom, making it easy to scan. Bold text helps keep some organization, but the categories on pages are all over the place. The categories that are listed don’t really emphasize that they are click-able. The user has to hover over the text to find the option to click. This site is suppose to be advertising for his portfolio, but his name is written rather small compared to the other sections. After scrolling down the page, there are more details about the artist, but the boring theme continues. There is a lot of text and the site makes the user feel like they are scrolling forever. Overall this site is pretty plain which can be fine, but in terms of this site, it does not make a user want to spend much time on this site.

Hannah Daman

Intro to Web Design

Professor Ames

February 20, 2018

Review 2

I choose to review the single page website called Tignes. Originally in Italian this page can become confusing fast unless you can figure out that the little white circle in the top right of the page can change your languages. Once you get past the language barrier, this site is well organized. The layout of the “main page” or first thing when one would see when opening the site is very attractive. The title Tignes is in a very large, bright blue typeface with a contrasting background of the mountains and a lake behind it. At the bottom is a bright blue, moving arrow pointing downwards towards more content. As you scroll down it transitions into a dotted background keeping that same bright blue in all of the background images and layouts throughout the page. The typefaces for each chapter, heading, subheading, paragraph and even all of the first words of each paragraph have a playful image on them. This makes the site easy to scan because you don’t have to search for hours and hours for something that you’re looking for. Just read the huge header, if it has anything to do with the topic you’d like to know more about keep reading! The overall design of this site is very playful and subtle. With all the flat, heavy black text on the page it needed that little bit of blue color to bring it back to life. The actions the site provides with each section is sure to keep any viewer entertained and intrigued.

Choose a single page website that has been highlighted on http://onepagelove.com/. Describe and analyze the site’s use of color and texture. Further, as this is a single page site how does user to navigate from one section of content to another? Does the user have to scroll left to right, top to bottom, all over or is navigation provided that takes the user to the content? What design elements make the site easy to scan, read and understand content. Lastly, make an argument for whether this site’s design is well or poorly done.

The page I chose to review from http://onepagelove.com/, was http://wearelair.com. The website LAIR was pretty self explanatory for a single page website. LAIR’s main color is a vibrant blue, so when scrolling through the website, the blue really pops out at you making you stop and read the blue text. Lair uses the blue to highlight their main points. The website seems to rely on their negative space to separate their content. Texture can be anything from distinctive appearance to the feel of the surface in a design or object. On LAIR’s website, the texture is created through their beautiful pictures and text. The website has a very minimalist feel to it and simple to read. When visiting this website, I noticed that the navigation is quite simple, you scroll from top to bottom. They do have some hyperlinks in their texts but it is much easier to scroll. What makes the website easy to scan is the spacing, the website is free of clutter and the main points are highlighted in blue so that if you’re looking for something specific you just read the blue. Everything is legible as well, the texts are well spaced out that there will be no distractions. The only problem I have with the website is the design, the website looks like it was thrown on all together and they look like they are separate content instead of all one. Like the pictures are overpowering the text because it is bigger than the actual text so it is overwhelming.

David Schurman Review 1

1/23/18

For my monthly review, I decided to choose Amazon.com.  The product that I chose to search was an essential oils diffuser.  I thought it was extremely easy to find the best product that was available on the website.  Amazon has a good customer feedback section so it is easy to find the most highly reviewed item.  The main homepage has a lot of clutter but after doing a quick scan it was easy to find what I was looking for.  Also, it is easy for the eye to locate the search button, product page, account info and special prime deals.  One negative aspect of the website was the tags associated with each product.  For example, I search essential oils diffuser and many items that were not diffusers such as oils, candles, and jewelry were displayed.  This is not a major problem but it can get frustrating when I am deciding on which diffuser to choose out of the five hundred that are available.  These unrelated products should be located in an ad in the shopping cart.  After adding the diffuser to my shopping cart, it was very easy.  Three small steps and the product is on its way.  When shopping users want to get in and out as soon as possible.  I think Amazon does a great job in understanding that is how users want to shop.  If I knew what diffuser I wanted prior to opening the page I could have found the product and purchased it in under one minute.  Overall, I think Amazon has a good website and shopping cart.  It is fast and easy to find precisely what you are looking for.

I chose to visit the Puma website. When first visiting, the home page with featured products pop-up. I knew when I got to the site that I wanted to look at the women’s products. It was very easy for me to find, located at the top left of the page next to the Men and Children tabs.

After reading the first couple of chapters in “Don’t Make Me Think” I actually realized how much thought is put into mapping out a site. The first chapter talks about getting rid of “unnecessary thinking” for the user of the website. When I went to puma.com, I really didn’t think at all about navigating my way through the site.

Another thing the book mentions is the concept of “scanning.” One of the reasons we do this is because “we’re usually on a mission.” As soon as I read this assignment, I went straight to Puma’s website to find shoes because I was on a “mission” to do that. The second reason is that “we don’t need to know everything.” This is very true. I would say more than 80% of the time I’m only really interested in what I needed to find.

These chapters made me realize that user-friendly websites are a necessity. Especially in the case of a successful website!

I have chose to do my website review on the site: Amazon.com. I have chosen this site because not only am I familiar with it I would assume most of you are as well. Amazon is a huge site with many different accessible settings. They are also an international site giving them even more complexity. I decided to go onto Amazon and add a micro SD card to my shopping cart and hit checkout. Up to this point everything was straight forward and easy going. Having a small insight on coding, I now understand even the simple action of clicking the “check out” button would be an extremely complex process. In the reading they mention about self explanatory items and how this is effective to a great website. I think Amazon has done a great job at this because everything is easy to find and simple to navigate. Once you actually hit the check out button it takes you to the part where you you put in your shipping information and once again everything is easily accessible and then you hit place order. I personally think Amazon has one of the best e-commerce sites out there and this is a reason why they remain at the top.

Hannah Daman

Professor Ames

Review 1

January 24, 2018

For my first review, I chose to use eBay. I honestly use eBay a lot. Probably on a day to day basis. EBay is very simple to use. To search for an item, you want you tap on the little magnifier labeled search, and type in the name of an item or a keyword associated with that item. Next you would tap on the picture of the desired item to further inspect it. After you decide if you want the item or not you would tap on the big blue button that says either “Buy it now”, or tap on the button just below it that says “Add to cart”. EBay doesn’t make you think at all when you are searching for anything which can be a dangerous thing for a shopaholic. They have inserted the most basic of functions onto their website and mobile app to ensure that customers of all ages can see what is on the screen and also can understand how to manipulate it. The most important things on the site are displayed at the bottom of the screen sorted in little tabs. These tabs can let you travel to your profiles home page, a page with products based on your previous searches and purchases, notifications from the site or people you bought items from, and also gives you an option to sell items yourself.

Krista Johnson

Intro to Web Design

Review #1

1.24.2018

 

The e-commerce site I chose was JustFab.com. When you first enter the site there is a homepage displaying all of the sales currently going on. I clicked on a picture which brought me deeper into the site. I clicked on the heels section in the now visible menu bar and it took me to a long page with different heels to choose from. I chose a pair and then I was directed to a page that had just that heel on it , the close up pictures , how tall the heel was, the price ,etc. I then clicked “add  to bag”. A small notification popped up letting me know that that item had been added to my bag. From there I could choose to continue shopping or proceed to checkout. The JustFab site had a homepage but didn’t show a menu bar at the top until you logged in or clicked on one of their shoe sale pictures which I didn’t think was user friendly. I think that could be a bit confusing for the user when trying to find something specific. Another downside is that there is no search bar on the homepage either. As far as the notification popping up asking to proceed to checkout or continue shopping , I think that was a great feature, and you can quickly get to either page, I didn’t have to think about the actual purchasing of the item. Overall I think JustFab should improve their homepage and make it easier for users to find items quickly.

 

Guidelines: first choose a large eCommerce site like ThinkGeek, Puma, Fab, newegg etc, then search for a product you are interested in and place it in the site’s shopping cart. Because it takes a great deal of planning to create something that takes little or no thought to use reflect on how much the site made you think about this process. Refer to the reading and discuss how the site either makes it easy or not to find and buy a product you are interested in.

I chose to visit Amazon for my site review. When I got to the website, I was immediately overwhelmed. There was so much going on that I didn’t know where to go first. There was pictures and text everywhere. There’s no sense of hierarchy either. Once I saw the search bar I went and clicked the all button to see what was in it since it looked that it should be the first thing I should press on. Then a huge list popped out from it and I felt a bit anxious because there were too many options, there are too many categories and some of the categories seemed like they could possibly be combined with each other. So I ignored that and went to the search bar and typed in “shoe storage” because I have been looking for a storage space for my shoes. The products that showed were not what I was looking for. The products were coming from the category “Home and Kitchen,” which is far off from what I was looking for. The website clearly ignored what I was searching for and gave me products that were sponsored. So then I typed in “shoe shelves” and it was close to what I was looking for. So it seems like I have to be a little more specific about my search. The products did not look like it was organized in any specific way as well. Once I found the product I wanted to purchase, I clicked on the product and it took me to a page that talks about the product a little more. Once I’ve decided on the bag, there was a big yellow button that read “add to cart.” I clicked on it and it took me to a log in screen. I typed in my username and password to my account and it walked me through the steps to checkout. Once I entered in all of my information, there’s another big yellow button that read “place your order.”

Overall, I feel like Amazon could improve their website a little bit so that it is easier to navigate through and not as overwhelming. Not only could they make it a little easier to navigate they could combine some of their categories because there are many products that could be in 5 different categories and it gets confusing and makes the visitor feel dumb. A visitor should not have to think too much when going on the website unless they are thinking about what they are wanting to buy. I understand that Amazon is trying to showcase all of their products to their customers but it is overwhelming the way they did it.

For my website review I decided to review Dell.com. Now this website isn’t one that I typically shop on, but because I need a product that they sell, I will use it for this example.

I went to their site in search of a Canon camera battery. I have been in need of a backup for quite some time now and it would be helpful to get another one for when we go to Ireland in May.

When you first log onto the Dell website, I noticed that it is a pretty simple design. Search bar, scrolling images, and dropdown menus to take you somewhere else. It is relatively simple to find what you’re looking for. My eye doesn’t wander, and nothing distracting is happening to take me away from the task at hand. They have different categories for electronics, and after some more clicking and filtering, I am able to find the camera battery I need.

The actual page for a single item is a bit more confusing. There’s a lot of information going on on the side but I suppose this is necessary for some people. Then from there you can add it to the cart with a simple push of a button.

Overall, the site is simple, if not a bit dull. It is easy to navigate but could be difficult to find certain products just by browsing without filters, and would be faster to use the search bar. There are many features that would help someone browsing and trying to decide between one item or another. The site also has many features that helps when deciding whether to buy or not in general.

When it comes to thinking, it is a good example of not thinking too much or too less. There’s a trickle of ads and deals, making you think for a moment before moving on. For most of my time on the website I was not distracted though and could easily navigate through the Dell website.

The site I chose for review is Amazon.com. I chose this one because I am familiar with the site because I almost exclusively use it for my online shopping needs. After analyzing the site carefully, I think that it has great usability, which is the main point that people look for in a website. It is easy to use so it passes the first law of usability which is “don’t make me think!” I think Amazon being as big of a company that it is, almost requires their site to be as easy as possible to use because its audience is so vast. Amazon is marketing for everyone, from young adults to the elderly. Bringing packages fast and killing the inconvenience. Nowadays you can buy almost anything by just simply searching the first word and a bunch of options pop up. Now, I do not want to make it sound like Amazon is the ultimate user-friendly website. They can sometimes be confusing with the constant running adds and deals that tend to pop up from time to time. For example, Prime Day is a day that prime members get exclusive deals to products that otherwise normal users couldn’t access. This meaning that it is more of an incentive to sign up for prime membership. However, also during this time they do give-aways where you click on the items and see if you won. To find this “giveaway” page it usually pops up in the home screen. However, sometimes it does not. This makes it extremely difficult to try to find the page again. Also, another issue that I found is that Amazon has a certain features. One of which is the “your garage” page. This is where you can enter the make and model of your car and you can search for parts and accessories that match your car. This feature however is not with the other featured pages and it somewhat makes it difficult to find. I think that I am guilty of what the “don’t make me think!” book said about muddling through when you have an issue with finding something. In the last two problems I mentioned I definitely spent way too long trying to search for these features. Overall, I think that Amazon is extremely user friendly. It is accommodating for people who really want to piddle through pages for items looking for something interesting and for the people who know what their looking for and want it now.

In this final review, I will be going over the website design and its effectiveness of the Mexican-Asian fusion restaurant, Sumo Maya. To start off, the site is very bright and welcoming when it first loads up. Along with a lot of the sites that I have reviewed in the past, the color scheme is white with pink and orange accents. So many organizations base their websites on a white with accents color scheme nowadays and this is because it has a modern look and it is easy on the eye.

The layout of the site is very blocky but in a good way. The blockiness keeps everything ordered and professional, which is why it works so well. The only complaint that I have about the layout is that when scrolling down the page the pictures and white backgrounds go over the top of each other. To me, this is kind of bothersome because it does not look natural. It is nothing too big, but it is enough to cause me to be bothered by it. Other than that, I think the layout works well with the pictures and information being separated into different parts as you scroll down the page.

The site presents a very comforting and smooth texture. The font used is not rough or rugged, but smooth. Also, the white background keeps it smooth and comfortable as well. The site is also easy to navigate as the tabs to each page of the site are at the very top and are easy to notice. On each page when scrolling down, all of the information needed to be found will be there.

With my group’s project, we took a different approach. Our site is drastically different from Sumo Maya because we have a darker theme and we have kind of steered away from the typical modern site layout. I think that our site will stand out because it is unique and does not follow along with the status quo of web design today. Using darker shades of colors, it already sets us apart from a lot of sites that restaurants have. Overall I think our theme and layout will stand out amongst others.