Category: Site Review

Single Page site review

 

I chose to review the site Jdillachangedmylife.com. The site is very basic in it’s elements, but it is displayed quite beautifully.  The homepage is a complex animation showing the musical artist J Dilla the design and color schemes are unified but also diverse and the overall design feels really unique. By incorporating this animation the stage is set for the site to succeed.

To navigating down the site you must scroll down through the page. As you scroll the page is designed to stop at a certain point to display the entire page. Each page has a different song that plays, Also each page has a unified color background that compliments the album art of the song. As well as the details about the song such as title, and a link to play the song.

The use of texture here is limited, the album arts have drop shadows that cause them to pop off the screen but otherwise the page feels very flat in it’s design but perhaps this was intentional. The animation on the page however does have a lot of texture. Some of the video clips are lo-fi and grainy and it compliments the urban aesthetic of the page. J Dilla himself was very closely connected to the city of Detroit and this animation displays the streets of Detroit efficiently. Textures and shapes are used to portray brick and stone just like on the street.

Overall the page is basic but also interesting, the strongest segment is the animation and also it’s ability to use color in a unified and connected way. The contrast here is really nice. All in All I would say the page works well as an overall design and my only “complaint” of sorts would be that the information and songs included are rather limited.

For my final review, I chose a website that could be considered as competition for my group and I’s fusion restaurant MASHED. The website I chose was Honey Grow. Their website uses a grid layout for pictures, which my group and I thought was interesting but also very busy. When creating our own fusion restaurant website we wanted it to be minimal but on the contrary, detailed.The colors of the Honey Grow website are very bright and colorful as opposed to our website which we chose a color scheme for which can be described as neutral with a pop of color. The navigation of the Honey Grow’s website is at the top but can also be accessed by clicking on some of the pictures. In my opinion its a nice option but its still very busy. Aspects of the Honey Grow website that I enjoyed the most was their blog page, and they had social media icons at the top of the page as well for easy access. I also appreciate all of the pages separately. I think the the type is consistent throughout the website and the page layout of a photo, text, photo, text is really nice. The only problem I have with their site is their homepage. I think They could still have the same pictures with a better effect if they had it in a slideshow form or maybe even a video. The photos are all very strong and I think they should all be showcased evenly, if not they are overlooked and the user may not know where to go firsts because they are so overwhelmed. I think that MASHED and Honey GRow have the same idea as far as the customization of food.I think that our homepage is more welcoming than Honey grow’s because it is not as busy. Our layout and color scheme has a different feel as well, but we draw the users into the store by sharing events and introducing them to our team.They have a “Buy gift cards” section but we are going further than gift cards because MASHED will soon offer Merchandise. I think our idea and content go well together and will be able to surpass the competition of HOney Grow. The only other thing that I wish that we would have included would have been a Blog page, I think our followers and potential new customers would enjoy that and get a better feel for what our company is all about.

 

I chose to review ebay.com. Again along with amazon, it is a great site with useful tools to decipher through what you are trying to look for. The drop downs that relate to different departments are super helpful. I think the colors of the site actually make it easier to find what you are looking for. There is less going on and it uses simpler colors. It is interesting how the site has the departments listed on both sides of the search tool bar. I think that is a bit much and would make it less cluttered even if they took one of them away or made the homepage dedicated to departments and searching for items. I also think its great that ebay uses paypal. Thats a huge thing that amazon does not have. Overall,  Its a great site and has it credentials.

For my final review I think choosing the site honeygrow.com is the best choice. What Honey Grow specializes in is stir-frys and salads. The way that the site is set up is that it has a nav bar up top, had a few photos as you scroll down. The color, I am a fan of. Im a huge fan of simplicity and I think that this website does it really well. The photos make the color really pop out and give it texture and depth. The navigation is very easy to use. There are many options in the nav bar and when you scroll over to the location it automatically drops down so you can see where to visit it. I think that the effectiveness of this site really draws you in. The homepage is their menu which makes you hungry and then when you scroll up to the nav bar, the locations automatically drop down. Thats super effective and draws people in to go visit it. I think that comparatively to our site, MASHED.COM, it has actually a lot of similarities. It has the same kind of simplistic design and also stands out with our photos. I think that what makes our site stand out, is the simplistic designs and the homey feel to it we draw people in.

I chose Bugatory and Franktuary for the two websites to review. I should mention that I have been to both and love their food and atmosphere. I think they both demonstrate a sense of strong and well thought out design. Franktuary’s website is straightforward and simplistic. It has a nice sense of balance and unity making it easy to navigate and gage the sense of brand the restaurant is putting out. The strong photography and graphics also help build the branding and compliment each other nicely. As far as emphasis goes, the photography and the graphics of “franks” “poutine” “liberations” take strong precedent. There is an easy to use the navigation bar at the top that compliments the design of the site. It leads you to discover, ordering, catering, blog, menu, locations, and more. It does a good job at making the site easy to use with its use of the navigation bar and titles. You know where you are and how to get back to where you need to go. They don’t have a way to search, which I’m not so sure they really need a search bar on their website only consists of less than 20 pages (if not under 10 pages).  The only thing I wish they had is a page describing how the food truck/restaurant came about, maybe a history of the name of the place, what their goal is as a company, and how they are different from others. Als0, more photography of what their food truck looks like so people know what to look for.

Now switching over to Burgatory, they also have a strong sense of design and branding attached to their restaurant. The unique graphic/logo and the bold photography give it a different and interesting feel. The balance of the website is heavily based on the graphic design of the menus and photography. The navigation is the same as Frankuary, but more content is involved. They have a navigation bar and with drop-down navigation, making it easy to find what you’re looking for. They have a large menu overall so the drop-down makes it more convenient for the user to find what they’re looking for. They have more options to pick from and are very interested in the customer to business dynamic. They have a social media page, encouraging customers to post and tag them. As well as merchandise, where people can add items to the cart and check out. The website emphasis is also based on the graphic design and friendly interface. There is also a description of their company and their mission statement, which is nice. Burgatory, demonstrates a more complex, yet simple and easy to use design overall.

I think that both websites have their own positives. You also have to keep in mind the way a company is coming up with branding. Frankuary is a newer and smaller company, so their site is going to be different than a company that is bigger and has been around for longer. I think Burgatory is more effective at grabbing my attention because they are so customer-focused, and their branding is stronger with the pun behind their name. That doesn’t mean I think that Franktuary is weak, they just need to develop their website a bit more, or expand their company.

For review 1, I chose to review amazon.com. This website is fairly easy to use but can be cluttered at times. From what I understand, when you search for items on this website, they start to show items that may be related to what you are looking for even when you are not searching for them. While this is a useful tool, it tends to create a cluttered page full of items that can be slightly overwhelming. I think that for an elderly user, this could be slightly confusing and distracting for them. I know that for even me its hard to sometimes decipher through all of the clutter. Other than that, everything is fairly simple and easy to use. The dropdown between departs when searching for a product really helps especially when you are looking for something super specific.

I chose to review the sites no9park.com and Burgatory.com. Both sites seem to be displayed similarly and effectively. I will begin by analyzing No9park.com. No9park.com seems to be an efficient and stylish website on all fronts. The home page displays a background picture of the exterior of the restaurant  and allows the user to scroll down to background information of the restaurants history, location and employees. The sites flows smoothly and is balanced appropriately with a header and a footer. The header is a bar that allows the user to navigate with the options “Reservations” “Menu” “The Bar room” “Private Dining” “Wine Program” “Cocktail classes” and “Upcoming events” All of these link appropriately to pages that included information of the respective tabs. The overall use of the screen is good as it takes full use of the majority of the screen in landscape. The proper emphasis is given to the right texts and pictures allowing the user to navigate efficiently through the site. The layout is pleasing and useful although it could be said that the site has “wasted space” this creates an aesthetic that is pleasing to the eye.

The next site is Burgatory.com, This site is very similar in many aspects to no9park.com in that it also uses a wide layout that takes up the screen. The homepage is a slideshow of images included food, customers eating, and employees. Much like No9park there is a navigation header that includes various tabs. One difference is the menu tab allows the user to sort by type of food with a dropdown bar allowing the user to examine certain parts of the menu. This is a bit harmful to the flow of the site as you have to navigate to see the entire menu unlike no9park which has the entire menu on one scrolling page.

Ultimately both sites are visually pleasing and easily navigable. There are some minor difference in both function and design but both sites over the same functions with some difference in visual style.

In the comparison of Six Penn Kitchen, and No.9 Park they both use balance differently. Six Penn kitchen’s website is centered in the middle of the page. While No. 9 Park’s uses the whole page, with the use of pictures and type everything seems very minimalistic and easy to read. I do not like the font type used on Six Penn’s website, it’s large and aggressive, and is not consistent throughout the site. I love the No.9 Park’s theme and aesthetic. The page is easy to navigate, and even the menu is on the first page.Six Penn’s was literally one page. I am not sure if something was wrong with their site but there was nothing for me to click on.For me the focus was on the type , not the photos of the food, which shouldn’t be the case. The photography on the No.9 Park is very good, appetizing too. It’s clean an sophisticated. I think that it follows all of  the rules of  Krug’s five important “things” which  make users see and understand the site. Six Penn Kitchen’s site, was boring and did not grab my attention at all.

ARTM2210: REVIEW 3

David Schurman

The two websites that I selected are Burgatory and Franktuary. Both websites are very similar. I think the balance in the Burgatory website is slightly better than Franktuarys. The Burgatory website has more breathing room. The Franktuary site seems clustered. Both websites do a great job in the unity section. They use consisted font, colors, photos and logos. The Burgatory site does a better job with emphasis. All their logos and fonts seemed to pop right off the page. This makes it easy to navigate throughout the site. Overall, I think Burgatory has a better layout compared to Franktuary. Both sites are similar but Burgatory stands out because of good graphic design and color selection. Also, they use photos that will make you want to enjoy a burger at one of their locations. I think that both websites use the five important things to make sure user see and understand the site. Each site has a clear visual hierarchy. Pages are broken up into clearly defined areas. All the link are clickable and they minimize noise. The Burgatory site is more effective than Franktuarys. Burgatory has more open space and better fonts, graphics, logos, and colors. The Franktuary seems to be plane. Also, half of the website does not show up until

Hannah Daman

 

 

Review 4

 

For this review I will be comparing the restaurant my team and I have created to a restaurant that would be considered to be competition if this company actually did exist. I will be comparing my site with the site of Chipotle. Their site has a navigation bar at the top linked with the menu, nutrition, facts of where the food came from, whats new in the business, catering options, delivery, and a feedback page. There are buttons to the bottoms of the nav bar with sub categories of the main nav bar. Under that they feature a slide show containing pictures of their food with a small description off the the side of them. Under that are images that you can click on to see more information about each food on that slide. Pictures of the ingredients are shown along with drink options, and sides. At the bottom there is an area that has all the links to their social media accounts, and a find near you search bar. Their layout is very bright and playful. It makes you look at it when it switches from slide to slide every 4 seconds. The pictures make you actually want to eat the food and the colors are vey much associated with the restaurant. Very easy to navigate and order online! On the website that my team and I made we have a navbar at the top of the page that scrolls along with the window. The nav bar contains a home, menu, about, and contact button to send you straight to the section of the page you are looking for. The logo along with our company name is centered with a button linked to our menu just below it. Hours are briefly stated at the bottom of this page as well. The menu accounts for starters, main wraps, and desserts, clicking on one of those buttons will lead you to the corresponding tab and its contents plus pricing for those items. The next page down is an About section where we get to tell the customers all about the company and staff. Hours are listed under these bios. We then linked a google map to the selected location to our building in Pittsburgh that is interactive. Under that we listed our contact info for any complaints to be filed plus a way to reserve a seat and place your order online. I think that our layout is basic but effective and is interactive with the viewer.

I will be comparing our restaurant website, The Bastard Child, and Franktuary’s website. Our website is navigation is inspired by Franktuary’s website, so some of the same elements can be found on both websites. Franktuary’s layout involves location, menu, food truck, blog, as well as a slideshow on the homepage. Our website has a “let’s eat”, “find us”, “request us”, “our team” pages. Our branding is different than Franktuary. Franktuary has a simple and clean design concept. It has a responsive design which is something our website lacks. I think that our website branding is unique, but that’s the point of the food truck, to be something that stands out from the competition. The logo and branding colors for The Bastard Child is upbeat and fun. It is bright and attention grabbing, which you want in a food truck. Franktuary also has a great color scheme and logo, however, it has a softer feel to it. The texture is also inspired by Franktuary in the sense it has the repeating light opacity background texture and we tried to emulate that through the repeating truck. Overall, I think that with a few changes to the responsiveness and update some of the functionality of our website, that it could potentially be good competition to Franktuary’s website.

A site that I found that is similar to ours is for a food truck called Revival Chili. This site has a layout that is very easy to navigate, with a bar at the top that includes all options. Once a user clicks the option they want, the page automatically scrolls down to show the page. The texture of this page is very simple.

The text is very balanced and on a straight line, with a plain background.The color scheme for Revival Chili is very simple sticking with black and white for the navigation bar and background. The Principles of Beautiful Web Design says that “ample use of white space, and lack of surrounding color” allow for “photographs to pop off the page” which gives “life and light to the design.” Revival Chili does exactly that because their logo really sticks out. The logo is yellow, red, and green. “Yellow is an active color, red is known to increase human metabolism, and green symbolizes growth, freshness, and hope.” The combination of the three is used nicely in this logo and is very memorable.

This site is very similar to the site we are making for The Bastard Child food truck in terms of layout, which I think is good because it is simple. Our colors and texture are very different. We do not have any “white space.” Our background features the truck from the logo tiled lightly. Our colors are very neutral and mostly warm. The Bastard Child’s site stands out because of its fun mood and interesting visuals.