Category: Site Review

The restaurant my team and I decided to create is a fusion of Chinese and Mexican foods. The name of the restaurant is Panda Loca, a family friendly chain-like restaurant with good food and a good time. As far as our competition, I would consider Panda Express’s website to be one of our closest competing websites. The layout of the website is relatively easy to navigate. It starts with a navigation bar at the top and bottom of the screen with content between the two navigation bars with relative information to what tab you click on. It is very clear what is clickable and what is not. There are animations to all most of the elements that are clickable, making it very simple to find what you need to click on. They have a fairly simple color scheme of red and gray; but the site consists of images all over the page giving it a very bright look with many colors. I think the use of these many images makes the website look busy and is a bit overwhelming to the eye. The way the site is animated makes it feel 3 dimensional, with the way the elements jump out at you. In a way I think this can be helpful to find what you are looking for, however at the same time with the many colors and so many animations it feels a bit chaotic.

I feel that Panda Express does a decent job at guiding the user through the content. The navigation bar is fairly simple, but then has drop downs with more options. This is a very large site with many different pages of information, so I feel with the amount of content they needed to include they did do a good job at organizing it. I think the way they coded the movements of the navigation bar and the other various elements of the website is what makes this website so effective. The user doesn’t even have to click on anything to find a certain piece of information, for the most part it is right in front of their faces. This makes for a very well done, effective website. The one thing I would try to change would be the amount of images on the site, and perhaps trying to condense or exclude unnecessary information. This site has so much content it can be overwhelming and possibly frustrate users.

My website’s final design has a similar feel to the design of Panda Express’s site with the bright colors and pictures. I think our site pops more with the colors I chose. I went with a four color scheme that gives it that Mexican/Asian feel: red, black, yellow, and white. I think something that gives our site an advantage is the layout we chose. It consists of a top and bottom navigation bar with content in the center of the page. It is clean and simple to navigate. The animations on the page are milder, making it less overwhelming than Panda Express, and yet still assisting the user to guide them through the website. Panda Express has so much going on in terms of content with their layout that it can be hectic, this is where I feel my website stands out. It is clear to the user what is where and how to get to it. The information is placed right in front of them with an aesthetically pleasing design. My site is designed well, with a great theme of the crazy Panda. Each page is consistent and users will enjoy and be well informed when visiting my site.

The two sites I chose were very different. They were No9 Park and Six Penn Kitchen. No9 Park seems to be on the fancier side, while Six Penn Kitchen seems like a nice sit-down family restaurant.

 

Six Penn Kitchen has good continuity throughout their site. They use at least one big picture on every page with words either above it or underneath it, giving it a good balance. The color scheme is very monochromatic too, making it nice to look at. When looking at their menu, it is a one page site, so it is very easy to read. The menu items are a little close in proximity, but it doesn’t bother me too much. Overall, this site was my favorite because of the simplicity and how it was easy to use.

 

No9 Park was not my favorite. It also didn’t go overboard on the color, which made it nice to look at. However, I found it difficult to find the menu items. Also, it was lacking balance wise. It had the navigation bar on the side, which is fine; however, it had words right next to it and almost no pictures. This made it seem off balance to my somehow. It had good proximity throughout. I also think they could have made it more unified. Every page seemed different to me, which was off putting.
I liked the Six Penn Kitchen website a lot better. It was nice to look at and seemed like a restaurant I would want to order from. The No9 Park website was okay, but it also seemed stiff and some of their design was strange to me.

For the third review, I looked at the latter two of three given websites, no9park.com and sixpennkitchen.com. Both websites are for respective restaurants, and upon first glance looked very good. I took time to review both websites page by page, looking in depth at their styles in terms of Unity, Balance, Emphasis, and layout. Both websites work considerably well in terms of unity, with all themes, pictures, text, etc matching up. Neither site overcomplicates things, which works to their advantage. We are taught not to overcomplicate things for the sake of making them look “prettier” or to even try and dazzle the viewer. Each website attempts to these things to their advantage to grab the attention of their viewers and customers, and they work very well. We as humans tend to find things that work, and then stick to that thing. When something works, there is a natural sensation for us to stick to it and not search further for other outlets. As someone who has never visited either restaurant in person, I can tell just via the websites that their simplicity along with their calm color schemes would prompt me to look no further in the search for a quick bite. There’s no part in particular that stands out, giving both sites a good sense of unity. When it comes to balance, the SixPenn Kitchen uses a block layout with no option to scroll, their homepage is solid and very balanced. No9Park is balanced decently well, but their navigation bar runs along the left side of the page, with pictures and information in the right column. As you scroll down, the navigation bar doesn’t scroll with, which bugs me. After you scroll until the navigation bar is out of site, the website becomes very unbalanced and leans more towards the right side. It’s small inconveniences like this that may throw users off, causing them to change sites or even get temporarily lost and frustrated. It seems ridiculous, but it’s something that has been proven time and time again. When we go to a website, if it doesn’t immediately load then we can get frustrated and automatically start to refresh or restart. We as human beings are naturally very impatient with small things, especially technology. When looking at emphasis, both pages are very even. The only common emphasized thing on each page is the logo of each individual restaurant, which is what the user should be viewing when looking at the pages. No9 has a huge rotating slideshow at the top as well, which is another point of emphasis. The slideshow displays images of meals prepared by the restaurant, something users may like. Finally, there’s layout. This to me goes hand in hand with balance. No9Park is a dark layout and theme, very simple, with rotating pictures of different dishes and other various things on their homepage, with an equivalent theme on each page. The same can be said for SixPenn, using a cool blocked layout and theme to make everything easy to view. When picking which site is better, I am biased, but I have to choose the SixPenn Kitchen website. I am a sucker for the block layout with no scrolling, it makes things easier for the viewer to navigate, and confuses the audience less. Their is also a better overall color scheme, incorporating a cool orange to make different things on the website pop out at the viewer. Hats off to the SixPenn website design team, overall a very well done website.

Review 3

Morgan Torchia

 

I chose to review the two sites Six Penn Kitchen and Huge Domain. In my opinion, I believe  Six Penn Kitchen is better entirely as an overall website compositionally than Huge Domain.

The balance is slightly off on Huge Domain. Some of the titles are centered, and other ones are left aligned, making the website uncomfortable. The entire website seems almost like a game of hopscotch with certain aspects having two squares next to each other, and others just being on giant square. With Six Penn Kitchen, the website is neatly organized. Everything looks like it fits together neatly in one border. It is easy for the viewer to follow.

The unity is off on Huge Domain. The colors are all over the place, making everything jump out at once. It gives the viewer a headache. There’s too many random splotches of green and red and blue, rather than just one bright color and some black. And there isn’t just one theme to tie it together. For Six Penn Kitchen, the overall look is clean, with colors reflecting the food. Yes there’s more than two colors, but they are subdued in a way that blends it into the website’s aspect.

The emphasis is clear on Six Penn Kitchen that the main point of the website is the food. Your eyes directly go to the bright colorful food, and then to the information surrounding it. For Huge Domain, the layout is sloppy, and the viewer isn’t sure what the important information is.

The layout for Huge Domain is sloppy. There’s a lot of buttons leading you other places making it awkward. For Six Penn Kitchen, there is a clear menu bar, making it easy for the viewer to navigate, unlike Huge Domain.

In conclusion, I firmly believe Six Penn Kitchen is a more aesthetically pleasing site than Huge Domain.

The two websites I chose to analyze for this assignment were the restaurant websites of Olive Garden and TGI Friday’s. Olive Garden is national Italian restaurant chain with several locations throughout the greater Pittsburgh area. TGI Friday’s is also a national chain restaurant that serves classic Bar and Grill restaurant and has several locations throughout the Pittsburgh area as well. Although both are high in popularity, each restaurant has a completely different atmosphere; they also offer to very different types of websites.

Olive Garden’s website is very classic and rustic looking. It uses neutral colors like green, tan, and brown. The layout is vertical and requires the user to scroll down the page. There are several tabs, including Menu, Specials, Gift Cards, and more, that allow the user to easily navigate through the website. One of the most prominent features on the website that Krug discussed in his textbook is the site’s use or promotions. A majority of each page from the navigation bar features some sort of promotional effort to get people to come to the restaurant. The website also has a very cohesive layout; a majority of the content is in a square shape and they all are relatively close in size. It all looks like one cohesive layout and showcases it’s food through lots of visuals.

TGI Friday’s website is very up-to-date with technological trends and demands. The website’s homepage includes video backgrounds of the food being prepared and tossed; this not only makes it stand out from other websites, but it also makes the food much more appealing. Like Olive Garden, their site also does a good job of emphasizing their features and promotions.  Krug’s book tells readers to “use as much space as necessary” when trying to get their promotional messages across. TGI Friday’s does have a lot of white space on some of their pages, but it does not take away from the quality of the website. The traditional colors and balance of images make the website very classic and true to the restaurant’s vibe.

I think TGI Friday’s website does a much better job at catching the attention of users. The layout is much more visually pleasing and the colors aren’t distracting. It also easy to navigate and understand and all of the text stands out. It looks like one cohesive website and has an overall better visual appearance than Olive Garden’s does.

In this review I have chose the two restaurants Red lobster and Buca di Beppo. When opening these two sites they have very similar headings and layouts. The balance of the two websites sites are also very similar, they both use the whole page with a variety of options to click through and pictures that are clickable. The websites both have city between the different pictures and the clickable menus. The Red Lobster Menu has a drop down that has pictures of each of the different menu’s to help guide each customer to which point they want to reach. In the Buca di Beppo menu you must select your location and your store to see the different items they offer to each individual store. The emphasis is based on the photos of the food and then it transitions to the special they are running. The sites implement the important things because it is well set up and is easy for ease of access. You are able to get through the site with ease, and quickly find the information and tradition back to anther page. The Red Lobster page is a little bit to smoothed together and its hard to focus on one piece of it. The buca di Beppo is a little more subtle but I do not like how much you have to go through to find the Menu items in your local store. I would say that the Red Lobster Page would be drawing more propel attention into it, just for the fact that has more going on and the drop down bar is easy to use.

I chose to compare the websites created for No. 9 Park and Six Penn Kitchen.  They will be compared on their layout, balance, unity, and click ability.  When looking at the homepages for both websites, Six Penn Kitchen is much easier to read and understand.  No. 9 Park is very text heavy on its homepage and a couple other pages making it slightly overwhelming to search for information.  In addition to the text heavy pages, the lack of emphasis between different parts of the page make it extremely confusing on what the viewer should read next.

Six Penn Kitchen was laid out in a very clean manner, allowing the user to reach their destination in no more than three clicks.  Each page listed in the global navigation bar is very clear and understandable.  The user to sure to find the information they are looking for when using this site.  Emphasis is used very successfully within this site, especially in the menu.  They focused on ensuring their menu was easy to understand.  They have clear color distinctions that create a hierarchy of information.  The most important information, or the headers are a bright green that stand out boldly from the background.  Next in order falls the subheadings, often the name of the food, in white that also stands out from the background and from the green headings.  Last, Six Penn Kitchen made their descriptions of the foods a light tint of grey allowing it be read but not overwhelm the user with information.  Their layout throughout the website is centered which could be varied up occasionally to create more visual excitement but it makes it very easy to use because the user knows what to expect.  The global navigation located at the top of the screen assures the user that they can easily return to the home screen or visit another major topic of the site without having to search randomly around the site.  As Steve Krug explains, “Web navigation compensates for this missing sense of place by embodying the site’s hierarchy, creating a sense of ‘there.’”  The navigation is the basis of this website, making it extremely easy to use.

No.9 Park is less understandable.  Steve Krug talks about killing happy talk in websites because it takes up space.  He explains, “Unlike good promotional copy, it conveys no useful information, and it focuses on saying how great we are, as opposed to explaining what makes us great.”  No.9 Park uses happy talk right on their homepage, making it feel very crowded.  They attempted to get the user’s attention with the small paragraph of happy talk along with moving images of the food, and different drinks they specialize in.  But it all feels very overwhelming for a homepage.  They attempted to create a hierarchy by changing the color of text but they needed to incorporate that more into the page itself instead of only using it in the navigation bar.  The number of clicks needed to achieve finding information varies.  It is somewhat confusing arriving at the full menu and some of the pages were given vague titles, leaving the user unsure of what they are about to look at.  On all the pages, there is a lot of information; but not a lot of useful information.  Especially in the process of trying to find the menu, the user has to sift through paragraphs of information because the sub-navigation links to the menu don’t stand out.  Every page is laid out the same, with the global navigation bar on the left and all of the information justified to the right.  The most confusing part is the location of the sub-navigation bar as it seems to disappear in the pages.

Six Penn Kitchen is much better at catching one’s attention than No. 9 Park.  The simple layout and sparse use of text make it extremely easy on the eye.  The navigation is much simpler than the navigation used in No. 9 Park.  It simply takes a lot less thinking to use the Six Penn Kitchen website than the No. 9 Park website.

 

The two sites that I took a glance at were sixpennkitchen.com and no9park.com. The both of these websites have a very modern and blocky type layout, which works well with emphasizing certain material. The material that is highly emphasized is the pictures that are placed on each tab. The blocky type layout also sets a nice balance to the page because everything is ordered and symmetrical. With both of the site’s design layout being so balanced, it is easy to create a visual hierarchy to show what the most important things on the page are.

If you notice on both of the websites, they are broken down into different areas. With the Six Penn Kitchen, these areas include the headlines with all of the different tabs on the top and the body below it, whether it holds pictures or text. As far as the No. 9 Park goes, it is arranged a little differently with the logo and tabs on the left side of the page, a header for what page of the site you are on up top, and the body of information below it. Though they are arranged differently, you can still tell that they are clearly broken down into different areas.

One thing that both of these sites have is unity. The layout created for the each of them creates a sense of unity among the site because everything is in order together and nothing seems cluttered.

For my two sites to compare I chose Burgatory and Smokey Bones, both of which are restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. Surprisingly enough to me, these two sites are very different from each other in the way that they are setup. Both of them have rotating images as soon as you get to the page but after that the Burgatory site is much different from Smokey Bones. Burgatory has a top, centered navigation bar at the top then as you scroll more information appears. Where as Smokey Bones site is just that initial page with rotating images and the navigation bar is on the left side going down. Both of these sites are strong in the sense of Unity in the fact that you take in the website as a whole at first then you start to take in the minor details of the website. In my opinion both of these sites also have a strong use of Emphasis. Both have a large gallery with rotating images as soon as you get to the site, this emphasizes the fact that you are on a restaurant website and what you are looking at is food. As far as Balance goes I think Burgatory’s site is done a little bit better just because of the fact that there is more information after the images at the top, the website is not just taken over with images like the Smokey Bones website is. Then looking at Layout, I also feel like Burgatory does a better job of executing its website. Everything just seems to flow a little bit better and the site just feels like it does when you are in the restaurant itself which is an interesting thing. The overall setup with the gallery at the top and the rest of the information once you scroll makes it not so overwhelming when you are trying to navigate the site. All in all; looking at both sites; I would give the win to Burgatory for a better overall site.

Websites:

http://www.burgatorybar.com/     http://smokeybones.com/

I focused on two local restaurants, Six Penn Kitchen and BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse. At first glance, both websites seem fairly similar in terms of the type of content that they provide: menus, location, about page, and some links unique to their establishment. In regards to balance, Six Penn Kitchen seems to appear more balanced in terms of layout on the homepage. The logo is in the middle with three links on either side. On BJ’s website, it isn’t as aesthetically pleasing because of the imbalance on the navigation bar. There is a location/shopping cart in red at the top right corner that throws off the look, at least for me. Looking at the unifying qualities of both websites is interesting, because of the overall quality it speaks to the user. Six Penn Kitchen does a much better job keeping in theme on every single page of their website. The color scheme is consistent throughout with the black, grey, white, and green. BJ’s is consistent for a few pages by keeping the same background and basic layout, however, when you move to the “Our Craft”, “Our Beers”, and “My Rewards” sections, they change theme and it kind of throws everything off as a user. A far as emphasis is concerned, the sites are very similar. Both sites put the most emphasis/attention on their logos by making them the largest thing with the most color at the tops of their pages. For layout, Six Penn Kitchen’s menu reads like a typical menu you would see in a restaurant. BJ’s is more of a boxy/square layout that shows the categories of food that they offer that you have to click on to see the dishes. Six Penn has a more straightforward layout that is much easier to find exactly what you’re looking for with the least amount of clicks; BJ’s is the exact opposite.

Let’s look, now, at both sites in regards to Krug’s 5 “things”:

1. Both sites create a clear visual hierarchy in the way that it is clear that all tabs are at the very top of every page in the navigation bar. Each section from the navigation bar then has a certain amount of pages under that category.
2. BJ’s uses more photos on their menus-almost only pictures, which is overwhelming. Six Penn Kitchen has some pictures on their homepage but there aren’t any pictures on their menus, which makes it more clear but a little boring.
3. Both sites do a great job at breaking pages into clearly defined areas that makes it easy for the user to find what they are looking for. However, I think that Six Penn Kitchen does a slightly better job than this, because BJ’s has too many things that need to be clicked to get your wanted end result.
4. Both sites make it very obvious what constitutes a clickable link by either highlighting specific links or making it known that its clickable when you move your mouse over the graphic (like their logos to go back to the home page).
5. Six Penn Kitchen does a better job at minimizing noise by having a small amount of clicks to get to the wanted end result (typically the menu). As stated before, BJ’s has a lot of unwanted noise by creating so many subcategories within their menus.

All in all, Six Penn Kitchen did a better job than BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse at drawing in my attention. This is because of their sleek layout, minimal noise, and clear and consistent layout.

For this assignment, I looked at the websites for Il Pizzaiolo (http://pizzaioloprimo.com/) and Six Penn Kitchen (http://sixpennkitchen.com/news-from-the-corner.aspx). Both restaurants that were chosen are found in the city of Pittsburgh.

Six Penn Kitchen, at the time of this review, had some photos on their homepage that were aligned to the left side of the page with huge amounts of blank space to the right. The balance of the website is odd on other pages just by them all be center-aligned or left-aligned with way too much blank space. Il Pizzaiolo, however, had photos accompanying their text on almost every page.

 

As far as unity was concerned, everything seemed to belong on the website for Il Pizzaiolo. The text of the headers accompanied the paragraph text, the photos fit and weren’t awkward at all, and the color scheme just worked. The website for Six Penn Kitchen really dropped the ball on this one. The simple coding and the lack of effort left a lot to be desired when it came to unity in their department. The photos are awkwardly placed, the text is hard to read, and when the website is in its smallest/simplest form, it just doesn’t work.

 

The emphasis on most pages for Six Penn Kitchen are often lost with the giant logo in the middle of the screen. The colors of the text draw your eye, but make it hard to stay anywhere. As you navigate and scroll through the Il Pizzaiolo website, things subtly shift and change. These changes make the emphasis adapt to where you are on each page and where you should look.

 

The layout of these websites are quite similar, however, there is one major difference. Both of these websites use a top bar and use it to navigate throughout the websites. Il Pizzaiolo makes the bar scroll with you and has an additional side-scrolling bar for each element on each page. Six Penn kitchen highlights the page you are on and leaves you there, if you scroll down you have to go back to the top to use the bar again.

 

The main principles of Steve Krug’s book seem to be relevant in both, but dominant in Il Pizzaiolo.  The websites rarely make me think, but I am less satisfied with Six Penn Kitchen’s design and layout. The wording is a lot more condensed and easy to scan on Il Pizzaiolo’s website, and no matter where I go I can get back or go forward with ease. Six Penn Kitchen loses in all aspects in this fight and should consider renovation.

I chose to review the websites for MadMex and Six Penn Kitchen. When first reviewing the sites I analyzed and compared the aesthetics of the sites. In my opinion, I favor the overall look of Six Penn’s website. In terms of balance and unity the site does a great job, for instance you can view all of the important information without even scrolling. MadMex’s website lacks unity and balance because of the negative space in its homepage. The introduction on the first page exceeds in length the size of the image to to the right, and throws of the unity and balance of the page. Six Penn’s website has a much more balanced and cleaner layout than MadMex. The images on Six Penn’s site stand out more because of the simplicity of their layout and the background color choice. MadMex uses a multiple earth toned colors that make the site more chaotic. Six Penn’s color choices most definitely help to emphasize the images and information on their site.

Krug has five important “things” to make users see and understand a website. The first thing is to create a clear and visual hierarchy on each page. Without a doubt, Six Penn Kitchen does a phenomenal job at creating a simple layout that highlights the important information while making it obvious what is clickable. Six Penn Kitchen’s website is made very easy to navigate for users. MadMex is fairly easy to navigate, but in comparison to Six Penn’s site there is definitely room for immprovement. MadMex could benefit from emphasizing key information with a more simplistic layout. The next thing Krug lists is to take advantage of conventions when creating a website. MadMex does not take advantage of conventions; I feel that they could have used better styling to make links and things that are clickable stand out more. Six Penn does a great job with the convetnions of their website. The colors and styles used, especially the navigation bar at the top are the first thing the eye is drawn to. The next important thing is that pages are broken up into clearly defined areas. Six Penn does an excellent job at this because each page is clearly defined. Not only is the site well organized to begin with, but it also uses stylistic techniques to section of information, like dotted and solid lines. This consistently keeps the whole site well organized and clean. MadMex on the other hand could do better with its organization, and needs help in styling to keep the sight organized. Important information does not fit all on one page, and the site has a lot of pop ups which adds to the chaos. The fourth thing that is important is to make it obvious what is clickable. I think that both sites do a good job at this. However, Six Penn takes the lead once again just because the stylistic quality is better. One thing I do not like about MadMex is that the text in the navigation bar is the same color as the site’s background making this information fade into the background. Lastly, the fifth important thing is to minimize noise. My feelings on which site did this better should be clear at this point. However, just to clarify Six Penn did a much better job at minimizing noise by keeping a well organized, consistent style pattern, and well sectioned site. MadMex uses too many colors and the content does not fit the page well.

I find that Six Penn Kitchen catches my attention more than MadMex. To summarize, the main reasons is that Six Penn uses a more appealing color scheme and styling, is more organized, and did a much better job making the site simple to navigate. Also, I personally feel that Six Penn Kitchen’s website has a much more professional look. I think MadMex should consider improving the style and organization of their site in order to more effectively draw customers’ attention.

For my second review, I chose NeoBred, a single page website. The site’s use of color is really good. It uses the black as the background color and white as the text color. The color of text on black background reflects the text really good. Black and white is a great combination to be used together. Use of black text on white background is very normal but using background as black and text as white is not seen everywhere and it feels different from usual and reflects the tone of the both colors. Other colors used in the website are yellow, pink, cyan and soft pink. The shades chose of these color are light and works really good with the black background. Soft pink color is used for BRED in the logo of the website, some text in section 1, and also for a small circle in sections 1, 2, 3, and 5. Yellow color is used in section 2 for heading ABOUT, a couple text lines and periods. Pink color is used in section 3 for a word of the heading, a line on the page and some periods. Cyan color is used in section 5 for one word of the heading again and just a couple words in the text. Cyan color also pops up in section 5 when you try to fill up your information in the space provided. All the colors used on the black background pop really well that gives the builder to achieve emphasis in his website. The text used is very neat and explicit font which gives a really good texture feeling.

In this single page website, user has to scroll up and down to explore the content of the website. There are five sections in the website, assigned accordingly to a specific section. A user can click on the section number linked on the bottom left corner of the webpage, and it will take the user on that section. Also you can scroll it up or down with your mouse to switch the section and there is a small mouse icon on the bottom right corner of the website that takes the user to the next section when he clicks on it. I really liked this mouse icon as it keeps bouncing and it is something new and unique that I found on this website. In the middle right of the webpage there is a menu section which is another option to navigate to all the sections except the home page. On the bottom left of the webpage there is a count that tells you which section you are on.

I think the colors used in the website make it easy to scan and read. Colors like white, yellow, pink, cyan, and soft pink works and reflects the text really good, and make the text easy to understand. Repetition also comes into the play since white text has been used on every page of the website to make the text easy to scan when it pops up on the black background.

I believe that the site is designed well. While I was looking over onepagelove.com to pick a website, this was the first website I found that is designed well out of first 20 I saw. NeoBred uses really good color combination which pops up the text and make the website easy to scan and read as well. It also has different ways to navigate the website and the user can pick whichever he likes the best. The best navigation way/controller I like in this website is the little mouse navigator on the bottom right of the website. Other thing I liked in the website is that the user has to scroll up and down rather than left to right. I personally prefer to have up and down scrolling since it can be down by using the scroll button on the mouse which is quite easier and quick rather than clicking on the left/right side of the webpage again and again. Overall, this single page is designed pretty good.

Upon scrolling through OnePageLove.com, I was fascinated by the site resn.co.uk because of its design and concept. This site has a very sleek concept combining 2-D and 3-D elements and using two different color schemes. The main thing that I like from this site is that it does not require any scrolling. Everything that you need to see is right before your eyes.

The design concept itself it quite interesting. You mainly navigate the site through clicking and holding onto this 3-D drop that moves like it is looking at your cursor. Each time you hold onto the drop it displays one of six different designs to play around with. Each of these designs bring forth something different. The first one is in full black and white and is of apples and moons floating around in circles and they get bigger and smaller as you move the cursor. The second one is of a vibrantly colored 3-D cylinder and ball. The ball is controlled by your cursor and when you hit the cylinder with the ball it swings around in place, making different sounds depending on where it is hit. The third is of a bat that shoots out lasers from an ouija board that reveals a few different photos. The fourth one is a tunnel that switches from a black and white tone and a colored tone while also changing shapes between a circle, square, and heart. The fifth is a neon blinking bottle controlled by the cursor and when it is moved it releases various blinking, neon pictures. The sixth and final design is of shapes flying in a black background and bounce out of the way when impacting into the cursor. After a certain amount of shapes are hit it will switch to a white background with black shapes.

On the main page in each corner, there is a specific button. The drop-shaped button in the top left corner works the drop is you don’t want to click on it. In the bottom left corner, is a play button to reveal their showreel to watch. In the top right corner, there is a circle button to reveal what they do, some of their work, and their contact information. Lastly, since everything on the site has sound, on the bottom right corner, there is a bottom to turn the audio on and off.

I really love the design and layout of this site. The color scheme is a bit confusing to me, but I think it works very well together with the mix of black and white and neon, vibrant colors. Navigation on this site is also very easy for the simple user because everything is already there in front of you without have to do any scrolling. Another thing to make it easy to navigate is that everything is explained on what each button does. Overall it is a great site to have some fun on.

 

Browsing through these single page websites Denis Smirnov’s was the one that caught my eye. The geometric design of simple architecture that gave the page depth drew me in. Then once I got to the actual website I realized that the architecture built itself as the page scrolled with it which has kept me interested for countless loops.
The page itself gives off an inside a computer vibe. It does this because it uses four basic colors red, blue, black and white. The black give a background that allows the red and blue building of architecture pop and give depth. There are also times when the color gets filled in and there are sheets of pure blue or red which catches the eye. The white is then used for the information he provided.
The information is all presented in the middle of the page left aligned and we aren’t able to scroll. The background does that for us or at least gives that illusion. The text itself is simple his name is the largest and then it gives three professional credentials in an ordered list. Below that he has icons that lead to his other pages such as Facebook, Twitter, Email and bittalk forum. When these icons are hovered over they light up as well.
In my opinion this site is well constructed because of the simplicity of use. The user does not have to do anything but read what is presented, which is enough to judge if one is interested or not, and follow the links which open in new tabs. The background is also simple but intriguing to watch as it grows and takes one on a short journey.

Charles Stockhausen