Category: Site Review

For the one page website review I chose www.jordancole.com which was on www.onepagelove.com.  This was a portfolio created by freelance artist Jordan Cole.  Upon entering the site, you simply see an image of a magazine page flipping.  It is assumed that this is some of his work.  Right at the first page there is the main image, a drop down menu on the side, arrows pointing in all four directions of the screen, and Jordan Cole’s name on the top and bottom of the screen.  You can only physically scroll up and down even though there are arrows pointing in all four directions.  You can’t scroll right to left.  You must click on the arrows with your mouse to move the screen horizontally.  By moving the screen, it moves to more of his work that has been shown in magazines.  As you move down the website it breaks into a different color with a different main image.  I am assuming that it is organized by each different project he created.  So when you scroll to a new ‘page’ it is a different project that he created.  If there are arrows pointing to the left and right, then there are more images of the project either on a different media device or different point of view.  Throughout the website his name is placed at the top and bottom of each page continuously reminding you who created the work while being a page break as the colors change between pages.

Overall the design of the website is minimal.  There is simply a colored background with the image of the project in front of it.  Everything has a clean and simple look because his designs themselves often have the texture in them.  Most of his designs tie in nature in some manner giving them texture.  This texture contrasts with the clean technology and colored backgrounds.  The only details other than the images themselves are the occasional use of shadows with the images.  As explained in The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, “Light and shadow establish visual contrast, and help to create the illusion of three-dimensional depth with two-dimensional media, such as pencil on paper or pixels on your computer screen.”  For example, he uses shadows to create the idea that these mediums in which his projects are on are sitting on a table or are located in front of a background.  Allowing these subtle shadows into his images makes them more realistic to the viewer.  He’s used it to show the width of magazine as well as the size of a computer against a table.  Using these shadows also helps show the different sizes he designs for specifically in media.  Showing the different forms of technology that art can be displayed on (phones, laptops, tablets, desktops) the shadows help create a more realistic and visual size difference.

The colors that Jordan Cole used within his website were a mix of warm and cool colors.  He used colors to spark creativity and action which follow with his constant outdoors theme.  He took into account the colors within his designs and the color he chose for the background.  For example, If the image of his work had primarily cool colors within it, he would use a warm colored background to create contrast.  The different colors helped to break up the webpage into smaller pages to represent the idea of looking at a new project.  Also, the colors had a very similar tone allowing the transition between them easy for the eye.

Overall the site is well made.  The navigation might take a second to think about it but after the user realizes they have to click on the arrows to move screens it is extremely easy to use.  The different forms of navigation located on the webpage are very large making them easy to find.  The organization can be a little confusing because I feel the user would someone question why Jordan Cole laid out the webpage the way he did.  I still am not entirely sure if each individual panel is a new project or if they connect in some manner.  So that could be more clear so the user understands what was a complete project.  I believe that using his name as a page break was very smart as it continues to remind the user of the artist while easily covering the transition from one block color to another.  He uses contrast intelligently throughout the webpage, especially on the about me and contact pages because he loses all color except his personal photo and everything is black and white.  Contrast is definitely the element he relied on heavily for his entire webpage and I think it was used well.  Overall the website is eye-catching and easy to follow along.

 

For my second website review we had to chose a one page site so I chose the portfolio website of Visual and Web Designer; Federico Guzzardi (http://www.federicoguzzardi.com/). I am a very big fan of the way that this site looks especially because of how minimalistic yet modern the site is. The main colors that he uses for his website are white and a darker greenish/blue for the color correction that he has applied to the images on his site. I am a fan of this because it keeps it simple and clean and doesn’t cause your eyes to go absolutely crazy when you are looking at this website. The navigation for this site is just a simple parallax scrolling site but the transition from one section to the other is very clean and nice looking in my opinion. Each header for each section sort of appears with an animation as you scroll which makes the experience a lot more interesting and entertaining rather than all of the information just being there.

Another thing that I really like about the site is the fact that once you get to his work it is all very clean and organized. Everything is spaced nicely and if you hover over the project you get a title and description of the type of project which I think is nice. It allows you to get an idea of what the project is but if you want to see more you have to click on the project to see the full thing. Overall I think the design of Federico’s site is done very well and is presented in a way that is minimalistic and organized and is very easy on the eye and allows you to really enjoy not only his work but also the site itself which is really nice.

Review 2

Morgan Torchia

The website I chose to review was “The Wedding of Ashley and Jeff.” The overall design of the website really accentuates the theme of love and marriage throughout the entire single page site. The layout consists of of two short bios about each person, and as you scroll down you gather all the wedding details.

I enjoyed the use of color in this website. It was very light and clean with nothing standing out too much, taking away from the content. I would’ve liked to see a few more pops of color, just for some added flare, but overall it worked well. The layout and overall organization worked well. The pictures served as a nice break between content, and all of it was organized thoroughly.

The website starts off with a nice big picture of the couple and the wedding date, immediately establishing who the website is about. Next you scroll down and learn a little about each one of them. To break up the content, there’s a quote off to the side and a few pictures as you continue down. It ends with wedding details, the schedule, and the couple’s registry. It is organized very well so nobody can get confused about the information.

Overall the website is very nice. The layout works for the content in it and the it is very easy to navigate through. There is nothing overly flashy, but for a wedding website it is very clean and too the point.

For the second review I chose the website Keep Portland Weird: Earthquake Preparedness. When you first open the website you are greeted with a loading diamond shape and then the page automatically scrolls down to a enter button. There you can click which enters you into the site and then you get lowered into another page that has the alphabet. When you click on one of the individual letters it drops you to a different page that lists that activity that is coordinated with that letter. This website is very colorful and has very nice artwork. The colors all work together and are all pastel like, the colors change as you scroll through different pages. When you are navigating through you also see the different graphics change when you select a letter, the graphics range from different bars of colors that start at the bottom and it takes you to that page. Each of the different letters have their own color scheme. This website isn’t scrollable able, it is only accessible through clicking the different boxes.  When looking through the different subjects you are able to share them through social media. The textures thought the whole piece were  very attractive and they are the pictures from the interactive pages. The background images throughout the whole website are very cool, they are all the art work made up for the select pages or the devastation from the earthquakes. The content through the piece is every read because you have a picture of the item and the text matches the color scheme of that letter.

Overall I would say that this website is very well done. They did a very good job with the overall design of the whole page. Being able to interact throughout the whole website through clicking while also getting the effect of movement through the whole piece. It was very nice to be able to navigate and read each part easily.

 

 

The single-page website I chose to describe and analyze was http://www.ashleyandjeffwedding.com, a website highlighting a couple that is planning to get married this upcoming year. The website seems to be acting as an invitation/information page both about the couple and the day of the wedding itself. The website scrolls from top to bottom is separated into five sections: the home page, info. about the couple, their engagement photos, details about the wedding with a schedule, and link to their registry. The website as a whole is very simple.

As described in Chapter 2 of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, it is important to create a color palette when creating a website because it gives you more options to work with than a color scheme would. The website, though simple, is not very visually pleasing. I believe the theme they were going for was rather calm, simple and rustic/outdoorsy. They chose shades of tan and creme to match their engagement photos, all of which were taken outside in the woods. Green somewhat acts as an accent color because our only see it in the picture on the home page and in their engagement pictures. The text is very light in some sections and could be hard to read on certain low-resolution screens. I think the palette works cohesively and visually goes together, but it is very bland and could use some warmer colors to make it a little more exciting. Not that I would know what the color scheme of their wedding is, but I would make the website match those colors (I highly doubt the wedding colors are tan, green and more tan).

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design defines texture as “anything that gives appearance or feel to the surface of a design or object.” The first thing you see when you open the web page is a picture of the couple in front of a beautiful rock waterfall. The picture gives the home page texture through the texture of the rocks, the wood, and the water. When continuing to scroll through the remainder or the website though, there is absolutely no texture. I don’t necessarily think the website needed a lot of texture for its purpose, but this continues to make the page very bland and boring.

The website as a whole is easy to navigate and flows in a very natural pattern. The text, though light in color, is easy to read through and tells a story. I do think the website’s design works well, but I think it could have been more creative and more visually pleasing. I do think, though, that a website is a cool way to get information out about a wedding.

When I opened up One Page Love the first website that caught my eye was one named Meet The Greek. I had no clue what the website was about or why a man was just sitting on a couch in an otherwise empty room. After exploring the website for a few seconds I noticed the website was for a restaurant that could be found in Australia. My initial thought was how amazingly smooth the transition from one tab of information to the next was. Navigation was easy and the video of which showed the sitting man changed depending on what tab you were on.

 

As for color and texture, most of that was found in the video itself. The floor and the walls along with the close-ups of the man himself all brought depth to the website alongside the white panels with text. The panels come out when you navigate throughout the website and the panels are white with what seems to be an off black/brown text. All outside text is black or white and the logo is black unless there is a transition video going on, then it turns white.

 

Navigation is easy on this website. You click a tab and you are there. The only thing that I wished that they would improve upon is the menu. The menu for the website is way too long to be set up the way it is. Continuously scrolling down a menu of which doesn’t even have a scroll bar is obnoxious.
I already praised the navigation for being easy, the design for being beautiful, and the videos for being unique and easily relatable to the tab of which you are exploring. It’s easy for me to say that this website is well done and I am even envious of Australia for being able to eat there.

For this review, we were supposed to find a single page website from OnePageLove and analyze it in different ways, shapes, and forms. When looking through the site, the website I chose to look at was Kod & Form, or kodochform.se, simply based on the bright colors used for the layout. Upon reaching the site, I was very intrigued by the color and texture of the page, and think that the styles used overall worked very well. Each different section or “page” of this single page site had it’s own unique color scheme, but no scheme in itself varied too much from any other. The textures were very nice, and to the eye the site was ultimately pleasing. When it came to navigation, I was a tad bit annoyed. I personally am a sucker for different text boxes and hyperlinks that help you jump and move around on the site, which this page offered none of. There were no clickable options until you reached the bottom of the long single page site, and the only way to get to the bottom was to manually scroll to the bottom yourself. The text along with other various things confused me as well, but I came to the conclusion that the makers of the site were most likely from Sweden, which ultimately made the alternate text okay.

Overall, I think the site is done very well. I wish the navigation was easier, but the fact that the site was easy to look at makes up for it. People’s eyes have to physically meet the site first before they even begin to try to move around on it, so to me, look is a world’s more important than any other feature of a site. I think the site is a 7.5 or so out of a possible 10, with obvious room for improvement, but overall a well-done job.

I chose to review the single page site NativeSwinson.com.  My eye was drawn to this site because of it’s simplicity and nice design.  After opening up the site, I first analyzed its texture and color.  I think its use of white and black backgrounds keep the site clean cut and allows the content to stand out on the page.  The use of both black and white as backdrops give the website depth. The homepage stands out the most with its use of background images that look almost as if they were drawn in the background.  I think the use of the paint brushed drawing that change on the homepage give the site even more depth and dimension.  This is something that I think works really well in the design. Native Swinson also uses a set color palette of cool colors that go together nicely.  The choices of blues and greens give the site a serene, and nature like feel which is appropriate for the content of the site.  Overall, I genuinely liked the use of texture and color throughout this site and find that the design elements work well together.

As for the navigation of the site, I find it to be slightly chaotic.  In order to scroll through the site, you do not scroll but you have to click on the words in the navigation bar.  Once you click for example “About” button the entire screen shifts either left, right, up, or down.  I feel that not everyone will grasp this concept as quickly as I did and may be confused that you really can’t scroll and that there is no blatantly obvious indication on where to click to get to the next portion of the website.  As I mentioned above, I liked the different images on the homepage however they only appear if you click an arrow key on your keyboard. I think there should be some indication that there are more images, like with the use of arrows on site’s homepage. Another specific portion of the website that I would like to mention is the setup of the Gallery. At first, I did not even realize that the list of content on the left was even clickable. Then I noticed that if you move your cursor across the content the image changes on the right.  The problem I find with this is if you move your cursor the image changes, so I think it could become frustrating to some users that the image they want isn’t staying up.

There are design elements of this site that I find make the site easy to scan, read, and understand despite the criticism from above.  The site is very well organized with content that is clearly sectioned off, making it easy to read.  I like the simple fonts and overall layout.  I also find that the site has a very clean look, it doesn’t overwhelm you and has no clutter. Although I find that the use of the navigation bar to scroll may not immediately stand out to some users I do find that the flow of the site overall works very well.
All said and done I think that overall this site is done very well. To highlight some key points I made above, the texture and color design elements are done very well.  As far as the navigation I think the site can be improved with some minor adjustments. For example, I think that making it more clear what is clickable would be an improvement. I think making what’s clickable more bold to users will help them to more easily understand and navigate this site. Also, making it a point to display that there are more images to be viewed on the homepage would be another change that I think would improve the site. I think adjustments  on the sites Gallery portion might be something they want to consider.  I think the Gallery could be more user friendly by using thumbnails of images with their titles below them. Like I said overall I think Native Swinson did a great job at designing their website, but there is always room for improvement.

After looking at a variety of eCommerce sites, I chose to review RowdyGentleman.com as I am very familiar with it. Rowdy Gentleman is a brand aimed towards the consumers that are into the “frat” lifestyle. It has become increasingly popular in the past year and its website has evolved tremendously.

When the website first loads up you notice that is has a very sleek and modern layout to it. With the layout that it presents, it is very easy to navigate the website because everything is shown on the front page. I also personally like the black and white color scheme because then it makes all of the products pop out on the screen. Along the top of the page are the links to the different styles of apparel and accessories that they offer. As you scroll down you see a banner taking up a large portion of the screen to advertise their latest sale. Further down there are a few rows dedicated to showing off the most popular items on the website. Once at the bottom of the site there is a space sign up for the email list and a section for all social media links. The very bottom is dedicated to help, orders, retailers, and about the company.

The style and layout of the website is something that I see on a lot of websites on the Internet today. The sleek black and white scheme is almost like the status quo now for a lot of websites. Although it is used a lot, I think it works very well in this case for what they are trying to put out there. The site itself has is very user friendly and easy to navigate so in my eyes it is a very professional site.

I chose to review the website RocketJump which is a production company I’ve been following for a while.  Their simple layout of a montage at the top of all their work followed by a second section of their current shows is nice and lets the viewer see all they have to offer on one page.

The adding of a news reel, specified for them, is also nice so that we can keep up to date with their projects without going to external sites.  The only problem I have is with the title card where it says what they do TV, podcasts, livestreams and behind the scenes.  These look like the buttons to navigate the website however these are actually located at the very top.  The colors of red and grey are also tacky but that’s the company logos so I can’t say much there.

They also clearly present every button, even those at the very top  because they are always the top of your screen as you scroll.  There are no drop down menus either which can easily get annoying for some.  Then they replaced the about section for a who are we which I see as more personal.

-Charles Stockhausen

The website I chose to review was allelectronics.com. Overall the website is moderately easy to use, but could benefit from a few adjustments.
Searching for a product without knowing exactly what you want on this site is very overwhelming. You must know a keyword or else you have to scroll through a very long and intense alphabetical list of descriptive names of electronics to find what you want. When you finally do get to the shopping cart. It is organized and easy to navigate, but they throw all the information you need to fill out all at once, which again is slightly overwhelming.
The design principles on the site seem fitting for what the products are. It’s very blue and gray with hints of orange, which seem to work for an electronics site. There’s some wording in the top corner in dark red, which does not seem to fit well. And the logo, while gets the message across of technology, has a bright shadow which is a bit uneasy on the eyes. The font is very basic and fits in well. With a few tweaks, the site look could be very successful.
In conclusion, the site is functional overall, but could use a few alterations to make it more user friendly and inviting. However, for a site based around electronics, it surely gets its point across.

Brittany Mayer

RMU Sentry Media VS. USA Today Review

For my review, I decided to look up two news sites. They are RMU Sentry Media and USA Today. I am comparing them because I am part of RMU Sentry Media, and would like to look at different news sites to see how our’s compares. From there, we could either improve it, or keep on the right track.

A news site has to be designed in a way that it would be easy for reader’s to get to the section they desire to read. USA Today does this. They have all the news, entertainment, sports, and other sections listed at the top with tabs that are easy to see. As you go down, you can see the top stories and the important information that happened this week. The issue with this site would be the amount of pictures. The farther down you go, the messier it gets. There is less white space and the reader misses the content.

RMU Sentry media has a lot of white space. It also has the easy to access tabs. It’s pictures and graphics are nice and spaced apart. The problem I would have would be, that when you get deeper into the site, you find old hyperlinks that might not work anymore. Also, there is a lack of design. It is very repetitive, and lacks a lot of color that would make a site like USA Today get more views.

Both sites do a good job of getting the information to their readers in an easy way. However, while USA Today lacks in organization, they make up for it in design. The opposite could be said for the Sentry. The Sentry is nicely organized; however, it lacks color and design that could get it more views. Both sites are equally good at their jobs, and get a lot of views from their selected audiences.