Review #2

I chose the site, favoritealbums2017.yaybrigade.com, for my second review. This one page is what it says it is, Yay Bridgade’s top albums of 2017. This one page is extremely interactive and combines movement of the user with audio of a song from the album displayed. The site’s color is simply amazing. They essentially use the album cover as inspiration for the design. This lets the sound of the album translate into the design of the page. With every album that plays a different color scheme and design are displayed. It is almost as if you get a feel for the album through that design. I greatly appreciate the time and effort spent to make the users experience more aesthetically pleasing. Texture also plays a key role in the design of this site. It has a clean look with the circles and the movement of the individual records. This utilizes shape as one of its key design elements. The circles not only represent a clean interesting design, but actually basing it off of this idea of vinyls spinning is a really creative way to tie the piece together. This site also plays with repetition in the sense that it uses the album covers as a “nesting doll” like appearance, aka one inside of each other. This plays with the feeling of depth through layers. The usability of the site I would say is well thought out and contains some experimentation.  All that you have to do is hover your mouse over the spinning records to listen to a sample song, know the name of the album, as well as the name of the song. As the sample song goes on, a rising color overwhelms half of the site, letting the user know how long the song will play until its over. Its little elements like this that help the usability as a whole. There is also a stacked way of using it where you can clearing find and preview the album and song. I think it is nice to have the two versions so as to please users. Especially viewers that want a more simplistic view of the albums. Overall, I would argue that site’s design is good in the sense it is well thought out and creatively experimental. I think that the design attracts users who want a little “spice” in their web design. I think that they have mastered a balance between making their site look complex without sacrificing usability and simplicity.