The site is the cheesecake factory. The site uses 4 basic colors white, tan, purple, and black. White is used at the top of the page for the navigation bar. Black is used at the bottom of the page for the bottom navigation. Tan and purple are used through out the rest of the page go give it color and detail. The layout of the home page starts with a promotion of there gift cards followed by the top navigation bar. After that comes the content which starts with a large image and a link to online order. Followed by a section of scrolling info. The next section has info about some of what they serve and links to different parts of the menu. Last is links to reservation, story, and locations followed by the bottom navigation bar. All up and down the home page there are links to different pages on the site. When you go to a sub page there are links that go back to other pages. An example is the menu page which is broken up into categories which each have their own page. Any of the menu pages has a link that goes back to the page before it and a link to start an online order. Our site being the same when it comes to the page links. Where they are different is the colors and layout. We used pink, orange, and black for are colors with black being for are navigation bars and orange and pink for are content. The best place to see how the layout is different is the menu. Are menu is simple with all categories on the same page and in two columns. Another way the navigation is different is our home page. There is a link to all the pages of the top navigation bar and some sub pages on are home page.
Harrison Klehm — Review 4
For my final web review, I chose to review another portfolio site that is built in the same style as mine.
https://www.christammar.com/projects
This is a very well designed portfolio site. It is similar to mine in regard to its minimalism. The layout is quite simple and easy to navigate, making it work very effectively as a portfolio. The layout focuses primarily on images and uses words only where necessary. The navigation is also well done, and extremely simple. There are only two buttons at the top, which are “Projects” and “Contact.” The colors are extremely simple and minimalistic, which lend to a modern design, which is good for a Graphic Designer’s portfolio. As for texture, due to the website’s simplistic nature, it is all kept very simple. It is mostly white pages with images and minimal text on it, all to keep a modern feel.
Like Steve Krug mentions in Don’t Make Me Think, non-essential information should be cut from a website. This portfolio website takes that to the extreme, in that text is extremely minimal. I think it is done sort of well, however many of the images are left without context and it may be rather confusing as to what each of them represents.
However, another topic to consider covered in Don’t Make Me Think would be how quickly a user can use a site without thinking. And one key feature this site lacks, in particular, would be titles for some of these sections. The images act as links in this site, and when you hover over them, they turn nearly fully white with an eye icon over them. This is what indicates to the viewer that the image is clickable. However, the images alone do not make it fully clear what each image is supposed to represent, especially that in the bottom right. Without any headings in the image or any words to match it whatsoever, the viewer can be lost in this type of website.
My website aims for clear navigation throughout the entire system of pages. I have it split into three sections instead of two, as to not let each section get too cluttered. I also make frequent use of headings as that is what website viewers typically look for when they are looking for something in particular. I also use images for navigation, but in the My Work section, where it is clear that those images are my illustrations due to the presence of other illustrations in the area.
My website also uses quite a bit more words. Though I agree words should be kept minimal, I believe this website’s words are kept minimal to a fault. It feels like some important information is being left out. I am also unable to learn about the designer himself, as the website is primarily just images of his work, and very little about how it was made, or about him himself.
Conflict Kitchen- Review 4
For the final review, I looked up a restaurant called Conflict Kitchen and looked at the design of their site. Something interesting about the restaurant is that they actually change their style and design every so often. They serve food based on countries that the U.S is in conflict with at the time, and currently they are serving Palestinian food. The layout of the restaurant site is very interesting, where scrolling is the main function of the site. On each page, the main information is at the top of the page, with an image behind, and more additional info, you scroll down, and the navigation bar is consistent through each page, and the layout is consistent where the information is laid out and crisp. The text is balanced, and images do not take away from the text. Along with the layout, the texture of the site is very visual, but interesting. The textures that are used as the main background are used throughout the site, as well as the actual restaurant. They use this as their brand, and change it based on what country they are focusing on. The texture also designates the color of the site. The colors that the Conflict Kitchen used were colors from the textural banner at the top of the site. They consistently keep purple, black, red, white, and yellow. The colors work well together, except for some white text over the pictures. Some text is hard to read, but overall the colors work great together. According to the Principles of Web Design, red symbolizes excitement and passion. Purple symbolizes royalty and power, as well as extravagance. Yellow shows energy and happiness. Black, finally, is often negative, but it can show power and strength. Overall, the colors work very nicely together. Navigation works great as well, and leads the viewer around without causing problems. The site maintains the nav bar through every page, and is clean and understandable. Overall, our website could be comparable to this through our color choices, and it would be nice to mimic the image use of this site, as well as navigation that is understandable. Our site will stand out through images and colors, as well as possible textures.