Madisyn Kovach
Designing for New Media
What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (Chapter 3)
The goals of Apple’s website are to make the company money and to save the company money. When looking at Apple’s website, there is a step-by-step process listed on their website to help users that just purchased their first MacBook. Apple wants the users to have a quick and simple service when having an issue. Apple has also set up their website based on demographic. If you think about it, people from the ages of 10-70 could be purchasing their first MacBook. So, the website is user friendly to all ages. Also, the Apple site wants the user to have good impressions. Apple wants to make sure their site is helping the users with questions, so they are saving their own time and money. If the user has a good service, they will probably buy another one of their products.
What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (Chapter 4: Functional Specifications, Content Requirements a Prioritizing Requirements)
Functional specifications provide the developer and the designer with a vision or concept of the final website. A functional specification does not define the inner workings of the proposed system. Instead, it focuses on the people interacting with the system. When looking on Facebook, the functional specifications include tagging friends in posts, posting your thoughts or pictures, and scrolling to see what other people have posted.
What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (Chapter 5: Information Architecture)
There are four architectural approaches to information structure. These four architectural approaches include hierarchical structure, matrix structure, organic structure, and sequential structure. The most obvious example of a hierarchical system in computers is a file system, in which directories have files and subdirectories beneath them. When looking at a matrix structure, a good example would be on Amazon. When looking up a product, you can look on the left side of the computer and see different boxes that you could check off. For example, you could say I just want prime items to be shown. You would hit the box that says prime and then Amazon items that are only prime will pop up. For organic structure, a good example would be when you are on an educational website. You can find a several page document but if you were to leave the page, it would be hard for you to get back to the same exact spot on the page. The final architectural approach is a sequential structure. A good example for a sequential structure is when you are checking out on a website. It takes you through a step by step process. These are examples of the four architectural approach to information structure.
What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (Chapter 6)
When looking at the Huffington Post, I say there is about 90% navigation with 10% content. When looking on the website, there are several options that you could use to navigate your way through the site. While searching Google, I found that about 65% is content and 35% is content. Searching for the presents of Wikipedia’s navigation and content, I found that they have 15% navigation and 85% content. While searching Etsy, I found that almost 80% is navigation and 20% is content.
How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (Chapter 7: Follow the eye)
When looking at landor.com, I found several things that could guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important. You could tell just by searching that they were trying to interest you in research, design, and consulting methods that the branding industry still uses. They also used several navigation keys that brought you to a lot of the content. In my opinion, this website also used a strong color palate. When having a black screen with white font, and then you hover over a word and it changes to yellow it will catch the readers’ attention on something different. Also, this website uses a very strong grid. The readers will not get confused or lost when looking at images and reading what it put down.