Review 3
The websites for Six Penn Kitchen and Peter Allen’s are both very interesting websites. They both feature photos as their main focus of the hierarchy of the website. They both balance text and images on each page of the website. Though on Peter Allen’s the image is so dominant I over look some of the other aspects of the page like the navigation on the top, but as you scroll down the page a larger home navigation follows you down and has a drop shadow which makes the text hard to read. The main emphasis on every page is the image which has a movement involved like cheese falling onto pasta. As a whole the entire site is unified with the same layout on every page which is easy to navigate. On the Six Penn Kitchen site the nav bar does not move with the scroll which I do not mind the pages are set up almost always with an image and use a white or green text on a black background. The lay out of each page differs depending on the content, as in there is no images on the menu page and on the news and events page, each event has its own space paired with an image going down the page. As far as unity for Six Penn Kitchen, the entire site has a theme and every page matches that theme with out having the exact same layout on every page making it more interesting and less predictable. Peter Allen’s page really grabbed my attention at first with it’s large moving image but as I navigated through the page I got annoyed with the drop down nav bar that followed you down the page and the menu page did not give you a menu but more links which seems like a good idea but really was more work than it needed to be. Six Penn Kitchen was also interesting and with the dynamic layouts through out the site I felt it was a more interesting and better done site than just show casing a moving photo. The navigation was nice and mindless like in Krug mentions in Don’t Make Me Think. Every link I clicked on took me right to where I expected it to and not more unnecessary links. But at times the site for Six Penn Kitchen did seem a little wordy while Peter Allen was more image than words, Krug mentions how omiting needless words is a better design choice. But also Peter Allen’s had to much going on with the images and as stated in the book making the images create to much noise and is distracting from the actual site. Both sites have interesting aspects I feel Six Penn Kitchen meat most of Krugs ideals.
Thoughts on interaction review
Ethnography provides a real-world way of looking at a problem or opportunity, applying social and cultural understanding to a topic, so an online banking website would be organized in a simple readable and thinking more of how the user would think and interact with the site and display what the user would most likely be looking for on the main page instead of making the user search through many links.
A design may be considered finished when the criteria of the objective is met as well as being the most user friendly version. Although there is always room for improvement, designers are always looking to better objects or web sites among many other things to improve the user experience. So really a design is never truly complete. “Designers are in the unique position to improve all aspects of human life, including the visual, emotional, and experiential. Interaction Design should be desirable- beautiful, elegant, and appropriate- regardless of the medium chosen to embody a solution”(60). A successful design is one that the user can use with ease and without having to work hard to come to a solution. A successful design serves its intended purpose honestly. The purpose is to be as honest with a design as possible and to enhance the user’s experience.
The most frequent object I use is probably my hair brush, I usually have one that lasts a very long time maybe a few years. I normally use a conair brand because I’ve always used that brand and have had much success with it. The bristles never fall out even after a few years, as well as the grip and handle are sturdy yet comfortable. The only reason I’ve had to replace one is when I used an off brand and the handle snapped but really it wasn’t a conair brush. I have very long and thick hair that tangles from wearing hats all the time so I brush it quite often, but I’m always able to brush them out. I know conair makes a lot of other products and I actually also have a hair straightener and blow dryer from them. I feel that its because I’ve always used that brand and when I tried a different brand it never seems to work out the way I expect it to, holding it to the same standards as my hair brush. I feel that even though conair doesn’t advertise like it used to many people already use and know its a strong brand with reliable products because they have lasted as a company for so many years and even have lines of designs for younger children and all hair types.
Objectified
We recently watched a movie titled, Objectified, in it there were many designers from across the globe and we saw how each handled design differently and creatively. I really agree with Dieter Rams and his definition of Design, design must be innovative, aesthetic, understandable, long lived, consistent, eco friendly, and have as little design as possible. This actually made a lot of sense and I agreed with a lot of what he said and what he thinks design means. I feel that my original ideas of design were in his ideas as well as changing my ideas in to those more sophisticated ideas. I never would have thought of less as more for design, I always wanted my designs to be complex and sophisticated but watching Objectified made me realize that less can and is more when it comes to design. It must be simple for the average user and easily understood across the grid. Simple design is in much of what I see and use today. Everything is made to be as user friendly as possible and will be successful with out all the fancy extras. My Idea of design hasn’t so much changed but evolved, my ideas were validated and some evolved into a deeper understanding of what is a good design and what is not. But also what it takes to brainstorm a good design idea before actually putting it into action.
Thoughts on Interaction Design ch1-2
1.What makes up interaction design and what are some of the industry challenges?
On page 31, Kolko describes interaction design,”Divergent and convergent thinking requires a mixture of analytical skills (logic, engineering, and the development of “appropriate solutions”) and creative skills (drawing, mapping, “blue sky thinking”). This mixture is a rare but required duality that must exist in a successful designer. … The constraints placed on the design are a mix of human, technical, and aesthetic boundaries. The difficulty lies in discerning the hidden constraints, which the process itself helps uncover, and balancing these with the more explicit constraints, often defined by a client or business executive. … A common misconception is that formal methods can only be used with very well- established ideas.” Interaction design is made up of “innovated new ideas and challenging traditional ways of considering a product and doing business.”(30-31).
2.What is interaction design, how its evolving, what fields does it draw knowledge from?
“Interaction Design is the creation of a dialogue between a person and a product, service, or system. This dialogue is usually nearly invisible and found in the minutiae of daily life — the way someone may hold his knife and fork while cutting into a steak or the way another person may automatically switch windows to check her Facebook wall every few minutes or so. Structuring this form of ethereal dialogue is difficult, as it occurs in a fourth dimension- over time. To design for behavior requires an understanding of the fluidity of natural dialogue, which is both for reactionary and anticipatory at the same time.” (13). Interaction Design is evolving as people change their needs and expectations of a product or service. It draws knowledge from what has already been done and what needs to be improved or ways to make life easier.
Site review 2
The single page website I chose to review was The Art Of Texture. This page only scrolls up and down and each image you scroll over automatically scrolls down and shows the title of each piece. The background that stays consistent all the way down the page is an off white with a speckled texture that made me think that my screen was dirty as I scrolled. I really did not care for this because it seemed dirty to me but it really was an interesting touch because it caught my attention and made me take a closer look. The over all color is really dedicated to the art work displayed on the site and those really stay in focus and the background color doesn’t take away from the art on the page. There are links through out the page but for most of them you have to scroll over an image for the link title to pop up. They use a light green for most of their tabs that pop ups and I really liked it because it wasn’t in your face but it gave enough contrast that caught my attention and it was easy to read. Over all this page was done well and has a lot of interesting images on it but if you do not scroll over the images you would not know they connect to anywhere else. Also the first down arrow only takes you a little bit so really I feel its unnecessary.
Review #1
The website I chose to review was petedge.com and I had wished to purchase a set of grooming shears. When I was on the home page the page consisted of the logo which if you clicked from any other page would take you back to the home page.Next to the logo on the right hand corner was a search bar and shopping cart for easy access. Under the logo was a tool bar with the categories of products and if you select one a drop down menu is neatly organized with subcategories and products in specific under the subcategories. This was particularly helpful because the site supplies both grooming supplies as well as accessories for you pet like beds and collars as well as bows and bandanas. I was easily able to select grooming then shears then I was able to narrow my search to shear sets and I was able to select an appropriate brand that had a reasonable price as well as ratings. Once I had read over the details of the item I simply clicked add to cart and a box appeared confirming my addition to my cart but also asked if I would like to view my cart, check out now or continue shopping. I hit check out now and was taken to a page to log in to the site or register my information. After logging in because I frequent this site it pulled up my shipping and billing information automatically and asked abut the shipping methods and the experience was quick and easy.
Elements of User Experience questions
- The goals of Apples website is to be easily accessed and simple navigation to any part of the site. For new buyers or and questions Apple provides a support page so that users can trouble shoot their questions or they also have the option to speak with someone one on one.
- The function of the Facebook wall is to display a profile picture any posts the user may have made, a sample of some of their most recent photos and a friends list. The Content Inventory is needed for the set up of such a profile so that similar information such as name, birthday, photos, and posts are displayed on every profile page or Facebook wall.
- The first structure is the Hierarchical approach and the apple home page is an example of this structure. It has links that remain at the top of every page and hold parent links to other links that can be thought of as child links. The second is the Matrix approach and websites like Amazon follow the matrix to navigate the website by selecting a type of product and narrowing down the search by also selecting a color or style of product that they are searching for. The next structure is the organic, this approach does not follow any consistent pattern and websites like Wikipedia is connected case by case instead of by a category. Finally the final structure is sequential, this approach is mostly used when a user is making a purchase on a website so they must follow steps to achieve an outcome in a sequence and not any random order.
- On most of these sites content is fairly dominant and the actual navigation is at the bottom of the page with many links.
- The Landor website uses contrast and color as well as hierarchy to guide the reader and also uses an arrow on the homepage to make the readers see more of their content when it is clicked. The use of bright yellow really catches the users attention and making the text black when scrolled over also catches the eye and users can’t help but read.