Thursday, April 08, 2004
In response to the Pottery Barn page (no one else had responded to it yet), I agree that one of the most attractive points of the site is the simplicity which it has, versus the gaudiness often seen on other sites trying to make a sale. The colors are very soothing.
I never did see Pulp Fiction. Somehow, with the Kill Bill movies, it doesn't surprise me that this is from Quentin Tarantino. He seems to like to make films with murder and mayhem.
What I didn't like about Pottery Barn is that it had nothing to do with pottery. A Website shouldn't have a deceptive name like that!
On E! online, I hated the little ad that appeared on the Gossip page. Grrrr.
What I didn't like about Pottery Barn is that it had nothing to do with pottery. A Website shouldn't have a deceptive name like that!
On E! online, I hated the little ad that appeared on the Gossip page. Grrrr.
I've never seen the movie Pulp Fiction, wanted to, but never seen it. I have to agree with Kevin about people devoting their whole website to a single movie, regardless of how good it was or how bad it was. I love movies, but not to the extreme of having a whole website about it! Also, the hot pink on black makes it really hard to read. I looked at the words and that is about as far as I got. I don't even make it far enough to tell you the first word of the first paragraph!
I agree with all of the other comments, that the background and text colors are very hard to look at! It doesn't add a single positive to the site, but rather makes you want to click out of it. A better color scheme would add huge improvements.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
First of all, Pulp Fiction wasn't a bad movie after you watched it a couple of times so that you could actually follow every little step. Secondly, the site bothers me because I have a hard time with people who's sole purpose is to devote their entire lives to a web site about a movie. I love movies and I have hundreds of them, but I have better things to do with my time. Lastly, the color scheme wasn't that great for me. I don't really know, I just didn't like it.
Wow that pink on black is really blinding, I tried reading the first few paragraphs and had to stop and regroup before I went blind. But I do agree, in order to get more viewers to stay on the site the author need to rethink his color scheme.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
"Background and text color must be changed if the designer wants anyone to stay and look at his website for longer than 1-2 minutes."
Can't agree with you more. The pink and black attack is just scary.
Can't agree with you more. The pink and black attack is just scary.
Personal Expression site: Gwarv's Pulp Fiction Page
This personal expression site belongs to "Gwarv" and is dedicated solely to the cult movie "Pulp Fiction." It includes details about the plot, characters, actors, etc.
Ideas: Although there is a great amount of interesting info and opinions about "Pulp Fiction," there are several areas that need a lot of improvement on this site. The background and colors not only clash but make reading anything a great obstacle. The links are bright orange, making readability easy, but the dark pink text on the black background can give one a headache in a few short minutes, especially with the large amount of text on each page. Although the design is consistent on every page, it is consistently bad!
On every page besides the homepage, you must scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page in order to get to any links to go forward or back to the main page, so navigation is difficult and tedious. The entire site has too much text grouped together.
Suggestions: Background and text color must be changed if the designer wants anyone to stay and look at his website for longer than 1-2 minutes. Navigation needs to be easier for the viewer and links need to be up at the top of each page.
This personal expression site belongs to "Gwarv" and is dedicated solely to the cult movie "Pulp Fiction." It includes details about the plot, characters, actors, etc.
Ideas: Although there is a great amount of interesting info and opinions about "Pulp Fiction," there are several areas that need a lot of improvement on this site. The background and colors not only clash but make reading anything a great obstacle. The links are bright orange, making readability easy, but the dark pink text on the black background can give one a headache in a few short minutes, especially with the large amount of text on each page. Although the design is consistent on every page, it is consistently bad!
On every page besides the homepage, you must scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page in order to get to any links to go forward or back to the main page, so navigation is difficult and tedious. The entire site has too much text grouped together.
Suggestions: Background and text color must be changed if the designer wants anyone to stay and look at his website for longer than 1-2 minutes. Navigation needs to be easier for the viewer and links need to be up at the top of each page.
Persuasive site: Pottery Barn
This site is a site full of housewares, including bed, bath, kitchen, furniture, etc.
Ideas: The background and text colors are great for this site. The white and tan are simple yet extremely effective. There is a navigation bar at the top of each page which offers a link to each category, i.e. bedding and bath. This site has a unique feature on the bottom-half of the homepage. There is a table with three columns that offers something different visually; it looks like the designers used the "rule of threes." There are a variety of different links that differ from the navigaton bar. They seem to be "extras" that the site offers that offer advice and ideas for home furnishing. According to the Web Design Guide, "Pages should appear quickly. While new surfers might be impressed with snazzy graphics, experienced netizens are more likely to bookmark and revisit or recommend a site which is content rich and lets them locate the information they are seeking efficiently." The page does take longer than necessary to load, but I believe that it is due to the necessary pictures of their products. Overall, Pottery Barn does an excellent job of their simple, yet sophisticated website.
Suggestions: Pottery Barn does a great job of focusing on the sale of their items and not on a gaudy website. The design and use of columns break up text and offer something refreshingly different from other sites that I have looked at lately. Everything seems to work together effectively.
This site is a site full of housewares, including bed, bath, kitchen, furniture, etc.
Ideas: The background and text colors are great for this site. The white and tan are simple yet extremely effective. There is a navigation bar at the top of each page which offers a link to each category, i.e. bedding and bath. This site has a unique feature on the bottom-half of the homepage. There is a table with three columns that offers something different visually; it looks like the designers used the "rule of threes." There are a variety of different links that differ from the navigaton bar. They seem to be "extras" that the site offers that offer advice and ideas for home furnishing. According to the Web Design Guide, "Pages should appear quickly. While new surfers might be impressed with snazzy graphics, experienced netizens are more likely to bookmark and revisit or recommend a site which is content rich and lets them locate the information they are seeking efficiently." The page does take longer than necessary to load, but I believe that it is due to the necessary pictures of their products. Overall, Pottery Barn does an excellent job of their simple, yet sophisticated website.
Suggestions: Pottery Barn does a great job of focusing on the sale of their items and not on a gaudy website. The design and use of columns break up text and offer something refreshingly different from other sites that I have looked at lately. Everything seems to work together effectively.
Entertainment site: E! Online
This site is the E! website (as in the E! television channel). I consider it to be an entertainment site because it has lots of info on celebrities, as well as quizzes, pictures, and other trivial, but interesting things to view.
Positives: The site is easy to navigate. There's a navigation bar at the top of every page that has straightforward names to inform you where everything is located. The colors used (black, white, and grey) contrast well with the animated graphics and pictures. The site is divided into many different blocks using tables, which helps to break up the abundant amount of information.
Negatives: There is a lot going on in every single page which can be confusing at times. The color and tables do break it up a little, but the clutter can be troublesome at times. According to the Web Style Guide, "Don't overly subdivide your information or you will frustrate your readers." In the case of the E! website, even though the tables do break up information, it seems to be too divided, thus causing confusion.
Suggestions: Overall, the site has a lot of entertaining information. The amount of tables need to be reduced; if the tables are not reduced, the amount of text should be reduced a small amount, so one can truly differentiate between items. However, the colors are a good choice and should be kept.
This site is the E! website (as in the E! television channel). I consider it to be an entertainment site because it has lots of info on celebrities, as well as quizzes, pictures, and other trivial, but interesting things to view.
Positives: The site is easy to navigate. There's a navigation bar at the top of every page that has straightforward names to inform you where everything is located. The colors used (black, white, and grey) contrast well with the animated graphics and pictures. The site is divided into many different blocks using tables, which helps to break up the abundant amount of information.
Negatives: There is a lot going on in every single page which can be confusing at times. The color and tables do break it up a little, but the clutter can be troublesome at times. According to the Web Style Guide, "Don't overly subdivide your information or you will frustrate your readers." In the case of the E! website, even though the tables do break up information, it seems to be too divided, thus causing confusion.
Suggestions: Overall, the site has a lot of entertaining information. The amount of tables need to be reduced; if the tables are not reduced, the amount of text should be reduced a small amount, so one can truly differentiate between items. However, the colors are a good choice and should be kept.
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Wow... I really don't like this site. The first thing that I thought when I went to it was "what is going on, what is this for??" I think that the site lacks focus and it is hard to look at because of it. My eyes were going all over the page looking for something to focus on and it never really happened for me. I think that the site probably has a lot of good information on it but I had a hard time even wanting to go through the links because the design and layout is so random and unfocused.
Thursday, March 25, 2004
It seems to me like there are a lot of links, and a alot going on on the entry page. I think more viewers would want to stay on the site if it was alittle bit easier to take in!
The Purdue site could definitely benefit from making sub-site pages with those links on them. I understand the need to link to everything (it is an informative site, after all...can't skimp on the knowledge) but this one page has way too much linkage.
"The pull-down menus at the top on the homepage have too many options and the user does not even know where to start looking for the wanted information."
I actually thought this was one of the things they did right. At a maximum of 8 links per pull-down, that's hardly excessive. The headers in the pull-down also do a good job of telling what is contained within the pulldown.
"The pull-down menus at the top on the homepage have too many options and the user does not even know where to start looking for the wanted information."
I actually thought this was one of the things they did right. At a maximum of 8 links per pull-down, that's hardly excessive. The headers in the pull-down also do a good job of telling what is contained within the pulldown.
There are way way to many links on this page. I think a different way of having the many different links would help make the website more attractive and easier to read. I like the simple colors and the little graphics it has on the page. I think I would make the Owl graphic a little bigger. I liked the pull down windows at the top. They make it easy to navigate throughout the website. I would just do something different with all those links.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Website Critique: Informative site: Purdue University's Online Writing Lab
Hello everyone! The first site I will be critiquing is the informative website. This website offers a plethora of writing tips and resources for the college writer. Since this is the time of year when we are all working on research papers, I thought that evaluating this site would be a good idea.
Positive Aspects:
Colors/Background:This site is very simple concerning colors of background and text--the background is white with black text. There are few graphics with the exception of the OWL graphic. This minimalist approach is effective for the most part, especially considering the type of site that it is. All of the available links are bright blue and easily discernable from normal text.
Design Layout: There is a grey sidebar with info for Purdue students as well as quick links to various sections of the website. Like the links, it is noticeable and provides a breakup of white space, which is nice on the eyes.
The pull-down menus at the top of the page guide the user to the necessary page. Unlike most sites, you must hit go to proceed to the page that you have chosen. This is a nice feature because many times I tend to use the pull-down menu and accidently go to a different page which can be frustrating.
The amazing amount of information is great for anyone who is looking for resources for writing a paper. There are separate pages that display examples of citing APA and MLA styles, which prove invaluable.
Negative Aspects:
Unfortunately, there are more negative aspects than positive for web design and layout.
Text and Menus:There is an overabundance of text on each page, without noticeable breaks for different topics. Although there is a lot of helpful information, one must scroll down to find it. Granted, there are bookmarks at the top that take you to various sections throughout the page, but they are sometimes vague. There are so many links all over nearly every page that it is confusing and clutters the site. It is almost as though they are trying to be too helpful. Many times, the link does not fully describe where it takes you to, so you are constantly testing links to see where they go.
The pull-down menus at the top on the homepage have too many options and the user does not even know where to start looking for the wanted information. There is a menu bar at the bottom of every page, but it is small and hard to find.
Suggestions: I would keep all of the colors; they are good for this type of site. However, it is frustrating and boring at times to look at all text, so some graphics, even trivial, might at least break up some white space and text as well. The number of links needs to be reduced by a large amount. Instead of being right in the middle of the text with little or no explanation, adding them to a sidebar with a short explanation of some kind may help. The menu bar at the bottom of each page should be enlarged, and the links could be a color other than the blue, such as red, for the normal links. Overall, the website has great content, but the information is hard to find and the organization and design needs to be improved.
That's all for now--
Next time: Entertainment site and link to Web design source
Hello everyone! The first site I will be critiquing is the informative website. This website offers a plethora of writing tips and resources for the college writer. Since this is the time of year when we are all working on research papers, I thought that evaluating this site would be a good idea.
Positive Aspects:
Colors/Background:This site is very simple concerning colors of background and text--the background is white with black text. There are few graphics with the exception of the OWL graphic. This minimalist approach is effective for the most part, especially considering the type of site that it is. All of the available links are bright blue and easily discernable from normal text.
Design Layout: There is a grey sidebar with info for Purdue students as well as quick links to various sections of the website. Like the links, it is noticeable and provides a breakup of white space, which is nice on the eyes.
The pull-down menus at the top of the page guide the user to the necessary page. Unlike most sites, you must hit go to proceed to the page that you have chosen. This is a nice feature because many times I tend to use the pull-down menu and accidently go to a different page which can be frustrating.
The amazing amount of information is great for anyone who is looking for resources for writing a paper. There are separate pages that display examples of citing APA and MLA styles, which prove invaluable.
Negative Aspects:
Unfortunately, there are more negative aspects than positive for web design and layout.
Text and Menus:There is an overabundance of text on each page, without noticeable breaks for different topics. Although there is a lot of helpful information, one must scroll down to find it. Granted, there are bookmarks at the top that take you to various sections throughout the page, but they are sometimes vague. There are so many links all over nearly every page that it is confusing and clutters the site. It is almost as though they are trying to be too helpful. Many times, the link does not fully describe where it takes you to, so you are constantly testing links to see where they go.
The pull-down menus at the top on the homepage have too many options and the user does not even know where to start looking for the wanted information. There is a menu bar at the bottom of every page, but it is small and hard to find.
Suggestions: I would keep all of the colors; they are good for this type of site. However, it is frustrating and boring at times to look at all text, so some graphics, even trivial, might at least break up some white space and text as well. The number of links needs to be reduced by a large amount. Instead of being right in the middle of the text with little or no explanation, adding them to a sidebar with a short explanation of some kind may help. The menu bar at the bottom of each page should be enlarged, and the links could be a color other than the blue, such as red, for the normal links. Overall, the website has great content, but the information is hard to find and the organization and design needs to be improved.
That's all for now--
Next time: Entertainment site and link to Web design source
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
For the Filter Weblog Project, I have chosen the Website Critique option. There will be links to four websites: informative, persuasive, personal expression, and entertainment. I will critique each site according to concepts we learned in class. My next entry will include the four sites to be critiqued with short summaries of each.
