Blog 6: Little Known Secrets

Knowing the web designer behind this production, I thought it was a great opportunity to further demonstrate the work behind this awesome site that was created by someone who has already been in this class. I remember as she originally thought of the design and its rapid transformation that she took it through to this product.

I really like how subtle the hover transitions are with the JavaScript included in the design. Only seeing the hover text and especially the color change would be way too much to compete with against the photos so it’s very enhancing to see the black backgrounds behind the text to enhance the text.

One thing I wish had happened was more consistent use of the gifs throughout the piece. It helps draw me into the placement of them throughout the site and makes me want to click on them more compared to the still images.

I also like the element of sticking the navigation bar too. It helps remind me of the various aspects that I can look through on the site without overwhelming me with everything that is available to me.

Blog 5: Poetry and Code

I really look for simplicity in my designs. It doesn’t matter if that happens to be code or print, the best and most effective designs are the ones that make everything look simple.

This is why I really like the inspiration of Poetry and Code. I don’t have to mess around on his site to understand what he is looking for. He adheres to an audience that values that simplicity to find his work and have a good understanding of it. I really like how it is almost like a powerpoint in his presentation but still allows us to outsource to many different website themes as well.

One thing I was really impressed by is the navigation bar. While it is interactive it is also more of a pop up aspect than another page to the website. It played off of his idea of simplicity but gave it a new flare to look into. I also liked the animation that he gave his home page to stand out from a static page. I’d really like to add something like this interactions to my own upcoming sites and figure out how to do something like this.

Blog 4: D Magazine-Frontburner

After having worked with D CEO during the summer, I have a bit of insight into what goes on with the affiliates of D. The company is very upbeat and enthusiastic about their work and products that they produce. That’s why I chose Frontburner for this week’s blog.

Frontrunner is a website, run through wordpress, that shows the short edgy way to give input into today’s news in Dallas. Some of the posts that are featured on the site are lengthy for the home page but the ones that are short and to the point make great quips about the life in Dallas. Everything is very current and what you would want to know about for the upper class citizen living in the area.

The useful thing about Frontburner is that you are able to still easily access the main sites for D magazine as well. It is more of a sister site than having an entirely different domain. I can still see the current issue topics along with what readers think of the site with their most recent comments on the page.

It’s a very clean cut design and easy to access. All the designs are simple and helpful without being overbearing.

Blog 3: Marie Claire

I’m not one to frequent a lot of fashion blogs but I thought Marie Claire does a very simplistic job of using CSS to their advantage. Most of the transitions they install are very subtle yet very effective to show viewers what they are using. The photos and text allow the user to click on them to transfer them to the link. They use either a bright blue color change for the text of the black overlay for the photo and it makes the transitions easy to follow. The borders allow the photos and clickable references to stand out from other less important articles that the magazine want to highlight. Divides are also used mainly on the top of the page so that the designers can section things off to draw attention to certain events, like the Oscars.

Blog Post 2: Unsung New Yorkers

I chose this piece because of its simplicity. The design is clean and organized while still being alluring to readers for that purpose. This is not an in-depth piece that requires a whole lot of background or information. We can see what we want, or better yet who we want, and go from there. The videos make it much more compact and visually stimulating than just a few pictures or a long text piece could give the audience. It also helps the reader have a brief glance into the actual life of these people without having to use a lot of language or other devices that could lose the readers’ attention.

I especially like the use of pull quotes and the brief descriptions. These elements allow me to get a glimpse at what I could be seeing through the video. It’s a slight teaser which lets me see if I could possibly enjoy seeing this segment of the site.

I think with this design the author catches the reader without being too flowery about his or her approach. It is very straight forward and professional which I think works wonders for the content.

Blog Post 1: After 6/4

I had a difficult time finding a work to critique at first and was confused as where to start. I finally found a website called interactivenarratives.org which gave me a wide range of options to look from.

I chose to look into After 6/4, which deals with the aftermath of the events in Tiananmen Square Beijing in 1989. The website goes into both sides of the story as to if the events were a riot or a massacre. The story allows you to choose which side you want to pursue or you can look at them both. The way the website interacts with the reader allows the audience to choose how much information they want to know but it still offers them both sides of the story.

This story offers a fair representation of both sides of this event but it is also allows the reader to be the journalist by saying what is important in the piece to a certain extent. It’s important to note that the creator of this was also picking out the important facts to display on the site but maybe not to the best extent where the reader was concerned.

My favorite qualities of this interactive design is that it is very simple and the text is broken up into little sections based on the perspective. I also love the moving quotes that are presented when first choosing a side because they show a historic revelation as to why the creator labelled that side as he had. It is a very simplistic but effective way to showcase this commemoration.