I have noticed the lack of vintage clothing shops with websites, especially in Nottingham. In fact none of the Nottingham based vintage clothing shops have an online presence and rely on feedback websites such as trustedplaces.com for advertisement. Cow, who are Wild Clothing's main competitor, have been in the process getting a website up and running since they opened. With this in mind I think Wild Clothing could benefit a lot especially as their main target audience spend a lot of their time online.
Beyond Retro are a vintage clothing brand from Sweden. Their website incorporates sound and flash animation in a novel and stylish way. Although the first few pages are flash, they have alternative HTML versions and the rest of the site is HTML. This is done very smoothly and is a simple way of getting round all the issues that effect your SEO ranking.
Since I came across Nevo's portfolio website, I have wanted to incorporate sound on a website. From both websites it seems best used in small doses and used effectively it can prolong interest, increasing time spent on site.
Live Client: Influencial Websites
Live Client: Meeting2
The Nottingham based vintage clothing shops Wild and Wilder currently have no online presence. I approached the owner regarding creating a website to promote the established brand. My proposal was successful and so Wild Clothing are my Client for the Live Project which will run over the second and third terms.
In our second meeting we discussed possible domain names, hosting, CMS and also threw a few design ideas about to achieve an understanding of what could work.
From this meeting the target audience was identified as 12-25year olds with a large %age being students, and the main aims for the website where addressed:
Robin is a busy businessman who wants an easy to manage and low maintenance website which informs the user of their products and each shops details (opening times, location etc). It also must be easy to navigate and use the existing branding (logo, colours, fonts etc).
It was mentioned there was some confusion among customers, who thought wild and wilder were in competition. Therefore it is neccessary that the website should clarify that both shops were of the same brand and ownership.
The website should also identify the heritage of the shop-as it is the oldest vintage clothing shop in the city centre-and also promote the new clothing lines as well as the second-hand and customised items on sale.
It was mentioned that Wild Clothing had tried creating a group on Facebook. This was however unsuccessful and from their experiences, would prefer not to use it or similar technologies again.
The one off nature of Wild Clothing's products, mean that an online shop is not a viable option for the company, as the effort and time needed, would far out-way the profit gained. However without some form of functionality, it will simply act as a brochureware website. As this is my final piece for my degree I would like to push the boundaries slightly so I am going to present a few ideas to Robin at January's meeting along with some developed design and layout ideas.
Simulated Client : Re-Design
From both user testing feedback and also my personal growing dislike of my previous design, I have started to redesign my anti piracy website. It is perhaps a bit late in the day for this change of heart but as I have already coded the site it will simply be a matter of changing the CSS and shouldn't take too much time.
I started looking at PSDtuts+ website for 
some hints and came across the image to the left. Unfortunately the tutorial was only accessible to members but I have used it for inspiration. I have noticed a lot of use of the texture on the ladies face, and the use of collaged photographs goes along the same theme of my previous design, as well as being a common trend at the moment.
Below are some of my initial designs.
Client Project: Design Influence
All of these artworks are from an article entitled "100 Artworks from the Top 20 Designers in The Middle East and Africa" on the psdtuts+ website. Recently I have been disliking my anti-piracy website design more and more, so viewed these to seek inspiration to develop my designs further.
These first two incorporate similar elements of design to my current designs but with more success.
These two show similar designs. I'm not to fond on the choice of colors, however they show interesting compositions which could be easily transferable to a website.
PRP: Trends in Creative Industries
Listen to Podcast
Kevin Wheeler who is the Chairman of the Future of Talent Institute talks about Richard Florida who is a professor in Canada and wrote "The Rise of the Creative Class" in this book Kevin says he "claims there are about 38 million people right now in the creative class in the United States, and they are generating more wealth, by his estimation, than any other group in the United States and in the world".
Kevin also says that "if you want to attract a creative class type of person, you're going to have to have an organization that meets some raw criteria, I think it's have to be, it can't be rigid, it can't be hierarchical, and it can't be rulebound, so I think that's a real challenge for many large companies [...] I think they already are, being very challenged with finding and being able to actually hire the very best of these creative people."
Kevin mentions a very interesting and -for many- surprising point: "the fact that women are now dominating the workplace pretty much globally, two out of three college degrees are going to women globally, women are for the first time in America now dominating the workplace, there's more women working than men, and this recession has been pretty much a "hecession"—it's only affected men for the most part, the vast majority of people laid off have been men, very few women, so this is going to have a major impact on the nature of work"
PRP: Methods EA Use to Maximising Performance
Jeff Hunt the Senior Director of Electronic Arts University and EA. He talks to Steve from Business Execution Radio, about how they maximise performance in their highly creative workforce. Below are some key points made that relate to my Dissertation question.
Jeff: "EA was in the space for a long long time where we were by far the most successful company in the market, [...] well, now it’s more a competitive marketplace, there’s been a lot of technical transition, etc, and so [...] the question really comes down to, how do we help prepare our managers to be, to produce these great results while looking at a more competitive marketplace, Wall Street’s demanding more, etc, and so EA University has really put a focus on helping managers navigate that change and that transition."
Jeff: "We’ve actually created some social networking tools inside of EA, and we have very much tried to foster people’s use of those. They’re rudimentary compared to what’s generally available on the web, like Facebook and LinkedIn and others, but they do give people an ability to create a presence inside the organization and talk about who they know and who they’re connected to, and what kind of work they do together".
Jeff: "The way we decided to measure success in that area is not by how many times we reached out to them,[...] but instead how many times they reached out to us, or how many times they took of their time,[...] and participated in events, channelled other relationships to us, came to give us information, and the way we did that, the way we inspired them to that, is to let them know that we viewed them as a community, we viewed the relationships as critical, and that we were willing to invest in that community and in those relationships independent of whether they would ever work for us or not".
Steve:"That’s a great example, it sort of summarizes, it sounds like the key to maintaining this healthy tension in relationships really comes back to making sure people have agreement on, these are our shared goals, this is what we’re trying to accomplish, that we’re having these debates back and forth, that kind of, we can come back and use, which of this is moving us towards the goal that we’ve all agreed to, but the recognition that those goals needs to be revisited constantly, you can’t just set the goal at the beginning of the year, and then assume everybody remembers what it was, because it probably evolves over time. "
Alternative ideas
This image gave me the idea for a possible alternative interactive element and could be quite effective on a welcome page. The parrots could be animated in a similar composition to the picture and be shouting insults. It doesn't go along with the approach I want however could be quite funny!
Simulated Client: Font embedding
For my simulated client's website, I would like to use a font replacement technique as the choice of fonts supported by browsers is limited. Often simple image replacement is used, positioning the text off-screen and replacing it with an image. Although in most cases this is ok, there are many possible problems linked to this technique. To get around such problems there is a technique called non-standard font embedding and I am looking into the different methods to see which is best for this situation.
"The thing with non-standard font embedding techniques is that they mostly rely on JavaScript and sometimes Flash or PHP to render text in whatever custom font is specified. Thus, choosing the right solution for a web project can become tricky[...]
The good thing about these techniques is that they all take into account things like accessibility, SEO readiness, and browser support. These are all huge factors in web development today. For Internet Explorer users, IE6 is supported at least, and for non-supported browsers, thankfully every one of them degrades gracefully into your standard HTML rendered text.
In conclusion, every one of these techniques has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. sIFR is the oldest and most “proven method”, however it relies on both Flash and JavaScript thus taking a hit on performance. FLIR uses the old school technique of replacing text with images and even offers text effects. However, it is hardest to set up and requires a web server with PHP and the GD library enabled.
Typeface and Cufon are the most promising beign the easiest to setup. On the other hand they are both plagued with licensing issues and lack of ability to select text, which for many can be a deal breaker. This appears to be changing though, as Type Select builds on top of typface.js and promises text selection functionality. Still, it is a relatively new player and is also plagued by limitations such as lack of support in IE and no support for :hover and line breaks." View article for list of pro's and cons.
Website Critique: Wrangler
I came across this site via thefwa. Wrangler have a number of websites specialised to different counties. This one in particular targets Europe and cleverly used video to sell and promote their products rather than the standardised layout many high-street shops employ. The use of video over written information and pictures gives you a much better understanding of the product and very cleverly overides the lanuguage problems associated with addressing numerous countries. It has interactive elements to involve the user and follows a narrative.
Website Crit: STA Travel
STA Travels website follows quite a standard layout but with a simple and effective quirk. The use of transparency and background image is a clever way to create a sense of escape and instant recognition of the brand.
Simulated Client: Lord Mandelson sets file-sharing internet cut-off date
October 28, 2009 | Sourced from: NME.com/article
Lord Peter Mandelson has outlined the details of anti file-sharing legislation set to come into play – naming the date when illegal downloaders' internet connections could be cut off.
The Business Secretary, speaking at the digital creative industries conference cabinet, said that if the amount of illegal file-sharing taking place in the UK hadn't dropped by 70 per cent a year on from April 2010 measures to cut off file-sharers' connections would come into place from July 2011.
Mandelson said that connections would be cut off as a "last resort" and that there would be a "three strikes" policy, with offenders receiving letters of increasing severity, reports the Guardian.
He said that he does not expect to see a large amount of internet cut-offs. "Technical measures will be a last resort and I have no expectation of mass suspensions resulting," he said.
The minister added: "It must become clear that the days of consequence-free widespread online infringement are over."
The Featured Artists Coalition, which includes members of Radiohead, Blur and Keane, are pushing for a three strikes policy – but propose reducing internet speed rather than severing connections.
Simulated Client:Website Layouts
Here are some layout designs for my Anti-Piracy website. These first two images show a slightly different compositions of the elements. I'm not sure why the blue text is so fuzzy but the second image is my preferred design.
The way the Piano keys are positioned almost acts as an 
arrow attracting your eye to the word "Pirates", which is a more logical way of reading.
The way I have positioned the magpie on the microphone suggests that we want to hear the pirates views, which is the direction i am taking this sight in.
Personally I think the imagery and word 'Pirates' is enough to explain the site's purpose. However I will find out through user testing to see if this is the case. If not I will add a short statement explaining its purpose on this page.
This 'Take Part' section will be my interative element. The user will be able to post their comments concerning piracy and previous comments. You won't have to become a member to take part as it is an uneccessary procedure and could deter people from posting if the have to fill in a form before hand.
The posts will display in time order and I might include a 'name' field.
The section at the side containing the navigation menu and strap-line will be fixed, so when you scroll down to view 
other peoples comments they are always at hand.
At the moment the information pages will follow a similar format. I will try and keep this information concise and unbiased. I do not want this site to make the user feel like they are being nagged but rather informed. In the same way, if this site was to go live I would only remove comments if they are offensive. By giving people free rein to say what they feel and perhaps suggest methods of addressing piracy, a lot could be learned.
Although I think the strap line it is ok, could be improved and will try to work on this. I am either going to try a pirate-linked pun or try to work with song lyrics...
Web Design Critique: Neave.com
Paul Neave is an interactive designer and his site takes a new spin on portfolio sites where the emphasis is on his work not himself. The site shows off his capabilities and not only encourporates roll overs and quality design, but also uses sound which creates a sense playfullness and involves the user. The site follows a simple navigation structure with small explainations of each link. The links on the HTML and Javascript homepage take you to a number of fun and sophisticated Flash games and interative elements.
The main element that interested me is 'Vote'. This is a type of quiz which follows a multiple choice format where the options are more humerous than challenging. Neave asks random questions, most of which the options are so obscure that the user forgets about
being 'correct' but instead focus on giving the most popular or humerous answer (the results of all users are displayed).
I think this is very interesting concept.I found myself answering the questions very honestly when a more serious one came up just because I was entertained. The answer became almost irrelevent because you are only given one question at a time and very little thought had to be put into it. I also think that the slow transformations of the background focuses the users attenion on the more static questions.
I'm not sure how effective this would be when addressing breaches of copyright and piracy but i will keep it in mind when decideing upon my interative element.
Simulated Brief: More research...
In July's issue of .net magazine, it states that the founders of Pirate Bay were sentanced "to a year in prison and a £2.4million fine for infringing copyright". The entertainment industry hoped that this would cause shockwaves throughout the world of illegal downloading. However similar high profile cases "simply made illegal downloading harder to trace, harder to prosecute and harder to stop". It concludes suspecting that this court case won't have much impact on the wider issue of piracy and that sites such as Spotify and Google may be next in the firing line.
Rory Standley's (a reader) response to the above article in issue 192 of .net magazine suggests that "the music industry seems to have adapted to this very well. Has anyone noticed the many new festivals and such renewed emphasis on live performance?"
This is a good point and he goes on to say that artists even encourage the sharing of their music.
On page 19 of the same issue Gary Marshall delivers an extrememly sceptical but 
amusing arguement where he says "This is a very special arse[...]it's this arse from which the copyright industries pull figures when they're talking about piracy. It's the arse that decided illegal downloading costs the UK economy £12billion a year". Its interesting to see another perspective on the issue and one that is quite possibly shared by the illegal downloader. In this artical he admits that he has downloaded illegally but argues that not every illegally downloaded file is a direct loss to the industry. Many people download a song to see if they like the track enough to buy an album.
Simulated Client : Design
I have decided to focus on piracy in the music industry. The reason for this being that it seems that there are not many websites addressing this angle of piracy and personally I think this is the main sector that is affected by peer to peer file sharing. Maybe not financially, because the music industry have other avenues 
whereby they recieve funds: concert ticket sales and through royalties. However, I believe a larger quantity of songs are downloaded compared to film, mainly due to being smaller files.
These images illustrate the style I want to go for with my website. The slogan needs a bit of work but I think the general aesthetics are on target for my audience. I am going to work on a 
clever twist of lyrics, from an easily recognisable song. Queen, Abba, Michael Jackson, Elton John,Tina Turner etc etc...The images are just from Google searches so obviously if this was for a real client I would have to source my own.
Simulated Client: Government Campaigns
Through my research so far it seems that there is alot more being done about film piracy, which I find quite surprising as I would've thought that music piracy takes the biggest hit(excuse the pun). I decided to look at a couple of government campaigns that target the younger audience. Pablo being a 'Talk to Frank' campaign and Anti-Binge campaign which employ techniques that Susan Carney identified in her article : Advertising to Teens. These include capitalising on teenage anxieties such as body image.
Simulated Client:Targetting teens
From my research I can state that the most effective target audience is 10-25years old. This is a large range in a lot of ways, but you don't have to do much research to know that people in this age group are statisticaly more likely to be downloading illegally. All the websites and advertising I have come across concerning anti-piracy and copyright combat the younger market with competitions, social networking, giveaways and quizzes. These are all interactive element that involve the user with the intention to encourage legal downloading.
I think it would be interesting to create a website that doesn't nag or point the finger at the potenial illegal downloader, but one that asks questions and involves the user to discuss their experiences. As Buckminster Fuller said:"You never change things by fighting the existing reality". I could possibly incorporate an element of social interativity for my interactive element. Although I need to consider the how much time that would take to produce over something like a flash element.
"How do marketers do it? They know how to capitalize on important teenage issues and anxieties, like body image, peer acceptance, coolness, and a need for power. They use these themes repeatedly in advertising geared towards children and teenagers. Marketers also often hone in on themes and attitudes that parents might find inappropriate or offensive, like sex or alcohol and drug use, further escalating the “coolness factor” of the product."Read more...
- "The Internet is an extremely desirable medium for marketers wanting to target children:
- It's part of youth culture. This generation of young people is growing up with the Internet as a daily and routine part of their lives.
- Parents generally do not understand the extent to which kids are being marketed to online.
- Kids are often online alone, without parental supervision.
- Unlike broadcasting media, which have codes regarding advertising to kids, the Internet is unregulated.
- Sophisticated technologies make it easy to collect information from young people for marketing research, and to target individual children with personalized advertising.
- By creating engaging, interactive environments based on products and brand names, companies can build brand loyalties from an early age."Read more...
History of the internet Animation
Not going to lie, a lot of this went over my head but the structure and animation is great. With a bit o research this could be very interesting!
Personal Research Project
I've had a bit of a problem trying to decide upon a topic for this years PRP module. Choosing a topic that is both relevant to my interests and also one that will be relevant after graduation.
Originally I was going to investigate
What Techniques can be Employed to Create Eye Catching and Userfriendly Web Design?
I would use an Eye-tracking device to measure different techniques. Here I could analyse popular websites such as Google, Ebay and Amazon which are at the top of thir game interms of usability. I had a lecture on colour last year that covered many interesting points including how shapea and colour can trick the eye.How Can Web Analytics be Used to Shape a Website to the User?
research a range of Web Analytic programs, apply Search Engine Optimisation techniques to my portfolio website and measure the outcome. Investigate customisation of the analytic program along with possible breaches of visitors information.Can the Speed of Internet Connections Shape and Restrict the Development of the Web?
Japan and America have much faster internet connections than us, Europe and well...the rest of the world. It is not a surprise this is aiding their progession. Less better off countries still have dial up and Lisban is the only part of Nothern Ireland getting fibre braodband in 2010! Scotland and Wales aren't much better.I realise that all of these are very broad questions and through reading around the topic I would specify a tighter discussion.
This weeks' aims
- loan and read project planning book
- create a gannt chart planning project time
- read around topic and specialise question
- discuss with tutor
youtube website:Boone Oakley
This isn't particarly interesting from an animation perspective but the way it uses YouTube is. If you type in booneoakley.com it will divert you to this youtube video on a youtube page.THIS IS THEIR WEBSITE. The links at the side, navigate you to a series of narrative animations and their work. The animations are very entertaining in theirselves because they are simple and comical, and the little tune is quite catchey. I think thats why I keep going back...
Website analysis:OwnYourC
Larrisa Meek has "been a 3D animator, Miss USA finalist, model, actress and reality TV star."[1] and is an addict of behance.net[2].
OwnYourC (own your choices) is a sophisticated flash website with original navigation and layout. It targets the younger audience with imagery and use of language like "sick", "sup!" and"yo!". Combating current issues like smoking, drinking and physical appearance, it involves the user through questions and collaboration with others. The data is visualized in a simple yet effective manner and can be filtered by age, gender, active users and location. Its stylish animation and design doesn't distract from the sites purpose, although it " feels closer to social networking than public information"[2].
OwnYourC targets a similar audience as many of the Anti-Piracy sites I have looked at and is also is tackling government issues. It is interesting to see how effective different sites are and the ways they involve the user.
[1] http://www.larissameek.com/about/
[2] .net magazine issue 193 'The top 20 designers'
Google.org combats swine flu & climate change
Google is putting money and expertise into prevention of flu epidemics. It identifies peoples IP addresses researching flu symptoms and activates questions to gather more information e.g. "Did you search for this topic because you have a fever or your friend has fever?".
Google is also researching and comparing cars on fuel efficiency with the hope that the information encourages the public to convert to environmentally green equivalents. They are also talking about applying the same kind of technology in our homes. By equipping every electrical device with meters to measure usage and connecting them to a Google application, we will be able to see how much we use in real time and help us reduce our consumption.
Anti-Piracy Websites
You Make The Movies gives the public the chance to enter your own mini-films into competition while encouraging people to fight piracy together. The run a series on cinema advertisements to convey the message and advertise the competition.
The Industry Trust website targets film and gives information about downloading legally, along with short videos by people who work in the industry. These short clips encourage people to see films at the cinema and discourage watching bad quality versions on your computer where your experience can be spoilt in comparison. It is also kept up to date with current cinema releases and relevent content.
The Website is up to date and doesn't give the impression of being nagged. It goes along with what Geoff Taylor said and educates the potential iilegal downloader and makes you empathise with the people in the industry.
Really funny IT Crowd anti-piracy spoof
Screen Thing takes the same position as The Industry Trust. Again it is targetting film piracy and informing the user on how to download legally. One other tactic this site employs is paying the visitor for their opinions "Just click here to give us your views on films and downloading to get £5! Nice one!".It is clear that this website is targetting a younger audience with its bright bold design, quizzes and attempt at social networking. Targetting a younger audience is possibly the way forward as they are statistically more likely to be commiting piracy, but i'm not entirely convinced it will work. Similar to The Industry Trust, trailers are viewable for current films so there is a chance that people would come back to the site but seems to me they join say hello in the shout box and leave, especially as every post has to be approved before it displays!
Knock off Nigel is another anti-piracy campaign for the films industry and again targetting the younger audience. However I would say the website is aimed at a much younger age group compared to the others. Unlike the other sites I have analysed knockoffnigel doesn't give any factual information, instead it encourages the user to poke fun and embarrass friends for downloading DVD's. I doubt this tactic would be very effective with children after about the age of 13, so I was quite surprised to see that they often mention "getting a round in".From a web design perspective, the site is well layed out for a young audience and follows simple navigation. Each item on the notice board takes the user to an activity: games, quizzes, watch lastest advert, download ringtone or send a friend a message telling them they're tight. It is a Flash site, but doesn't take long to load and has the feeling of a micro-site. This is a possibility as www.knockoffnigel.com is currently "reserved for future use", although bit of a backward way of going about things.