SPP: Final Four Jobs #3_DJM Media

DJM Media Solutions are a design agency located in Central Londres. Their website gives the impression of quality and talented graphic designers with an impressive range of clients and work. However the website doesn't support Firefox or Chrome which is a little strange.

The job title is Multimedia Designer. This entails Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Actionscript, HTML, CSS, awareness of W3C accessibility and user centred design. However it does seem quite broad as it mentions creating video and exhibition solutions, which sounds very appealing.

The main reason of not applying for this job is that unlike my 1st and 2nd choices, I would have to relocate and although living in london would be great, it is impractical given my current living arrangements.

Their website is very impressive and a great example of quality execution. Quite amusing giving the fact we were considering using the same theme of the london underground for out exhibition.

Bubole_Entertainment Factor:110%

Bubole is a wacky site, genious though!
It allows you create your own bubole monster, squash bugs (which is strangly quite satisfying) and also fight other online members.
Try it yourself!

Portfolio Website:Paul Bennett

Designed like a computer desktop and run on wordpress, Paul Bennett has gone the whole hog to impress. He has used Ajax and JQuery to allow windows to be moved, minimised and expanded redefining the limitations of blogging.

Internet archaeology

Internet Archaeology does exactly what it says on the tin: saves and preserves websites and their design from a dying age.

The idea was born from the death of Geocites. The director and founder, Ryder Ripps, saw it "as a major milestone in the internet's history"(.net issue 197 p16). It is quite similar to the Internet Archive however has a more modern design and simpler navigation, eliminating the need to remember complicated URL's. "it is not only important to historians, but also artists and designers".

I find the concept of this site quite interesting from a preservation point of view, but I find it hard to value the individual works. Perhaps over time this kind of museum type site will hold more value as the unstylish and badly designed becomes 'historical' but at the moment I think 'good riddance!'

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.

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'

Charity website analysis

Christian Aid[view site]
This site immediately grabbed my attention due to its clever use of music and simple flash animation that interactes the viewer straight away.


World Wide-animal charity[view site]

Audi Website

audi

Happy Cog_Navigation idea

I've come across this website a few times now, and I really like the method of navigation. It is positioned at the top of the page but in a sentence which is quite novel!

HBO Voyeur Website-Nosey Neighbours!

Made by American agency Big Spaceship, HBO Voyeur is a theatrical multimedia experience and marketing campaign launched in 2007. As far as i can work out HBO are an American television channel provider similar to Sky. Once loaded this website takes you to a high-rise flat window. By clicking you are then given the choice of zooming into several apartment blocks.Within these apartment blocks you ca instigate the stories of the people living there.


This website is not only clever with the use of technology but also the concept too. It works on the idea of people watching and limitations. Its a human characteristic to be curious about what others get up to and this site allows you to do just that without getting caught! The way only a couple of rooms can be view at one time(unless you choose otherwise) offers a limited view evoking curiosity and keeps you coming back to view the other stories.

The New Age of Search Engines

Windowshop
This is Great! Its owned by amazon and gives you a tour of all their best sellers : books vidoes and games. but the way you navigate is really quite ingenius, its through the arrow keys and for the music you even get samples tracks from the album as well as information and pictures.



Picclick
on the same vein, ebay have bought this. it basically searches all ebay listings however, instead of displaying them as you do on the ebay website, you get a grid of thumbnails with basic info such as price. The order can still be sorted into price, ending soonest, etc

searchme is another type off search engine that instead of displaying the results in a list of links with a brief explination; gives you a screen shot of the website in a 'mac' style. You can search under categories and allows you to save results in a stack, enabling you to refer back to it later

Viewzi
Ok now i'm excited! and so glad i got .net magazine subscription for christmas!!

This a new search engine that is indefinately more advanced than google. Especially exciting is the 'photo tag cloud' option of filtering/displaying results-just try it out for your selves!! it gives you a 3D brainstorm effect where images surround related words. These can be customised and draged about, then viewed by clicking on them. this then zooms into the thumbnail untill it fills the screen. Bye Bye Google!!

Seeqpod is a music search engine that allows you listen to any music for free! you can create playlists, embed and share.

tineye "a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions." i didn't try this out though as it is compulsory to become a member.

briteclick "is an innovative search application that makes finding information and completing tasks on the Internet easier and faster" it acts as an add on to a current browers and allows you to simply highlight a word in an email for example then search this in a window that opens up inside ur current window.

searchWikianother add on that allows the user to customise results by altering position on page and moving more relevant results to the top of the page, delete some, also add and comment.

Restaurant Website Critique

The French Laundry
This American restaurant is voted as one of the best restaurants in the world. The website is strangly quite relaxing, and does have a certain 'french' feel. It is a flash site, although it isn't flashy and has a simplistic and balanced layout.

Barnes Grill
Owned by Antony Warrel Thompson, the Barnes Grill website is flash based. Aesthetically this website is very appealing, however it acts as a microsite to his other restaurants so it has links to these. But these links are to big in comparison to the content window, that very little room is left for information and they dominate over the links concerning The Barnes Grill. To over come this problem the designer has created scroll bars. I'm not too keen on this idea as it can get quite frustrating having to keep scrolling all the time. Especially when there is so much 'white space' round the edges.

The Club
This Flash site gives the impression of a young, trendy and modern London restaurant/bar. The key to this site is its simplicity, with a few concise links allowing for easy navigation leading to all the information you might need. Its a great example of good design. The purpose of the site is clear, the links are where you would expect them, and subscription is positioned so that you are aware of it there but it is easy to ignore if you so wish. There is no need for the user to search the page for anything, and the information isn't clouded by flowery descriptions, everything has a purpose.

Marlybone 108
Although this website is aiming at a more mature audience, in a lot of ways is very similar to that of 'The Club'. It has key images and transparent boxes that contain the content. The colour scheme gives a impression of freshness and good quality and generally the site is well thought out. However, I'm not too keen on how the menu is displayed-a PDF in a new window. The only thing I would say is that the text is quite small and especially as they have an older target audience, this could prove problematic for people with bad eyesight. If I were to be really picky Iwould also make the darker bar with the sub categories perminant so it wasn't a roll-over effect.

Fifteen
This London based restaurant is owned by Jamie Oliver and as expected the website is well thought out and aesthetically pleasing. This site acts as a microsite, linked to all his other restaurants and products. All of which have their own identity all of which made by The Plant. The design itself is quite clever, addressing quite a large ranged audience although at times the quantity of text and links does seem overwhelming and would benefit from being reduced.


TarnThai
This website is the worst site I have come across and I can't think or anything positive to say. They have chosen a horrible poo brown for the background, chucked some almost irrelivant images where ever they happened to land and whats with the tacky waterfall animation?! not to mention the links with their orange background and basic blue link text. There is far too much text on the pages and with very little sub headings and ilogical layout the user is left feeling quite lost! This restaurant was a runner-up for the Best Oriental Restaurant by Nottingham Restaurant awards in 2007, so i'm sure its a good quality restaurant its just a shame they don't have a site to reflect that.

Fashion

This Nottingham based restaurant is addressing a 30-40's clientel. The design is quite appealing, however the information is very flowery with little to-the-point information. The text is qyuite small and ovewr powered by all the images surrounding it. The tab that is opened for the menu's has a similar look and colour scheme however layout wise is completly different/ In a lot of ways i prefer this design. The tabs allow for clear navigation and not over powered by images and the information is more concise and a readable size.
W1
This restaurante is owned by Gary Rhodes and it really reflects his stlye of food: fancy but not pretentious. I was really impressed by this website. It has elements of quirkiness that make it quite entertaining to navigate through. The design and animation is of a high standard and navigation is pain-free. I did notice however that on a couple of the Brasserie menus, the last dish is cut off but this is honestly the only fault I can see.

Colle Mcvoy

Colle Mcvoy are an American company that have an extremely impressive portfolio of work. I came across them when i found their Snowdin website on theFWA. However it turns out i have seen their work before without knowing when I visited the Yearbook website. After researching more of their work I think i might add it to my list for sites to keep an eye on. The majority of their work is highly interactive and they definitely have their finger on the pulse.
Snowdin
This is a great site created by. It features 3D cinematic technology that requires 3D glasses. You can request these and get sent to your house; although they are not essential they will improve your enjoyment. It has numerous games and things to download and the navigation has been planned in such a way that it keeps you interested. The only negative a would say it has is that you can't turn off the irritating sleigh bells!

Yahoo
"The Yahoo! Messenger Emoticons want to spread some holiday cheer. Create a personalized carol, then send them off to the digital doorsteps of your friends and loved ones."
This is one i did myself!

YearBook Yourself

L3TT3RP00L

Letterpool is a community based project that is attracting Liverpudlians to upload typography based images from the liverpool area, past and present.

Cool Websites

Narnia
This website is by mercedes viano but with a narnia background. It has a range of interactivity, all o which is quite simple but very effective. i especially like the navigation menu. The why the car travels to different locations on the central globe is very clever.


Subaru
This website has a really cool interactive photo shoot, which allows you to take, touch-up, and submit your own photos. This is a similar idea to what i was trying to ahieve with my interactive camera as well.

another class website

this website is for Cravendale and has lots of interactive elements and even allows you to record your own adverts which can then be viewed in a gallery.

visit: www.milkmatters.co.uk

Cool Websites

Both of these sites are for Lipton Ice Tea. Although both aren't in english the sites are mainly visual ayway so this doesn't really interfere too much with your exploration or enjoyment. Both site have very comical aspects to them which i really like and are

http://www.lipton.nl/nl_nl/

http://www.liptoncleargreen.nl/

tHe CoOlEsT wEbSiTe EvEr!!!

www.minuit.co.nz/

When on this website you can choose a type of 'Being" to be and you are invited to give him/her a name. then you can explore crazy yellow and blue 2 dimensional world using the arrow keys to move left, right and jump. While wandering around you stumble across links but not only that you stumble across others who are using the site and you can talk to them! This website is for a band, who are from new zealand, i love the quirky-ness of this site, it is truly original...i recommend you visit it!

iNtErAcTiVe MeDiA

www.cavemanscrib.com
I found this through facebook. it is a interative flat owned by the caveman. You are able to venture around his crib and read emails on his laptop, play music on his ipod, read his magazines etc etc.

I really enjoy this site. The graphics are of a high quality, its easy to use and extremely well thought out.
It gives the chance to be a proper nosey parker, while you nose about the caveman is still in the flat, and occassionally you bump into him and occasionally tells you off which I quite like. , there is a real sense of humour in the entire set up, especially with his personal blog. i can't critisise it.

www.scifi.com/tinman/oz
This is a very visual piece. the funtionality is easy to understand however the site is not as interactive as the Caveman's Crib is slightly limited as you can only fastforward and rewind the visual. the site does not incorporate the classical imagery of The Wizard of Oz, which for me, made me intrigued

www.stevelawler.com
this is a graphic designer's website designed to basically show his technical capabilities. i especially like the inhaler that the viewer must pump up to reveal the links to other interative pages.
he also has a number of games on his sight which stimuate the viewer, they are all just for fun with no aim, but still work well