I came across this image in my scrapbook which gave me the idea to incorporate the rounded window. I think this makes it much easier on the eye, reducing the conflict between the modern font and traditional imagery.
In this screen shot of the new homepage design you can see I converted the map to a black a white image and changed the hue of the comment bubble to match the green in the header. I also repeated the grey in a footer although it is actually a slightly darker than the header, as against different colours you perceive colours differently. I kept the site blurb but positioned it to the right. Although in hind-sight it might be better on the left as we generally read from left to right and as it will be the first thing you see, will apply more importance. I also kept its background white so it isn't distracting for the user.
The login box appears on all pages but only when your logged out, its position distracts the eye as it appears 'out of place' and could encourage login and participation.
Make you Mark Screen shots
Bebo Critique
"Bebo" is an acronym for "Blog early, blog often"
This is the homepage of Bebo. If we compare it to that of Facebook's, we see a lot of differences. On facebook's the registration form is already there you don't have to read loads of jargon and scroll down 
to view the' Sign up now' button. Also login form is clearly visable not hidden away in the corner.
As I am a member of Facebook I am most probably biased, but I wasn't impressed with the layout or design of Bebo. You need to put a lot of effort into the page before it looks any good and I'm not quite sure why there's a huge easyjet advertisement in the middle of my profile page.
As a 'first timer' I was hard to get started. To find friends there is a search field, but when you get the results of this search there is no image of the potential friend to comfirm if you know them or not. There is also so many sections to a profile and even when looking at a regular users; it looks empty. Although these can be viewed in sections with a series of tabs allowing you to flick between them all.
In a lot of ways it seems very similar to Facebook allowing you to upload video and photos, join groups and instant message. There is a lot of emphasis on link your bebo account with other account such as twitter and Even the top bar is the same, but its just very confusing and to me not very easy to use!!
Reviewing these sites makes me aware of the pit falls of other social networking sites. Simplicity is the key; no one wants to use a site that complicated to navigate around. The fist timer experience is also crucial and will determine whether the individual will return. Its hard enough to get peoples interest so its vital once you've got that interest to keep it!
Facebook Critique
Facebook has taken the online social networking world by storm. Founded by a Harvard graduate, Mark Zuckerberg, membership was originally restricted to Harvard college students where there was already a strong sense of community. Within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered. Gradually they opened membership up to more American Universities, then High schools until September 26, 2006 when it opened to anyone of ages 13 and older with a valid email address.
In its infancy, Facebook didn't actually offer anything new over its competitors. In fact in a lot of ways Myspace offered more, allowing the user to personalise their page and add applications such as music players etc. In my opinion Facebook's success is down to the way it was launched: targeting a whole university's students where there is already a strong sense of community.
Facebook is also a lot simpler to use. I was a member of Myspace for a little while but I wasn't that keen on the idea of personalising my page. Although this allows the user to create their own little 'space' and gives their friends a better understanding of their personality; I felt there was a sense of competition, who had the better layout design, music etc. Facebook doesn't have this focus, the design is much more conservative allowing the soul focus to be on interacting with eachother. Its quite conservative design helps to appeal to a very large audience, blue being a safe colour and use of very pale colours makes the content (posts etc) appear more important.
May 24, 2007 brought about the launched of Facebook Platform, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features. To date Facebook has many applications you can add to your page including: games, drawing tools and collectibles. By constantly adding new applications such as Facebook Chat, it keeps users interested
Facebook creates a platform that allows you to keep in touch with people you wouldn't otherwise. For me the main reason for using Facebook is because my friends use it and its quite intruiging to see what they've been up to through viewing conversations, photos. It is also quite interesting know who knows who through the Mutual Friends section.
uses PHP
Make your Mark Redesign
Since I had put no effort into the design of my website, I thought it was about time to do just that. As the siteis about Nottingham, I took influences from its
history: Robin Hood, The Council House and Lace.I'm not too sure about my choice of font. Originally I thought a handwritten font would suit it quite well but this seemed to contradict the
imagery I have chosen.
Entity Relationship Model
This Diagram shows how my database is organised. It consists of 3 tables entitled member, comment and location which are linked by two lots of interrelated data. Each table has a primary key which in this case is an automatically incremented id.
Make your Mark
These are some screen shots of my social networking site so far. The index page is predominantly HTML however, the login form is PHP and the comment has been extracted from my database.
The last couple of days I've been quite productive. One user can now log in however the session only runs on the homepage. I have got my 'upload picture' to work and on the profile page, if there is no profile picture in the database the 'upload picture' option appears instead. I have also altered the 
registration page so that a correct password has to be entered before registration form appears.
All the content on my profile page has been extracted from the database and I've also got dynamic titles for the profile so it displays "'nickame', Make Your Mark". Profile pictures display now too and the these have been set to a width of 200px.
Things to do:
- I still need to work out how to use dynamic CSS to position comments on the map.
- I need to display more than one result from the database as at the moment I can only print to the screen the values associated with the first entry in the database.
- I cannot currently import data into the database through a form, the upload picture only uploads to a file on the server. I know this will be via a Mysql statement and might look into the statements that appear when you do it through the PHPmyadmin tomorrow.
- Invites are also a problem....
Php Login Tutorial
I found this tutorial very helpful it goes through step by step how to create a log in page that verifies with the database.
Social Site Review: Faceparty
Faceparty
Founded by Andrew David Bamforth and Phineas Kibbey in Autumn 2000, FaceParty is a social networking site aimed at dating. Since April 2008, Faceparty only allows new users to sign up if they receive an invite from existing members providing them with a password which is changed weekly.
Whilst most of the site is free to use, many of the features of Faceparty require Cool Tools which allows users to see who has been visiting their profile and rating them. Unlike the more widely used social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, users are required to pay an annual fee for these services.
Faceparty also offers its own 'Adult Verification System' (AVS) which allows users over the age of 18 to view restricted 'adult' content on other users profiles and this is charged as a monthly subscription.
I was a member of Faceparty in 2006, but haven't been an active member for over a year. On a recent visit to the site, I was quite surprised how much it has changed and wasn't surprised when I found that it had new owners: Anarchy Towers Ltd. Since, Faceparty has undergone many changes in a bid to become less corporate and "to return to its roots". The whole website has become a lot more 'hardcore' with phrases such as "Log ur ass on" and "Hurry on in. Check them darn msgs before the police come." I'm not entirely sure this has worked as the members it attracts haven't changed. New ownership also brought about...
- Staff levels falling from 18 to 4
- All advertising being removed, and it now relies solely on premium SMS income.
- The chatroom facility (Party Chat) being replaced by a forum entitled Gossip.
- A new chatroom (Chat 2.0) being introduced in a beta mode.
For one day only "On July 8 2008, Faceparty temporarily rebranded itself as "Dogparty". The entire site adopted a canine theme - male members were referred to as dogs and female members as bitches. Profile pictures of all members were replaced with photographs of various breeds, and numerous references to dogs appeared throughout the site. The shoutout box was replaced with the barkout box, for example. Members' ages have also been replaced with their "dog year" equivalents."
FaceParty uses aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceparty
Social site idea
I would have an interactive map of Nottingham City Centre. There would be hot spots on the map which when rolled over, would reveal speech bubbles. These speech bubbles would contain anicdotes left by previous users. This could be anything from, "It was here where I proposed to my wife" to "this is where me and a friend saw a pigeon with a cup on its head". I want this to be accessible to everyone without the hassle of log in's however, if they want to take part then details will be required. I will only ask for name (i will leave this broad so the user can choose whether to leave first name or full name) age and home town aswell as the comment field. This information will then follow the anicdote.
Each hotspot could only display the last comment made and areas that may attract more interest e.g.The Broadway or Market Square, could have their own profile to prevent over crowding and to allow the user to view all the comments.
If i get ahead of myself i could look into allowing people to upload images, although i would then have to create some way of screening these for inappropriate content.
A progression of this site could be to show the journeys the individuals have travelled. This would use the info they entered for 'home town' It could then be possible to create a map with coloured lines coming from all over Britain to Nottingham.
Guest Lecturer_Encounters
Ruth Ben-Tovim, a theatre designer came in to give us a lecture to tell us about her on-going project: Encounters. Her and friend and Trish O'Shea have acquired disused shops and explored ways of enticing the local community into creating collaborative art. This project began by finding a few plastic farm animals down Sharrow's high street in Sheffield. Sharrow is where Ruth Ben-Tovim lives and also where they opened their first shop with the help of funding.
They have taken the idea of communal identity into a number of different streams: Lost&Found: where they planted similar plastic toys around Sharrow with a note on: if found return to...
the moey: a mobile
Theatre/performance: made gift bags with activities to complete inside, actors recited stories they had collected previously from people in Sharrow..
Collections: finger prints, journeys, stories etc from villagers,
exhibiting in Venice,
Archaeological dig: dug up a small area, collected and labelled everything they found
I find this project really interesting and refreshing. We live in a age where we are gradually becoming more and more distanced from one another, where not knowing your neighbour is becoming common. For art to bring a community together and at the same time (in some instances) produce quite personal documentation of individuals in a community, is really quit inspiring. It also explore the idea of multi-authoring. the information and artefact's they continue to collect through a variety of ways, has little to do with them personally although by them providing the means it is still classed as their work. I haven't heard of a artist doing anything like this before and for this reason I find it hard to categorise what they do. Ruth described themselves as "forensic artists", and I think this as close to a 'style' as it gets. They work on many levels of interactivity and there work is extremely original.
They have a really good website as well: www.themoey.co.uk
www.wearencounters.co.uk