Forums

The Liverpool FC official website has a similar design to the previous YahooSports post. But there is much more clutter and for a first time viewer, it is hard to find where to click. But there is a strong style guide and there is a similar hierachy to many sites. The advertising for products (online viewing of games, new kits, betting) overshadow the real information, even though it is at the top. If they cut back on the jpegs and gifs or toned down the colour then the actual information would stand out better. But really profit is the one of the main aims for sites so thats probably why the ads stand out most.


I try to post and read to keep up with sports teams I follow, so forums are good for this. Here are two I saw and thought that the 'yellow fever' forum was much easier to use in terms of general viewing compared to the liverpool fc forum.

The general function of both is pretty similar and the main reason the YF one is much more readable is the type used the smaller type and smaller bounding box, makes it much easier to use.

The hierachy of the text within is also much better, much more page numbers are visible for the posts.

YF page has some bad design on it though, the logo type is pretty horrible and hard to read, the grass background is unnecessary, but other than that its a tight design.

Doodles

This is a cool site done in conjunction with semi permanent, reminded me of that sheep site that John showed. It's similar to a drawing game/exercise that I did when I was younger (but with head, body, legs). Cool site, not for information, not for buying or selling anything, just Doodles!!!!

Very good concept, solid execution too. Very easy to do just by entering a name and email address you can draw away and keep a record of what you've done. Drawing tools good as well, maybe colours would add another dimension too.

Just did the crown on 503/503. pretty crap, but still fun to do.

Danny Yount

Tv and movie credits designer Danny Yount site functions well. although with drop down menus its a bit hard finding the menu's. Site is white and all text is light (which maybe difficult to see for people with poor eyes and/or low contrast screens. But I think that is done so that the imagery is the major feature and text and navigation is secondary.

Movie sites

Saw Nolans 'the dark knight' on Thursday when it came out, fairly impressed, best new movie I've seen in a while. Thought they would have a nice site . Other than a long intro bit (I HATE SPLASH PAGES) and playing the trailer as you load...don't they think of people you pay by the meg (didn't finish looking because of this.

Another superhero movie that I thought was quite good was Ironman, same thinking..big budget movie big budget site. has some nice features, the loading of the heart core reactor thing. Design wise nothing is impressive again. I suppose flash and technique is over style (much like the movie, although the site doesn't have Downey Jr. to make it better)

D and AD site

After Rick suggested that we (professional practice class) join up to DINZ, I had a look round at alternatives. There were a few in the local area (asia) but I decided to join up to D and AD (they got sweet annual and magazine plus lots of discounts on books, I know it doesn't really help with networking, but you only get a subscription to Prodesign at DINZ)

Anyway you'd expect their site to be really good here are a few pages. The site is clean and tight, modernist. Sticks to its 3 colours. Although I find it kind of hard to navigate. Like the second image which ditches all buttons and it makes it very to get back to the home pages. As well as the classification of areas of design, which bit can you just see the best design work. It should be more visual, because it is for designers.

They said it changes when the page goes down, round here

arctic monkeys site

I know these are done in flash but you could something similar in html. The use of an urban landscapes and kind of graffiti as the 'buttons'. This site goes against almost all the rules of ergonomic site. the logo is kind of in the right place and I suppose the links to different parts of the site are in order of importance from L to R.

The use of vector graphics around the outside, look like too much until a page comes up and the index page falls to the background and the information pops up (shown in the second pic). The opacity is not at 100% so you can still see the index page. This helps create, one of Rob's favourite things.....depth.

There is a eclectic mix of typography that is reminiscent of different music genres. Each little part on the menu has corresponding imagery to do with that bit. The poster for gigs, the phones for contact, the retro tv's for video, speech bubbles for forum...

The site functions well, no moving bits and when you move to a page the menu moves to the top and the logo goes to top left and the bits are just like a regular site.

Frost design video

Found this video on Frost kind of off topic.

Frost Design

One of my favourite designers Vince Frost, UK designer who is based in Australia I like his site but it has some bits that are a little annoying to navigate. To get the menu bar up you have to hover over the menu in the top left hand side.

I do like the way you flick through pages on this site though just moving in the direction and clicking up, down, left, right. Not sure if the black background is the best idea, but I suppose everyone uses white.

Nice simple layout though. Consistent use of the same font.

Starting project

Don't have an idea yet for what my site is going to be a bout but I thought I should analyse the sites I go to for functionality.

Here is the front page for yahoo sports I go to it to read american sport news mainly NBA and NFL aswell as playing fantasy sports when the season starts.

The page fits into the hierarchy that we talked about in class. The logo at the top left hand corner the nav bar just below the main article on the left hand side just below. There is a clutter of information but they have placed a system where the page clearly goes from left to tight and the articles get less and less image space.

below all this is secondary information, columnist analysis, video footage, fantasy stuff...

On the bottom right is the live score update box for many sports... there is also a sports 'ticker' above the main article part on the left.

Also the nav bar is all in one colour other than the different and more used features such as the link to rivals and fantasy sports.

There is one spot to pay the bills below the text headlines box.