Date : 27th February 2008
Time : 10.22AM
Listening to - Rock with you - Michael Jackson
Where : Room

Yesterday I decided to just shift my tools and materials nearer to me so that it will be near bed, near references, near scanner, near computer, near resources and so on. Save time fro walking thru and fro. So now my shelves really look empty and my bed area really congested. As usual...since school days, my bed = workstation. Anyway... Yesterday I continued experimenting with texture and possible background for the title design. And also tried scanning the alphabet for the initial of my page name. Still have to do some color editing.













And this is some photos that I took. The lighting and color mood will be something like this la. Hope can achieve the same kind of lighting and mood when I do the tutorial. So prob have to do saturday morning already cos' at night the lighting will be so yellowish or greyish due to my fluorescent light. Like the photos I took yesterday.

Labels: WD1 Project2, Web Design 1

Date : 26th February 2008
Time : 7.38AM
Listening to : Fan spinning
Where : Room

I surfed the web and I came across these few beautiful websites to feast my eyes on.

orangebeautiful.com(blog)
orangebeautiful.com(official site)
designformankind
cricketpress.com
luxepaperie.com
theartblob
essimar.etsy.com
creativeorganizing
shimelle.com

I find these websites rather helpful an inspiring especially for this current project for web design. Well, anyway, I am quite ashame to say that I didn't progress that much since last week. Did some cuttings for the interface design purpose. Still not quite satisfied with the color selection. Have to enhance on photoshooting also. And so my whole interface will look like either a scrapbooking style or handmade card style or simply just cutting mat and materials style. Below are the cuts that I've made.




These are some of the references I will be referring to.






Will update on assignment soon.

-chen-
[8.14AM]

Labels: On assignment progress, WD1 Project2, Web Design 1

Date : 16th February 2008
Time : 12.43PM
Listening to : Still Nothing
Where : Room

Anyway, I checked out Delight.com and Martha Stewart sites. Delight looked very e-bay-ish to me. And navigation also not that comfortable because there are too many links that could actually be complied under one category. And the colours used here does not appeal to me actually. Compared to MarthaStewart's, I find more fun exploring the site mostly due to the navigation comfort and content provided. Delight does not have a strong indicator to let user know which page they are in. And that confused me a little because all the pages look the same. Just picture and then the prices. But MarthaStewart's has different colours for each page but still maintain the consistency of the background colours. Only the buttons and the page title have a different colour. But I took quite some time to find out the tutorial page. Maybe because I need to go through a few sub pages to reach the page. Other than that i think the whole page is very nice. Below are a few snapshots of Delight.com and MarthaStewart.com.






-chen-
[12.54PM]

Labels: sharing, web analysis, Web Design 1

Date : 16th February 2008
Time : 11.33PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

After going through both sites, I must declare that Old Town is still way better than Secret Recipe's website. The main reason is probably the navigation and also the level of reading comfort. I will start off with my analysis on Old Town.

Old Town White Coffee
After choosing the preferred language, a window will pop up, bring user to the site. One thing good about this is that the pop up window is fixed a certain screen dimension; so no scroll bars will appear. The buttons are at the bottom of the page. It is consistent throughout the entire site.



This is the homepage. A short flash will play when we are at this page.



This is the "about us" page. The page name is cleverly manipulated to make it more interesting and in my opinion gives more identity to the whole site. This page allows me to know more of the origin of this company. Not too long, not too short. And the text is not spread from one end of the page to another; unlike Secret Recipe. The image on the right also enhanced the whole look of the page. Since it's telling the history of the company, I think the images used suited the content perfectly.


This page tells the user about their product; how they are made and produced, the ingredients and the advantages of their products compared to other brands.


This page provides information about the range of products that they have.



This page provides user with the fresh updates of their products. One thing that i don't really like about the page is the display of the different logos of the supermarkets that sell their products. I personally think it spoils the page. Maybe the box that contains the logos could be of different colours, not opaque.



This is the final page where users can find out how to contact the company. One mistake here is that they forgot to change the page site. The page title display remained as Fresh Updates instead of Your Favourite Contact. Also, I noticed that for each page title, they emphasized on a certain word with consistent graphic so that users will know which page they are in. Overall, I like the look of the page. They kept it short and simple but with sufficient information. The images used give the whole site and company a strong identity also. Old.


Secret recipe

I think the whole layout of the page is not interesting. The introduction page is okay. But for the rest of the page, it's really not appealing to me. For one, the text spreads from one end to another, making it hard to read. And the content is too much. Also, their navigations are too divided.




This is the homepage. The navigations are divided to 3. One is above the company logo. Another one is below. And yet another one is at the side. It took me around 3 times going through the page to actually notice the buttons above the logo. And the one on the sides, it didn't attract me to click to find out more but that link actually features their product. I think it should be together with the rest of the buttons at the top of the page, right underneath the logo.



This is the example of the page I mentioned about the level of reading comfort. The sentences constructed are too long and it made me not wanting to read more.



Another thing about this site is that the small details are not taken care of. Like the margin. This page, the text sticks right at the edge of the page.

I know this image is very small, but I want to show how long the entire page is. The thing is that the page provides no "back to top" link. So I have to scroll all the way up again. Not only I cannot access to other page without having to scroll up, but I think it's really a waste of time having to scroll so much. A "back to top" link will fix the problem.


This is the product page. I think among all this is the best page I could find. probably it's just because of the cakes. ^^Y.

That's all for my analysis. Now I will update on our assignments.

Visual Fund2
Concept Board
4 figures

Typography
Sketches for Project 2
Research

Web Design1
Set on:
1.Items you want to make
2.Your base and theme
3.Sketches

If got time:
1.Moodboard
2.What are the steps in the tutorial
3.If got reference book/ images you want to use, bring to class
4.Bring the content(site diagram also)
5.Do flowchart and file management

Also, please remember to do the web analysis:
1.Personal blog,forum, etc
2.Martha Stewarts, Delight.com (everybody)
Old Town, Secret recipe (Judy)
netdiver.com, deviantart (Chris, Wahyu, Tanyus)
ChristinaAguilera, Apple.com (Selvia, Diana)

Design Method
Finish the Peer Assessment
Check out the imap sites
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/imapcontents.htm
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/imaptext.htm
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/imapimage.htm
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/examples.htm

Bring A1 mounting board, cutting mat, cutter, scissors, glue, sketches, references, records and whatever that are relevant to your imap.

Digital Media2
Refine your flowchart
Please come out with your sketches already.

That's all for now. Enjoy!

Labels: Assignment Updates, sharing, web analysis, Web Design 1

Date : 15th February 2008
Time : 8.43AM
Listening to : water dripping
Where : Room

Found these animation on YouTube.





Anyway... check out this site also. Alberto Cerriteno.

Labels: sharing

Date : 3rd February 2008
Time : 1.26PM
Listening to : My own typing
Where : Living Hall...

My goodness.... What a week! In a pressure cooker!!! It's not that we procrastinated that made us rush for our assignments. We've been working for the whole week getting around 4 hours of sleep a day and then for the rest of the 2o hours we will either be in school or doing assignments or having discussion group to troubleshoot each other's assignment problems. But honestly speaking, none of the assignments given to us were heavy by its' own. It's just the schedule that made us feel like we don't have enough time. But really thank the Lord for the classmates that I have and also the lecturers. My goodness.... If it was like the lecturer that I had for 1st year 2nd term, I think I die d. =__+!! But thankfully,we got our rest for the weekend.

A special thanks to Wahyu for assisting us with our flash. And also Joanne for extending the deadline. And Sook Chiung for sharing with us the animation by usavich. Hehe...

Ok..assignments for the week.

VisualFund2:
4 figures
Storyboard for Mama Chicken

Typo:
Submission for Project 1

Web Design:
Show at least 2 linking pages in HTML

Design Method2:
Submission for Project 1 (after CNY)

Digital Media2:
Flowchart and content drafted out
Research on art direction
Interface and interaction design
(To be shown after CNY)

*refer to job brief for details*


That's all for now. Happy Chinese New Year! And have a good rest! And semangat!!! Don't be disheartened. Tired and fatigue means we are doing our best. ^^Y (<---peace)

-Chen-
[1.39PM]

Labels: Assignment Updates, Ramblings