Exploring Multimedia -Web Pathway-Webpage research- KAWS

Recently Kanye stated the KAWS would be creating a limited edition album cover for him. i looked up the artist and found the following images and think that i could incorporate his style to make a more unique webpage.

Official album art

Exploring Multimedia -Web Pathway-Webpage research

I Began my research by looking at website's on Kanye to see if there were any consistent themes, and to get a startng point for my ideas.

Kanye West Mypsace page. This page uses the colours and basic theme of his album cover. there is minimal colour and the site looks very simple, and slightly boring.

Kanye Wests official homepage. This is my favourite site of his, its created on flash and represents a Kanye universe with dirrent buildings representing different site areas. However seen as this site is built on Flash it would be difficult to create something ike this on Dreamweaver.

Kanye West blog. This page has a similar theme to the official website, the fonts used are the same as well as the colours, including yellow and pink.

Exploring Multimedia -Web Pathway-Webpage brainstormin

I decided to brainstorm all my ideas for the website. And came up with 5 strong ideas to work on. I chose 2 which i thought i could develop most- an online portfolio and a music artist's album promotion site.








This was my chosen idea, i though it would be best as i need to create a portfolio in the future. And if the site worked well i could develop and imporve it as my real folio.










However I changed my idea to make a promotional website for Kanye West's new album "808's & Heartbreak". I did this beacuase I had more ideas for this webpage than the previous. I will create 3 pages including a 'Homepage' 'Tracks' and 'images'.

Interaction Design- Design Exercise 3 Sketches

My Chosen idea. its the simplest idea, i found this to be the best as the others reminded me of a supermarker more than a music group.











I used an image of a shopping bag and added buttons to various pages of the site. its difficult to see what webpage is for at first glance though, and may look tacky as a webpage.










I used images of 5 different fruit, each repersenting a different page of the site. I based it on 4 colours, Orange, Red, Green and yellow each represented by the 4 fruit. the apple has the logo of the band.














A simple idea i used an image of a shopping trolley. i think this idea needs more development and more of a musical influence to appeal to its fans.

Interaction Design- Design Exercise 3

You work for a web design company that has been asked to create a web site for a new band 'grocery shop boys'. The band performs versions of 'Pet Shop Boys' hits as well as some original hits of their own ('East End Girls'). Lead singer of the band is called Nigel Lodger and keyboard player Fred Bottom.








































These are a few screenshots from the webpage i created. i therefore used minimal simple colours thoroughout the site, and think the colours work well together.
I decided to use minimal imagery and symbols to represent the band as it made up.
my aim was to learn as much of flash as i coud, and after following a few tutorials i think i have a better understanding of how web design works in Flash.

Interaction Design- Design Exercise 2 cont.

These are Screenshot's of my final animation. i used the previous sketches, scanned them onto my compter and redesigned them onto photoshop. I used rollover images for the banner.
when you roll over the text it changes colour, this allows the user to know that there is an interaction. when you click on the text, firework safety information appears on the text 'Fireworks'.











When you roll-over the text "fireworks"











When you click on the work "fireworks"











I think this idea came out fairly well. I used bright colours so the banner appeals to the attended audience, also i used bold but simple to read text so anyone can read it.
I found though that my images in Photoshop lost a lot of quality when i transferred them onto Flash, therefore the banner doesnt look as neat and proffesional.

Interaction Design- Design Exercise 2

We had to develop a new public information campaign promoting fireworks safety, appealing to all ages that may be involved but particularly families.
We had to create is a simple FLASH animation that promotes safety and consist of between 6-8 separate FLASH sections that include animation and some interaction.
I Began by making a few simple sketches.


















The Design i decided to use and create on Flash was the first. i thought it was most appealing and easiest to use as i didnt want it to be overly complex. As most good banners are simple with only neccesary interaction.

Discuss 2 websites with flash content from www.thefwa.com/

http://cmd9.com/








http://www.leoburnett.ca/FLASH/index.htm








How clearly is the content organised?

cmd9:
All of the content is broken down into menu boxes and easy to located what you are looking for.
leoburnett:
All of the content is in the middle of the page, it’s not easy to locate what you want using that menu, but at the bottom it has all the content in a easy to use menu box.


How relevant is the content of the site?

cmd9:
It’s a online portfolio and has all the content you eould expect. Including ofcourse the designers works and a profile. However it doesn’t have enough content on the designer, for most of the projects you get 1 thumbnail and a few lines of text, which isn’t that helpful for research purposes.

leoburnett:
All there work is short movies. But their slogan is “Big ideas come out of big back pencils”. Therefore the webpage makes sense. As you begin the website with a pencil and text and after a few clicks you locate their finished products.


How easy is it to use?

cmd9:
Suprisinlgy easy. All the information is found from the 3d menus. All of the designers works and displayed in data order with a simple description at the bottom.

leoburnett:
It can be hard to use, as the tect is always moving you don’t always click on the desired menu, and if this happens is hard to go back to the previous menu.


What does it look like?

cmd9:
Very appealing, theres a simple background, with 5 bold 3d menu boxes, with float and move around depending on where you roll over them. The style is basic, but the boxes make it easy and fun to use.

leoburnett:
the cursor is a pencil rather than a normal mouse. The site has white background eoth all the content in the middle hand written in black.

Spend sometime browsing the websites of IDEO, Sony, Apple and our own NOW online workspace

What does it look like?

IDEO:
Looks like a site that displays other websites at first glance, as the home page is filled with images of lots of webpages. They use 3 colours, purple white and black, but once the buttons are rolled over some of the images come up in full colour.




SONY:
Hi-teck. It is organised to be very user friendly. There are menu bars on the top left and right therefore it’s easy to navigate products.




APPLE:
Clean and simple design. Similar to the Sony webpage but its more appealing. There is less use of colour, mainly white, grey and blue which gets you to focus primarily on the more colourful products.




NOW:Minimal colours, the site consists on blues and white.










How easy is it to use?

IDEO:
Most complex out of all 4 webpage’s, as there is no simple menu bars that display all the webpage’s options. You have to scroll over the 3 text boxes to get more options. But once you go to a new page, there is a simple layout diplaying thumbnils of all the companies’ works.

SONY:
Menu bar on the left isn’t very practical, as the products just look like text, and not buttons to a new page
But the menu bar on the top is simple and easy to use, as there are only 3 buttons its simple to pick out what you are looking for.

APPLE:
Very there are lots of large images of of all the main apple products eg, laptops, desktops, ipods. The search bar is very useful as it shows thumbs of all the content as you begin to type in what you are looking for, therefore its easier and faster to navigate what you are looking for.

NOW:
Its simple to use, all the content is broken down into menu boxes and its simple to locate what you are looking for. However I found it would be easier to have the Timetable and Email sections on the left hand side, or in larger text as when I first logged in it took a while to locate these 2 menus.

How relevant is the content of the site?
IDEO:
Its displays the firms design work, which is its primary use.

SONY:
The sites main purpose it to sell its Sony products. That’s all you basically get on the site. Also useful other aspects are the support sections.

APPLE:
Very it’s a site that is used to sell apple products and that’s primarily all they have on the homepage, and other aspects of apple is easily navigated using the search bar, such as product support.

NOW:
Very, it has all the necessary aspects needed for students, and there no space wasted on needless information.
How clearly is the content organised?
IDEO:
The buttons are placed randomly on top of a purple background, which makes it easy to navigate them.
SONY:
Similar to the apple webpage it’s very easy to use. There are menu bars on the top left and middle, and information about the new products in the middle. Its very easy to navigate products as the are broken down into simple to use menus.

APPLE:
Very. The main section of the site displays apples latest products, such as macbooks and ipods. And the top left and right menus allow you to find the products you are looking for.

NOW:
Its well organised, the latest news takes up most of the page in the middle, with profile settings on the left. Its basic to edit and use the webpage, however as I said befor I would prefer the Email and Timetable sections easier to locate. I found having emails on the right side like on the previous VLP was much easier to use.