Looking at 3 different portfolio sites who fit under the 'virtual environment' catagory. I don't entirely get what contextual info means, so I won't write anything next to that.
Site 1: Heather Kelley
Impact: 1/5 - Nothing stood out for me. Bland colours and nothing to attract the eye.
Range of work: 2/5 - Slightly varied amount of work.
Navigation: 2/5 - The sub menus are practically unnoticable, which really confused me.
Contextual info: 3/5
All around: 1/5 - It didn't impress me in the slightest. Nothing really sold this person's work to me.
Total: 9/25
Site 2: hdhcg.com
Impact: 3/5 - Nice graphics and a simple animation drew my eye to the navigation, but moving text drew it away again.
Range of work: 3/5 - Some of it's a bit samey, but there's a nice solid selection of good work.
Navigation: 4/5 - Easy to work your way around. Each link opening with a popup window gets annoying tho'.
Contextual info: 3/5
All around: 4/5 - A neat website with a few distractions. Also has some worksteps for some of the images.
Total: 17/25
Site 3: TargeteArt
Impact: 3/5 - The first image you click on really stands out. The actual site is a usual blogger template, tho'.
Range of work: 4/5 - Mainly fantasy, but there's a nice range in techniques and styles.
Navigation: 5/5 - Easy to find what you're looking for. Not too many options to over-complicate things.
Contextual info: 3/5
All around: 4/5 - A bit somplictic in it's design, but a nice, mostly consistant site with lots of artwork.
Total: 19/25
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Monday, 28 April 2008
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Looking at websites - Assassin's Creed
There are such things as websites that try too hard. I catagorise the Assassin's Creed website as one of these. It almost gets away with it, too, apart from the constant buffering screens during peak internet time due to the high quality video.
Once the video's given itself a bit of a head start with buffering (speed depends on the time of day and type of connection), and it starts playing a fully rendered video which I assume is from the game. Either that, or they really went all out to create a unique website experience.
Your first bit of interaction is signing your name on a piece of paper, a contract or something like that. To be honest, I was too busy taking in all the detail in the video to pay attention to what was being said. I'm assuming it's something to do with being an assassin, since that's the main point of the actual game.
The video keeps playing, showing footage of Altair as he dives across rooftops and other parts of a scenery. The only thing you can actually do is press certain arrow keys that appear every now and again within the time limit it gives you to unlock hidden goodies.
The only actual bit of choice comes here, where Altair has to decide whether to leave the guards or attack them. I always pick the attacking option, 'cause they were mean to you, so why just walk away? He fights them in a well animated fight scene, but a bit of interaction would've been nice. Maybe something that shows something of the combat gameplay. Instead, I'm just sat there watching, occassionally looking away to unlock more extras.
Now, at the end of the experience, you get to reap your rewards, which are only only wallpapers, really. It gives you the option to start again, but after pressing all the keys and still not unlocking everything, I got bored at the idea of sitting through it all again. I'm wondering if the walking away option was the best choice, afterall...
Overall, I think this site. The graphics are taken straight from the game, which is naturally going to make it consistantly reassuring when trying to decide whether to buy the game or not, but it could've done with the bit more choice. Sure it would've killed my internet connection, but it wouldn't of made me feel like a lemon as I sat watching him kill people. I know the graphics are great, but it doesn't give me a sense of gameplay, and that's one hell of an important aspect of a game.
So yeah, the whole interactive video sounds like a great idea. Might be something I try out over the summer. But for now, it's a bit too much considering how long we have 'til the deadline.
Once the video's given itself a bit of a head start with buffering (speed depends on the time of day and type of connection), and it starts playing a fully rendered video which I assume is from the game. Either that, or they really went all out to create a unique website experience.
Your first bit of interaction is signing your name on a piece of paper, a contract or something like that. To be honest, I was too busy taking in all the detail in the video to pay attention to what was being said. I'm assuming it's something to do with being an assassin, since that's the main point of the actual game.The video keeps playing, showing footage of Altair as he dives across rooftops and other parts of a scenery. The only thing you can actually do is press certain arrow keys that appear every now and again within the time limit it gives you to unlock hidden goodies.The only actual bit of choice comes here, where Altair has to decide whether to leave the guards or attack them. I always pick the attacking option, 'cause they were mean to you, so why just walk away? He fights them in a well animated fight scene, but a bit of interaction would've been nice. Maybe something that shows something of the combat gameplay. Instead, I'm just sat there watching, occassionally looking away to unlock more extras.Now, at the end of the experience, you get to reap your rewards, which are only only wallpapers, really. It gives you the option to start again, but after pressing all the keys and still not unlocking everything, I got bored at the idea of sitting through it all again. I'm wondering if the walking away option was the best choice, afterall...Overall, I think this site. The graphics are taken straight from the game, which is naturally going to make it consistantly reassuring when trying to decide whether to buy the game or not, but it could've done with the bit more choice. Sure it would've killed my internet connection, but it wouldn't of made me feel like a lemon as I sat watching him kill people. I know the graphics are great, but it doesn't give me a sense of gameplay, and that's one hell of an important aspect of a game.
So yeah, the whole interactive video sounds like a great idea. Might be something I try out over the summer. But for now, it's a bit too much considering how long we have 'til the deadline.
Looking at websites - Dubois meets Fugger
I was gonna post the rest yesterday, but certain issues came up, so I'm posting them now ^^
So, site number 2's a really fun little site that promoting a design company. It uses simple colours and shapes that make it easy to tell what kind of environment you're in, and I think it shows the company's creativity brilliantly.
You start off on the main page, a blue world with buildings. A fish in the sky tells you that there are hidden secrets around the site, which makes the experience more interesting as you explore. Personally, I love easter eggs, and I think there should be more on DVDs/websites :3
When you click on the link to go to another section, an animation will take you across the transition to a different area. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these transitions are unique. If you travel from 'work' to 'contacts', you'll get one animation, and if you head back from 'contacts' to 'work', you'll get a totally different animation. Such variety means it's hard to get bored as you watch your character travel from place to place.
Going back to the topic of secrets, there are downloadable wallpapers an screensavers available, they're bright and simplistic, just like the site.
Okay, so some people might find this kind of site 'kiddy', but I love things like this, which is why it's one of my fave sites. There are no games, no real updates, but there's so much to look at I can't help but keeping coming back to it, even with it's simple graphics. If they'd made them detailed, I think half of a charm would be gone. Not to mention it'd take a lot longer to make and a lot longer to load.
So, site number 2's a really fun little site that promoting a design company. It uses simple colours and shapes that make it easy to tell what kind of environment you're in, and I think it shows the company's creativity brilliantly.
You start off on the main page, a blue world with buildings. A fish in the sky tells you that there are hidden secrets around the site, which makes the experience more interesting as you explore. Personally, I love easter eggs, and I think there should be more on DVDs/websites :3
When you click on the link to go to another section, an animation will take you across the transition to a different area. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these transitions are unique. If you travel from 'work' to 'contacts', you'll get one animation, and if you head back from 'contacts' to 'work', you'll get a totally different animation. Such variety means it's hard to get bored as you watch your character travel from place to place.
Going back to the topic of secrets, there are downloadable wallpapers an screensavers available, they're bright and simplistic, just like the site.Okay, so some people might find this kind of site 'kiddy', but I love things like this, which is why it's one of my fave sites. There are no games, no real updates, but there's so much to look at I can't help but keeping coming back to it, even with it's simple graphics. If they'd made them detailed, I think half of a charm would be gone. Not to mention it'd take a lot longer to make and a lot longer to load.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Looking at websites - Goo-ology
I'll post these separately, 'cause it's easier to find stuff that way.
So, first of all, I looked at the Cadbury's Creme Egg site, now studying goo-ology, or how the eggs wanna get smashed apart to reveal their creamy insides. Gotta admire their enthusiasm, I guess.
It starts with the entrance of the instidute, where clicking on the door knocker will activate the opening animation, where a creme egg goes under the knocker and gets squashed. The first time I went on the site, I wasn't sure what to do, and that the animation'd load itself, but I'm always looking around the easter eggs and stuff in websites, so I found out I needed to click.
Once you're in the building, it has a simple room with some clickable options. The navigation is found by clicking on the pull-down chart in the top right hand corner. It shows the outline of an egg with it divided into different sections, like charts with different areas of the brain. Also, in the background, there are repeated animations of eggs in different accidents. Most likely there to keep the viewer entertained while they're looking around for options. I found them amusing, anyway.
Here's a picture of the chart. The section changes to purple when you rollover it.
It's got an image gallery of more eggs being squashed, or cut into pieces, or other stuff like that. Since Cadbury's and other big companies choose different marketing campaigns for their products, it let's the site really emphasise the current theme, unlike with general sites.
All the adverts are available on the site on an old style TV. You can also play a couple of games to stop eggs from getting mashed up (in the above picture) and a personality test to see what kind of egg you are. There's only 3 questions, and it only asks about how you'd get squished if you were a creme egg, so it's not a soul serching quiz ;P
As for how it could be used for an interactive showcase? Well, it proably wouldn't work too well, unless you found a way to have the different rooms accessible from one main room. I really like the idea of a background animation, but I dunno how I could incorperate anything like that into my showcase.
Website 2's coming up later today :3
So, first of all, I looked at the Cadbury's Creme Egg site, now studying goo-ology, or how the eggs wanna get smashed apart to reveal their creamy insides. Gotta admire their enthusiasm, I guess.
It starts with the entrance of the instidute, where clicking on the door knocker will activate the opening animation, where a creme egg goes under the knocker and gets squashed. The first time I went on the site, I wasn't sure what to do, and that the animation'd load itself, but I'm always looking around the easter eggs and stuff in websites, so I found out I needed to click.Once you're in the building, it has a simple room with some clickable options. The navigation is found by clicking on the pull-down chart in the top right hand corner. It shows the outline of an egg with it divided into different sections, like charts with different areas of the brain. Also, in the background, there are repeated animations of eggs in different accidents. Most likely there to keep the viewer entertained while they're looking around for options. I found them amusing, anyway.
Here's a picture of the chart. The section changes to purple when you rollover it.It's got an image gallery of more eggs being squashed, or cut into pieces, or other stuff like that. Since Cadbury's and other big companies choose different marketing campaigns for their products, it let's the site really emphasise the current theme, unlike with general sites.All the adverts are available on the site on an old style TV. You can also play a couple of games to stop eggs from getting mashed up (in the above picture) and a personality test to see what kind of egg you are. There's only 3 questions, and it only asks about how you'd get squished if you were a creme egg, so it's not a soul serching quiz ;PAs for how it could be used for an interactive showcase? Well, it proably wouldn't work too well, unless you found a way to have the different rooms accessible from one main room. I really like the idea of a background animation, but I dunno how I could incorperate anything like that into my showcase.
Website 2's coming up later today :3
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