Tuesday, May 10, 2011

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww

There's not much that you can say about Google--the search site is that efficient. You only have this very big search bar at its center and a few options above that will help you make your search more thoroughly.

The design is brilliant in its simplicity, since it will hardly have the user confused on what he/she has to do by not throwing and overabundance of information. The user doesn't feel drowned with information, he/she simply looks at it and knows exactly if not almost instantly what to do with it.       

Once you have your subject, all you have to do is type it to begin your search. The search results are extremely organized and easy to handle. It just makes sense. 

http://www.youtube.com/

One of the most visited sites on the Internet, the youtube site has at its core a very simple design. It's a site designed specifically for people to upload and watch streaming videos online. The simple design of the site come's as one of the site's main advantages, where it's main function--the search bar--comes as an extremely efficient tool, since very little else takes attention from it.

You can browse through the most current videos, or the most wildly seen and you have all of these different categories that helps you to pin-point videos of interest. The site has a hierarchy that makes sense, since it shows you movies that would be recommended for you and right bellow the "most popular" section, the spotlights are located on the upper right. The site's main page structure, is mostly composed of videos with their information, number of views and day of its post. When a video is clicked, the information on the video is brought up more thoroughly and there's an option to comment on it--very simple and straight forward.

You feel like most of the space is being used effectively, with very little to deviate the user towards other things not related with youtube. The site simply does what it's supposed to do extremely well.           

http://www.yahoo.com/

I haven't really visited Yahoo's site that much. But you can tell that the main page of the site is pretty straight forward. You have the main window, which shows the highlights of the site. Then a bit downward you can find the news.

The Web search bar seems to be a very significant part of Yahoo, since you can scroll through so many options within it. You have images, videos, local etc.--all options of the search bar. Then on the left of the page you can find numerous areas on the specific subjects of the site, mostly to do with entertainment.  

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

http://dictionary.reference.com/

It's easy to use. The various sections are self explanatory--thesaurus--once the user inputs a word. And the whole of these sections are divided by different color headings, which only helps the user further in its navigation of the site.

From the Translator section to the Quotes, everything in this site almost works flawlessly. It can help the user greatly when they need a certain translation from another language, to searching for that quote that you've had in your head for a while, but don't exactly remember the author.

The very design of the site is very straight forward and its most important feature couldn't be more elicited--a huge bar indicating the area where the user should write its word in. 

http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/

Hmm... yeah. Well the main page pretty much says everything. I just hope that whoever is visiting this site doesn't suffer from epilepsy, but the use of color in the site is horrendous. And this goes on through a lot of pages within the website itself. One click on the introduction page, I'm left wondering why the constant repeat of the rain sound-effect--if you can even call it that. The graphics are downright annoying. Almost the entirety of the site is simply a very good representation of what not to do if you want to keep your readers within your website pages.  
 

http://www.lingscars.com/index_min.php?status=pcp

A car lease site. There is some sense of organization with it, so my first reaction wasn't really has horrible as it could have been, but the colors are all off and it makes the whole experience extremely distracting.

Another huge problem found within it is the overabundance of information. I just clicked on a car to lease and scrolled down through most of the page... I really don't get why the need to put so much information in one page and most of the stuff in it, I'm still confused as what I should or should not be clicking.

The look of the site is also not very professional, it simply doesn't inspire much confidence.  

http://www.arngren.net/

I was overwhelmed the first time I got in site. I'm not even exactly sure right now what the site is for in the first place, but it seems to simply serve as a way where the consumer can buy and get a myriad of different items within it. That's pretty much what it seems to me.

I clicked on some of the items and everything works fine, but from a point of navigation or organization it's simply horrible.  

http://www.yogakitty.com/index.html

The title says it all really. Here is a site where Humans aren't the only species thought of when attempting to reach a higher level of consciousness.

I was navigating through it, doubting if the site was indeed serious, but it really isn't. The very design of the site is as simple as could be, and the little that was in there--especially the videos--provided me with a few laughs: That's pretty much what the site is going for, so it succeeded in that department from where I'm coming from. Outside of that the colors--the yellow--match with the subject of the site.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

http://www.start-the-change.org/

It sure looks beautiful, but while the visuals are entertaining, you have to wait all of that time for the main page to load and once it does, there is only one interaction left available for the user and it takes you to a completely different page-layout. Once all of that process is done, only then does the website start to portray its purpose. From here on out much of it is explained by video, which gives very little user interaction and freedom throughout.

For a site built to combat fraud and guide users towards more credible sellers, it's not very efficient at all at guiding the user, instead it drags the user along. Instead of creating a bond of trust with the user through friendly user interface--which should in principle be its main goal--instead it creates a feeling of uncertainty. Not because of complexity, but because it takes the control away from the user through numerous loading screens and minute long video explanations about what the site is all about in the first place. This makes the user uncertain at times about what he can and cannot interact with--which in reality happens to be very little--and the little interaction that is offered here takes the user straight towards a completely different page, which made me question the reason for the site's creation in the first place--for anything other than a brief  representation of impressive flashy visuals. 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

https://www.mxyplyzyk.com/v03/index.htm

First thing I noticed when I arrived at the site was the sign "Under construction"--that confused me, but I clicked ok. I noticed that the page took a while to load, which is one of those things where I don't enjoy much unless the site handles it in an interesting and creative manner. Once I'm on the main page, I see all of these sections, but the sections start to be replaced by different amount of pictures, that makes very little sense to me from a point of navigation.

I clicked on furniture, the site goes to a loading page, while explaining how you properly pronounce the name of the store. Clicked on about us, read it and then tried to go back--clicked on the name of the store above. The problem was, as I noticed that you have to literally click in one of the letter of the store in order to go back, I spent at least 3 seconds trying to click it once I understood that. Overall, from a navigation point of view the site could be more easy to navigate and it takes some time to do so, due to the nature of the site--constant loading and skip intros

http://www.zincbistroaz.com/

When I first arrived at the site, my first reaction was to try and click on the Lunch and Dinner letters above, when that didn't work, my next step was to try and click on the navigate button bellow and was surprised that I couldn't do anything with that. Also, everytime you come in the site the music changes, some musics I was fine with, others just irritated me, since I was lucky to get the most annoying music out of the bunch--at least you have the option of turning it off and don't have to hear them while navigating.

Once you finally do find the navigation options in the eggs the site is as simple as could be--divided into a small number of sections, which, from where I'm coming from, works in the site's favor.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Rottentomatoes is a good site for keeping track of films. The first time you visit it, you may be a bit lost for a few seconds, wondering where all of this information fits in, but the site isn't very difficult to get into.

The main window for the highlights isn't as forthcoming or elicited as other site's that make this feature it's main attention, but you can definitely tell that it is there and that it's expected of the user to check it out. One feature that I don't like about the window highlights is that if you click on one window, it automatically points you to the page where the highlight is fully explained, I personally would have preferred they let the user click on the highlight, read it's short summary and then make the decision if he wants to inquire further. As it stands only the arrows serve to navigate through this system, making it less of a fluid process for the user.

Outside of that the information is well arranged and you can definitely tell what is prone to interactive input or not.    

http://speedypin.com/

The site isn't overblown with information. You enter it and it immediately directs you to what I think most new users would be interested in--the phone card rate finder. Outside of that the site has the usual log in section above, huddled with the view cart, help, etc.--which are highlighted in blue: With that you certainly know that you can interact with it.

Not a great fan of the color used in the Business downward section; the letters are underlined and you can tell that you can interact with them, but it just doesn't call you enough and the background color doesn't help. Outside of that I think that it's apparent to the user what he/she can interact with, outside "BBB", "Phone Card" etc symbols that are placed bellow the phone card rate finder.              

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Site: http://www.imdb.com/

The site is very well organized. The sections are easy to follow and there is no overabundance of information. Like game-trailers, you can see the main window prioritizing the most recent movie releases. The layout of the site follows the stylistic visuals of the site's ID creating a sense of familiarity--for instance, the biggest fonts are in yellow.

The subsections are built very much the same way as the primary sections--wherever you click you can expect to find exactly what you want with no ridiculous amounts of information and if there is more information than expected, the site's infrastructure is built in such a way as to have the user find whatever he/she is looking for without much hassle.     

Monday, February 7, 2011

Site: Gametrailers

The site is very well designed and easy to follow. The fonts used in the site have the satisfactory size and the contrast of the colors makes it easier to read. The design is composed of very simple colors that had its origin from the site's logo. The site's information is placed in an orderly fashion and there isn't an overabundance of it that would otherwise make the user confused. From the placement of the main videos, to the reviews, the channels or the highlights--shown in the big screen--you'll very rarely find yourself confused with what the site has to offer.

My main gripe towards the site would be the input direction the user is forced to follow: If you go to the fourth page and watch a video there, when you go back, you no longer find yourself it that exact same page--the viewer is forced to find or scroll to the page he/she was in, in order to watch any other video of interest.