Hello again, blog readers!
Thought I should inform you on a project that the CyberArts program is doing alongside Humber College called Shazam. Last year, we did scateboard designs that represented the Lakeshore community/Lakeshore Collegiate. This year we're doing t-shirt designs on articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I'm doing my design based on article number 17-No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of their property. This means that the UDHR protects anybody if the government or an agent of the government tries to take something of theirs (for example, if the government needs money and they decide to take someone's house).
For my design, (which I'll upload as soon as it's done), I decided to do a group of cartoon characters; one representing the government, one representing the UDHR, and the last one representing the citizen. The idea was that the UDHR protects the citizen from the government, so I made the UDHR look like a big burly bodyguard, the government guy look like a sneaky thief, and the citizen look like this cute lil' guy with a wagon full of boxes that say "My Stuff" on them.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Web Design-What's Good and What's Bad (Also Tech Post #9)
Hey blog readers!
When trying to design a good website, it's best to follow the 10 Principles of Web Design. Here's a good example of a website that follows some of these principles. The Apple website homepage shows a giant picture of the new iPad with the simple phrase- the iPad is here. This follows principle number 5: Make use of effective writing. This is good because users don't like to read long sentences when they first arrive at a website. Another principle this website follows is "Don't be afraid of the white space". The homepage and most of the website has a white background and the designers did not fill up the page to the brim with ads and such. On some pages, there are a lot of pictures and ads that fill up the page, but it's organized and all the ads advertise Apple products. A third principle that this website incorporates is "Conventions are our friends". The website has a variety of navigator tools and search buttons. The navigator tools are usually located at the top of the page so they're easy to find.
An example of a website that wasn't designed that well would be the Teletoon website homepage. When you first enter the Teletoon website, you must select whether you want Teletoon retro, the Teletoon for older kids and adults, or the kiddie Teletoon. Once you pick one, the webpage becomes crazily busy, with ads and TV shows scattered all over the page. Another problem is the colour of the background and the colours used for the TV shows and such are about the same, so it's hard to tell what is what. Therefore, this website does not follow principle number 6, "keep it simple". Nor does it follow principle number 7, "don't be afraid of the white space", because everything is colourful and there is hardly any white. There are lots of navigation tools, more than the Apple website has to offer (following principle number 9, conventions are our friends), but it's too confusing for the user and they'll just want to leave. A thing I noticed when I went to this webpage was that my computer went a bit slower; this was because there was too much going on and it couldn't handle it all at one time.
When trying to design a good website, it's best to follow the 10 Principles of Web Design. Here's a good example of a website that follows some of these principles. The Apple website homepage shows a giant picture of the new iPad with the simple phrase- the iPad is here. This follows principle number 5: Make use of effective writing. This is good because users don't like to read long sentences when they first arrive at a website. Another principle this website follows is "Don't be afraid of the white space". The homepage and most of the website has a white background and the designers did not fill up the page to the brim with ads and such. On some pages, there are a lot of pictures and ads that fill up the page, but it's organized and all the ads advertise Apple products. A third principle that this website incorporates is "Conventions are our friends". The website has a variety of navigator tools and search buttons. The navigator tools are usually located at the top of the page so they're easy to find.
An example of a website that wasn't designed that well would be the Teletoon website homepage. When you first enter the Teletoon website, you must select whether you want Teletoon retro, the Teletoon for older kids and adults, or the kiddie Teletoon. Once you pick one, the webpage becomes crazily busy, with ads and TV shows scattered all over the page. Another problem is the colour of the background and the colours used for the TV shows and such are about the same, so it's hard to tell what is what. Therefore, this website does not follow principle number 6, "keep it simple". Nor does it follow principle number 7, "don't be afraid of the white space", because everything is colourful and there is hardly any white. There are lots of navigation tools, more than the Apple website has to offer (following principle number 9, conventions are our friends), but it's too confusing for the user and they'll just want to leave. A thing I noticed when I went to this webpage was that my computer went a bit slower; this was because there was too much going on and it couldn't handle it all at one time.
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