Blog 7 – Graphic Design Principles Website Critique

The website I have chosen to do my blog post on this week is Benefit Cosmetics http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/.

The layout of this website is a 3 column landscape grid, this makes the information structured, ordered and very easy to read.

Proximity is used in this website.

The content highlighted in red boxes show proximity on his website as the different elements grouped together in close proximity visually look like they are one unit. The proximity used in this piece makes the layout of the website look strong and together.

Alignment is strongly used in this website and it enhances the appearance of the website and makes the content easily readable.

Repetition

Repetition is seen thorough this website, there is always pink writing against a white background. There is a beauty icon next to each description of a tab.
Contrast

There is no clear contrast used in this website as all the elements are very similar so therefore they appear in proximity rather than contrast. I suppose you could say there is a contrast between the main menu bar and the content on the page as these are in different colours with different backgrounds and the content on the page has images attached to it to make it visually more appealing.

Blog 6 Public Websites – Usability & Accessibility

The government site I have chosen is An post. http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/

I think the layout could be improved slightly as I found it slightly confusing when I first went onto the however they do have a tools & resources tab which is clearly seen on the home page. Once you click into this tab everything is labelled with both a descriptions and image, I think this is great because it enables peoples with disabilities such a learning disabilities, low vision or colour blindness to use this website and navigate through it successfully. I think the An Post website is effective as you can accurately complete An Post transactions on the website and furthermore you can complete them efficiently as the website is quick at responding to your selections. In terms of Jakob Nielson’s Heuristic Evaluation, the An post website matches quite a few of his general principles. It matches between the system and the real world; it uses words and phrases similar to what the An Post clerks would say if you went in store rather than system-oriented terms.

The one thing I do not like about this website is I do not think it supports undo and redo, you have to click on home or another tab if you want to get out of what you are doing and because of this if you realised you made a mistake you can’t click redo or undo…to me this is a very important tool for using any website so because of that I find the website disappointing.

Blog 5 Kevin Kelly: The next 5,000 days of the web

This week I watched Kevin Kelly: The next 5,000 days of the web, this was a very interested TEDtalk. The most interesting aspect of Kevin’s talk to me was the first lesson he mentioned ” We have to get better in believing the impossible”. I think this sums up the technological changes that have occurred in the last few years. It’s crazy to think back to a time when ever house only had one desktop computer with dial-up and the fact that if you wanted to make a phone call you had to turn off the internet.

Nowadays we have the internet and world wide web in our hands in a matter of seconds; laptops, tablets, smart phones are the norm and Wi-Fi is available in every house, shop or restaurant you step foot in but if you told us ten years ago we could surf the net from our phone no one would have believed it because the theory was it was impossible.

Technology has proven that the impossible is in fact possible, we just have to believe it can be achieved. It’s only when you look back ten years ago and compare it to now you realize how far we have progressed in technology as Kevin Kelly says “it’s amazing yet we are not amazed”. We don’t believe we can advance any further then we are now but yet when we do achieve the impossible we don’t take much notice of it until we look back on how far we’ve come.

Blog 4 (Douglas Engelbart and Sir Jonathan Ive)

In the early 1950, Douglas Engelbart a professor at Stanford Research Institute envisioned a wired world very like our own but because he couldn’t see how to get there, he set about helping to invent it. In 1964 he dreamed up a wired box that would point and click its way into computer history- the computer mouse.

Demo for first mouse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MPJZ6M52dI

The invention of the computer mouse has made life much easier for computer users today. It allows you to make selections and move items on the computer’s screen. The two or three buttons make it easy to use. It is small and convenient and fits in your hand. We have come a long way from Engelbart’s invention of the mouse, nowadays many people use the wireless mouse.

Sir Jonathan Ive is Apple’s senior vice president of Design. Since 1996, he has been responsible for leading a design team widely regarded as one of the world’s best. His groundbreaking and stylish work includes the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Ive has received many awards for his genius In 2010 Fortune magazine named him the “world’s smartest designer”. Ive currently holds around 600 design patents.

The invention of Apple products has greatly changed the world of technology today. Many people opt for Apple products over their rivals because they are unique, creative and user-friendly, they are extremely easy to use. The invention of Apple products has greatly influenced how we interact with people today.

Sir Jonathan Ive- Design Apple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q6ULOT9Q4M

Design Principles & Elements (Blog 3)

In this week’s theory class we learnt about Design principles and elements. It was interesting to learn about the variety of principles and elements as from looking at websites, art pieces or poster you would not realise the range of elements involved in creating the different design pieces.

This is a poster for the movie Skyfall a James Bond film starring Daniel Craig. http://www.windsorstar.com/cars/cms/binary/6638235.jpg?size=640×420

This image has a radial balance, the central element of the poster is James Bond and this is clearly seen by use of the radial balance because you are immediately drawn to the light in the picture which shines just above the main character. There is movement in this image with the spiral effect leading up to the man which to me looks almost like a tidal wave effect surrounding him or like he is walking away from the light at the end of the tunnel.

From looking at the image we can clearly detect that the tone of the picture is dark, somewhat mysterious but it definitely gives us the feeling of danger and evil.

There is a strong use of the principle emphasis in this poster. The emphasis here is created by the use of contrast between a principle and an element, the use of the radial balance and the tone element of the poster immediately draw our attention to Bond as your eye immediately goes to the light in the picture but because of the dark tones used we see clearly what the movie is about…James Bond.

Digital Images (Blog 2)

This week’s theory was on Digital Images, prior to this I did not have much knowledge on the matter, discussed in the class was the Colour/Bit Depth of images, Image Resolution, Image compression and graphic file format. There are 3 Primary graphic file formats for web images.

Image One:

This image is in JPEG(Joint Photographic Expert Group) Format. This is the most common file type for images taken with a digital camera. JPEGs allow for some level of file size reduction without losing too much image quality however too much reduction and the image will become blurry. JPEG Format is largely use for photographs like the image attached or gradients.

Original URL http://lh5.ggpht.com/-fnjmt0jsMc0/UqnJ6Wiy1aI/AAAAAAAAABQ/mksl9w3OaCo/s640/Sunset%252520at%252520Kippure.jpeg

Dimensions of the image 251 x 201 Size 11.3KB

Image Two:

This image is in the GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) format. Gif images are great for creating very low resolution files for a website. They support transparency. Transparency allows you to place the GIF over any colour background and you won’t see a border or background in the image all you see is the icon. GIF is good for logos, line drawings and simple images that need to be small.
Original Download: http://www.bccaonline.com/events/images/AmorySt/Starbucks.gif

Dimensions of the image: 223 X 226 Size 97.9 KB

Image Three:

This final image is PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format. The PNG file is compressed in loseless i.e the image is unchanged after compression. It too supports transparency. Images created in the PNG format are also of a higher quality than those created as JPG images.

Original download: http://mail.rsgc.on.ca/~ldevir/ICS3U/Chapter4/Images/tux.png

Dimensions: 276 x 183 Size: 86.1 KB

It was an interesting class as now I’ll be able to distinguish the various images when working on Photoshop in the lab classes, some of the language is a bit technical but hopefully in time that will become easier to understand. Until next week….

Multimedia in Education

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday we rob our children of tomorrow”- John Dewey.

When I think of the use of multimedia in education today I believe this quote by john Dewey sums up exactly what it is all about. The presence of multimedia in education is inevitable now more so than ever, be it from interactive white boards in primary schools to word documents and PowerPoint presentations in secondary school and excel in third level. We have come a long way from the use of blackboards and chalk in the classrooms.
The success of future generations lies in the usage of multimedia from a young age, paper and pens will soon become obsolete and video interactivity, audio, still images and computer tablets will be the norm. Multimedia enables students to interact with the teacher and the subject. It allows the teachers to use a variety of approaches to kindle a student’s excitement for learning which can be clearly seen as nowadays the goal of education is to create men and women who are competent of achieving new things not simply repeating what generations before have done.