First Project - Complete

For my project I chose to redesign the website for the Bodega Social Club in Nottingham. This was down to the reasons that it is somewhere I visit quite regularly, and I believe their current site is quite poor.

I decided to stick to a quite simple and organised layout, using only shades of grey, and a shade of purple throughout so not to be too distracting and drawing the attention away from the content of the site.



I wanted to make the title the real stand out part of the website as it is something that is included on every page. I kept the same shape outline as the current one, however, I have used a slightly different font and arranged the text in what I believe to be a more effective way. Due to the only image of the logo I could get being very small, I decided to make it slightly transparent and put it behind the text in a way where it can still be seen and not be too confusing to the user, but still keeping the branding.

The Home page is made up of a short introductory paragraph, along with a javascript image rotator that catches the user's eye and lets them know the upcoming events in a hope to draw them in and continue viewing the rest of the website.

Initially I used a block colour as the background for my site, but by adding a slight texture, it gives the container a sense of depth and provides the content to stand out.



The 'about' page is made up of one box with all the information about the venue, with a image in the bottom corner to break up the text and not to be too overwhelming for the viewer.





I used the same layout for both the 'gigs' and 'club nights' pages. Both pages were required to contain a lot of information, so I used a jQuery accordion technique so that the text is broken up and only certain bits can be viewed at a time. By doing this it doesn't come as too much and risk the user missing certain bits of information, they can easily find the section they want and quickly get the necessary information.



On the 'contact' page, I have kept the amount of text to a bare minimum, as this is the last thing you want when looking for certain contact details. I have used bold headings so the user can see exactly what they need. I have also embedded a Google Map onto the page so the user can get a visual idea of how to find the venue, without having to exit the site and go elsewhere.



The 3rd element of javascript I used was on my gallery page. I created a simple image change when the mouse is hovered over the images to make them appear in colour and when they are clicked on, a small caption comes up telling the user what the picture is of.

I am now going to attempt to validate my site to WC3 standards before submitting it.

Portfolio Update

I have updated my personal website, with a description, and changing backgrounds depending on the time of day.

I have gone for a cartoony, hand drawn theme which i will continue throughout the site when i add more pages.
Also, the div boxes on my site are meant to have curved corners, but the border-radius doesn't seem to work on IE, only firefox. So if someone can help me with this problem it would be appreciated.

Portfoliogo 2

I have slightly redesigned my portfolio logo with a new font and slightly different colours, as the old one could have been seen as slightly rustic which isn't really the image i was going for, and i believe the new, slightly darker colours i have used make it seem a bit more subtle and refined.

Colours in Design

http://www.amitchelldesign.com

. . .is mine, keep an eye out for when i actually put something on it.

Portfoliogo

I have finally come up with a design for a logo for my portfolio website that i am actually pretty happy with. . .

Seymour Chwast

Seymour Chwast is a designer, illustrator and art director. His innovative designs have resulted in being awarded the AIGA medal, as well as being inducted into the Art Directors Club hall of fame. He was the co-founder of Pushpin studios in 1954, along with Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel. The company quickly gained a reputation due to its amusing and cuturally relevant, eye-catching design and illustrations.

His designs and illustrations have been used for such things as, animated films, graphics, record covers and children's books, package designs, posters and magazines.
He has created his own unique style that show off creativity and innovative aspects of graphic art and design. It is his child friendly, comic book style branding and illustrations that really stand out to me, along with the use of bold and vivid colours, i think these really make an impact as well as having a light-hearted, slightly comical feel.

Interaction Design Review - Goodmans TV Remote

This is the closest image i could find to my personal TV remote.
- As with many TV remotes, the amount of buttons seems very over the top, with the only buttons i use being the numbers, standby and the volume, however i'm sure they all serve a purpose.
- The buttons are spaced a good distance apart, so not to get in the way, but also so the controller doesn't seem overly large.
- The smooth, plastic provides it to sit nicely in the hand, however the large battery pack on the back gets in the way slightly, taking away from the comfort.
- The black text used to show the function of the buttons is very clear, however there are a few bits of green text, which is very hard to read at first glance, luckily this is mainly for buttons that don't really have much use.
- Occasionally the buttons can be quite irresponsive, meaning you have to press them quite hard before the TV actually recognises them being pressed.
- Overall, not a very good remote. I would recommend standing up to use the buttons on the actual television set.

Interaction Design Review - Xbox 360 Controller

- Extremely comfortable to hold, which is one of the main purposes of the product. The hand prongs are molded in a way that fit perfectly into the hand, and the smooth plastic texture of the controller accompany this nicely.
- The buttons are all positioned in a way so that the hand doesn't need to be moved too far in order to press them, apart from the start and back buttons which are towards the centre as these don't need to be used as often.
- The vivid colours of the four main buttons make them easily distinguishable, however the plastic used for the buttons is quite hard and may cause some finger pain after a while.
- The fact that the controller is wireless provides the user with the freedom to sit where and how they want, even if they were to face backwards there would be no loss in signal.

Interaction Design Review - Nokia E5

I have chosen my own phone to review as i understand it well enough to be able to analyse it in detail.
- The phone is very slim meaning it can fit comfortably in your hand, with a silver metal backplate that provides the phone to be put in and out of your pocket easily (if that is where you keep your phone)
- The QWERTY keyboard means the buttons are very small, which you would assume to cause quite a problem when typing a text, but the phone's text prediction proves to be very helpful as it can work out what you're trying to type when you accidentally hit two keys.
- The phone also suffers from some slight slow down when typing on the keyboard, i'm not sure if this is down to the speed i type, but either way it can be quite irritating.
- The screen size can cause quite a problem when viewing large web pages that haven't been designed for the phone, however it is very bright and clear, and easy to scroll around the page.
- Overall, i believe it is a very good and reliable phone and does the jobs i need it to.

Wire Frame

I have decided to do my first website design project for the Bodega Social club in Nottingham. I don't believe their existing website is very appealing (http://thebodegasocialclub.co.uk/ )

I have created a wire frame using Illustrator CS5 to get an idea of the general layout of the home page. . .





I have kept the same general shape for the title/logo as I don't really want to change that too much, but as regards to the layout, I have tried to keep it quite basic so not to overwhelm the viewer. Each of the linked pages would be set out in a similar way, following the same theme. I am going to keep the colours to a simple black and white, with maybe one other colour to make things stand out.

Logos

Recently got the CS5 Master Collection, so i thought i should put it to use, so i used Photoshop to put together a few ideas for a logo for any future website/portfolio. . .

Essay Started

369 Words done. Hopefully i am heading in the right direction with it. I will look to extend it in the next couple of weeks and hopefully finish it with a few weeks to spare so i can get someone to look at it, giving me the time to make any changes needed and improve it.

Why Interactive Media?

During my first year, i didnt really know which pathway i would want to choose, or which areas i would be most interested in. Since doing the 'Interactive Narrative' project, i really thought that this would be the pathway for me. I had not previously had any web design experience, but ever since using Flash, i've wanted to explore the world of web design even more, and believe that this is the direction i will want to pursue later on in life.

3 Website Analysis

1. We Choose The Moon



This interactive website looks at the historical Apollo 11 mission to the moon and recreates it in a series of animations and photographs, sort of in the style of a movie, however the user has the option to use the 'mission tracker' in order to skip to any of the different 11 stages. Following it chronologically however gives the audience a sense of realism, brought together by the factual Mission Transmission audio. The layout is very simple, with all the required information down both sides, and the navigation bar, in this case, the 'mission tracker' at the bottom. However, I believe this website is so effective due to the great animations and collections of images.

2. Uniqlo Lucky Machine



This site is used to advertise the new UK online Uniqlo store. It is an interactive pinball game that encourages users to play and visit the Facebook page, in order to win prizes, like £1000 to spend at the online store. Somehow, this game did not make me want to visit the store. The game seemed very slow and boring, i didnt even stay on it long enough to use my 3 lives. The pinball machine seemed very unimaginative and amateurish, however i liked the simple use of just red and white colours. A good idea to encourage users to visit a website, however it just didn't really make an impact on me.

3. Costumize.me



With Halloween coming up, this website makes shopping for a costume much more fun, not that i've ever had this problem. Even if you don't care about dressing up, this site is well worth a visit to look at some of the comical costumes, and ridiculous prices that you could pay for things. The website provides a pumpkin lighting up game, which seems irrelevant to the rest of the website, but still provides a few minutes of fun. The layout is very simple, but effective, with the navigation bar popping up from the bottom with a scroll bar for all the different themes and sections of the website. Some good animations make for a visually effective website.

First Week Back - Year 2

As i haven't posted anything for over 4 months, I thought i probably should do.
First week back in the 2nd year, after meeting all the new interactive media group, we've been put into pairs to produce a presentation demonstrating the features and content of 2 different websites. Also to update our blogs with a 200 word design evaluation of 3 other websites, which i will be doing in the next week.

Virtual Environments - Superhero's Lair

The final project of the year was to create a superhero's lair using 3DS Max. The main problem occurred due to missing the first 2 seminars because of volcanoes in Iceland :/ I used online tutorials and seminar notes to try and teach myself how to use 3DS Max and toward the end of the project I became a bit better and more confident using it. Anyway, my lair includes many rocky based textures suggesting that it is set underground. The main feature is the 'Reactor Vessel' which i created a fiery atmosphere by using red lights and red stone textures around it. I used a mirror texture in 2 of the rooms to create a sense of space and eeriness. The most effective part of my lair, in my opinion, is the swimming pool. I created a water texture using reflection/refraction and raytrace maps and added lights, and a ball to the water to add a sense of depth and realism. The 3rd room consists of a sofa cause every superhero needs somewhere to sit, and semi transparent spheres representing planets. The song i used in the video is mewithoutyou - (A). I believe it fits the lair quite nicely.

Nike Write the Future Advert

Finished Film - Figure

Visual Essay

The 3 Companies/Practitioners I have decided to base my virtual essay on are. .

Domani Studios - http://domanistudios.com/new/

North Kingdom - http://www.northkingdom.com/

Shane Mielke - http://www.shanemielke.com/

Finished Filming

So, on monday we finished our filming for our script Figure, and when it came to editing it today we realised the 'workshop' scene and a few 'end of the world' scenes that we filmed the day before didnt work properly. A few of the group thought that the effect of the tape going wrong sort of gave the right idea for how we wanted to edit it anyway, the others wanted to film it all again, so this is what we will be doing tomorrow. I am going to have a go at editing myself to see which of these works best.

The Last Few Weeks.

As i haven't posted anything for a while, i thought i should whilst i am quite bored. Basically, we recieved a script a couple of weeks back and we were put into groups and all given specific jobs in order to make a produce a film.

Last week, we met up twice as a group in order to discuss our own ideas and give ourselves individual jobs for the week. On Thursday, we went out with a camera in order to film possible ideas for our concluding 'end of the world' scene. We found a couple of deserted areas and took a few shots of each that we will edit and produce eventually.

This week we are planning up on meeting as a group again to film the 'award ceremony' scene.

As for the visual essay, i have began researching but that's about all, i will hopefully make some more progress with that this week.

Quiz

Finally finished my quiz, however i can't upload it so that the video works on it. It works when it's on my computer in the original folder. If anyone knows how to do this please do tell me, it's driving me insane.

First Attempt at Animation on Flash

Walking Man Animation by ~alexm1 on deviantART

First Week Back

Last tuesday, we were given the task to go online and play games and review them, finding a good one and a bad one, and put together a group presention on this. Seems like my kind of work.

Anyway, here's a few links i found. . .

http://www.notdoppler.com/theimpossiblequiz.php - The Impossible Quiz. Clever and quite funny, but doesn't provide much longevity and can be quite annoying.

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/parking/playgame - Parking Perfection. Simple and effective game. Could provide a few hours of fun when bored.

http://www.helicopter-game.org/ - Helicopter Game. Remember playing this one when at school in IT lessons. Lots of fun, simply controlled by just the mouse button.

http://www.flashgames247.com/play/13628.html - Baggio's Magical Kicks - Good idea, similar to a game i have on my phone. However this one seems very difficult, as i struggled to even get past stage 2.

As further indivudial development, i have been looking through online tutorials in order to familarise myself a bit more with Flash CS3, as at this moment, i believe this is the pathway which i will take into my 2nd year. I have also been concentrating more on certain aspects of websites which have been created using Flash, looking at layout, links, aesthetics etc. to get a better idea of the things that can be done.