Angelica Soderlund

Final critique For my Final I decided to pick my mom’s homepage to re-design, her homepage is for her Portugal Real Estate company.  The website just got got up running and she definitely needs some help to organize the content better, but also to make a more fun and playful design that includes more imagery. Layout I kind of like the layout as it is, the two column structure and the logo laid on top centered. But there are definitely things that can be tweaked and improved. For example I want the navigation to be placed more in the center and further up. I also think that the size of the logo can be a bit bigger. I made the logo myself and I hate how the web designer that created my moms page laid it out over the red with a white background behind it. I think the logo can look more flattering with a lighter background. Color I like the use of color that is being used, it is Portugal’s colors so I think it really fits it purpose. Although I would probably cut out the read and focus more on the green and yellow and use them as gradients. I think it is possible for the color to stand out even more than it does right now, and the gradients will make the colors more powerful. Type The homepage has lots and lots of text, and I really want to try to cut it down a bit. They also stick with just black type and only minion pro as the typeface, I would want to play around with at least two different fonts and also add some more color to the text to make it more interesting but also pleasing to the eye.The leading can also be improved at certain places. Navigation I don’t think that the navigation is that clear, there is too many navigation buttons that I think could definitely be cut down into sub navigation’s, of six or seven main navigation’s. Also it is not really clear what page you are in when you navigate through the different sites so I want to make sure that I put in big headings that says which page you are in. To make the navigation look more interesting I would also add rollover images of the navigation buttons so that you see when you scroll over one. In every sub page I will add more images, because I think that is very critical when looking at real estate websites. Adding images of beautiful houses etc will definitely make the website more fun to look at, so there isn’t only text.

Final critique

For my Final I decided to pick my mom’s homepage to re-design, her homepage is for her Portugal Real Estate company.  The website just got got up running and she definitely needs some help to organize the content better, but also to make a more fun and playful design that includes more imagery.

Layout

I kind of like the layout as it is, the two column structure and the logo laid on top centered. But there are definitely things that can be tweaked and improved. For example I want the navigation to be placed more in the center and further up. I also think that the size of the logo can be a bit bigger. I made the logo myself and I hate how the web designer that created my moms page laid it out over the red with a white background behind it. I think the logo can look more flattering with a lighter background.

Color

I like the use of color that is being used, it is Portugal’s colors so I think it really fits it purpose. Although I would probably cut out the read and focus more on the green and yellow and use them as gradients. I think it is possible for the color to stand out even more than it does right now, and the gradients will make the colors more powerful.

Type

The homepage has lots and lots of text, and I really want to try to cut it down a bit. They also stick with just black type and only minion pro as the typeface, I would want to play around with at least two different fonts and also add some more color to the text to make it more interesting but also pleasing to the eye.
The leading can also be improved at certain places.

Navigation

I don’t think that the navigation is that clear, there is too many navigation buttons that I think could definitely be cut down into sub navigation’s, of six or seven main navigation’s. Also it is not really clear what page you are in when you navigate through the different sites so I want to make sure that I put in big headings that says which page you are in. To make the navigation look more interesting I would also add rollover images of the navigation buttons so that you see when you scroll over one.
In every sub page I will add more images, because I think that is very critical when looking at real estate websites. Adding images of beautiful houses etc will definitely make the website more fun to look at, so there isn’t only text.

Posted June 9, 2011 at 3:34 am

Posted June 7, 2011 at 9:37 pm

Posted June 7, 2011 at 9:24 pm

Posted May 31, 2011 at 7:26 pm

Posted May 10, 2011 at 3:14 pm

C.L Holloway

 I think that this is a very well made website, both for users to understand where you are on the website and also to be able to navigate easily. The designer made a really good job at simplifying the site. Making just a few main navigation’s, and then having the first navigation connected to the fold so that you easily understand that you just scroll to the right to be able to see the rest of the main navigation’s. So you have to two options, 1. scroll to the right to see the different main navigation’s, or 2. Simply just click on the main navigation’s on top of the page to get where you want in a faster and more efficient way. 

Like I said the website is very clear, the navigation tools definitely stands out just as text. You can also see a bit of the first “subject” of one of the main navigation’s on the right side, here the text is very large, but in an vertical angle.

The navigations are very consistent, the main navigations has the same apperance and availability.

This website is very efficient in my opinion, it is very fast. But with the few navigation controls it’s also something that I would take for granted.

Posted April 6, 2011 at 2:18 am

Second Design for Website, Trio Studio

Second Design for Website, Trio Studio

Posted April 4, 2011 at 6:25 pm

Vimeo Critique Assignment

  • Structure & Composition
    For this danish music award video the whole screen space is definitely being considered. They are working from all corners and being very creative with the type. There is also a good use of positive and negative space. The video has a really good flow.

  • Image & Image type
    There is really only one image in this motion graphics piece, and that is the Award winning trophy that really states that this video is for the Danish music awards.

  • Symbols & Symbol types
    There are no symbols indluded in this video. But they are instead working a lot with the typography to make it look interesting. The placing of the type, and the colors make it really eye catching.

  • Time
    This motion graphics piece is pretty intese, so the transitions goes very fast. But there is definitely enough with time to be able to read everything.

  • Sound
    The music and sounds effects are real fun in this video. Without the sound this video wouldn’t be as affective. The type goes with the rythm of the song and the end is very distinctive with the letters DMA coming up with the voice counting the letters.

  • Intent
    The intent of this video is of course to promote the yearly DMA- danish music awards. And their goal is to get as big of an audience as possible.

  • Meaning
    The sound here is very distinctive and I think that is their meaning with this whole video, to show that this world wouldn’t be much fun without Sound/ music.

I would say that this video goes in the category of Kinetic typography and maybe some vector so it doesn’t loose any detail on the trophy shown at the end of the video.

    Posted April 4, 2011 at 3:14 am

    • Who did you choose this person and why?
      I choose       David Shrigley because I think his work is fun and pretty unique. I really like his playful style. His hand drawn style is really what makes it special. 

     

    • How would you categorize their work? Does it fit into any of the Genres we outlined in the Week 06 notes?
      He is most known for his humorous cartoons. His characteristics are definitely hand drawn. He also uses an odd viewpoint, that makes it interesting and he has a limited technique.

    1. Structures and Composition

    The structure of the video varies, sometimes he is using all the screen space but at other times he is using his odd viewpoint through binoculars, that’s when the space is more limited. The viewpoint is really what makes this video unique.


    2. Image and Image Type
    There is a lot of graphics in this video. They are all different shapes and they bring out different emotions to state how the character feel.


    3. Symbols and Symbol types
    The only symbols I can see is when there is stars and hearts falling down from the sky. In this case they are showing the state of happiness and love. There are also some type in this motion graphics piece.

     4. Time
    This video is fairly long, if it wasn’t for the well though through story I would probably have said that it should have been shorter.  Things tend to go faster when he is looking through his binoculars. There are a lot of impressions in this video but its not overwhelming, that’s probably because he is only using black and white.

     

    5. Sound
    This motion graphics piece doesn’t have any real sound effects, but the song added to this video is very effective and brings out the happy and sad times of the story. Everything that happens goes with the rhythm of the song.
    6. Intent
    The intent of this video is for the designer to show his skills in the area. It is one of his masterpieces. The story is very beautiful and dramatic which tend to make people wanting to watch the whole video.


    7. Meaning
    The intent of this video is to bring out the emotions from this video, happy and sad, life and death etc. All this with a very unique design style.

    Posted April 4, 2011 at 2:35 am

    “Extended” version of my website design so I could make the site map

    “Extended” version of my website design so I could make the site map

    Posted March 22, 2011 at 2:02 am