Navigating Your Identity [Researching Websites] continued...

2)
Looking again to the Favourite Website Awards as a source for interactive websites, I find the very trendy looking http://www.scionspeak.com/

Created by two companies; Freedom Interactive Design and StrawberryFrog.

The aim is to "enable users to create their own individual crests. The website offers an array of images and symbols that can be merged together to form a visual representation of the user; their interests, passion and loves." from www.thefwa.com

Look...

My first impression of the website was that it used mostly white, grey and black colours. Moving my cursor around the main page to see what links were available I find that there are several links located in different areas, but that go to the same sub-page.
There are 3 main links; Make, Look and Watch. These are quite self-explanatory when you understand what the idea is of this website.

Ease of use...

Everything in this website is very easy to use. Navigating around is simple, customising your crest is pretty straight forward and watching the videos couldn't be any easier.

Relevance...

I think the target market for this website has got to be for males aged 12-25. This is because the graphics, images and symbols are very similar to the graffiti style you can usually find around skateboarding areas. I have now discovered that Scion is an American car company. The majority of their consumers seem to be young adults who like to customise, or as we say in England "do up" their cars.

Organisation and Design of content...

This website is very well laid out because it's simple. Three areas to choose from with enough content to keep you busy for 15-30 minutes if you're interested to make a crest. It feels very spacious and being vector images, they are very clear as-well.

The Reflection of identity through Design for the company...

There is a consistent colour theme of black through grey to white on every page and the Scion logo is there throughout the website.

Reflection through philosophy of the company's brand...

I think the idea of the crest reflects the philosophy of the brand very well. When the young adults buy the car they want to start customising them. So every car is the same, except for what the individual does to it on the outside. The crests are all the same but the individual can do the same by changing certain things about it.

Success of the interaction design elements...

When I was making my crest I found it to be very interactive. There were no instructions so I had to play around with it to find out what options I had. I especially liked the fact that I could change the colour of any part of the crest.

I would have liked to see some instructions for saving the crest though. At the end there is a few options to download it.
Then I am lead to a Terms and Condition agreement, which I must agree to if I am to download it. Of course I select I AGREE but nothing happens, it seems to load and then stops.
It's probably got something to do with my mac but it's still strange that I can't download it!

So here is the crest I created as a screenshot:

Project 2: Navigating Your Identity [Researching Websites]

My first task is to look at three or more websites and discuss a range of issues on my blogger.
The first place I decided to look for websites was on the Favourite Website Awards

1)
http://www.commonwealth.pl/
A website for international exhibition which presents the history of tolerance and cohabitation of various ethnic groups in the territory of Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth. Made for the National Library of Poland and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. from www.huncwot.com
Having a little bit of Polish in me I thought this may be an interesting site to start with.

My immediate thoughts were that it may be a government website and therefore really boring and full of text, such as the Mi5 website. But to my surprise I am welcomed with a nice flash introduction to lead me to the English or Polish website. After I clicked English and waited for the website to load I was really impressed by the the way it looked.

Look...
They haven't held back on quality of sound or video. This is evident from the main page where a very nice classical piece starts playing.
The main page also consists of a very sleek menu. Move the cursor over any word (above the word commonwealth) and the image will move backwards, becoming slightly transparent then slides open a preview box that contains a moving image and a description of that link you are hovering over with the cursor. The main menu contains 8 links.

To the bottom left-hand corner is a picture of a white crown on a black background. This icon is another menu that you can get to when you go deeper into the website through sub-links. It is very easy to use because it contains images and words to help navigate yourself around or to and from pages.

There is also a control button to switch on/off the music that they have playing in the background for every page. This is a must for all websites and the good thing about there music player is that it doesn't repeat!! The control switch is a picture of 3 boxes that animate by expanding and shrinking one after the other.

Ease of use...
I really enjoyed navigating around the website. It is very simple with a few great ideas. All the sub-pages are consistent; they each start with a nice animation and then contain a picture, a blurb and 3 icon links. On the left a video link, in the middle there is a further reading link and finally a link for pictures.

Relevance...
I think all the content in this website is relevant to its subject. After leaving my computer for a few minutes and returning to the main page I realised that the colour scheme of red and white is obviously that of the Polish flag.

Organisation and Design of content...
There is a great use of the space in the website. I don't think it has been cluttered by text or images. It feels very spacious.

The Reflection of identity through Design for the company...
Every page has the same two images, like the two colour scheme on the Polish flag. There is an image taking up the upper half of the screen horizontally and then a dark shade brown in the lower half.

Reflection through philosophy of the company's brand...
Themes of Polish history throughout the website, such as the crown in the bottom left-hand, which is significant to their royal history.

Success of the interaction design elements...
I think this website is very successful when it comes to interactivity. An abundance of links and flash animation. It is a good example for a multimedia website.

Music: Frank Zappa - Honey, Don't You Want (A Man Like Me?)

The Second Self - Complete Animation

Animation: Maya 2008 Unlimited
Editing: Final Cut Pro
Music: Cinematic Orchestra - All Things (CO's music works well with any visual!)

Here it is pretty much done now. I would have liked it to be longer, but I couldn't think of anything else to do. I wanted to make the magic carpet roll but at the time, with the method I was using (controlling each vertex) it was taking much too long. Then after rendering I thought of an easier but still very time consuming way, and as I still have an essay to write, I'll leave that for now!
I tried to use the Neb II submarine too but it was acting up; when I moved it was being stretched about and not moving freely. So again with lack of time to make improvements I decided to leave it out.



Comments are welcome!


Watching: The Simpsons - Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times

My Second Self/Alter Ego [1]

This is so funny!