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.
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?)
