Site I’d Like To Know More About #1

http://windosill.com/

This site is super cute. The first half of an exploration point and click game, Windosill kept me hooked right up to the point where I needed to purchase an activation code.
At first I figured this site was made with Flash and if that’s the case, it is amazingly done. Is it possible that this site was made with something other than flash or are the artists really just that good?

Interactivity

http://newmedia.sfa.uleth.ca/~smith/interact/interact.html

And here’s my final project for Net.Art. We were required to explain what we thought interactivity was using Flash. I had a lot of fun making this and am pretty proud of how it turned out.

Usability Site #4

http://www.msy.com.au/

Another wonderful selection from Websites that Suck. This one was apparently the 9th worst in the first quarter of this year (several of the ones higher up the list were just too horrible to bear).

Now this site, from what I can tell, appears to be just one big ad. The first half of the page is just about the sales and deals that are being offered. This makes sense I guess, as it is the purpose of a companies website for it to promote the company, but this just feels really over the top. After scrolling down from the ads, I find the links to various locations and contacts. Now, I’m really going to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and assume that because I have no idea what this company sells or does really that that is the only reason I can’t understand the abbreviations for the locations in the table. If this wasn’t the case I’m pretty sure I’d be completely lost when I arrived at this table and was wondering where to go next.

Now while there isn’t much to do on this site other than find some locations nearest to me, the way this site is set up, just doing that is a difficult task. Usable is definitely something that I would not refer to this site with.

Usability Site #3

http://www.goldenmean.info/

Don’t go to this site. Seriously. Just looking at it is difficult.

In search for sites with usability errors, I found a site called Websites that Suck and this little gem was their Daily Sucker.

I can’t even tell you what this site is about. For all I know it appears to be a place to store random coloured links that no one wanted anymore. But upon closer looks to the title and page header, I can assume that it’s a homepage for some physics professor. Wouldn’t matter though, because based on the way this site is set up, I don’t even want to search into it. Not that I’d need to really because it looks almost as if all the content of the site was just crammed together on the first page. There’s images, videos, and information all just thrown into some tables together with some sort of updated calendar set up on the side.

This site is in some serious trouble when it comes to usability, since I can’t even really comprehend how someone is expected to use it at all. Oh well, hopefully being dubbed Websites that Suck’s Daily Sucker, will smack some sense in them and make them consider cleaning the whole site up.

Usability Site #2

http://www.cracked.com/

Now this site when first glanced upon can seem quite daunting. So many links and images on the front page. Ads covering the sides and top banner. But once you get a chance to look at it some more, it actually is quite easy to get around.

Cracked.com is a humour site that updates regularly with various articles and videos that can relate to current events or just some random stuff they found on the Internet. The newest articles are posted very clearly on the front page, with a different one spotlighted each day at the top of the list. Right beside that is a list of the most popular articles. A list that can also be switched to the Greatest Hits of the site with a simple click of a tab. Other sections of the site, like the forum, bios on the columnists and links to the videos and other articles can all be found on a banner clearly seen near the top of the page.

It is a little unfortunate that there is so much space given to the ads that clutter up the page. But I understand that running a website costs money and these guys are just doing what they can to keep their site afloat. Also, as you scroll down the main page, it does appear to look even more cluttered, but personally I rarely even need to scroll down there, so its unlikely that casual visitors will be doing so as well. Nonetheless, it would be nice if that was cleaned up a bit.

Other than that, I think that this site works well for the audience it was designed for. It isn’t too complicated and what you need to find is right there waiting for you to click on it.

Technical Resource #5

30 Free Fonts

Now while this site didn’t create all these fonts, I have to say it is a nice assortment. Not to mention they’re all free. I’ll admit I haven’t gone and downloaded all the fonts on this list but I do tend to come back to the site every now and then if I need some inspiration for my typography. Definitely a site to check out as well as all the sites that the fonts on the list are hosted on.

Technical Resource #4

http://psd.tutsplus.com/

This site has been so great for me. Literally everything you would need for photoshop can be found here. Whether it be textures, brush sets, or just tutorials on how to make things look amazing, this site will have what you’re looking for. I have used the tutorials here many a time and although they are made by various users I find that on most occasions they tend to be very easy to follow.

Technical Resource #3

http://freestocktextures.com/

I found this site not too long ago and completely forgot about it until just recently. It’s basically just a huge resource for stock images available for free (as the site title might suggest). The search system for it is quite great too. It gives you the option to search for images by category, keyword, and even the specific colour that it is associated with. Definitely a site you’ll want to check out if your in the need for some stock photos.

Go Mobile Assignment

This is a website created to help explain just what was done for our Quick Response Code project.

http://newmedia.sfa.uleth.ca/~smith/gomobile/

EDIT: So this post was supposed to be published on Tuesday, but I guess I accidentally hit save draft instead of publish. Here it is nonetheless.

Usability Site #1: In Response to Jakob Nielsen’s Posting

After reading this posting, I decided to go looking at some Corporate websites that I visit every once in a while to see how they stacked up to Jakob’s regulations. I found myself looking at the Telus Mobility website.

From my quick look at the site, I’d have to say that Telus did quite a good job. Their company message about “the future is friendly” is made quite clear under their logo and lets the user know that this website, like the company, should be “friendly” and easy to use. The window title does start with a “T” and while Jakob says that isn’t the most appealing letter to have, Telus can’t really complain about it since that’s what their name is. The “About” page nicely confines all the information about the company into a nicely organized part of the site that is kept separate from the consumer section. The graphics used on the site are also very simple and don’t take away from the content.

One thing that Telus conflicts with Jakob about is the Top High-Priority tasks that are on the front page. Telus’s site has more than four, as recommended by Jakob, but I feel that all the options availble make sense for the consumers that will be visiting the site. If any of those options were removed, some one would be missing out on an easy link to the part of the site they needed.

Overall, Telus did quite a good job making their home page quite user friendly and very easy to navigate.