Proposal - 1/2 hr Monday 9th Feb.
Time Planning - 1/4 hr Tuesday 10th Feb
Research for Initial Ideas - 1hr to an 1hr 1/2 Tuesday 10th Feb
Record Initial Ideas - 1hr Tuesday 10th Feb
Develop Initial Ideas - 5hr+ Tuesday 10th Feb to Wednesday 11th Feb
Review During Development - 4hr+ Wednesday 11th Feb to Thursday 12th Feb
Construct Website - 15hr+ Thursday 12th Feb to at most Wednesday 18th Feb
Testing - 2hr Thursday 19th Feb
Publish/Archieve - 1/4hr Thursday 19th Feb
Final Evaluation - 1 1/2hr Thursday 19th Feb
I will have to use SDS when constructiung the website and testing the website; the rest can be done in lesson time if I stick to my time plan.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Proposal
For this brief I must design a website for the college TV station - Dead Good TV. We must also design a web player/Flash player for the videos we have recorded in a past project.
We must re-write the brief and produce a time plan.
Conduct research which can inculde a mood board.
Initial Ideas.
Review our ideas.
Begin to create the college TV website and Flash player.
Test the created site through Internet Explorer, Safari etc to test its interface.
Record any problems I have encountered.
Create backup files throughout.
Produce a final evaluation.
Review the finnished product by comparing to the original piece.
We must re-write the brief and produce a time plan.
Conduct research which can inculde a mood board.
Initial Ideas.
Review our ideas.
Begin to create the college TV website and Flash player.
Test the created site through Internet Explorer, Safari etc to test its interface.
Record any problems I have encountered.
Create backup files throughout.
Produce a final evaluation.
Review the finnished product by comparing to the original piece.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Don't Make The User Think
The purpose of the site is to inform readers of the news and local news in their area.The want you to visit links that interest you.
Obvious:
/----/----------------------------------------------/
The purpose of the site is to sell and rent out dresses and tuxedos.They want you to buy thir products.
Not obvious:
/---------------------------------------------/----/
The purpose of the site is to view videos and post your own if you want to.
They want you to watch videos and sign up to the sight.
Obvious:
/----/---------------------------------------------/
The purpose of this site - I DON'T EVEN KNOW!
What they want you to do - DON'T KNOW!
Not obvious:
/------------------------------------------//
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Understanding current uses of video in Interactive Media
Platforms for Video in Interactive Media:
World Wide Web - is a system of linked hypertext documents that can be seen by using the internet. With a web browser you can see each web address that can contain images, text, videos and other mulitimedia. You can navigate between web pages using hyperlinks. The World Wide Web enabled the wide spread of information over the internet.
Email Attachments - when attaching a computer file or email attachment the file is not a seperate message, but now it is universally sent as part of the message to which it is attached. When the message is attached it can be sent unencoded or encoded in a number of ways: base64, binhex, unencoded, quoted-printable. In the standard internet e-mail format, messages and any attachment are sent as a single multipart message, usually using base64.
DVD - or also known as Digital Video/Versatile Disc is one of the most popular optical disc storage format. The main uses are video and data storage. DVD's are of the same dimensions as CD's but store more than six times as much data.
CD Rom - or also known as Compact Disc Read-Only Memory is a pre-pressed CD that contains data. While the CD format was originally designed for music storage and playback, it has recently been developed to hold any form of binary data.
Kiosks - or also known as interactive kiosks are computer terminals that provide information. Most kiosks provide unattended access to the web and web applications. These are usually found in learning centres, museums, airports, hotels and even doctors.
Presentations - you can use videos in presentations, through powerpoint or even videos for demonstraitions or helping someone understand a subject. They're educational videos on the interent that you can download and show.
Mobile Devices - are pocket-sized computing devices. They have a display screen with touch input or a small keyboard to help work the device. Mobile phones and even ipods/some MP3 players have a video output. You can record and watch back videos and even download videos onto your mobile device through the internet.
Uses of Video in Interactive Media:
Short Films - these can be small taster videos on the internet through iplayers or on websites. These small promotional films are shown to advertise a subject or project or even show a short animation.
Promotional Material - these videos are used to advertise a product or business. They can be shown as advertisements (like ad banners) on websites you visit or are even shown on the businesses website.
Film Trailers - these can be shown on webistes of the movie - like the seekthesigns website where the video is embedded on the main page. Or they can be shown on video searching sites like youtube and most video players.
User-generated Content - these videos are put on personal sites such as myspace, facebook and youtube.
Viral Marketing - and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing socail activities to produce an increase in brand awareness. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images or even text messages. The goal of marketers interested in creating viral marketing programs is to identify people with high social networking potential and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the populaion and have a high probability of being passed along.
Advertising - through videos can usually be seen through videos and images on the internet when clicking through links on Google or even pages you may visit often (facebook and personal sites are often shown advertisements).
Virtual Reality Tours - these are when a business may want to sell a product or maybe even showing how a house or building may look like when finnished. These are to help sell the product and help convince a person that what they're looking at really is when the product will look like.
Games - videos on games are usually shown at the beginning to help show the plot of the game or half way through in intervals to help show the plot as it develops. This helps the player stay on the game so it's not constant game play. It also gives a sense of eye-candy for the player.
E-learning - or electronic learning is a type of technology where the medium of instruction is computer technology. E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of context. In companies, it refers to the stratergies that use the company network to deliver training cources to employees. E-learning uses a wide spectrum of technologies, mainly internet or computer based to reach learners.
Video in Interactive Media Technology:
Compression - is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than an unencoded representation would use. Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of hard disk space or bandwidth. On the downside when compressing data it may become not as good quality as the original video or image.
Formats:
MPEG- or also known as Moving Picture Experts Group was made to set standards for audio and cideo compression and transmission.
MOV - was created by Apple to use as a file format for Quicktime. MOV is a multimedia container file that one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects or text (for example for subtitles).
AVI- or also known as Audio Video Interleave is a multimedia container format created by Microsoft. AVI files can contain audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.
Streaming - is multimedia that is constantly recieved by and end user while is it being delivered by a streaming provider. This refers to a delivery method.
Data-transfer Rates - or DTR is the amount of digital data that is moved from one place to another. The data transfer rate can be viewed as the speed of travel of a given amount of data. The greater the bandwidth of a given path, the higher the data transfer rate.
Frame Rates - is the measurement of the frequency rate at which a device produces consecutive images called frames. This applies to such devices as video cameras, film cameras and motion capture systems. Frame rate is often expressed as frames per second (FPS).
Screen Resolutions - this is the amount of pixels seen on screen. This can effect website design which can also effect what your video may look like at different screen resolutions. The most common screen resolution being 800x600 but some can be smaller or higher.
File Size - measures the size of a computer file. It is mainly measured in bytes. The amount of disk space consumed by the file depends on the file system. This effects video because if you have a large file it may take longer to buffer which makes the user wait for ages. Which is why you should compress a file so it is easier for the user to watch more easily and with less download time.
Ratios:
4:3 - standard definition for video formats
16:9 - wide screen or high definition television.
Media Players:
Flash - (Adobe Flash) is a multimedia platform. Flash is a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. Flash video is a file format used to deliver videos over the internet using an Adove Flash Player. Flash video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Users of the Flash video format include YouTube, Google video and Yahoo video.
Quicktime - is a multimedia framework developed by Apple. Quicktime is capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music and interactive panoramic images.
Windows Media Player - or WMP is a digital media player and media libary application created by Microsoft that is used for playing audio and video and viewing images.
Real - or Real Player is a proprietary cross-platform media player created by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG, Quicktime, Windows Media and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.
Rights Management Systems - is access control technologies used by hardware manufactures, publishers and copywright holders to limit usage of digital media or other devices. Rights management systems have been provided to companies such as Sony, Apple, Microsoft and the BBC.
World Wide Web - is a system of linked hypertext documents that can be seen by using the internet. With a web browser you can see each web address that can contain images, text, videos and other mulitimedia. You can navigate between web pages using hyperlinks. The World Wide Web enabled the wide spread of information over the internet.
Email Attachments - when attaching a computer file or email attachment the file is not a seperate message, but now it is universally sent as part of the message to which it is attached. When the message is attached it can be sent unencoded or encoded in a number of ways: base64, binhex, unencoded, quoted-printable. In the standard internet e-mail format, messages and any attachment are sent as a single multipart message, usually using base64.
DVD - or also known as Digital Video/Versatile Disc is one of the most popular optical disc storage format. The main uses are video and data storage. DVD's are of the same dimensions as CD's but store more than six times as much data.
CD Rom - or also known as Compact Disc Read-Only Memory is a pre-pressed CD that contains data. While the CD format was originally designed for music storage and playback, it has recently been developed to hold any form of binary data.
Kiosks - or also known as interactive kiosks are computer terminals that provide information. Most kiosks provide unattended access to the web and web applications. These are usually found in learning centres, museums, airports, hotels and even doctors.
Presentations - you can use videos in presentations, through powerpoint or even videos for demonstraitions or helping someone understand a subject. They're educational videos on the interent that you can download and show.
Mobile Devices - are pocket-sized computing devices. They have a display screen with touch input or a small keyboard to help work the device. Mobile phones and even ipods/some MP3 players have a video output. You can record and watch back videos and even download videos onto your mobile device through the internet.
Uses of Video in Interactive Media:
Short Films - these can be small taster videos on the internet through iplayers or on websites. These small promotional films are shown to advertise a subject or project or even show a short animation.
Promotional Material - these videos are used to advertise a product or business. They can be shown as advertisements (like ad banners) on websites you visit or are even shown on the businesses website.
Film Trailers - these can be shown on webistes of the movie - like the seekthesigns website where the video is embedded on the main page. Or they can be shown on video searching sites like youtube and most video players.
User-generated Content - these videos are put on personal sites such as myspace, facebook and youtube.
Viral Marketing - and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing socail activities to produce an increase in brand awareness. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images or even text messages. The goal of marketers interested in creating viral marketing programs is to identify people with high social networking potential and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the populaion and have a high probability of being passed along.
Advertising - through videos can usually be seen through videos and images on the internet when clicking through links on Google or even pages you may visit often (facebook and personal sites are often shown advertisements).
Virtual Reality Tours - these are when a business may want to sell a product or maybe even showing how a house or building may look like when finnished. These are to help sell the product and help convince a person that what they're looking at really is when the product will look like.
Games - videos on games are usually shown at the beginning to help show the plot of the game or half way through in intervals to help show the plot as it develops. This helps the player stay on the game so it's not constant game play. It also gives a sense of eye-candy for the player.
E-learning - or electronic learning is a type of technology where the medium of instruction is computer technology. E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of context. In companies, it refers to the stratergies that use the company network to deliver training cources to employees. E-learning uses a wide spectrum of technologies, mainly internet or computer based to reach learners.
Video in Interactive Media Technology:
Compression - is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than an unencoded representation would use. Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of hard disk space or bandwidth. On the downside when compressing data it may become not as good quality as the original video or image.
Formats:
MPEG- or also known as Moving Picture Experts Group was made to set standards for audio and cideo compression and transmission.
MOV - was created by Apple to use as a file format for Quicktime. MOV is a multimedia container file that one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects or text (for example for subtitles).
AVI- or also known as Audio Video Interleave is a multimedia container format created by Microsoft. AVI files can contain audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.
Streaming - is multimedia that is constantly recieved by and end user while is it being delivered by a streaming provider. This refers to a delivery method.
Data-transfer Rates - or DTR is the amount of digital data that is moved from one place to another. The data transfer rate can be viewed as the speed of travel of a given amount of data. The greater the bandwidth of a given path, the higher the data transfer rate.
Frame Rates - is the measurement of the frequency rate at which a device produces consecutive images called frames. This applies to such devices as video cameras, film cameras and motion capture systems. Frame rate is often expressed as frames per second (FPS).
Screen Resolutions - this is the amount of pixels seen on screen. This can effect website design which can also effect what your video may look like at different screen resolutions. The most common screen resolution being 800x600 but some can be smaller or higher.
File Size - measures the size of a computer file. It is mainly measured in bytes. The amount of disk space consumed by the file depends on the file system. This effects video because if you have a large file it may take longer to buffer which makes the user wait for ages. Which is why you should compress a file so it is easier for the user to watch more easily and with less download time.
Ratios:
4:3 - standard definition for video formats
16:9 - wide screen or high definition television.
Media Players:
Flash - (Adobe Flash) is a multimedia platform. Flash is a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. Flash video is a file format used to deliver videos over the internet using an Adove Flash Player. Flash video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Users of the Flash video format include YouTube, Google video and Yahoo video.
Quicktime - is a multimedia framework developed by Apple. Quicktime is capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music and interactive panoramic images.
Windows Media Player - or WMP is a digital media player and media libary application created by Microsoft that is used for playing audio and video and viewing images.
Real - or Real Player is a proprietary cross-platform media player created by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG, Quicktime, Windows Media and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.
Rights Management Systems - is access control technologies used by hardware manufactures, publishers and copywright holders to limit usage of digital media or other devices. Rights management systems have been provided to companies such as Sony, Apple, Microsoft and the BBC.
Examples of video in Interactive Media
Film Trailers - these are sometimes shown on websites like the seekthesigns website. Depending on how fast the transfer rate is on your broadband you may have trouble watching trailers or any kind of video on the internet. Buffering and file size is a great constraint. If the video is too large it may take ages to buffer; but if you make the video file smaller/compressed then you loose quality and the video looks all "pixel-ly".
Touch-screen Kiosks - these can be found in museums or learning centres, there's even one in my doctors :) These help people find useful information about the centre they're in or what they may be wanting to learn about.
DVD Menu - A lot of DVD menus have interactive features. If you click to link to different menus you may get audio feedback or even visual feedback when shown a different screen. A good example is the Lord of the Rings dvd menu - when you select play movie it shows a clip from the movie with sound before even starting the movie.
Videos within Games - these are short movie clips linking into the game to maybe introduce a new story line or to link in where the story line is going. These help give a great atmosphere to a game and is real eye candy when playing :) A few good examples of this is most Final Fantasy games, GTA and Tomb Raider.
Banner Advertisements - these are ads you may find when simply browsing the web. They're very small movie clips that may advertise a product, business or charity to try and catch your attention. They've probably been made using Flash.
Touch-screen Kiosks - these can be found in museums or learning centres, there's even one in my doctors :) These help people find useful information about the centre they're in or what they may be wanting to learn about.
DVD Menu - A lot of DVD menus have interactive features. If you click to link to different menus you may get audio feedback or even visual feedback when shown a different screen. A good example is the Lord of the Rings dvd menu - when you select play movie it shows a clip from the movie with sound before even starting the movie.
Videos within Games - these are short movie clips linking into the game to maybe introduce a new story line or to link in where the story line is going. These help give a great atmosphere to a game and is real eye candy when playing :) A few good examples of this is most Final Fantasy games, GTA and Tomb Raider.
Banner Advertisements - these are ads you may find when simply browsing the web. They're very small movie clips that may advertise a product, business or charity to try and catch your attention. They've probably been made using Flash.Monday, 26 January 2009
Spiderwick website
The spiderwick website was very similar to the narnia website. It had the same pop up PNG 32 files and also had some visual feedback with the buttons on the screen - the graphics jumped up and down when hovering over it which is very similar to the work we've been creating on Flash.
Narnia Website PNG 32
On the Narnia website there are a number of graphics which are of PNG 32 format. When loading this websitethe images appear seperate and appear at different times. This is because the images are transparent around the people and when loading can be shown above the background. This gives a sort of 3D atmosphere.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Examples of video players
BBC Iplayer you do need Adobe Flash plugin to watch the videos. In terms of useability this player is simple and easy to use. It looks good too! It's eye catching and a good use of aesthetic design (great use of contrasting colours etc.).
Quicktime - need a plug in.
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Visual Treatment in Interactive Media
Layout and Interface Design:
Usability:
Usability is the ease with which people can employ on a particular interface or object in order to achieve something. Usability can also be used to judge how user friendly something is – how efficient it is with its purpose. For example a Playstation controller must be easy to hold and interact with.
Language and Terminology:
Language and Terminology is very important when looking at the layout of an interface. The language has to be clear enough for the user to understand and easy enough to read.
Design:
Colour – is very important for the aesthetic appeal of an interface. Using colours that contrast helps make the text stand out and using warmer or cooler colours gives a mood to your websites. Say you were watching a horror movie on your DVD the selection menu interface may be using dark and scary colours to emphasise the mood such as black and dark shades of colour.
Images – using images on websites help draw attention and make the page more interesting. An example of a good use of images on a website is the BBC website – on more important stories they use a larger image to catch the users attention, whereas smaller stories are given smaller images next to links.
Typography – typography is important at catching the viewer’s eye. The type or font that will be used must be easy to read. Headings must be bolder and given a larger font to catch the reader’s eye, subheadings or descriptive first paragraphs must have larger writing and then the actual text must be an easy to read font. A good example of this would be a newspaper layout.
Effective Use of Layout:
An effective use of layout would be using the rules of white, grey and black space. The white space being the blank or background of a website, the grey being the text and the black – images and graphics. If a website interface has too much grey space/text then the website looks too boring and has too much information which may put the viewer off. If a website interface has too many black space/images and graphics then it looks too cluttered and the viewer may not know where exactly to look. A good balanced website must compliment and balance within the three. It must have plenty of white space which draws attention to small pieces of text and images.
Identification of Users:
Identification of users is really important when creating an interface – this is basically your target audience and which group of people you’re creating your interface for. If you choose a target audience of an older group of people that enjoy gardening for a website then you must consider facts like that your audience is older - so they may not be so used to using websites; so an easy menu bar situated to the left, with clear easy to read text. Also the colours must come into consideration. Gardening relates to greens, so maybe a green background with plenty of space for texts and images.
Use of Navigation:
Use of navigation is important when creating an interface. For example a website such as the BBC has easy to use navigation. It has a menu bar situated to the left which is where people would look to first. It also has appropriate links so that a website isn’t more than two pages long of information. Also when looking at a news story it has stories related which are small links to other pages. This makes the website more user friendly and easier to understand.
Visual Treatment in Interactive Media:
Visual Cues:
Visual cues allow users to see the results of their own interaction with an interface immediately. There are two different types of cues; textual cues and graphical cues. Graphical cues are graphics such as the mouse and the keyboard; the graphical cue for the mouse is the pointer for example. The pointer indicates the user about the destination of where they are on the interface. A textual cue is when the user needs help or more information to be shown. A textual cue consists of a help box describing the current situation.
Colour – another way of showing a visual cue is through colour. For example when an action hasn’t worked on a computer then a help box with maybe a red cross will appear that indicated to the user that there is a problem.
Metaphor – a metaphor on an interface shows a symbol which represents an action. Such as the recycle bin indicates deleted files.
Prioritising – information means using suitable uses of headings and subheadings to show the reader which parts of a piece of text is important and to catch the readers eye.
Accessibility:
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree in which a product is accessible to as many people as possible, including those that are disabled; hearing or visual impairments. Accessibility is related strongly to universal design. This is about making products accessible to people whether they may be disabled or not. Because a lot of designs have been made to be universal; they are often very similar in design; example: the on button symbol etc.
Screen Design:
Screen design is showing the user of an interface the way that the information is presented and prioritised. It is important to have the right layout and structure so that the user is comfortable with the design. The amount of information presented is important. An interface must be easy to function and easy on the eye. If an interface ahs too much information it can become confusing and the rules of a good layout have been broken. Groping and prioritising the information is more suitable. A good way designers do this is by grouping text and graphics into a table so the information becomes more laid out and easy to read.
Balance:
The balance of an interface is important. If a screen becomes too hectic with information or pictures or even just too blank it becomes hard to understand or too blank and vague.
White Space - is referred to as the blank area or an interface (the area that hasn’t been filled). White space draws attention to text and graphics/images around it.
Grey Space – is referred to as being the text on a page. If there is too much grey space then the page becomes too dull or it becomes hard to pick out useful information. If the grey space is a small amount then the white space draws attention to it and makes the interface more balanced.
Black Space – is referred to as being the graphics or images. If a page has too many graphics then it becomes clustered and too busy – not sure where to look at first. With only a few images it becomes more balanced as white space draws attention to the images.
Use of Images and Composition:
Rule of Thirds - is a rule of compisition. If the main objects in a photograph line up along thirds on the page then the compisition will be balanced and catch the eye greater.
Focal Point - is a principle of contrast, size and placement, lines and visual rythems.
Use of Colour - this is catching the viewers eye through colour. Different colours effect the viewers mood towards a piece; for example: cool colours - blues and green and warm colours reds and yellows.
Colour Theory:
Primary Colours - these colours are red, blue and yellow. These colours can be mixed to create almost any colour besides shades and tinits which you must mix black and white.
Complementary Colours - usually these colours look good together even though they are on opposite sides of the colour wheel. When placed with each toher they tend to look brighter and more outstanding - they give balance for example yellow and purple.
Colour Wheel - this is an organisation of colour hues around a circle showing a relationship between colours. It shows primary colours, secondary colous and complementary colours.
Usability:
Usability is the ease with which people can employ on a particular interface or object in order to achieve something. Usability can also be used to judge how user friendly something is – how efficient it is with its purpose. For example a Playstation controller must be easy to hold and interact with.
Language and Terminology:
Language and Terminology is very important when looking at the layout of an interface. The language has to be clear enough for the user to understand and easy enough to read.
Design:
Colour – is very important for the aesthetic appeal of an interface. Using colours that contrast helps make the text stand out and using warmer or cooler colours gives a mood to your websites. Say you were watching a horror movie on your DVD the selection menu interface may be using dark and scary colours to emphasise the mood such as black and dark shades of colour.
Images – using images on websites help draw attention and make the page more interesting. An example of a good use of images on a website is the BBC website – on more important stories they use a larger image to catch the users attention, whereas smaller stories are given smaller images next to links.
Typography – typography is important at catching the viewer’s eye. The type or font that will be used must be easy to read. Headings must be bolder and given a larger font to catch the reader’s eye, subheadings or descriptive first paragraphs must have larger writing and then the actual text must be an easy to read font. A good example of this would be a newspaper layout.
Effective Use of Layout:
An effective use of layout would be using the rules of white, grey and black space. The white space being the blank or background of a website, the grey being the text and the black – images and graphics. If a website interface has too much grey space/text then the website looks too boring and has too much information which may put the viewer off. If a website interface has too many black space/images and graphics then it looks too cluttered and the viewer may not know where exactly to look. A good balanced website must compliment and balance within the three. It must have plenty of white space which draws attention to small pieces of text and images.
Identification of Users:
Identification of users is really important when creating an interface – this is basically your target audience and which group of people you’re creating your interface for. If you choose a target audience of an older group of people that enjoy gardening for a website then you must consider facts like that your audience is older - so they may not be so used to using websites; so an easy menu bar situated to the left, with clear easy to read text. Also the colours must come into consideration. Gardening relates to greens, so maybe a green background with plenty of space for texts and images.
Use of Navigation:
Use of navigation is important when creating an interface. For example a website such as the BBC has easy to use navigation. It has a menu bar situated to the left which is where people would look to first. It also has appropriate links so that a website isn’t more than two pages long of information. Also when looking at a news story it has stories related which are small links to other pages. This makes the website more user friendly and easier to understand.
Visual Treatment in Interactive Media:
Visual Cues:
Visual cues allow users to see the results of their own interaction with an interface immediately. There are two different types of cues; textual cues and graphical cues. Graphical cues are graphics such as the mouse and the keyboard; the graphical cue for the mouse is the pointer for example. The pointer indicates the user about the destination of where they are on the interface. A textual cue is when the user needs help or more information to be shown. A textual cue consists of a help box describing the current situation.
Colour – another way of showing a visual cue is through colour. For example when an action hasn’t worked on a computer then a help box with maybe a red cross will appear that indicated to the user that there is a problem.
Metaphor – a metaphor on an interface shows a symbol which represents an action. Such as the recycle bin indicates deleted files.
Prioritising – information means using suitable uses of headings and subheadings to show the reader which parts of a piece of text is important and to catch the readers eye.
Accessibility:
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree in which a product is accessible to as many people as possible, including those that are disabled; hearing or visual impairments. Accessibility is related strongly to universal design. This is about making products accessible to people whether they may be disabled or not. Because a lot of designs have been made to be universal; they are often very similar in design; example: the on button symbol etc.
Screen Design:
Screen design is showing the user of an interface the way that the information is presented and prioritised. It is important to have the right layout and structure so that the user is comfortable with the design. The amount of information presented is important. An interface must be easy to function and easy on the eye. If an interface ahs too much information it can become confusing and the rules of a good layout have been broken. Groping and prioritising the information is more suitable. A good way designers do this is by grouping text and graphics into a table so the information becomes more laid out and easy to read.
Balance:
The balance of an interface is important. If a screen becomes too hectic with information or pictures or even just too blank it becomes hard to understand or too blank and vague.
White Space - is referred to as the blank area or an interface (the area that hasn’t been filled). White space draws attention to text and graphics/images around it.
Grey Space – is referred to as being the text on a page. If there is too much grey space then the page becomes too dull or it becomes hard to pick out useful information. If the grey space is a small amount then the white space draws attention to it and makes the interface more balanced.
Black Space – is referred to as being the graphics or images. If a page has too many graphics then it becomes clustered and too busy – not sure where to look at first. With only a few images it becomes more balanced as white space draws attention to the images.
Use of Images and Composition:
Rule of Thirds - is a rule of compisition. If the main objects in a photograph line up along thirds on the page then the compisition will be balanced and catch the eye greater.
Focal Point - is a principle of contrast, size and placement, lines and visual rythems.
Use of Colour - this is catching the viewers eye through colour. Different colours effect the viewers mood towards a piece; for example: cool colours - blues and green and warm colours reds and yellows.
Colour Theory:
Primary Colours - these colours are red, blue and yellow. These colours can be mixed to create almost any colour besides shades and tinits which you must mix black and white.
Complementary Colours - usually these colours look good together even though they are on opposite sides of the colour wheel. When placed with each toher they tend to look brighter and more outstanding - they give balance for example yellow and purple.
Colour Wheel - this is an organisation of colour hues around a circle showing a relationship between colours. It shows primary colours, secondary colous and complementary colours.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Deffinitions of the important multimedia stuff :)
Server
A server is a type of computer program that provides services to other computer programs and their users. Almost the entire structure of the internet is based upon a client-server. There are millions of servers connected to the internet.
Browser
A web browser is a software application which enables the user to display the internet through images, text, music and other information. There are lots of different types of browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.
Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform which has become a popular method for creating and adding animation. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web pages. Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics and contains a scripting language called ActionScript. However only 98% of internet users have the the plugins to use Flash; depending if you're a business then this may effect the users of your site having a bad experience - this may end in them not buying your product, so although you're website may look eyecatching a percentage of your visitors can't see your site.
ASP
ASP or Active Server Pages is a web application network that allows programmes to build websites, web applications and web services. The default scripting language used for writing ASP is VBScript although you can also use Java Script. ASP pages have the extension .asp instead of .htm, when a page with the extension .asp is requested by the browser the web server knows to interpret any ASP contained within the web page before sending the HTML produced to the viewer.
PHP
PHP is a scripting language for making dynamic web pages. PHP is a widely used scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It can be embedded on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free od charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.
CGI
CGI or also known as the common gateway interface is a standard external gateway program to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data. The prgram could be written in any programming language such as Jave Script etc. CGI programs are the most common way for a web servers to interact with users.
URL
URL or Uniform Resource Locator is the global address of documents and othe resouces on the world wide web. The first part of the address is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second is called the resource and it specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located.
W3C
The world wide web consortium or W3C is the main international standards organization for the world wide web. As of February 2008 the W3C had 434 members. The W3C also develops software and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web.
CSS
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a way of controlling the presentation in a web document. The main advantage of CSS over presentational HTML is that the styling can be kept entirely seperate from the content. Also it's possible; for example to store all the presentaional styles for a 10,000 page website in a single CSS file.
DHTML
DHTML or dynamic hyper text markup language is a new way of looking at and controlling the standard of HTML codes and commands. DHTML is used to create interactive and animated websites bu using a combination of a static markup language such as HTML and a client-side scripting language such as Jave Script, a presentation definition language such as CSS and the document object model.
Shockwave
Shockwave enables web pages to include multimedia objects. Adobe Shockwave was the first most successful multimedia player before Flash became popular. But Shockwave can only be viewed if the web browser has the shockwave plug-in installed.
Plug-in
A plug-in consists of a computer program that interacts with a host of applications to provide a certain function. These are a few examples of plug-ins: Rockbox; which is a digital audio player to play games and use a text editor and Adobe Photoshop to edit images.
A server is a type of computer program that provides services to other computer programs and their users. Almost the entire structure of the internet is based upon a client-server. There are millions of servers connected to the internet.
Browser
A web browser is a software application which enables the user to display the internet through images, text, music and other information. There are lots of different types of browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.
Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform which has become a popular method for creating and adding animation. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web pages. Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics and contains a scripting language called ActionScript. However only 98% of internet users have the the plugins to use Flash; depending if you're a business then this may effect the users of your site having a bad experience - this may end in them not buying your product, so although you're website may look eyecatching a percentage of your visitors can't see your site.
ASP
ASP or Active Server Pages is a web application network that allows programmes to build websites, web applications and web services. The default scripting language used for writing ASP is VBScript although you can also use Java Script. ASP pages have the extension .asp instead of .htm, when a page with the extension .asp is requested by the browser the web server knows to interpret any ASP contained within the web page before sending the HTML produced to the viewer.
PHP
PHP is a scripting language for making dynamic web pages. PHP is a widely used scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It can be embedded on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free od charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.
CGI
CGI or also known as the common gateway interface is a standard external gateway program to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data. The prgram could be written in any programming language such as Jave Script etc. CGI programs are the most common way for a web servers to interact with users.
URL
URL or Uniform Resource Locator is the global address of documents and othe resouces on the world wide web. The first part of the address is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second is called the resource and it specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located.
W3C
The world wide web consortium or W3C is the main international standards organization for the world wide web. As of February 2008 the W3C had 434 members. The W3C also develops software and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web.
CSS
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a way of controlling the presentation in a web document. The main advantage of CSS over presentational HTML is that the styling can be kept entirely seperate from the content. Also it's possible; for example to store all the presentaional styles for a 10,000 page website in a single CSS file.
DHTML
DHTML or dynamic hyper text markup language is a new way of looking at and controlling the standard of HTML codes and commands. DHTML is used to create interactive and animated websites bu using a combination of a static markup language such as HTML and a client-side scripting language such as Jave Script, a presentation definition language such as CSS and the document object model.
Shockwave
Shockwave enables web pages to include multimedia objects. Adobe Shockwave was the first most successful multimedia player before Flash became popular. But Shockwave can only be viewed if the web browser has the shockwave plug-in installed.
Plug-in
A plug-in consists of a computer program that interacts with a host of applications to provide a certain function. These are a few examples of plug-ins: Rockbox; which is a digital audio player to play games and use a text editor and Adobe Photoshop to edit images.
Laws that may constrain Designers
Obscene Publication:
The obscene publications act has been enforced since 1857 which states that no imagery that someone can read, see or hear should be allowed to be published that can deprave and corrupt. As the act isn’t at all precise on what exactly is obscene the laws have changed frequently since the first act has come about; the act of 1959 and 1964 are the two acts that are being used today. The acts still aren’t very clear as it is a matter of opinion on what the public feels is obscene and what isn’t; the law itself only states that it is an offence to publish (through gain or not) content that may corrupt or deprave; things that shouldn’t be shown for example can be graphic imagery such as necrophilia, rape and torture. For producing work that is of an obscene nature through a limited company, as a designer you can loose your rights to the company; for example: an advertisement for a Chanel Opium perfume showing an actress pretending to be dead. After the advertisement had been shown on billboards and through television adverts it had soon received so many complaints it had to be taken down. Other examples of this is a video game called Carmageddon that was banned from the UK in 1997 because the idea of the game was to run over as many people as possible to complete each level. The BBFC felt that the video game would corrupt people who played the game and it was banned from being released. If you release a piece of art or an advertisement through a small business then you can be fined and may face up to 2 years imprisonment for producing the work.
Data Protection Act:
The data protection act is a law enforcing that data that you might be holding about a customer or client such as an email address or even their bank details should be protected. Basically the act states that you must honour and protect people’s private details. The law explains rules that you must abide by such as that you shouldn’t disclose information to other people or a company of your customers without there consent, also that individuals have rights to the information held about them and that personal information shouldn’t be kept longer than necessary; such as tax details should be kept up to 6 years. Offences towards the data protection act are unlawful obtaining; such as hackers and impersonators to obtain other peoples personal data. People that obtain personal data through hacking etc. can face anything up to a fine to a prison sentence. An example of someone breaking the data protection act was when the government lost two computer discs holding personal details of families receiving child benefits; this included data such as names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank details of over 25 million people.
Computer Misuse Act:
The computer misuse acts states that it is illegal to gain access illegally/unauthorised to data or hacking into programmes etc. This also includes the illegal downloading and copying of programmes. The computer misuse act was enforced in 1990 to prevent copyright infringement, viruses, using computer data for blackmailing or fraud, hacking and deleting or altering other people’s data. The maximum sentence for breaking the act could be anything from 6 months to 2 years in prison which was stated in 2004, which has now been requested to increase from 5 years to a maximum of 10 years. The government is led to believe that most of the people violating the computer misuse act are students at colleges and universities that are copying and downloading programmes such as Photoshop and music illegally.
Intellectual Property Rights:
The intellectual property rights is a law that relates to creations of the mind such as literature, artistic works, music, inventions, symbols, images, names of companies and bands etc., designs that are used for commercial reasons, this also includes copyright, trademarks, patents and other related rights. Through intellectual rights law the creator or holder of one of these ideas has certain rights related to their created work.
Copyright – gives the creator of an original piece of work exclusive rights for a certain amount of time in relation to their work. Copyright is applied to any created idea. The idea of the copyright law is to allow the creator to receive profit from their work and so that other people that may copy won’t receive the money the real designer should be earning.
Trademark – the law considers trademark to be a form of copyright. Trademark covers designs such as a device, a brand, label, signature, name, shape of goods, packaging, colours such as Orange, or any combination which distinguishes goods.
Patent – this is a set of rights granted to the inventor for a fixed period of time in exchange for the work of the designer to a company to distribute their invention. A patent gives the right to prevent and exclude others from making, using and selling the invention.
Obtaining Permission:
Obtaining permission means getting permission granted to use copyright material. This is often needed when creating course material and web sites. You should obtain permission when you use work in a way that may infringe exclusive rights granted to a copyright holder; this includes: reproducing part of the copyrighted work outside the boundaries of acceptable fair use.
Libel:
Libel is the written version of defamation; which is an act of unjustified injury of a person of company that has a good reputation. Libel can be written down anywhere such as through email, bulletin boards and websites. These damages to a company can be resorted in the person who made the allegations being sued, but this however resorts on how wide spread the allegations have been; such as if they had been published in a well bought newspaper. Writing libel claims of someone could affect there future career and it can also affect the person making the claims; they too could fall foul to the libel laws.
Race Relations Act:
The race relations act was established in 1965 to prevent discrimination to people of different races; this includes: discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin in the employment area, education and public functions. The act also established the commission for racial equality after reviewing the legislation. In the terms of a designer this means that all races should be put into account. A good example of this is Leicestershire county councils pamphlets and leaflets that are written in almost every European language.
Accessibility:
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree in which a product is accessible to as many people as possible, including those that are disabled. Accessibility is related strongly to universal design. This is about making products accessible to people whether they may be disabled or not. Because a lot of designs have been made to be universal; they are often very similar in design; example: the on button symbol etc.
Contracts:
A contract is an agreeable amount of promises made between two people or two companies which refrain. The contract will then be enforceable in a court of law. Most contracts can be made through a written copy which must be signed; such as buying a house where as most are spoken such as purchasing an item when shopping.
There are different types of contracts which can be made:
One-off Contracts: these are contacts to meet a specific need or demand and are short-term. They supply goods or services to meet individual’s requirements.
Renewable Contracts: these are contracts for services required on a regular basis and are usually let over a longer period of time for example schools.
Framework Arrangements: this is a contract where the terms and conditions are agreed with the supplier. This then allows call-offs to be made without the need to go through formal process. The contracts is usually 2-3 years with a disclosed option to extend the contract if need be.
Partnership Arrangements: this is where the county council seeks to develop a relationship based on partnership principles with a supplier; there by sharing the costs and risks involved.
Ethical Constraints:
Authorship and Ownership Issues:
Some contributors feel possessive over some material such as templates, articles, images and essays etc. This means that any material you may find and may use you shouldn’t sign your name to. This is because your work will be credited for what someone else has produced which is violating the ownership/authorship to the work.
Representation:
Race: representation of race in the media can consist of the same sort of stereotypes that constitute gender portrayal. Stereotyping of race is seen as more harmful, as media that may be produced can harm a certain audience such as an ethnic group. This is the same with if you stereotype gender or even age.
Blasphemy:
Blasphemy through work in design might offend people with strict religions. Say if your target audience is a Christian following then producing work to suit your target audience can’t be anything that may offend their religion.
The obscene publications act has been enforced since 1857 which states that no imagery that someone can read, see or hear should be allowed to be published that can deprave and corrupt. As the act isn’t at all precise on what exactly is obscene the laws have changed frequently since the first act has come about; the act of 1959 and 1964 are the two acts that are being used today. The acts still aren’t very clear as it is a matter of opinion on what the public feels is obscene and what isn’t; the law itself only states that it is an offence to publish (through gain or not) content that may corrupt or deprave; things that shouldn’t be shown for example can be graphic imagery such as necrophilia, rape and torture. For producing work that is of an obscene nature through a limited company, as a designer you can loose your rights to the company; for example: an advertisement for a Chanel Opium perfume showing an actress pretending to be dead. After the advertisement had been shown on billboards and through television adverts it had soon received so many complaints it had to be taken down. Other examples of this is a video game called Carmageddon that was banned from the UK in 1997 because the idea of the game was to run over as many people as possible to complete each level. The BBFC felt that the video game would corrupt people who played the game and it was banned from being released. If you release a piece of art or an advertisement through a small business then you can be fined and may face up to 2 years imprisonment for producing the work.
Data Protection Act:
The data protection act is a law enforcing that data that you might be holding about a customer or client such as an email address or even their bank details should be protected. Basically the act states that you must honour and protect people’s private details. The law explains rules that you must abide by such as that you shouldn’t disclose information to other people or a company of your customers without there consent, also that individuals have rights to the information held about them and that personal information shouldn’t be kept longer than necessary; such as tax details should be kept up to 6 years. Offences towards the data protection act are unlawful obtaining; such as hackers and impersonators to obtain other peoples personal data. People that obtain personal data through hacking etc. can face anything up to a fine to a prison sentence. An example of someone breaking the data protection act was when the government lost two computer discs holding personal details of families receiving child benefits; this included data such as names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank details of over 25 million people.
Computer Misuse Act:
The computer misuse acts states that it is illegal to gain access illegally/unauthorised to data or hacking into programmes etc. This also includes the illegal downloading and copying of programmes. The computer misuse act was enforced in 1990 to prevent copyright infringement, viruses, using computer data for blackmailing or fraud, hacking and deleting or altering other people’s data. The maximum sentence for breaking the act could be anything from 6 months to 2 years in prison which was stated in 2004, which has now been requested to increase from 5 years to a maximum of 10 years. The government is led to believe that most of the people violating the computer misuse act are students at colleges and universities that are copying and downloading programmes such as Photoshop and music illegally.
Intellectual Property Rights:
The intellectual property rights is a law that relates to creations of the mind such as literature, artistic works, music, inventions, symbols, images, names of companies and bands etc., designs that are used for commercial reasons, this also includes copyright, trademarks, patents and other related rights. Through intellectual rights law the creator or holder of one of these ideas has certain rights related to their created work.
Copyright – gives the creator of an original piece of work exclusive rights for a certain amount of time in relation to their work. Copyright is applied to any created idea. The idea of the copyright law is to allow the creator to receive profit from their work and so that other people that may copy won’t receive the money the real designer should be earning.
Trademark – the law considers trademark to be a form of copyright. Trademark covers designs such as a device, a brand, label, signature, name, shape of goods, packaging, colours such as Orange, or any combination which distinguishes goods.
Patent – this is a set of rights granted to the inventor for a fixed period of time in exchange for the work of the designer to a company to distribute their invention. A patent gives the right to prevent and exclude others from making, using and selling the invention.
Obtaining Permission:
Obtaining permission means getting permission granted to use copyright material. This is often needed when creating course material and web sites. You should obtain permission when you use work in a way that may infringe exclusive rights granted to a copyright holder; this includes: reproducing part of the copyrighted work outside the boundaries of acceptable fair use.
Libel:
Libel is the written version of defamation; which is an act of unjustified injury of a person of company that has a good reputation. Libel can be written down anywhere such as through email, bulletin boards and websites. These damages to a company can be resorted in the person who made the allegations being sued, but this however resorts on how wide spread the allegations have been; such as if they had been published in a well bought newspaper. Writing libel claims of someone could affect there future career and it can also affect the person making the claims; they too could fall foul to the libel laws.
Race Relations Act:
The race relations act was established in 1965 to prevent discrimination to people of different races; this includes: discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin in the employment area, education and public functions. The act also established the commission for racial equality after reviewing the legislation. In the terms of a designer this means that all races should be put into account. A good example of this is Leicestershire county councils pamphlets and leaflets that are written in almost every European language.
Accessibility:
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree in which a product is accessible to as many people as possible, including those that are disabled. Accessibility is related strongly to universal design. This is about making products accessible to people whether they may be disabled or not. Because a lot of designs have been made to be universal; they are often very similar in design; example: the on button symbol etc.
Contracts:
A contract is an agreeable amount of promises made between two people or two companies which refrain. The contract will then be enforceable in a court of law. Most contracts can be made through a written copy which must be signed; such as buying a house where as most are spoken such as purchasing an item when shopping.
There are different types of contracts which can be made:
One-off Contracts: these are contacts to meet a specific need or demand and are short-term. They supply goods or services to meet individual’s requirements.
Renewable Contracts: these are contracts for services required on a regular basis and are usually let over a longer period of time for example schools.
Framework Arrangements: this is a contract where the terms and conditions are agreed with the supplier. This then allows call-offs to be made without the need to go through formal process. The contracts is usually 2-3 years with a disclosed option to extend the contract if need be.
Partnership Arrangements: this is where the county council seeks to develop a relationship based on partnership principles with a supplier; there by sharing the costs and risks involved.
Ethical Constraints:
Authorship and Ownership Issues:
Some contributors feel possessive over some material such as templates, articles, images and essays etc. This means that any material you may find and may use you shouldn’t sign your name to. This is because your work will be credited for what someone else has produced which is violating the ownership/authorship to the work.
Representation:
Race: representation of race in the media can consist of the same sort of stereotypes that constitute gender portrayal. Stereotyping of race is seen as more harmful, as media that may be produced can harm a certain audience such as an ethnic group. This is the same with if you stereotype gender or even age.
Blasphemy:
Blasphemy through work in design might offend people with strict religions. Say if your target audience is a Christian following then producing work to suit your target audience can’t be anything that may offend their religion.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Website Designs: The bad and the good
This website in terms of aesthetic really is bad. It doesn't look nice or have anything attractive to any target audience - it's really just too confusing. In terms of prioritising information there's just too much. The reader really doesn't know where to start - there's just too much. When looking at the website theres not a lot of balance between white, grey or black space. There's far too much grey and black space and not enough white to balance it out or show attenstion to text or images. There's no composition of the text either; no focal point or any rules of composition. Colour - none of the colours are complimentary or contrasting. There's just far too much going on. Text is coloured differently, there's blues, reds, yellows and greens and all different shades that don't go together.
This website aesthetically is a lot more appealing. The colours used are complimentary and warming. Using white, grey and black space is also vrey good. There's a lot of white space which compliments the use of text and images that are used; which is well spaced out and works visually. The composition of the website also fits for suitablility - the menu bar is situated to the left which catched the user more and the use of typography is easy for the user to pick up on. Main articles are given a bigger picture to catch the viewers eye and also headings are in bolder biggere text so that the reader know which links to click on for what they want to read.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
In Comparison
http://news.bbc.co.uk/This is obviously better than the other websites than I've just been criticising "Big up the BBC!".
Well this website is a lot more user friendly than the others. The usability of the site is amazingly easy. The menu bar (primary links) is easy to find - on the left hand side because obviously that's where we all go first. Once clicking on one of the links you are brought to a new page with a subheading (secondary link) underneath the menu option you've chosen so you can find out more about the subject. The language and terminolgy of the site is exact - there's even a Help option at the top of the page for is you need assistance or the language changing. The design of the site is very easy to navigate and understand. The colours are simple - white background and plane text, links that are highlighted in blue text and underlined and BBC logo and design at the top of the page. Images take up around 25% of each page and link you go onto so that the viewer has a better understanding of the topic and is less likely to get bored of just a load of text. The consistency of the site is also very good. Every page is similar and you know exactly where you're going - keeping the same theme. And the use of typography is all the same text so there's nothing that is hard to read or confusing. The layout is very effective - having the menu bar to the left hand side, having the logo at the top along the banner, having text and pictures layed out effectively so it's easy to read and understand and finally having only 2 pages to each link/page. The websites also easy to identify through the logo.
Bad Website Designs
This is a great example of a bad interface design. It really has too much going on, there's too many links all with contrasting colours and labelling that jump out at you all at once. There's no consistency in the design - nothing goes together; such as colours and font. All the language is in English with no links to translating into other European languages. All the images used are too small to really see. Also the side menu bar is illustrated with only pictures and no labelling so that the user can't really tell where they're exactly linking to. The use of typography is also suffering. There's a lot of different fonts being used, that once again adds to it being more confusing - once again you're not sure where to look. This site hasn't really got an effective use of layout and all its users must be a target audience of people who watch the news and are interested in politics - however I don't see it getting many hits.
Another bad example of a web interface. The usability of this website fails :) Although you can make your way around it, which is hard since the contrasting colours almost blind you and cause you to squint. The menu bar is a good example of the websites usability failing. It is covered in different coloured fonts and buttons which don't match; making it hard for you to know what you want to link to. The entire design of the website consists of bad colour choice (too contrasting and not complimenting), too many fonts and a bad choice in moving graphics and pointing hands to show you where you're supposed to be reading (which doesn't help).
This is far too over the top - if it's not the ridiculous background, it must be the obscene amount of exclamation marks used. The usability of this website is practically non existent; you're not quite sure what's a link and what's just Yvette shouting at you to buy tuxedos. This is because the colours are so outstanding and contrasting, you're not quite sure if they're a button to a different link. Also further down the site when you come to what looks like the menu the text is coloured black on the confusing background - making the text too hard to see and it's almost unnoticeable. The images on the page of the actual store and products are all too blurry to actually make out - which can't be selling her products very well if the customer can't see them. The typography is also bad - too many used of fonts which is far too distracting.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Law's - a quick few deffinitions
Obscene Publication - Not allowed to produce anything with an obscene nature such as rape, necrophilia or anything that can disturb or corrupt the person who sees the advertisement etc. For producing the work you can have up to a 2 year imprisonment. The work that maybe of an obscene nature can only be taken down on a matter of opinion, if the advertisement receives complaints then it can be taken down. So in conclusion the law isn't certain on what is obscene and what isn't. If the design is through a limited company you can loose rights to the company as a designer, however if you have produced the work through a small company or advertisement for yourself you can be find and face jail.
Data Protection Act - This is making sure the containing details of your customers (an email address to bank details) are secure. If you happen to loose these details you are breaking the data protection act. You can face jail and a fine.
Computer Miss Use Act - This is that if you are downloading an illegal free version of programmes such as Photoshop you are breaking the computer miss use act. Also that if you hack, plant viruses on software and blackmail you can face a fine and a 5 year prison sentence.
Intellectual Properties - Similar to copyright laws; if you create and idea then it is instantly copyrighted to yourself as long as there are dates and proof to your work. If anyone steals your idea you can sue. It costs £200 to copyright an idea but it lasts for 70 years after your death. There's a lot under the Intellectual Properties such as penitence which is the creation of a formula etc. for example the bagless dyson design, trademarks; such as company names that can include shapes, colours and even recipes and designs.
The Disability Act - Designs should be user friendly to Dissabled people. Such as the designs of websites etc. Blind should be able to have sound or those that are dislexic could have larger text, deaf should be able to have subtitles in movies etc.
The Racial Discrimination Act - This is so that people of every race should feel welcomes such as having video games that shouldn't have a black or white option for characters and that when creating leaflets the designer should include copies in every language.
Data Protection Act - This is making sure the containing details of your customers (an email address to bank details) are secure. If you happen to loose these details you are breaking the data protection act. You can face jail and a fine.
Computer Miss Use Act - This is that if you are downloading an illegal free version of programmes such as Photoshop you are breaking the computer miss use act. Also that if you hack, plant viruses on software and blackmail you can face a fine and a 5 year prison sentence.
Intellectual Properties - Similar to copyright laws; if you create and idea then it is instantly copyrighted to yourself as long as there are dates and proof to your work. If anyone steals your idea you can sue. It costs £200 to copyright an idea but it lasts for 70 years after your death. There's a lot under the Intellectual Properties such as penitence which is the creation of a formula etc. for example the bagless dyson design, trademarks; such as company names that can include shapes, colours and even recipes and designs.
The Disability Act - Designs should be user friendly to Dissabled people. Such as the designs of websites etc. Blind should be able to have sound or those that are dislexic could have larger text, deaf should be able to have subtitles in movies etc.
The Racial Discrimination Act - This is so that people of every race should feel welcomes such as having video games that shouldn't have a black or white option for characters and that when creating leaflets the designer should include copies in every language.
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