1. 2/6/2011 _Tian Luo_National Geographic (NG) website
1.1. 2/8/2011_Hitchings_National Geographic
1.2. Alex_2/12/11
2. 2/7/2011 _Tian Luo_Another website for discussion.
2.1. 2/10/2011: I agree! I love this website. Aside from the content, the design is wonderful! It is often that we miss good content because design is poor...surely not the case here!
2.1.1. I tried not using notes. then made a big mess on our page. so i gave up. btw, how you guys make your dialogue box colored?- Tintin
3. 02/09/211_Bado_National Geographic
3.1. New node
3.1.1. 2/9/2011 - Amira - reply: Hey Albert, I agree that the title should be on the top and nothing above it, but I think that the size of the title and it's position is ok. The designer of the website uses the asymmetrical balance in the top side of the page.. but it's still a type of balance!
3.2. New node
4. 2/9/2011-Amira-National Geographic
4.1. Do you think the page presents information effectively?
4.1.1. Yes, because it's well organized. Information is chunked and separated by white spaces. The use of grid is very clear. Contrast, space, colors, and text sizes are perfectly used.
4.1.1.1. No, if I'm able to edit something in that website, I would change the color of the sentence "Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888," which is beside the website title, from gray to white because it's not clear.
4.1.1.1.1. Haha. Nice suggestion. I was trying to think of something I'd change, but I really couldn't. I agree with you about the way the contrast is used effectively ensure the reader can see all the important stuff. It's a very sexy site. -Nick Yinger
4.2. Do you think the page as a whole uses visuals effectively? and why?
4.2.1. Yes, all the visuals are attractive and colorful. Labels are provided and proximity is very clear between headings, images, and the labels.
4.2.1.1. 2/9/2011 - Amira - reply on Tian‘s post: Hey Tintin, I think that the worst thing in this website is the position of the advertisement..
4.2.1.1.1. but that's something that is not avoidable, they gonna make money for the ads. they have to put them in prominent positions.-Tintin
4.3. Will you design the page differently? How?
5. I like this Mindmester now. Now it is my 3rd time mess around with it. And I feel much better. Without seeing you guys' post, I would have know there are so many things that I could mess around with! I figured so many new functions via viewing your pretty icons and colorful posts! Thanks everybody!!!-Tintin
6. 2/13/2011_Alex Murray National Geographic Site
6.1. Bad Website Design
7. New node
7.1. New node
8. see, this is what happened if i were not using notes. i can't figure out how to format my post. it goes beyond the page...horrible... do i have to open a box so that it has better layout? i screwed.-tintin
9. 2/10/2011: A side note on using notes...I think they work well for sharing a lot of information, but I am more likely to pay more attention to the ones that are in plain sight;)
10. 2/9/2011_RickSturgill_EvaluateDesign
10.1. Do you think the page presents information effectively? Absolutely, I think the page looks great and the Flash animations add interest to the page. I like the way it is laid out.
10.1.1. Do you think the page as a whole uses visuals effectively? Yes, I think really well. It's exactly what I would expect of this magazine that I have basically grown up with. It reminds me of their high quality magazine and so when I first looked at the site the trademarks were all there.
10.1.1.1. Why or why not? The reason I do like it is because the site is true to their history of great design and colorful pictures.
10.2. Bad website design Example
10.2.1. Bad web site design: http://www.maisonmartinmargiela.com/ This is a terrible web site design. The first thing you see is a splash screen declaring that the site is not under construction. What a really weird thing to do. After entering the site it looks like an old dos type page. It is very poorly done and lacks any visual interest at all.
10.2.1.1. 2/9/2011 - Amira - reply:This website is really ridiculous.. The designer tried to make it very spacial but he failed.. I couldn't even look at it for more than 1 minute..
10.2.1.2. 2/11 - Nick - This site is awesome. I mean, not good awesome. Just hilariously bad. It took me a while to figure out what they actually do. Well, actually, the first time I exited the window when the thing said it wasn't under construction because that's just stupid and I don't read those things I just glance at them. I thought it said it was under construction. I don't know if anybody figure it out or not, but Maison Martin Margiela is a high end clothing designer. I thought the website was some dude's crappy experiment. It's real and they really want to sell stuff. It looks like a poorly (read: not at all) designed site in your OAK space. Post-modern crap clothing doesn't have to translate to post-modern crap page design.
10.2.1.2.1. Really?" Maison Martin Margiela is a high end clothing designer." ??? How can they design such crappy website then? I really don't understand. They really use this site to sell their stuff? I bet it's not the main channel for selling their clothes, i hope not. I also thought it's some folk's OAK website. unbelievable. May they have audience are all geeky people. They do market reserach to make sure this is the site for their specially-targeted audiences.
10.2.1.3. 2/12-Alex-This website is horrible. Its looks like something we would have seen about 15 years ago. The designer really had no intentions of attracting traffic to this site. Other than entering it to see how bad it is. You are right, it definitely looks like an old dos type page. Horrible.
11. 2/8/2011_Hitchings_NG_overview
11.1. 2/8/2011_Hitchings_worst web site!!
11.2. Alex_2/13/2011
12. Amira's Suggestion
12.1. Hi guys.. why r u using notes? it makes it more difficult to see the whole image and to compare all the ideas and opinions.. then what's the difference between this and blackboard discussions?!!
12.2. 2/10/2011: I put my agreement in another place, as well, but I agree with you! It is more difficult to follow the discussions
13. 2/9/2011 - Amira: What do you want to say Linda Lohr?
13.1. Amira: In page 169 of the text book, figure 7-8, Linda put the cross and star of David symbols and wrote that these symbols mean Evil in some Arabic countries!! This is not true at all. In fact this is a dirty lie. These 2 symbols mean different religions that we respect and nothing else! I just wanted to clarify!
13.1.1. Good stuff, I agree! There's a big difference between a pentagram and the Star of David
13.1.1.1. Amira:Thank you
13.1.1.1.1. Lol. Lina Lohr is a psycho.
13.1.1.2. Sorry Linda Lohr, It doesn't work :)
14. 2/9/11_Yinger_Natl Geographic Rocks my Socks off
14.1. How come I can't choose where these nodes go without assigning them to the main thread? Apparently it's only horizontal up in the mindmeister. Anywho, I love this National Geographic web page. My only problem is that the photo of the day is generally pretty lackluster. I get them as part of my RSS feed and they're almost always forgettable. This makes no sense because the rest of their photos are phenomenal.
14.1.1. As for selection, organization, and integration, I simply like it all. With selection, the hierarchy of information presented on the site is well done. The giant, beautiful, pictures that headline the site are fitting. Even on the rest of the page, I find the selection of images that match with certain sections are intriguing and appropriate for each topic.
14.1.2. With Integration, I have no complaints here either. I think the way everything is set up and designed is in tune with both what we're used to seeing and what makes for good viewing, both which make it easy to comprehend exactly what National Geographic wants us to immediately with a simple glance at the page.
14.1.3. Organization I am also a fan of, big surprise. The important, or main topics are at the top of the page and draw your attention to them right away. The secondary or tertiary stuff are both exactly where I would expect them to be - toward the bottom of the page. I don't go around "like"ing stuff on Facbook because I hate Mark Zuckerberg, so I don't want that stuff at the top of a page.
14.2. BAD WEBSITE! _ 2/11 - Yinger_NYTimes
14.2.1. So, I think the New York Times website as actually pretty bad. For a publication that's generally well-regarded, their webpage looks pretty poor. It seems to be a case of cognitive overload. There are words words words galore and they're way too small. There doesn't seem to be any logical organization to the site. There is almost no flow and any contrast is not used effectively. Basically, it's very cluttered and just plain ugly to look at
15. 2/8/2011_JamiPaintiff_EvaluationDesign
15.1. 2/10/2011: I have to agree with Amira...I hate using notes! I prefer using Blackboard. I think it make much more sense and the discussions are easier to follow...I think it just makes more sense visually to NOT use the notes...good suggestion, Amira!
15.2. 2/10/2011: I know this may seem silly, guys, but I am a shopper at heart -- so many of the websites I spend time navigating are shopping websites...one of my favorite websites is ninewest.com!! It is one of the easiest websites on which to shop. I am one who notices the poor use of color...if you look at ninewest.com, the color is NOT a distraction! Users are locked onto that website for one main purpose...TO SHOP! This website enables the user to do just that. It is the perfect combination of text and visuals...categories are listed on the left side of the page, making it easy to find the right kind of shoe. Coming from someone who LOVES shoes...this is a well designed website!
15.3. Alex_2/13/2011
16. 3/9/2011 - Amira -Good website
16.1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/
16.1.1. I like the organization of this website. It's very neat. The colors and the contrast are good. I like how the news is grouped based on its type. But images are too small, maybe to fit into the blocks. Each image is enclosed with a title or a label. two things I don't think they're good: 1- the website title is too small and 2- putting 2 copies of the same advertisement on the same page!
17. 02/11/2011_Bado_Badvisual
17.1. http://www.youtube.com/ Almost all of us have heard of Youtube and probably watched a video on this most popular video sharing site. However, it is not the design of the site that makes it popular but the opportunities that it offers to us. Most people like Youtube because they can watch and upload videos in various languages. In this regard, the site is great.
17.2. However, when it comes to design, I consider Youtube.com one of the worst sites I have ever seen. Selection: When you visit the site, the first thing that grabs your attention is this huge advertisement of Acura cars. It gives you the impression that it is a car dealership site. The Youtube logo is so small on the left side of the page, and it ends with a search button.
17.3. Organization: The site has very poor organization. In fact there is a menu that is adjacent to the search button but it is not clearly visible. The menu has: browse, upload, create and account and sin in. It doesn’t look like a menu. At the bottom of the Acura ad, there is a list of most popular videos organized in two columns. On the right side of the page we have a list of videos under the title “Spotlight”.
17.3.1. Hmm.. I really don't see what you see. It looks totally perfect to me. Sometimes you can't help with dealing with the Ads- you gotta put them in prominent positions coz they pay you!!! -Tintin
17.3.1.1. It is Ok to have ads on it, but putting them on top to obstruct the Logo of the wesite itself is ridiculous! Youtbe needs to make its own advertisement too.
17.4. Integration: The combination of organization and selection does not really give the idea that this is a video sharing site. It gives the impression that it is all about cars because the picture of the Acura is the most prominent on the site
17.5. Funny. you are critiquing on Youtube. I mean slashing on them. They will sue you!! revoke your right of watching youtube videos!-Tintin
17.5.1. Actually we don't have rights on youtube. They have rights to use our videos for whatever purpose.