Blog Topic #13: iPoint Critique

#13: iPoint Critique

I will talk about two iPoint Advisors sites that I liked. They are:

1.       http://mat.miracosta.edu/MAT165/studentwork/Elder_Danielle/midterm/

And

2.       http://mat.miracosta.edu/MAT165/studentwork/Moradi_Kamran/midterm/

The first one has selected a very soothing color scheme and the idea of multiple boxes is giving a very professional look. The logo is also very simple and clean. I like this project mostly because of its simplicity.

Few things that I think could be improved:

1.       The font size could be a little bigger in the main pages.

2.       The services menu could be done separately.

The second one is very professional, the logo is great. The homepage is informative. Adding the “Award” column is a good idea. The rectangular back ground border of each subheading also making the details more readable and easy to find. All the images are well selected.

Only 3 things I did not like much are:

1.       Roll over color scheme of the menu buttons. It could have been some other shades of blue.

2.       In the Clients page the red font I did not like.

3.       Also the services page is so long, it could be broken in to two sub menu.

If I were the manager I would have chosen the second one because of its clarity, readability and professional look.

Lastly in my project I could have improved the following things:

1. Did not notice the menu block is not matching with the header.
2. Could have introduced all companies logo.
3. The private and public sector menu should have a back button to go to the previous menu.
4. I did not notice the bottom menu bar is not aligned centrally.
5. The fonts should not be bold, and no underline should be there.

Blog Topic #12 :What Inspires You

#12: What Inspires You:

Throughout my career I have only worked in the boring black and white screen (COBOL) or the green screen (AS/400). I have also worked in visual basic which gave me a chance to play with colors, but to a certain extent.

I was always very fond of the design and media technology and specially the Photoshop inspired me a lot. At home I used to play with it and the changing effects of the photos were amazing. Before joining this class I had no idea that we can do so many things with Photoshop.

Color scheme of any website attracts me the most, then the usability and font. Selecting the perfect color scheme is the most difficult part of web designing. I am a big fan of strong colors and love to play with colors. The site www.shutterfly.com has motivated me a lot. I love to make at least two photo books every year, which tells a story about our vacation or any important event. While doing this I realized the importance of framing, color scheme, design and font. Positioning of the pictures in the right manner is also very important. I slowly realized that designing is becoming my passion. Moreover the increasing demand in social media like facebook and twitter is also encouraging me to learn the latest technology.

#11 Web Critique And Analysis

Comparison between www.redlobster.com and www.joescrabshack.com.

I felt www.redlobster.com  is a great site, very well designed and providing all the information related to the sea food and freshness. It appeals to the educated, affluent, and over 50 crowd by being informational about more than just the restaurant’s menu. Information about the seafood industry can be found and at the same time one can visit the chef’s kitchen where you can meet the chefs, read about ingredients, get good health facts, and gives tips for cooking seafood as well. The site is fairly easy to navigate which makes it more appealing to the older, not so Internet savvy customers. The primary message communicated through the site is freshness. This idea is communicated well with their chef’s kitchen portion of the site, as well as the ability to read about the seafood industry and how Red lobster is committed to serving quality seafood and promoting good health. They are capturing the customer’s information by asking them to join their fresh catch club, where the customers are entering the personal information and the demographic profile, which are the key factors for market research.

http://www.redlobster.com/kitchen/ here I can see the chef’s video. They have used javascript, videos, audio and html. I felt the unique feature of this site is meeting the chef. I like their color scheme, red is the main color for them, which is giving a great contrast to black and white. I like the fonts and the photographs also. The navigation is very simple and well defined. I like the concept of finding the nearby location first and then view the menu, as it may differ from other locations. I could not find any incompatibility problem. Viewing their web site and browsing each page was a great experience to me.

On the other hand I found Joe’s Crab Shack’s website www.joescrabshack.com  is emphasizing on price, basically low price. There is not much health related information, also they are not allowing customers to go to the kitchen or meet the chef, that way red lobster is in an advantageous position. Customers are also different , who are more budget conscious not so much concerned about health. They are also asking customers to join their club and providing options for other social medias like facebook and twitter. But to me their homepage is not that appealing. Also they do not have the “meet the chef” option.  My suggestion for improving this web page is introducing a great home page, which will at a glance give an overall idea of this restaurant.

I think  redlobster’s web page is marketing itself quite nicely.

Blog Topic# 10 Net Neutrality

Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle that advocates government regulation of Internet service providers, preventing ISPs from restricting consumers' access to networks that participate in the Internet. Specifically, network neutrality would prevent restrictions on content, sites, platforms, types of equipment that may be attached, and modes of communication. Network owners can't interfere with content, applications, services, and devices of users' choice and remains open to all users and uses. At its simplest, network neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.

Supporters of network neutrality want a legal mandate ensuring that cable companies allow Internet service providers (ISPs) free access to cable lines, called a common carriage agreement, and the model used for dial-up Internet. They want to ensure that cable companies cannot screen, interrupt or filter Internet content without court order.

Some opponents of net neutrality argue that net neutrality is a violation of the property rights of internet service providers because they produce and own access to the Internet.

P2P will probably be not there. VoIP, internet radio, podcasts, video blogging, and internet TV will still continue but they will be strongly regulated. The users might have to pay for the access.
Corporations and Government will be in a profitable position. The users will suffer.

#9 : What is a Favicon

Blog Topic # 9 : What is a Favicon

The favicon is the favorite icon, used in our browser favorites and bookmarks. We can also see the favicon in the browser tabs.

It is also known as a shortcut icon, Web site icon, url icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more^]small icons, most commonly 16×16 pixels, associated with a particular Web site or Web page.

Adobe Photoshop does not support the ico format natively but if one use this ICO format plugin, install it and opens the file in PS, it will ask which size image to import. The sizes are 16px X 16px, 32px X 32px and 48px X 48px.

How To create:

1.   Create an image 16X16 pixels in size.

2.   Save the image as an ICO file (named "favicon.ico”).

3.     Upload it to your website. Put it in your root directory and the web

4.     browsers that support favicons will apparently locate it eventually.

To insert it in the html

First, change the name of the favicon to "favicon.ico".
Insert the following HTML tag inside the <head> ... </head> section of your web page:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page's favicon in the browser's address bar and next to the page's name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page's favicon next to the page's title on the tab, and site-specific browsers use the favicon as desktop icon.
When a visitor sees one favicon on their website, that can be a strong indicator that they came to the right place. Favicon improves the overall quality of a website.