ICAWEB424A Evaluate and Select a Web Hosting Service
Last Week
Last week we discussed aspects of social networking and how we relate to it. Let us look at the class discussion in the Forum on MyKangan. (The link requires for you to be signed into MyKangan).
Some of the discussion points and evaluations:
Facebook
How interactive is the site?The site is very interactive as a user can communicate with others through many ways (e.g messaging, chat, comments, statuses, posts, sharing media) 9/10
How intuitive is the navigation? Facebook isnt very inituitive, especially for beginners new users, there isnt really much of a tutorial on how to connect with friends, upload images, posts, etc. And the navigation is a little bit hard to use. 6/10
How responsive is the site (speed)? Facebook loads very fast on a desktop/laptop but i find it tends to be slow and laggy on a smart phone and can take awhile to load/refresh. 7/10
Advertisments: are there frequent ads, pop-ups or spam? The ads are all interesting to the user and related to a user’s “likes” (which could be books, movies, games, etc). 7/10
Visuals, layout and graphics: Facebook has a boring blue and white colour scheme, although the layout may be modern and clean it isnt very appealing, its too simple and boring. The website is very text based (especially if you have a lot of “friends” that post alot of statuses, etc), but it does have some images if someone has uploaded them. 4/10
How interactive is the site? Facebook is very interactive when it comes to interacting with other users. You can engage them in different ways from chatting to posting on their ‘wall’. I find the wall feature a bit corny and there is no wall anyway, so it is just a page in a text editing software. The fact that you can communicate with others, post songs, documents, videos, photos, graphics and links is excellent. Interactivity:9/10
How intuitive is the site? Facebook is not very intuitive. When you are new to Facebook you do not quite know what to do. It is rather boring to look at and you cannot understand the navigation easily. You get better at it through experience. I would rate it: 5/10
How responsive is the site? It is pretty fast. Mostly happy: 9/10
Advertisements? I do not like ads, I hate pop-ups and that goes even more for spam. Facebook is good in regards to ads, their ads are targeted and generally of interest to me.8/10
Visuals? What visuals? It looks like a text editor! Very boring in layout, in use of images and in colours: 2/10
Federico’s verdict: 6.7/10!
Linked In
Linked In is not very interactive because the site is now dated and the only interactions are when you email someone or they contact you. The topics of interest are not very regular and there is not alot of activity on a daily basis. 6/10
The navigation is also dated and like many SNS sites it takes time to navigate around the site to get used to it. 5/10
Linked In site speed is fast and there is not a page load time problem. 8/10
Linked In doesn’t have ads although I have noticed that they are promoting ads like facebook style ads to appear in the near future. All members have the ability to advertise their own business. 3/10
The visuals and graphics of Linked In are also dated and in need of an upgrade. You cannot edit your own images to how you want them to look and the whole page layout is boring. 4/10
On Linked In you cannot search for a person unless you are logged in. This makes it good for privacy reasons although if you want to use the paid version you can see who has been searching for you which seems to contradict the privacy aspects of Linked In. 5/10
Linked In is 80% text based and 20% images. 2/10
Paul’s verdict: 33/70!
Social Web in HTML
We will look at ways to include content in a Social Networking website and how to incorporate content from your website on another site.
You can use HTML to embed sound, video, websites and other objects.
Iframe
Iframe is a command that allows you to embed a website or a video into a frame. Example for code:
ICAWEB424A Evaluate and Select a Web Hosting Service
Evaluate Social Networking Sites
Before you will be able to evaluate Social Networking (Web-)Sites (let us call them SNS to make it easier) you need to define what a SNS is.
SNS – Definition
In our first class we looked at how to define a SNS. We seemed to agree that it needed to allow you to create a profile as much as to share information with others, to upload content and to be able to leave comments. It should allow you to chat to others.
This is a pretty wide approach and I believe applies to Facebook, YouTube and any other SNS.
Let us look at some other definitions:
‘A SNS is a web-based service that allows users to share a public or private profile with common users and explore connections with others within the site.’
(Boyd & Ellison, 2007 – Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication)
This is a fairly wide and inclusive defintion that applies well to SNS.
List of SNS
Popular SNS found at SocialMediaToday.com
How many of the sites above have you come across? They were listed as 40 of the most popular SNS on SocialMediaToday. Here is a list of popular sites (source: Wikipedia)
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Qzone
Sina Weibo
Formspring
Habbo
Vkontakte
LinkedIn
Bebo
Tagged
Orkut
Netlog
Friendster
hi5
How would you evaluate SNS? What criteria would you apply? Have a brainstorm with your colleagues (or alone) and afterwards discuss what makes a good SNS in your opinion.
The swirls in the image are made up of numerous lines. Courtesy of: www.openprocessing.org
The calming effect of horizontal lines, image: courtesy of flickr.com, Photographer: jaikdean
Illustration by Jessie Ford, found on DzineBlog.com
Photo by mconnors on morgueFile
Grassy Rabbits
Photo by matthewbridges on morgueFile.com
Using the Reflect tool (o) to reflect the i downwards as if it has collapsed in front.
The grass layer has been turned into a clipping mask with the shape of the rabbit below.
The underlined text and insertion point at end of the word indicates that you are still in the type mode.
From ‘Henri’s Walk to Paris’ 1962 – children’s book by Saul Bass Found at: Brainpickings.org
Illustration by Gary Neill found on P.A.P.-Blog – http://garyneill.com/ http://garyneill.tumblr.com/
The Face by drfranken found on ChromoArt.de
Typographic with Colours and Photos – The use of large numbers is effective and the low opacity of the boxes works, personally, I find it looks a bit dated- found at: JuxtaPost.com
ruthworkx -http://ruthworkx.files.wordpress.com
The Glossy Reflection is transparent on top and gets whiter towards the bottom.
Constructivism Reference – by Lylah Livingston
Illustration by Jessie Ford, found on DzineBlog.com
Table of Content from Textbook – This design lends itself to an interactive use – found at: Smashing Magazine (click image for inspiring article on table of content design)
Photo by mcconnors on morgueFile
Steel Curves, Image: courtesy of flickr.com, photographer: Margeois.
Swiss travel poster from 1934 by Herbert Matter – Source: http://swisstype.wordpress.com/work/
Only practice will help you learn! Photo by BreonWarwick on morgueFile
Photo by clarita on morgueFile
Photo by Seemann on morgueFile.com
Uncle Sam Wants You, WWI Propaganda Poster for US Army recruits, Design by James Montgomery Flagg, 1916, image found at: Live Auctioneers
Multimedia Production Cycle – This image is under the Creative Common Agreement, you can use it but will need to reference this site: www.classoffederico.wordpress.com
Good Morning! Photo: wallyir, from: morgueFile.com
Photo by ariadna on morgueFile
I Want You – Emily Strange, The lovable Emily Strange came to life in 1991, designed by Nathan Carrico for Santa Cruz Skateboards. She is referred to as a counterculture icon. I would just call her a sceptic. Image found at: Kollectable Kaos
Vista Lighting Effect – Courtesy of: Tutorial9
Photo by dharder on morgueFiles.com
Work by Egon Schiele, found at Mom.org
Some of us have there most enjoyable moments in nature at the beach, Photo by rivediamoci on morgueFiles
Concept for Gallery Screnshot
Screenshot – 82 Everyone is a Marketer by Seth Godin from What’s Your Story by Joyce Hostyn
Photo Montage by SGlider12 on Webdesign.org – Click image for great Gimp tutorial
Illustration: Tavis Coburn – Illustration for for an article predicting trends in Apple’s mobile strategy. Found on: TavisCoburn.com
Study – Lines and Grace Kelly – by Federico Viola photo: courtesy of GettingCheeky.com and curved lines wallpaper: courtesy of FreeFever.com
Based on image by hotblack on morgueFile.com – F.Viola
Close-up at Fed Square, Federico Viola 2013
Examples of Output and Display for web-content. Image: live.surveyshack.com
Work by Justin Anderson
Couple found at http://frenchbydesign.blogspot.com.au
Contemporary design in style of Construcitvism by Teo Brito found at LauraGreen92 – click image for more information and link to her blog
From ‘Henri’s Walk to Paris’ 1962 – children’s book by Saul Bass Found at: Brainpickings.org
Mosaic of Sofia Coppola – by Maurizio Galimberti – www.mauriziogalimberti.it
Illustration: Jamie McKelvie – Art Brut Record
Text-based Table of Content – Very Graphic and Black and White- found at: Smashing Magazine (click image for inspiring article on table of content design)
He loves OHS! – Photo by Karpati Gabor on morgueFile
Italian movie poster found on Abduzeedo.com
This is a template for a business website found at TemplateMonster. It is interesting in the sense that it breaks up the main image as part of the navigation. The sound it comes with is annoying.
Massive Attack – The Essential Mix
Britons, Lord Kitchener Wants You! Propaganda poster design from WWI by Alfred Leere. Image: courtesy of WorldWarEra.com
Based on photo by xandert found on morgueFile
Source: morgueFile, Photo by matei
Illustration by Gary Neill found on Dzineblog.com – http://garyneill.com/ http://garyneill.tumblr.com/
Work by Jo W
What Time is it Now? by King_Bobbles
Based on photo by dhester from morgueFile.com
Illustration: Jamie McKelvie – Suburban Glamour Comic Series
Screenshot of Endless Alphabet 2, courtesy of AppsPlayground.com
Illustrator unknown – found at: Ephemera – World of Rare Books
Text and Shapes – This design lends itself to an interactive use – found at: Smashing Magazine (click image for inspiring article on table of content design)
Example of applied changes
Photo by omdur on morgueFile
Photo by frenchbyte on morgueFile
Swiss International Style – Joseph Müller-Brockmann – Beethoven – found at www.designhistory.com
Peace- Swiss International Style Reference – by Maryam Chananeh
Image Source: www.photoshopessentials.com
Vertical lines of a dark fence, image courtesy of p.ic – Photo Internet Collection – www.photoic.wordpress.com, photographer: Federico Viola
Poppies – Vector art Federico Viola based on photo by hotblack from morgueFile
Illustration by Kate Miller, found on DzineBlog.com
Finding the Right Candidate for a Job… – Photo AdamRiley from www.projectnoah.org
Colours, Numbers and Boxes – very happy and alive, personally I do not like the distortion of the word content – found at: Flickr
Custom Shapes and Custom Shape Icon
Lines and Gradients- Courtesy of: psdtuts+
Photo by DTL on morgueFiles
Study – Lines and Grace Kelly – by Federico Viola photo: courtesy of GettingCheeky.com and curved lines wallpaper: courtesy of FreeFever.com
A Beautiful Piece by Aerosol found on his Facebook
Jenga, photo courtesy of: Design-Crit.com
The concept was used on the German side as well with this ‘Auch du sollst beitreten zur Reichswehr’ [You too should join the German Army], design by Julius Engelhard, Image: courtesy of mental_floss
Colourful Table of Content – Ribbons in Primary Colours – found at: LifeBlue.com
Layers in Photoshop are like a Collage of images stuck on top of each other…
Light Streaks – Courtesy of: PhotoshopEssentials
Michael Pointing in GTA V – Courtesy of Rockstar
Found at Inc.com
Fruity Design – This is great for a menu, very appetizing thumbnails – found at: WeddingPhotography.com
Text and Shapes – This design lends itself to an interactive use – found at: Klafferty.com
Screenshot from What’s Your Story by Joyce Hostyn
Photo by clarita on www.morguefile.com
Leonardo’s St. John the Baptist, Louvre, Paris, Image: courtesy of A World History of Art – www.all-art.org
Luminescent Lines – Courtesy of: PSDLearning
Courtesy of The Art of Mass Effect Universe’, 2012
Experimental Photomontage by Robert Heinecken
Outlined text changed in size and colours dropped into the individual letters with Eyedropper tool using LMB + Alt
Photo by hotblack on morgueFile.com
Photomontage: Amir Ebrahim Photography
Based on a photo by delboysafa from morgueFile.com
‘For Great Road Trips: Switzerland’ Poster by Herbert Matter in (Swiss) International Style – Source: http://swisstype.wordpress.com/work/
Milk Poster – Swiss International Style Reference – by Annabel Stephen Salip
Illustration by Tavis Coburn found on DzineBlog.com
“Step into my office” Source: The Age, click image for link
The gentle curve of the river and the light green tones of the grass give this image a calming feel. The montains and the clouds have a less calming effect. Image: courtesy of Icon Photography School – http://www.photographyicon.com/line/
![The concept was used on the German side as well with this 'Auch du sollst beitreten zur Reichswehr' [You too should join the German Army], design by Julius Engelhard, Image: courtesy of mental_floss](https://classoffederico.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/world-war-propaganda_auch-du-sollst-beitreten.jpg?w=335&h=427 "world war propaganda_Auch du sollst beitreten")
RAE - Research and Exploration 