Unit 6 Reading Response

Unit 6 Reading Response

I might be a little biased when it comes to having an android phone, but I believe that there is a slow decline in iPhones as of 2013. I believe android has stepped up their game in developing apps that span a larger audience and have better ratings. However, this is but only my opinion.

Android changes with the people, it is fluid in the way that the iPhone is not. It takes into consideration their target audience who want to have choices and be open where Apple is steadfast on only their way is the right way.

A big part of making a great app is having something that simplifies your life. How does it do that, how does it “amaze people” how will it make my life easier?

Make the person feel like they are getting somewhere, having visual feed back for touch and sight go hand in hand. When we touch a screen something must acknowledge we have touched it. But with touch fat sausage fingers need to be considered. How much space we need for design so that people can actually see the choices and to be able to select their choices comes to the for front. Design design and design some more.

I found that the article for android development to be most helpful.

https://developer.android.com/design/style/typography.html

Reddit is my crack and they have everything you want to look up.

http://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev

Youtube will teach us everything we need to know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_qaarY4_lY

"Flat design is a graphic style that aims to avoid any graphic element providing no significant value to the structure of a template. This type of visual design purely avoid any form of abstract “decorative” elements. Gradients, reliefs, volumes, realistic forms are erased to make room for simple solids.

This is a minimalist visual approach where the design is smooth."

One link I would like to share is on flat design. I recently changed my phone's lay out to a flat design. the android app store has an app pack for this. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kov.theme.lumos&hl=en
It lays it the buttons out with a very minimalist visual approach and is smooth to look at. 

unit 5 reading assignment

Unit 5 Chapter 8. “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends”: It is hard to get people to agree on where to go for lunch let alone have a civil discussion on how a project should work. To many hands stirring the pot can burn the soup or something like that. Essentially if too many people are fighting against each other the project will fail, if not enough people are looking to compromise then the web design can fail. In the end usability is key to every thing. We can make a beautiful site, but have 0 usability, and that makes designers cry blood. Chap 9 Usability testing on 10 cents a day: Keeping testing simple—so you do enough of it I remember back in my wee days as a young sailor in the Great Mistake…. Errr Great Lakes near Chicago, IL there was a mall that many other young sailors would frequent. Many times there were people who would wrangle us in and ask us to sit through a briefing and told them what we thought of the product, or how we liked certain things. I did not realize it at the time, but I found out I was being used! Used for usibility testing, how could I show my face in decent public again? How could I live with myself after being used by… by… developers! I look back and laugh at the people trying, nay begging us to look at their product. Some times bribing young sailors with money or gift cards. I may had been more attentive now that I understand the importance of the almighty testing phase. I like how the testing is a pretty informal project, it will let the facilitator open the floor and record the actions that the tester goes through. Is the navigation simple, does the site make sense? So many things, and little things go into achieving a functional and good looking website.


 Link 1, my personal hero, the man the breakfast the Oatmeal: How a website goes straight to hell
Link Dos XX: Even the government has gotten a feel for usability: see what they want to make you believe...BELIEVE

and in third place: Focus Group vs Usability testing

Sampling Ideas for Apps

There's an app for that or so I could hope to actually create a huge hit for the following items: Gender Speak Helping the opposite sex tell each other what they really mean an app that tells you how many miles you need to run to instead of calorie counting for food items. traffic alert send's the person a text message when there is a traffic back up on their regular route home. advises them to take alternate route.

Project 1

Unit 4 Chapter 7 The big bang theory of Web Design

Unit 4

Chapter 7

The big bang theory of Web Design

The inevitable “one more thing.” What other words can bring such horror to the ears and mind of a designer? One more thing, one more thing, becomes quickly 10 more things and before you know it, the web design is full of sparkling pictures and pictures of people’s dogs.

This is where talking about hierarchy is such an important piece of any design. Compromise is also an important piece in any design. Since everyone wants a piece of the pie, err, front page, compromises  must be made to make sure that the balance of information and pictures are kept in a good ratio.

Home pages have also seemed to disappear. Many people are given the direct link to a portion of a website. I personally find sites that have an “enter here” site to be silly and unimportant especially when the only factor is to enter an imaginary age. However, a home page can serve as a great landing site that gives an over view of the company and a description of what the site will provide.

Here is an example of a website with no hierarchy the lists just seem to go on and on. www.tgh.org

All of the drop down menus are heavy with lists and leaves people confused as to the last list they viewed. 

Having a strong site map will make the biggest difference. Check out this website: http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/3-information-architecture/3-site-structure.html

to view a great review on site maps and how they should navigate. 

Here is a great look at 6 ways to complete hierarcy: http://www.mediacontour.com/the-importance-of-hierarchy-on-your-website-6-simple-roi-increasing-ways-to-structure-your-website/

reading assignment unit 3

Unit 3 reading and response

Chapter 6 Breadcrumbs

One thing that will drive me insane is poor street signage. Poor directions given to me by good friends, and bad advice given to me by anyone.

The same thing goes with having a website that ha no direction, has crap-tacular navigation and a way that seems to keep us going around and around to the same page but labeled different ways.

This means that a good website has a clear and navigable site, and that means they have a solid and logical logic map. This is very important as I have given up going somewhere if I can’t find the address. Quick references and easy to identify products will lead a website far. Also having a navigation bar and the same appearance on all screens will allow for people to quickly identify that they are on the same site they started on. Changing the layout on every page will leave the viewer confused and hitting the back button until they escape our evil clutches, err I mean our wonderful website.

Having a home button is a lot like having an eject button, we can escape to where we started at any time. Also having a name to every page is important as it allows for the user to know where they are at all times. They see the “street signs” and know they are not lost.

Fun navigation from Nimbletank for tablets

A navigation I was not impressed with from Big Apple Hot Dogs

This one was beautiful but was not as easily understood at first, Jean-Chirstophe

Reading assignment Unit 2

Unit 2 reading assignment

Chap 3,4,5

Chapter 3 Billboard Design

One thing I think is rather interesting is the idea of how we seem to think that reading a page from left to right is instinctual. However, if we go to a different country we find the opposite is true in Japan or in a Hebrew nation. Design has to have the idea of the end user in mind. However, something that has really shocked me is the idea of how easily we assimilate icons and buttons into our visual library. We all know what the facebook symbol looks like and that we click on that to share the page we are on, or to direct us to their facebook page. The video icons work well also to let us know that the page is able to be viewed as a video.

Things that are important to design work is the usage of hierarchies and how we attract a person’s eye. Is it by placement, the size of items, bold text.

As a graphic designer I have had clients who want everything big because to them everything is big and important, their email address, their number, and their name, but it makes everything on the page big and bold and leaves no room for hierarchy.

Chapter 4

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral

What is important to click, what is clickable and what number is a good amount of links to different pages? Having a logical idea of what should be clicked is the key to having a functioning website.

Chap5

Words

I know I tend to be long winded, dribbling on and on about matters that resemble the real world… oh where was I.

Minimalistic words in an overabundant world.

Trying to cut down the clutter in sentences is the key to a well designed web page and design.  People tend to scan and get tired of large sentences. It’s better to have a clean, straight to the point paragraph that explains exactly what the user is looking for.

now for examples:

Hierichay?
Too wordy of a billboard 
what am I looking at?

Unit 1 Reading Response

"Don't make me Think!"
wow what a simple yet hard to grasp concept, too many times I find myself trying to create a lavish website or design that has so many facets that in the end, it fails. It reminds me of when I was in shop class and we were told to build a model house. I decided to build a "dream home" I quickly saw the errors of my ways as my project got out of hand, too many walls, not enough space, to large and unwieldily. I received a poor grade while other classmates who had chosen to do a smaller house received grades to match the craftsmanship of their well though out smaller homes.  My house didn't make sense, looking at the base construct with out a diagram people assumed the giant room was the living room but was in fact my bedroom. My kitchen was small and long and resembled a hallway rather than an actual kitchen. I made mistakes by trying to hurry up my project and cutting too fast. In doing so I created walls that were a little too short and made rooms lopsided.
In this way people tend to forget to keep it simple for a website or design in general.

I think a new innovation that is simple is paralax scrolling. I enjoy how to just keep reading we just keep scrolling. one website that reflects that is Boy-Coy. This is an incredible website. Using flat design and the right amount of scrolling and movement it gives the viewer a sense of 3-D.

Another website I found to be beautiful as well as well designed with simple navigation, wonderful pictures and a no nonsense in the idea of minimalist is Blackhouse.

The last one is another paralax scrolling called Huge. Using blocked groupings and paralax scrolling it is another strong website in both design, layout and easyiness on the eyes.

P2 Research: 3 books I would like to illustrate

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Lee

Ignite Me (Shatter Me) by Tahereh Mafi