Finished! + site evaluation, space linkage and critique

My final site is located here: http://people.arch.usyd.edu.au/~mbli8029/webart/index.html


I am more than aware that it is 25mb - which is huge, however as we are presenting our website at uni and my website is uploaded on my uni space, it will load instantaneously. I have known this from the beginning of my design, so to be honest I haven't been concerned about download times, as one would normally be when uploading a website to be viewed around the world.

**Added on the 26th of Oct: I realised that the reason the site is so big, is because of the South Park clip... it's about 2 mins long! and also the whole Jack Johnson song.. need to learn how to stream! **

The theme that I chose to represent within space, is personal space, the space where I spend most of my time - whether it be studying, working, playing, planning or resting, I am in this space. To better represent this, for the webcam 'effect' I put myself just sitting at the desk on my computer. Everything on the page is about me and what I do in my space (not mySpace! grrrrr), watching my favourite show, South Park, a list of my favourite books, my birthday card, the posters, stereo, wallet, mouse, keyboard, flash drive, phone are all mine.

I use images, limited text, sound and video to convey the space as effectively as I can.

To further develop this site, I would have either two options: (a) to make it more realistic or (b) to stylise it further. This is true, as currently I think the site is sort of in a bit of a limbo between the real (most things - phone, wallet, stereo, etc) and the stylised (the card, Pulp Fiction poster). However, some of the feedback I've got from friends is that this can add to the page as it keeps it interesting and kind of abnormal.

Before this course I have had a bit of experience in Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and pretty much none in Flash, so this was the reasoning behind me choosing to make the site entirely in Flash.

"Storyboard"

This week I basically practised, practised, practised. Flash that is.

I decided that I would finally confront Flash head on and make my website entirely using it.

I got some help off Gianni in using the buttons with the Up, Over, Down and Hit statuses (statii?). This is of vast importance in what I am making as all the interaction with the site is to be done using the mouse - either hovering over something, clicking on something or both.

I have sort of started building my website too, a version of which, you can see here http://people.arch.usyd.edu.au/~mbli8029/week12webart/Site.swf. This is very early on, however it shows my basic room idea and I've also got the monitor 'growing' when you click on it... which is pretty cool. A long way to go this week though!!!!!!!!

My "storyboard" is also below, as my website is just a webpage there's not really a need for a storyboard, so instead I've just included the layout:

2nd thoughts

I thought that last week I had finalised my concept, however I went to begin the actual constuction of the site yesterday and realised that my room is too ugly! Due to this, I am going to make my whole idea more stylistic/imaginative, combining real (photos) with digital (Illustrator/Photoshop).

So, before I can get any working model of my site going I have to have these images created and finalised. Which is what I'm gunna do this week.

The way that I intend to implement this website is:

• touch up the real photos in Photoshop
• make some vector images in Illustrator (the monitor, mouse, keyboard?, stereo?, desk, etc.
• make a 2D image with all of the images/photos mentioned above that is simply a jpeg, this image will have rollovers, so that when you hover over something it zooms in on it (actually a new individual image (made in points 1 and 2)
• I will use Flash for the rollovers and to create all of my visual effects

I intend to create the illusion of going through my personal space (CERTAINLY NOTHING LIKE MySpace!!). Once the person hovers over something on the main image they will get some sort of a feedback, either visual or aural, for instance a movie playing within the monitor, or music when you hover over the stereo.

Tomorrow in class I'm going to ask a few mates what they think of my idea and try and get some feedback...

I will also continue working on the images, getting them up to scratch, quality-wise.

Finalisation of idea

Today I finally came up with an idea that would: (a) represent the idea of space in a way that I liked, and (b) allow me to use the skills that I have learnt and developed throughout this semester.

As the theme for my website I decided to use the 'space' where I spend most of my time - in my room/on my computer.

In this post is a series of images that I'll use on my site:

This image is going to be the main image of my homepage, when you hover over particular items it enlarges and is clickable or maybe pops up the info then and there... I haven't decided yet...

Week 6

This week we discussed numerous things, like the difference between linear and organic navigation; with linear meaning that you sort of follow a narrative or a set browsing path, whereas organic means that you can go wherever you want and there is no set way or even obvious way.

We also had to present our concept for our final website design (opens in a new window). The concept that I've been developing is the idea of "open space" - being able to have plenty of blank (open, white) space.

Ahhhhh, the serenity...

We were asked some questions by our class-mates, which were:

1. Conceptually - how does it meet the theme?
It meets the idea of space – open space is the main theme of my website

2. how did you come about your ideas for this?
I’ve always really liked the power of white space and the way that it can make even the smallest things stand out

3. Realisation visually - how will you express the theme visually? Give examples either from your screen sample (prototype or first concept) and/or another site?
See here (opens in a new window)

4. discuss your interface or the navigation style. will it be mostly: a. linear? b. organic? c. a combination of these? d. some other style
c) the navigation style will be a combination of both linear and organic, but mainly organic, in that the user will be able to go wherever they want and there won’t be an obvious way to browse the site

As my idea and my design progresses, I will update this blog. Hopefully soon!

Exercise 1

Today in class we did an exercise where we had to recreate a website using the CSS, layers and slicing techniques that we've learnt so far in the course. I actually struggled quite a bit, because I completely forgot how to do the CSS. I'm going to redo the tutorial that we did in week 1 and see if I can figure it out.... fingers crossed!

Website critiques 1

Here's just a list of today's websites which the other students (and me) discussed:

www.prefer.com.tw 

www.donniedarkofilm.com 

www.chrisvector.com 

www.tolarnogalleries.com 

www.stardust.tv