Elements of Webpage Design

Exploring the elements of design in website development, I chose to examine one of my favorite websites, rockcreek.com.

Rock Creek Outfitters caters to the outdoor enthusiast; offering a variety of outdoor clothing for men and women, recreational gear and accessories.

The site’s most important content is located at the top of its home webpage and the bottom of its home webpage. The site’s header includes the Rock Creek logo at the topmost left and then across the page lists the most essential aspects of a customer’s shopping experience: My Cart, My Account, Wish List, Shipping, Customer Service, and Track My Order. Below this includes the site’s search bar, its telephone number, and its acclaimed free shipping on orders totaling over $49. The footer of Rock Creek includes the site’s legalities and contact information, such as its return policy and mission statement. Each of these remains constant and does not change as the website modifies its seasonal offerings and sales, thus these are the site’s “given”.

In addition to the site’s topmost header and bottommost footer, the webpage employs the use of sub-headers, (Announcements, Events, Features, and News), in the heart of its homepage, keeping the site precisely organized. The simplicity of the site is what often makes Rock Creek a pleasurable shopping experience.

Utilizing the “given-new”, the “new” being the site’s variables, Rock Creek’s “new” can be found below the header and sub-headers, or by clicking on each of the “given.” Coupons and web exclusives are often found beneath the header, which are ever changing, as are the site’s featured products and awards.

The site’s development has made a great use in incorporating the “tree” model. The “tree” model easily breaks down the categories of each header and sub-header, and most notably the site’s “shop,” found on the right of the site’s homepage. The consumer is able to easily choose what product they would like to peruse simply by clicking on the various “branch” of the “shop” tree. The expansion of each branch allows the consumer to then further narrow down what they wish to possibly purchase through the greater “branches” of gender, size, popularity and price.

The “given-new” and the “tree” model are chiefly the main element of design used, however quite obviously the “table” model is used efficiently in conveying the measurements of the size chart, which aids in selecting the perfect fit unique to the consumer. In a way, the size chart is often another form of the given, as most sizes of tops and bottoms are universal in their dimensions/measurements.

http://www.rockcreek.com

Twitter -"It's All The Rage" -- Tweet Tweet --

Omg. Wat i do w/out texting? Fo real. W/out the need to speak, texting allows fast, simple, broad, concise communication anywhere, anytime.

3 Mediums

Forget “To be or not to be,” “To Blog, PowerPoint, or Write” that is the new question. From the classroom, home, and office, more and more people have begun to explore the possibilities of the newest mediums of expression. So of the three, (blogs, PowerPoint, and the essay), which do I value most? –Actually, I would have to say that each holds its own niche; primarily after an author has established exactly what he/she is looking to best obtain, will an author choose one of three for use; each medium’s use is dependent on its nature of presentation, organization and formality.

The essay holds the trophy for being the most revered form of text and formality (essays are scholarly). The essay clearly captures the subject matter with its much defined structure: intro, thesis, body, and conclusion. For simple organization and its concise nature, I like the essay best. However, it can often times be boring, and if written poorly can become hard for any reader to keep focus on the essence the author failed to convey. But also, any author can attest that they know firsthand that essays can be boring and can be tedious for their readers if their writing becomes unclear, so thus essays are almost always edited at some point.

PowerPoint, is a great tool for the both the classroom and the board room. However, they have received a bad reputation in my personal book of likes. Why? … PowerPoints have seemingly become the sole tool, used by teachers and students alike, to convey information; and more times than not, the information conveyed becomes lost in an overexploitation of colors, whizzing/whirly things, and a chaotic compilation of noises. Personally the best PowerPoints are simple ones; with few animations, sparse text and more graphs/pictures than anything. Less is more … and PowerPoint is at its best as a uncomplicated visual aid. Utilizing PowerPoint as a substitution of one’s own thoughts, such as pasting up an entire pulling of quotes from a book or as a crutch of notes to read off, has made PowerPoints receive a bad rap too … especially in college where everyone is typically expected to have read the textbook. Personally, I have learned that the best way for me to best grasp the key elements of any topic/subject, is when I must be fully engaged with my ears and pen, and write my own notes. I confess, the convenience of simply printing out key slides from PowerPoint presentations has made me a lazier student.

Blogging, the newest source of text is often times my least favorite way of communicating/receiving text as I have a hard time finding reputable sources of information in many blogs. For me, blogs seem to be all hearsay, gossip, and personal gripes --not cold-hard facts, and few ever seem to be edited for an overall consensus of content, structure or censorship. Mix in even sillier uses of animation; many blogs look like something Jackson Pollock might have created while under the influence. The ability for anyone to write their opinions down and the informal nature of the blog are the only practicalities of the blog I find desirable –the mobility of a blog and its shorthand text can be fun and worthwhile when quickly reviewing something say like the Grammys or the latest scoop (just as long as it’s reputable, or from a source I have determined to hold an interesting/humorous viewpoint).

Three Mediums of Publication

For my three mediums of publication, I chose to look at Twitter "tweets," text messages, and blog posts. You will notice that my three selections are all within the digital medium. I wanted to compare these three mediums without having to take into account the differences between the print and digital (which could be its own post).

Twitter is the shortest, most open, and one of the most popular forms of communication. It's all about the conversation with other tweeple.

TXTs R soo popular (specally with tweens! lulz). TXTers have thur own language. less conventinal then blogs. ppl change da way they say things. ttyl my bffs.

Blog posts are the most conventional and arguably closest relative to print media. Blogs are often written in a more formal manner than "tweets" or texts. Because blogs are targeted to a more specific audience than "tweets," authors can often take more liberties in what they write. There are no limits on the length of blogs, but the often are around 250-500 words as people's attention spans are far less than the readers of print media.

These examples are only several types of mediums for publication. As you can see by the way each is written, each medium has a unique way of presenting and communicating information. These mediums will continue to change as the authors and readers of information continue to transition from print to digital.

BBC Sport Football

I examined the design elements on the BBC Sport Football page. The page incorporates all the elements of non-linear design.

First, the page uses the given-new model. The BBC logo is on the left hand side (given) and everything else is the right of it (new). The page's content bin also uses the model, with the most important stories to the left (given) and other information such as ads, league table, and links to the right (new).

Next, the page uses the ideal-real model. The BBC logo and page name are at the top of the page (ideal) and the rest of the information is below it (real). It is interesting that the page has an ad above the logo. Is this ad supposed to represent the ideal and therefore move the BBC logo and page name to the real?

The page also incorporates the star model. The center of the page centers on a picture (usually of the latest story. From there stories branch out to cover specific aspects of the main story. This is the star model as all the side stories go back to the picture and the main news event.

The page uses the tree model on the left hand side of the page. The tree breaks down the various leagues. When you click on one of the leagues, it expands to show specific areas of news coverage. The tree model is also used towards the bottom of the page, where it lists a league and then the most relevant story below it.

The table model is incorporate if you click on a specific league (i.e. Premier League). On the right hand side of the page, the table is used to show the teams, goal differential, and points in the race to win the league title. In fact, football supporters refer to this table as “The Table” as they address where their team lies within it.

Finally, the BBC Sport Football site uses the network model. On the right hand side of the page, the site links to stories as covered by other news organizations. Therefore, the site is a node in the news network of coverage of a specific football related story.

The site uses all the non-linear models to organize itself and this list is just a brief synopsis of all the different ways the models are incorporated within the BBC Sport Football website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/default.stm

ESPN Table

Since it's football season, I found a table on ESPN that was comparing all of the football teams through their stats. This is a table because it is overall comparable, you can look at multiple teams and compare their stats to one another. The table also has a generality as well as the same types of levels for each component. Example: Each team has stats on their wins, loses, interceptions, yards thrown, yards ran, etc. Which allows an individual to scroll through each time, comparing the number of wins to loses. The table is visible as a table, because it has rows and columns that compare teams, which are seen as the cell of the table.

Website design

I have looked at the website, forever21.com
I think this site is built up as an ideal and real formation. At the top you have the most important facts like customer service, store locater and track order. Also now for Christmas there is a wish list button. Below that there are all the different headings for the sections or departments of forever21´s products. Further down on the site it is less important information where you can see for example clothes and news.

The site is also a “kind of” tree. The different sections/headings, for example accessories, then drop down into different kinds of accessories, for example belts or jewelry.

www.forever21.com