Thursday, 4 December 2008
Contrasts in Design
Design, especially in web design can swing between form and function. There is a balance between functional and flamboyant design, between html and Flash. Now I shall take an opportunity to briefly analyse these difference and see where they cross over.
indoorheroes.com -
I found this a particularly interesting website to briefly study as I indirectly know the designer. Indoorheroes.com was both built and designed by Joey Rabbitt, a freelance web designer. Personally I find this website brilliant in terms of functionality, the website is primarily a web comic and there is clear emphasis on that with a large display and clear navigation buttons in both internationally recognisable symbols and written text.
If you are looking for more than a web comic, there is obviously a lot more information to be found here, including a blog, a secure comment system so fans of the comic can interact with each other and the author and a news and articles feed. If you want to further browse this additional information there are drop down menus for filtering and sorting content, making it very easy to find something specific.
The website also crosses over and overlaps with other aspects of design, for example the option to choose from various themes. Users or clients have the ability to change the visual style of the site to suit their own tastes; this appears to be achieved through java script and css. The only flash elements used are for advertising in standardised banner sizes, although at present all banners are static jpgs.
locoroco.com –
This website promotes the Loco Roco game series for the Sony Playstation. Being flash you immediately notice that it is difficult to navigate through content quickly as you are constantly waiting between menus and as a result waiting through preloaders. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the web site is very attractive but some times the visuals can be a bit much and confusing in terms of finding specific content.
Again there is a cross over, where Flash can achieve the impossible compared to html or css. The Loco Roco website has essentially recreated a part of the game on the website, perhaps like a demo, which is invaluable in this specific context. Potential buyers would love to get to grips with the game before buying it.
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