Wednesday, December 9, 2009

For a university webpage, USI's homepage is pretty standard, in my opinion. Compared to many other university's, it doesn't stray away from that straightforward "squarish" type of look. After looking at University of Kansas, University of Missouri, Yale, and Stanford's websites (just to name a few and were chosen randomly), USI kept the idea to not get too cluttered and try not to lose its viewers.

What works on navigation and ease of use: the top, bottom, and side headings. Really can't say what doesn't work, since it's pretty easy to understand.

Some of the images don't really "wow." Some of them are either someone posing (a little too much) or just not a very good shot of someone in the middle of a project. There are a couple that show cheerful students that work for a university website and I do like some of the rollover pics taken of activities and group of students. I don't know, I just feel something lacks.

The website could probably use some more pictures of nature found within the campus. More organic colors to display and add a homey or comfortable and relaxing type of feel. I noticed that on some of the websites; that they found a bit of pride in their state. So maybe for this school, what's appealing to this part of southern Indiana. Also, maybe some pics of classes in session with teachers lecturing. And what it could use less of is the school colors as background. I think it should be prominent where the context is, simplifying the back overall.

I think prospective students looking for a university would want to find out more about the academics, location, school happenings (in order to get an idea about the school), and maybe some pics of the campus and what it's like around the area. I agree with those expectations and I think the website should look more academic, while maintaining a few degrees of commercial entertainment in order to show prospective students how great the school is.

Boston University and the University of Texas-Austin stand out as a couple of good websites. There are thousands of university websites and the few I perused and these two were found to be more...simple and attractive. After navigating through a few pages, there was nice flow and the pictures were better compositely. They did have some links that told about their city. While Boston University has at least one pic on each of its pages, the University of Texas- Austin has a few with no pages, but it doesn't lack in presenting its information in a clean and concise manner.

I think USI could look to these websites as an idea to lean towards, while probably looking at some art and computer graphic schools to also integrate into their website. But overall, USI's website does well for the purpose it was made for.

LeAnne Lawn ArtSite

Still wasn't posted as of today.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Kyletieken's Lawn Art

For Kyle's lawn art website, I liked the color in the background. The neutral blue was a good color for the pictures in the foreground. The homepage was pretty interesting too, with the gnome leaning on the post to give the website a laid back feel. The only thing was that the website seems to be only about pictures. I'm not sure if there was supposed to be paragraph's of information that didn't get published during the upload or if the website is only about lawn art pictures of some Evansville residents.

I did also like the use of the post as a place to navigate through the website. It's a fun idea to click from one page to the next. Overall, it's a nice website, but just wish there was some information for me to read, even if brief.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

HawainPunch's Lawn Art

With this website, I liked the flamingo in the left corner and the way it moved when you pointed at its contents. The overall green color fits with the theme, but probably could be taken into a little darker color. I think the fonts should have been consistent though and the pictures, while good, could have been a little larger to show more detail.

I did like the thought of lawn security, seeing that it usually gets overlooked, especially with all the gnome kidnapping that you hear about. Overall, the website gives a happy feel to lawn care.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Lawn Art Layout Explanation

For my lawn art layout, I wanted something visually appealing to the eye, perking interest in order for the visitor to stick around and see what the rest of the website would be about. With the radial gradients, I tried to integrate that style into each page in order to show that the pages belonged together. I feel it worked out quite nice, showing more of it in the introductory page and subtly having it in the other pages.

The introductory page worked out pretty well, I think, having the buffalo come out through the letters 'lawn art.' After having it printed, it did turn out a little darker than what I expected, but I believe it matches the dark tone of the layout. For the second and third pages, I didn't want to crowd too much onto the page, but of course, the 'overture' page had to have a little more in order to have links to the other pages. The waves in them were an afterthought, which turned out pretty well. Overall, I think my lawn art page came together pretty nicely. - End

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Wmayer's artwork

On this art club layout, the use of school colors gives a nice touch to the overall feel of the artwork. The bus integrates the trips that are taken and the corn highlights the corn booth. I think the placement of the corn is pretty good, with the slight tilt that helps to illustrate the butter melting off of it. The red butter might need a bit of work as well as maybe integrating either another picture, possibly, or maybe making the bus a little bit bigger to cover some of the negative space that seems a little prominent.

The text inside the box could probably use a little either cutting or separation to highlight the key points. Overall, I like the colors and elements used, but I feel this piece leaves me wanting a little bit more.

Aonan's artwork

This is an interesting take on joining the art club. For the title given, the theme is effective in conveying that. This art club layout seems more structured and would probably draw people in out of curiosity, which is good. I like the overlay of the paints in the background, giving a bit of a cluttered look. Then, of course, the color range and blending gives the overall look a nice touch.

A couple of things I think could be changed up, would be the text size being enlarged a bit and maybe a different font. Where the rest of the layout is played with, the text just seems a little plain. One more thing might be answering the flow of questions that are asked. In the end, I think this layout works to also draw people in to see what the art club is about.

Taz's artwork

I really like this piece, mainly because of the colors and background dots that are used. The entire page has a "popping out at you" effect that draws you in and makes you want to look at it. It is a different take on joining the art club, but effective at drawing you in to read it. It's got a comic book feel to it, which I believe was the artist's intention and he does it well. The explosion of the pencils, erasers, and brushes at the bottom left corner is a nice touch that integrates the art club motif.

One thing I might change up a little is the white balloon where the text lies. It seems a little too big and could be downsized a bit. It just seems to overwhelm a bit, whereas I know the intention was to make you read it, but I think there's too much room around the text. Don't know if it makes a difference, but a location of where the art club meets would probably be helpful to the reader. Overall, though, I like the design and it does its job of grabbing your attention.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

For this assignment, I wanted to integrate at least a couple of elements related to art, hence the painting and wooden model. The corn, of course, ties in with the art club's participation with the Fall Festival and its' corn booth. Using the corn as background made it easier to come up with the text. I thought about going diagonal with the painting in the corner, but that made it harder to recognize that it was the bottom half of a face. I also figured going large with it would make it stand out more than if it was smaller. With the wooden model in the other corner, I chose that pose to present the art club as welcoming, and then the text worked out nicely above the arm. The text was kept simple just to get the point across and try to implement interest and curiosity, while at the same time integrating the school colors somewhere within it. Overall, I'm satisfied with the job, but if I was to change anything, I might have played a little more with the font. -Finis-

Thursday, September 3, 2009

I'm here to blog.