The website that I think looks like the homepage that I would like for myself is www.michaelbuble.com. I think the most important thing is that it is simple, yet complex. The colors are soothing, like his music, and really calming. My homepage will be geared more toward professional activities…i.e, highlighting my resume, giving some insight into my life (not too much though), and leaving the viewer with a confident feeling about who I am, while not really divulging too much information. Official websites for celebrities tend to do just that too. They talk of upcoming projects, appearances, give biographies…but if you look really closely…it’s all superficial. You come away from the website thinking you know more, but do you really? That’s what I want.
One thing that I never thought of before was building a visual metaphor that would show up through out the webpage and using subtle changes to it as a cue to the viewer. The visual metaphor, along with other means, can show the viewer where in web space they are…resume page, hobby page, etc.
The heavy use of contrast is one thing about the www.michaelbuble.com website that I like as well. I read somewhere, I think it was in an engineering book about giving proper engineering presentations, that when viewing screens, dark backgrounds and light text are easiest for the human eye to process. www.michaelbuble.com uses this concept with the dark blue background and white text. The credits at the end of a movie also use this concept and I find that those words are quite easy to see, and they are more soothing to my eye than a bright background and dark text.
I will also use complementary colors within my webpage, most likely on the education portion of my webpage. Burnt Orange and Navy Blue…WAR EAGLE! The colors of Auburn University are complementary to each other and will work nicely in giving the education portion of my webpage hue and light/dark contrast.
I’ve had an idea about the interaction in my webpage. I think that I would love to have a portion my page devoted to call and response. Kind of like an ongoing interview. You view my webpage and if you want to know more, you can ask a question. I will answer and both will be posted to the webpage as an ongoing Q/A session. This way, if you have a question, it will get answered and you’ve become part of the webpage FOREVER…and perhaps someone else has already asked your question and you don’t have to wait for an answer…instant gratification.
Just for the record, I hate avatars, especially talking ones, and you won’t ever see a likeness of me on my webpage that isn’t actually a photo of me…and it definitely won’t be talking to you. In addition to uselessly using up bandwidth, it just plain annoys me.
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Dominic,
ReplyDeleteI like Michael Buble's music and agree that his webpage parallels the smooth sound of his music. The color contrast is powerful. I do not like the length of scrolling on the page--down, down, down,....
I like the metaphor technique too--much like the repetition principle. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the metaphor into my artist page. Any ideas?
Your idea about the interaction is interesting--a blog about you!
PS: I hate avatars too. I may change my mind, but for now, I do not want to be represented by a "cartoon"!
Some good ideas here, Dominic. I agree with you about the use of visual metaphors that subtlety cue you about something related to the website, Whenever I see these done well in a site, I seem to appreciate the design more because, for me, it signals great attention to detail which speaks to me as a viewer.
ReplyDeleteMissing at least one post. Looking forward to reading it. Meanwhile, the point you make about simplicity rather than complexity is an important one. It's difficult to create sites that can grow in simple rather than complex ways. Something to consider as you design your site.
ReplyDeleteYou are bringing up some good issues of usability. It will be interesting to see how you answer some of your own questions in designing your page.
ReplyDeleteCarie, don't hate the avatars. They are the customer sales reps of the future (present in some cases). I recommend you go to IKEA.com to meet Anna. I wrote a paper about avatars last semester. I'll invite you to read it once I get it up on the internet.
I enjoyed reading this post, Dominic. I've read a lot about the use of colors, and enjoy having that information reinforced. Dark backgrounds with light lettering are universally accepted as more viewable, even according to Carolyn Rude (Technical Editing), a founder of our program at TTU. Blue background with white letters are supposed to be calming...blue and orange together are supposed to stimulate appetite, according to resturant owners I know...will your readers get hungry?
ReplyDeleteI think the Q/A portion of your site is excellent. Not only does it appeal to the desire to be immortalized (archive fever), it's usable! I found that this simple device on the Houston Chronicle webpage gave me the feedback I needed, and fast, to find a safe route out of the city for my family during hurricane Ike.
Lastly, I also want to produce a website that tells people enough but not too much.
I look forward to watching you build this site!
I've really been thinking about my webpage and what I want it to do for me. I'm not looking for a job, I have one and really love what I do, so I don't need a webpage that will be a defacto resume. I've been thinking about my life and the things I've done and I've come the conclusion that I haven't done much...and I haven't shared much with other people.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm changing directions on my webpage. This webpage will be a little more personal. I am a private person, but I think sharing some aspects of my life (by no means will you be able to imitate me exactly from reading my webpage) and opening up a little would do me some good.
So I'll be blogging a little, sharing my views of the world (literally, with my camera), sharing my art work, and bits and pieces of me. I've been told that journaling is cathartic and I plan to use this as an open journal. Here's hoping it doesn't get me into trouble.
I haven't been able to incorporate the pieces of me metaphor just yet either. The coding is quite complex and I haven't figured out how to do what I want to do yet. Right now, the main page on my site has a "Look into me" metaphor. It's cheesy, but my friend took an amazing picture of an eyeball and let me use it.
I want to make the transitions between pages better and I'll be working on that in the coming weeks, along with trying to get the "Pieces of Me" page and code working.