Web Design

All of these sites are about technology, specifically web design. Unfortunately Web Monkey is the only site to make this completely obvious from the start. Hotwired was a little overwhelming to look at; there are too many things going on within the site’s homepage. The tutorials on the site are pretty good, if you are able to spot them. Wired Magazine’s site was a little clearer about who they were and seemed to be a lot more organized. One of the best features on this site was the feedback available for technological products. Web Monkey tells you at the very top what they are and who they are there for. The layout allows for natural movement of the eyes, and important things are well labeled. My favorite thing on Web Monkey was the HTML cheat sheet; it is easy to get to and very simple to understand. I feel that Web Monkey follows the key concepts that Jim Frey gives for Web design. You know when you first get to the page what the purpose of the site is and who it is geared towards. The site is also comfortable on the eyes and easy to read, following the idea that people read from left to right, and top to bottom. All in all Web Monkey was my favorite of the sites.
 

I agree with Melissa that Web Monkey is the best of the sites. I think if I knew more about web design, then I'd know exactly how to navigate the site and get what I need. Even not knowing anything, I clicked on the HTML cheat sheet and found it really useful, and I'll probably experiment with some of that throughout the quarter. I had a big problem with Hotwired, not because of the nature of the site but because all around it are advertisements and things that are animated. I found it hard to look at something and know that it was part of the site and not an ad. It was just too busy for me.
 

Although it’s not so obvious to a first time visitor, all of these sites are based around web design. I found that all three sites were a little overwhelming and gave little explanation as to what the sites are really for. If I really knew what I was doing with web design, I’d probably be more appreciative of the info that these sites have to offer. But, I don’t really know what I’m doing.

Jim Frey seems to have stated some of the more obvious concepts of design and applied them to web design. Aside from that, he touches on the key basics of what seems to be web design (not being an expert myself, this is an assumption).

Some of the more helpful things I found on Hotwired and Web Monkey were pieces of information that were aimed at beginners and kids. Being a beginner myself, I found the information that was provided for kids to be very helpful and easy to understand. As for Wired Magazine, I didn’t find much of anything that was very helpful.
 

I felt initially confused of the purpose of Hotwired, because no information was posted explaining the services offered. Many colors and pictures (including animation) were included in the site, but in this case, the lack of concern for user-experience made the features distracting.

Wired (online), a supplement to the popular magazine, is a well-constructed resource database. The navigation tools are extremely clear and well planned for readability. The use of photographs, accompanying the articles, added visual incentive to read further. The sites purpose was clear, as Jim Frey established as a key concept to Web construction, and kept inline with the “keep it simple, stupid!” method.

Webmonkey clearly identified its audience (Frey’s first concept of Web design) and catered the site to everyone (even beginners). The background, title and graphics supplemented the links well and added character to the site. The interactive content of the site complements Frey’s objectives of basic design well and offers a prime example of great user experience.

Helpful articles from each site:
HTML Cheatsheet (Webmonkey)
Are You a Potential Terrorist? (Hotwired)
Degrading Pages—technology tools (Jim Frey
 

I initially followed the first link to Hotwired. After browsing the first page a little bit, I realized that there were links to content contained on both the Wired and Webmonkey websites. The Hotwired site itself was very confusing to me. It was packed full of information that was competing for my attention. The text on the page was very small and difficult to read. There were too many links provided on that first page. The Hotwired logo was very small, I would have liked to have seen it larger and more obvious.

The Wired site was a little better. I loved the colorful banner and borders. I liked the feature in the top right side of the page where you could change the size of the text on the page. This site was easy to navigate and made good use of the few graphics it used.

The Webmonkey site was my favorite of the three. I loved the large logo on the top left hand corner, surrounded by plenty of blankspace. Only the most important links were boxed on the front page, and a side bar provided links to many references.

The most interesting things on each one of these sites:
Webmonkey: HTML cheatsheets and color codes will come in handy.
Wired: I liked the list of the Wired 40, companies that are masters of innovation, technology, and strategic vision. Google was #1.
Hotwired: The section on cocktails was unusual, although I was confused why it was there.

Jim Frew's article was an excellent starting point for someone like me who has never done web design. Taking the tips from his article, I will consider who my target audience is and what my goals are when building my web page. Understanding these key elements are important in knowing which features to include on the page.
 

Article Review: Hotwired, Wired, Webmonkey

First of all, when I clicked on the hotwired link, I had no clue as to where I was exactly. I didn't quite know where to go. After looking at a few items on their page, I realized that it was a site dedicated to "techies" and web designers. The site uses a lot of color contrast and frames in order to organize their information. Hotwired invites users to join their updates newsletter and changes graphics and offers daily. The site is in nonlinear form, in that, the user controls what he or she looks at and in what order. The site didn't grab my attention too much, probably because I am not a part of their target audience. The coolest part of Hotwired, to me was the use of color to organize the information and to help the user navigate.

After viewing Hotwired, I navigated to Wired magazine. It was fairly easy to tell where I ended up, but I wasn't quite sure what the link was amongst articles. Once again, it occurred to me that the articles are geared around the technology industry. The offerings on the site varied from new video game reviews & gadgets, to business happenings. I particularly liked how Wired included a picture by each abstract of an article. The most confusing part about the site, to me, was how to differentiate among active links to articles and ones that are teasers for an article to come.

The last site I viewed was Webmonkey. Webmonkey had a great sub-head which read "the web developers' resource," that let me in on what the site was about and whom it was for. It offers lots of tools and links to useful items for web designers. Although the colors used on the site could bother my eyes after a while, the site appeared to be very useful and user friendly. The bulleted subject items were handy in helping me navigate. There weren't a lot of flashy graphics or techniques, which a user may expect from a web developing website. But the site was written well and provided a lot of information.

The most annoying part about those three websites was that I had to use the back button to return to the "home page," because when I click the "home" icon, it sends me to a different site. I also noticed that all three sites appeared to have links to the others and they were all hosted by Lycos.
 

3 useful articles:
Hotwired- I enjoyed the Dreamweaver article. It takes the user through beginning Dreamweaver with step-by-step instructions and visual examples.

Wired- I didn't really find a useful article, but I am looking forward to reading the upcoming one about the Halo 2 video game.

Webmonkey- I enjoyed all of their reference material, especially the color codes chart.
 

I can't say that when I visited these sites I was totally confused, but that's probably only because I have had a little experience poking around on these types of sites for my own webpage. In particular, I thought that Wired Magazine's online page was the most "user friendly" of the three. It was possible for me to poke around on Web Monkey and Hotwired, but the Wired site seemed to have navigational menus that were meant for anybody to use - rather than just web designers (who are familiar with them.)

I thought it was intereseting to see some of the links and articles that were available. On Hotwired, I believe, there is a good article about Macromedia Fireworks which gives some information about vectors and which types of photo file types one would use for specific applications. One the same site, there is a link to webmonkey and webmonkey kids. I also thought that the color schemes that Wired uses were more visually asthetic than the schemes used by the other sites.
 

All three web sites were a little confusing for me. I do not understand web stuff and the lingo goes right over my head! One thing that I noticed about each site, was that they were very crowded and colorful. There was so much going on that it was very confusing.

On Hotwired, I really appriciated the kid's links, they seemed to be closer to my level of understanding! I also enjoyed the "Crash Courses" links that taught web design aspects in easy to understand articles.

Wired was the most confusing site for me. I just didn't really understand it's purpose, but I did enjoy the "Gene Therepy" article about relationships and an individuals' geneology! (Im not sure why it was on a web design web site)

WebMonkey made the most sense, since it had a tag line that described what the site had to offer. They had many articles that helped with web design, I enjoyed "Get Smarty with PHP Templates" because it made web designing easier.

What I got from Jim Frey's article was that you should know your audience, purpose and goals for the web site, before you begin. The entire site should be tailored to fit that audience and should be made to the convenience of them.
 

All three sites are supposed to be about computer-related issues though Wed Monkey is the only one that it was immediately obvious. The Wired website was not obvious at all, just knowing the fact that Wired is a computer magazine lets me know it is a computer related website.

Jim Frey discussed that when building a website, there needs to be a point to the site, a main topic. You also need to decide what your target audience is and how they are going to access your site (Broadband vs. Dial-Up). Put the most important information at the top, using the inverted triangle idea. Text should be readable against the background color. Most importantly, he says to keep it simple. I other words, work smarter, not harder.

The articles on Hotwired were interesting but to a beginning web designer, I didn’t feel any of them were helpful. As for Wired, at the time I was looking at the site, they only had two major articles on their front page and teasers for eight articles to come later so not very helpful. I did like how Webmonkey has a HTML cheatsheet. That could be helpful.
 

I admit, I am a "techie" and for me these sites are not all that confusing. In general I enjoy browsing through them for new ideas and reading the articles that relate to things I am interested in. I particularly was excited about the MP3 page on hotwired. Granted there seemed to be a lack of "new" news on that page, I enjoyed it nonetheless. My only complaint about hotwired is the advertising. It seemed a little overpowering to have it on the right side and on the bottom, especially the animated ads.

The Wired site was okay, but I would prefer just to read the magazine they publish. The article I enjoyed the most on their site was "F*** the FCC! Set the airwaves free." The other thing I liked about the site was the "gadget newsletter," which I am strongly considering signing up for.

Complaint number one about Webmonkey: pop-ups. Those are annoying as we all know and they shouldn't need them. Complaint two: the background was a little too busy. The colors are good, but I don't know if I enjoy the wavy/circular pattern. The things I did like on Webmonkey were the color codes and the stylesheet guide. I like the color page because it puts the code next to the sample color. The stylesheet guide was important because I have been looking for one of those for a long time and the examples they have seem very easy to follow.
 

After a fair amount of sifting through the three websites in question, Hotwired, Wired Magazine (online) and Web Monkey, as well as reading through Jim Frey's article, I’ve discovered that these sites are very similar yet at the same time very different. Though most posts on the blog begin with an analysis of Hotwired I’m going to save that one for the end and begin with the Wired Magazine website.

This site has a lot of the key features that most commercial sites have in common. It’s easy to navigate with its search bar option and topic specific links located at the top. The website itself reads much like a magazine would with its three columned page. The colors match that of the paper version of the magazine, which to me creates a link between the two different medias. This link helps make the website feel like an extension of the magazine readers “Wired experience”. The site has a distinctly “tech” feel which is understandable considering a large portion of the readers of this magazine are probably in some sort of I.T. profession or at least very interested in computing. However, the site still passes the, “My computer hating older parents can navigate this site” test. That should help attract new readers.

The Next site I’m going to look at is Web Monkey. The site, from the beginning, says, “I’m for anybody to use.” With its “Beginners, Builders, and Masters” options located at the top of the site it caters to every web designers needs and various levels of experience. The cartoon like graphics and links on the site give it a more laid back, fun feel. Though the site has a lot of great bells and whistles, the key as many other students in this class have already stated lies in the content. I also have found the HTML cheat sheet, which I’m sure will come in handy later on.

Now finally for the website known as Hotwired. What this sight reminds of is that I.T. guy at work, who when asked a simple question about how to fix a problem, tries to make you feel like you’re incompetence about computing sees no end and you are a fool for trying to step into his tech savvy world. This is probably a bit of an overstatement but it’s the feeling I got when surfing through this sight. The sites unique four-row set up makes it a little hard for the eye to just read from top to bottom. Its boxy design reminds me of many of the websites you would find in the early to mid 90’s. The designer of the site seems to have gone a little overboard on the color scheme as well. I counted at least twenty different colors not counting those found in the advertisements on the sides. All this being said, I don’t believe this to be a bad site. It caters to its audience, many of which probably started on the ground floor of web page design where boxy shapes, frames, and as many colors as you could fit on the page were the norm. It really doesn’t seem all to user friendly to your average person like me, but I think that’s the point.
 

First I visited Hotwired and I found it to be very confusing. First of all I didnt enjoy how half of the homepage content is advertisements. I guess the site has to do certain things to keep funded, but it is not something that I like at all. From the start I didn't really know what the site was for and all I could gather was that it was some sort of news page for current media. I think the site could use an obvious statement at the top of the page telling you what the site stands for.
Next I visited Wired.com and right from the start I still wasn't really sure what the site was, but I did like how the news headlines were large and caught my attention. A site must grab my attention right away or I will just move on. This site also had a large advertisement at the top and if I am going to explore a site, I dont really want to see an advertisement right away. I did like how this site had a search engine at the top, though.
I also visited Webmonkey and right away I knew what this site was for. I was satisfied with looking around this site, because I really knew what purpose it served. I was also happy to not see an advertisement staring right at me too. There was still an advertisement, but it was way down at the bottom of the homepage.
The Jim Frey article seemed good for first time webdesigners to read. It went over various aspects of a webpage and told you the crucial elements that are needed for a good website.
 

These pages were quite interesting and at times helpful. The Hotwired web site had way too much on its first page. There were too many colors and links, which was quite overwhelming. Just like Jim Frey said that having less is actually more on a web page, and I don't think that Hotwired followed that concept. The page did have some good articles to read, but was a bit too overwhelming for me to stay on the page.

Wired magazine had a good website for reading articles about technology. The page made it quite clear that it was an online magazine about web design and right from the front page I could tell it was a magazine web site.

Web Monkey was a great website for people who are designing web pages. The links were very clear and easy to follow. This was the best of the three web sites. I will definitely be using this page for reference during the quarter.
 

Hotwired was the only site where I was utterly confused as to where I was. The site was unorganized and visually unappealing. After reading Jim Frey's article I would say that one of the sites major downfalls was the font size. It was just too small.

In regards to the Wired Magazine and Web Monkey sites both seemed to convey a more cohesive message and fromat throughout their sites. Both sites concentrated on using only a few colors, which according to Frey is a useful tactic in web design. Another thing that both Wired and Web Monkey contained that Hotwired lacked was "eye relief," also known as white space.

Although I didn't necessarily like the format and design of Hotwired I found it to have the most useful and understandable articles. The articles catered to my level of experience, which is none.

All in all, the Hotwired site design was distracting and it was unclear what the purpose was. Web Monkey was easier to recognize than Wired, due to the tag line "a web developers resource." However, both Wired and Web Monkey surpassed the overall effectiveness of Hotwired.
 

Webmonkey was the easiest web site out the three sites to understand. It was very clear to me what Webmonkey was all about. I like that you could find what you were looking for easy. At the top of Webmonkey you could click on beginners to help me because I really don’t know what to do. I also like that on the right side of the site you could click on things that you want to know more about.
Hotwired looks to me like one giant mess. The links are all cluttered together with no space in between the links. This site was confusing at first, but once I started to explore the site more it became easier.
Jim Frey was helpful to me because I have never made a web page before. He got me thinking more about the person that is going to use my site then what I was going to put on my site.
 

All of these sites suggest technology, specifically web design. Hotwired was the first site that I looked at. I read that this was the first site to use banner ads. It claims to be keeping pace with the web industry which is now a billion dollar industry. An informative article at this site was the archive. It provided history and purpose for the site. The next site that I reviewed was the online wired magazine. This site seemed to target business professionals, and provided information on technology and the future. The site does not seem to be too serious of a site it seams fun and interesting. An interesting article I read at this site was called South Parks Puppet Regime, and it described the new Team America movie that the creators of South Park put together. The next page I visited was WebMonkey. WebMonkey was the most informational site of the three. It seemed a little crazy, but an extremely fun site. It had information for web developers, and provided information for beginners, builders, or masters. An interesting part of the site was the pancake page. There were several different kinds of pancakes, and all of the recipes at the site. Finally, I read Jim Freys piece on web design basics. This article had a lot of beneficial tips on creating a web site. He stressed the importance of knowing your audience, the point of your site, the technologys to use, hierarchies, colors, abd readability. This page had really excited me for designing my own website.
 

The sites were somewhat helpful but I'm still a novice. I wasn't hip to all the lingo and the content was not entirely web-design related. There were many articles that I found interesting but they were not of any use to a web designer.
 

Of these posted sites Wired news was the only one that was clear from the beginning where I was at and what the purpose of the site was. While the other two were more pleasing to the eye and looked to be more user friendly they were not as clear as to the purpose of the site.
 

To be fair: these sites are pretty old and suffer from years of content buildup during boom times, and a lot of neglect during bust times. For people who've been in the web for years like me, there's more than a little nostalgia at looking at the old HTML and IA tutorials at Webmonkey.

No question that if someone were to overhaul these properties today, there'd be a lot of changes and improvements.