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Interactive Media

Group Assignment

Critique on Various Sites

Group:
Ong J ou Ee (0313648) group leader
Leong Ka Sinn (0303003)



Michelle Thomas (0304670)
Ariel Cheong (0309594)
Freda Tan Ern Wei (0309982)

The Creartive Team
The world is changing all around us. Information technology has transformed society
and we live in a digital age of fast-paced consumerism, instantaneous gratification,
unlimited infotainment and borderless communication.

We are Creartive, a group of keen media students who acknowledge the
potential of a well-designed website for the purpose of creating and engaging the
online community. Through this review, we hope to develop a comprehensive
report that will be able to aid us in the development of our website. Beyond that,
we hope to take away from this exercise, essential skills that will broaden our
knowledge and skillset as we pursue our respective majors.
Introduction
Web Design is an art that goes beyond art. What separates design from art is that design is
meant to be functional. It involves the design of information, products and services over the
Internet. It is an expression of organized art, customized to fulfill needs and achieve
objectives.

Design is a key determinant to building online trust with consumers. For motivated users of an
information site, bad design (busy layout, small print, too much text) hurts more than good
design helps.
Sillence, Briggs, Fishwick, and Harris, 2004.

Given how important it is then to identify and understand what differentiates good from bad,
a detailed research into important aspects of Web Design is necessary.
Overview
In attempting to identify fundamental essentials for what makes a good website layout design
concept, we conducted an online research.

Our research involves a qualitative content analysis of four articles that address a particular
component involved in Web Design. Each article is then reviewed and critiqued to achieve the
purpose of identifying a set of criteria necessary for a successful website.

In order to further understand and highlight these aspects, we took a look at various existing
websites to obtain visual examples (both negative and positive) of these criteria to support our
report.

Our article reviews are as follows:

Article 1
Find out what colors will cause your visitors to hate you
Colours are very important for Web Design.
Colors are one of the nonverbal communications (Bear, n.d.).
In this day and age of borderless, unceasing marketing, websites
are an essential platform for companies to maximize their reach to
customers. However, mere textual information is not enough to
engage and maintain user attention. Hence, colors are integral to
ensuring a website is sophisticated and functionally attractive.
(Martinovic, n.d.).
In the know about colours:
Web Safe Colours
Website or web browsers can only view 216 colors out of the 256
basic colors
Appearance of colours varies according to the browser that is
used.
Colours are selected by a mathematical formula
made up of the digit zero with other hex digits that are the multiples of 3
For example: 3, 6, 9, C (12) and F (15)
they must also be in equal pairs
(Merttol.com, n.d.)

Web Safe Colours
Example
Color Code: #336699.
Web safe color
the digits are identically paired
all the multiples of 3

Color Code: #C6C6C6
Not Web safe color
Not identically paired although they are
multiples of 3


Colour
Psychology
o Different colors have
different meanings
o Also a type of language
that can express our
emotions (Martinovic,
n.d.)
Example
love / passion / danger / anger / warning /
excitement / food / adventure
calmness / trustworthiness / success /
professionalism
nature / animals / money / health / life /
harmony / healing
comfort / creativity / youth / affordability /
celebration
royalty / justice / luxury / fantasy / dreams
innocence / pure / cleanliness
earth / nature / simplicity
mysterious / darkness / seriousness
(Martinovic, n.d.)
Colour Combinations
Colors must be selected wisely to make a website more appealing
It is recommended to use 3 to 5 (at most) colours in a webpage.
Wrong combinations/usage of colors for websites may create
dissonance or negative feelings in users.(Hornor, 2013).

Examples of Wrong Colour Combinations
Green, Yellow and/or Purple on a Green background
(Hornor, 2013)
Light colours on a white background hard to read, reduced
visibility.

(Hornor, 2013)
Light colour text on multicolour textured background

(Hornor, 2013)
Examples of Websites with Good Usage of
Colours
(Muller, 2011)
Examples of Websites with Bad Usage of
Colours
(Davlin, 2013)
Article 2
Dont Make Them Wait
Overview
Users are unable to load a webpage full of jingles and animations,
due to slow internet download speed.
If user waits for more than 10 seconds, It is likely they will exit the
website.
Use only 216, solid colours on a webpage.
All graphics should be kept small, only 4K to 6K.
Smaller images are better because they load faster.

Critique of Several Websites
Used more than 216 colours
According to Lieberman (2012), 65% of the
population are visual learners and prefer looking
at images rather than reading a lot of text
There are too many things going on at the same
time, animations are happening all over the place
Owoh (n.d) stated that 99% of website users do
not fancy background music, especially on every
page
(Valentine L, 2004)
(Primark, 2013)
(BonFX, 2009)
(Aforadio, 2013)
Article 3 Navigation
Navigation buttons plays a vital role in a web page. Without
navigation, websites can appear unstructured and unorganised.
(Optimus01, 2013).
The Internet is an endless sinkhole of information. Disorganised
websites that are not systematic and categorical are a huge
deterrent to users who need to locate and identify specific
information.

Navigation is about functionality and accessibility. It addresses how
easy it is for people to take action and move around your website.

In todays fast-paced world, Internet users no longer have the
patience to trawl every inch of a website. Instead, they want clear,
direct access to the content they are looking for.

Disorganized websites with poor navigation will most likely result in
frustrated and impatient users exiting their website in less than a
minute.
Examples of Websites with
Good Navigation
Good comprehensive list on available products, services, company information and
contact.
Information is divided into categories and sub-categories
(McDonalds.com.my, 2014)
Shows are organized according to (i) popularity, (ii) alphabetical order for easy
navigation.
Visual buttons also aid in identification
(Foodnetwork.com, 2014)
Recipes are differentiated according to the festivities that they are usually cooked for
this allows users to identify which recipes are appropriate for the respective holiday.
Good navigation is helpful and informational in its usage of categories, to users.
(Food.com, 2014)
NOvigation
This website has no further navigation and has incomplete landing pages.
(Zappos, 2014)
Article 4
Dont Bore Your Visitors
A good website should keep the viewer interested and engaged.

Thus, it needs
A natural flow to it
The viewers eyes should be able to follow the website in order of Left to Right, Top to
Bottom.
Content should be organised according to categories in a systematic manner that relates.
To be simple without being simplistic, compact but not crowded.
Basic elements with an attractive main component to grab attention.

Examples of Websites with
Good Layouts That Attract
o Both of these websites used a javascript masthead for their gallery of
highlighted images to show the viewers what their website all about.
o Images are in HD quality and help direct viewers attention to the main
subject.

(Camille Co, 2014) (Lam, 2014)
o Layout of the website has videos, photo gallery, and articles all on the topic of fitness
and health. All in which creates the illusion that if we follow those videos and read
those articles, we would achieve the desired body image.

(Shape, 2014)

o The very small fonts makes it difficult for viewers to read especially
with a black background.

(Occultopedia, 2014)
Examples of Disengaging
Websites
o Random images and an uninteresting mosaic graphic background,
gives a perception of a messy, confusing clutter.
References
Bear, J H n.d., Color Symbolism, about technology, viewed 8
th
October 2014,
<http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/color/a/symbolism.htm>.
Davlin, A 2013, Color Combinations from Hell Death Sentence for Your Designs,
DesignWebKit, viewed 8
th
October 2014, <http://designwebkit.com/web-and-
trends/color-combinations-hell-death-sentence-designs/>.
Hornor, T 2013, 10 Troublesome Colors to Avoid In Your Advertising, sitepoint, viewed 8
th

October 2014, <http://www.sitepoint.com/10-troublesome-colors-to-avoid-in-your-
advertising/>.
Martinovic, A n.d., Color Psychology in Online Marketing, 2 Create a Website, viewed 8
th

October 2014, <http://www.2createawebsite.com/design/color-psychology.html >.

Merttol.com 2009, Understanding Web Safe Colors, viewed 8
th
October 2014,
<http:// www.merttol.com/articles/ web/understanding-web-safe-colors.html >.
Muller, G 2011, 25 Examples of Perfect Color Combinations in Web Design, Codrops,
viewed 8
th
October 2014, <http:// tympanus.net/codrops/2011/12/08/25-examples-of-
perfect-color-combinations-in-web-design/>.
Gube, J acob., 2011, 7 Best Practices for improving Your Websites Usability, Mashable.
Available at: <http://mashable.com/2011/09/12/website-usability-tips/>, Viewed on 8
th

October 2014.
Lieberman, M., 2012, How Important Are Images In Your Website Design,
Square2Marketing, Availabe at:
<http:// www.square2marketing.com/blog/bid/121405/How-Important-Are-Images-In-Your-
Website-Design >, Viewed on 8
th
October 2014.
Owoh, B, n.d, 11 Common Web Design Mistakes (Blunders), Hongkiat.com. Available at:
<http:// www.hongkiat.com/blog/11-common-mistakes-blunders-in-web-design/>, Viewed
on 9
th
October 2014.
Valentine, L., 2004, Car Leasing-Contract Hire- Cheap Lease Cars, LingsCars.com,
Available at: < http:// www.lingscars.com/ >, Viewed on 9
th
Octobr 2014.
Primark, 2014. Available at: < http:// www.primark.com/en/primania>, Viewed on 10
th

October 2014.
BonFx, 2009. Available at: < http:// www.bonfx.com/index2.html>, Viewed on 10
th
October
2014.
Aforadio, 2013. Available at: < http://aforadio.com/> , Viewed on 10
th
October 2014.
Optimus01, (2013). Importance Of Website Navigation. [online] Available at:
http:// www.optimus01.co.za/importance-of-website-navigation/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2014].
Food.com, (2014). Food.com - Thousands Of Free Recipes From Home Chefs With Recipe
Ratings, Reviews And Tips. [online] Available at: http:/ / www.food.com/ [Accessed 10 Oct.
2014].
Foodnetwork.com, (2014). Food Network - Easy Recipes, Healthy Eating Ideas and Chef
Recipe Videos. [online] Available at: http:// www.foodnetwork.com/ [Accessed 10 Oct.
2014].
Mcdonalds.com.my, (2014). I'm lovin' it! McDonald'sMalaysia | Home. [online] Available
at: http:// www.mcdonalds.com.my/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2014].
Zappos.com, (2014). Shoes, Shipped Free | Zappos.com. [online] Available at:
http:// www.zappos.com/shoes [Accessed 10 Oct. 2014].
Camille Co (2014) Camille Tries To Blog, Available at: http://itscamilleco.com/ (Accessed:
7 October 2014).
Gerald Lam (2014) Xerixe Photography, Available at: http://xerixe.com/ (Accessed: 7
October 2014).
Shape (2014) Shape Magazine, Available at: http://shape.com/ (Accessed: 7 October
2014).
Occultopedia (2014) The Occult And Unexplained Online Encyclopedia, Available at:
http://occultopedia.com/ (Accessed: 7 October 2014)
Angelic Pretty (2014) Angelic Pretty, Available at: http:/ /angelicpretty.com/en/
(Accessed: 7 October 2014)

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