Words Speak Loudly

Splash Page

This is Sharpe & Associate's website I found in one of my books I have, Designing A Digital Portfolio by Cynthia L. Baron.  What I thought was very cool is how simple the website is, using a very dark gray for the background so that the more "neon" yellows and blues can stand out in it's own way.

Pop-out Links

What gets better is on any page of the website, you can click on the words and it shows artists or other sentences that lead you to another page or, like below, a pop-out describing the artist/client with a simple picture.  I hope the pictures of some of the artists/clients were by choice though!

Client Description/Caption

Inside Page

The only thing that this website needs is more of a showcase of their work, not just showing one picture of them but a variety.  I don't know how they would do it though, but other than that, it's a very simple website using very bright colors to make a statement.

Threadless For Sure!

Splash Page

This is Threadless's website, which I found in the book, Fresher Styles for Web Designers: More Eye Candy from the Underground.  I love this website because they have the coolest shirts and I would love to one day go up to see their store.  The website is very good for a clothing store because they seem to change small details (such as the logo and color scheme) to make it go along with the daily events that go on.  This website is also easy to navigate, even with all the web pages they have on their website.

Inside Page

When you go into the shopping page, they have a lot of shirts in which you can categorize in many ways.  Of course, they changed the banner of this section to reflect the Halloween theme.  It's subtle, but intrigues.  I believe even in this page, like the splash page and the inside page below, it shows off the t-shirts very well.

Inside Page 2

When you go into the page to look at the t-shirts, they give you many user created or pictures taken by Threadless to see what the shirt looks like on different people.  I believe Threadless is a great success because of how viable they are with different designs the users create and vote on the t-shirts, hoodies, etc. they can create.  Also, I must say the logo is very simple but says it all.

War of the Worlds... Run and Hide!

 

Splash Page

This is the website for the 2005 movie of War of the Worlds.  I found this website in the HOW March/April 2006 issue.  I loved this movie (but have yet to see the 1953 version) and I love the website!  What made this very inspirational are the use of the images for the background and the interactivity between everything.  In the splash page, the links on the side are grayed out until you hover over them, where they then turn white (which was one disadvantage for the website).

 

Inside Page

When you get into the inside pages, it's very cool how they have the selection in the navigation menu highlighted while graying the other options out so that you can still go to them later.  Also, usually putting text on top of images wouldn't work.  I think in this case, it definitely works!  The only disadvantage again is if you browse through some of the pages, the title doesn't show since some of the pictures are very bright.  Then again, that's why they have two ways to give the user a way to see what page they're on.

Packed Full of Fun!

Splash Page

This is David Stark Design's website.  I was browsing through different websites and I happened to find this one.  What made this stand out to me was the overall theme, which is very colorful and friendly.  Not only that, but the navigation is cool, using a hand to point and interact with the rest of the website.  Speaking of interaction on the website, every page has a different theme to interact with the content on the website.

Inside Page

Take these two pages on the website.  The top inside page allows you to punch holes in the different pieces of paper, even the links and content!  The bottom inside page allows the user to grab the pen on the side and write anything they want.  But first, they have to turn the switch to off in order to see any of the content.

Inside Page 2

Overall, this website is very cool!  Especially for a Flash site.  Though I love how much the user can interact with the content, it may almost go too far.  Sometimes, it distracted me from actually looking to see what the content was on the page.

Oooohh.. Scary!

Splash Page

This is the ScaryGirl website, which are characters created by Nathan Jurevicius.  I found this website in the Communication Arts March/April 2010 issue.  What makes this page very cool is the background and how it extends the background and makes the Flash content in the middle as the browser gets bigger, which is something in itself.  Especially with the picture they have for the background!  Also, even though they have two navigation systems near each other, it makes it easier for the user to navigate around the site and doesn't really bother me.

Inside Page - About

When you click on one of the links, such as the About Page or Toys, what I like is how the ghosted blue background allows the user to see the picture but still read the content inside.

Inside Page - Game

On this page, what I really liked was how the theme changes into a dark background so that when the user finally gets the game loaded up, they can only concentrate on the game at hand and not get distracted by the brightness of the background.  It's also nice on the load page that they are able to give recommendations on the type of processor and a link to download the latest Adobe Flash.