Thinkature makes me think negative thoughts

My new tool demo project deals with Thinkature. This is a website that seems pretty darn cool. Its goal is to give you a virtual meeting room for you and your work colleagues. You can upload documents, things from the Internet, chat, write various post-its. I imagine it feels a lot like being in the same room with your co-workers, when in fact you could be in the Bahamas on vacation, sitting at a local Starbucks wishing both the weather and you coffee were a bit warmer, or just relaxing in your dorm listening to John Coltrane. (Guess which I'm doing) The homepage is compact, which is solid. The hands on demo is a nice touch, however, the "cards" which explain what you can do with the program are pretty scattered and difficult to follow. It is quite honestly hard to ascertain what exactly the purpose of the site is. The About Us section is very helpful in that respect, but that is to be found at the bottom of the page and were this not an assignment I'm almost sure I would have left this site for greener pastures before seeing and/or reading that section.

The sign in offering is large, attention grabbing, and in good proximity with the workspace demo. I have had trouble signing up (I'm 0 for 4) but that has little to do with the homepage itself and is therefore for another blog post. I'm curious if the member homepage is different. I imagine it is geared towards helping colleagues find each other to do the work assigned them. I am still very heavy handed with this program, but I do hope that with time I can get a bit of a better feel for this program.

The Sun Rises and Sets in Baltimore, Maryland

It seems I have saved the best for last. I have decided to take a closer look at Baltimore's primary source for news that matters most.
All playful kidding aside, the Baltimore Sun website really is pretty admirable. The site has easy navigation toolbars at the top of the page that allow the visitor to navigate different topics and stories with ease from anywhere on the site. It's so simple. A tool bar exists for both news types, (sports, local, weather, entertainment, and of course, a seperate link for the O's) and a toolbar for the publication itself, regarding available jobs, homes, and a contact section). The clear seperation of links and what they pertain to, is invaluable to web design ease and enjoyment to the visitor.
The homepage is colorful, with major headlines listed clearly on the homepage of the site. Note that school closings are listed even before these headlines. This is effective because the website seems to have its priorities in order. That is to say that they know what information that the most people of the area would want to know most quickly.
Seperate boxed sections with title headings make it clear what stories will be covered where. At the bottom of the page, are more links to help narrow down what type and what area you want your news to pertain to. This is also the first website I've seen with a clear search box at the top right corner of the page.
There is a lot of scrolling that this website demands which can probably be cut down upon, but then again, there is a lot of news in Baltimore.
The gray columns on the sides of the site prevent having to read too long on the same line. Makes things easier on the eyes.
Baltimore has lived up to its reputation and has developed a top notch newspaper website.

The Best of What's Around

DMB's homepage is pretty flawless in my mind. The page is colorful and symmetrical. With a navigation bar present at the top of the page that can be found at all pages of the site. The boxes show, and tell simply what can be found if you click on the box. The homepage simply helps you find what you are looking for and nothing more. It is informative and not overly elaborate. There is no search box, which could help, but the site is laid out well enough that I dare say, one may not be needed.
New Dave and Tim Vegas album looks far out.

These cats almost ruined my birthday

My driver's licence expired on my 21st birthday. I have not been home to New York to renew it. As a result, my licence is technically invalid and does not scan correctly at bars (such as Murph's) that scan I.D.s to determine whether or not you can get into the place. I was essentially told that after my birthday, I would not be re-admitted until this situation was rectified. As an homage to this predicament, I take a look at the New York State Department of Motor Vehicle's website.

This homepage is decent, I don't like the lowercase links. Without bold font and CAPITALIZATION, those links blend right in with the web page. The links at the left of the screen are pretty clear and helpful and there is a search box available in the top right corner of the site. The various things that the web site offers you are color coded in boxes which is helpful, considering just how confusing the DMV can be. The information in the grey blue area seems kind of clumped together, while related, and though red arrows separating them are better than nothing, I feel as though this could be cleaner. There is also kind of a false bottom beneath the ever-taunting smiling face.

It's really the lowercase letters that get to me, and the information seems a bit intimidating and overwhelming at first glance.

Something else I did (in moderation) on my birthday

In keeping with the 21st birthday theme, I took a look at the website of Samuel Adams brewery. This is a high quality beverage with a homepage to match. It requires no scrolling and have scrolling adds and photos on the page. The links are a bit small and should probably be on the top of the page and not the middle. However, since there is no scrolling anyway, I don't think that the clarity of the site is an issue. What immediately catches your eye other than the pictures, is the text offering a list of their flavors which is what I would imagine, most people would use the site for (unless they wanted to contact the company, which is also quite clear.) The site is minimal, but effective considering that looking and web surfing is not something usually associated with beer.

On a side note, the entering your birthday and confirmation was virtually cumbersome. I'm sure they have to do that by law, but it was still pretty annoying.

"I'm pretty sure life comes easier to you when you are Vusi Mahlasela"

In sticking with theme of what happened on my birthday, I wanted to share some of the music that I picked up from i-tunes. I was able to get a hold of some music from South African singer-songwriter, Vusi Mahlasela. I checked out his website, and was pretty disappointed by the results. The homepage is compact and does not require scrolling, that is a plus. The photo of Vusi with guitar in hand is a nice touch, and does a bit of the "show, not tell" that I referred to in my DMB review. However, the links of the web site are small, white, and at the bottom of the page, making it near impossible to see them. I quite literally didn't even see the ones all the way to the left until after about sixty seconds. I did not like that the writing on the homepage was small and urged you to go to youtube to check him out before you even explored his own site. I would revise that. Beyond the homepage, the site is great, with correct proximity, colorful pics, effective font contrast, clear links present on every page. However, the homepage's inability to draw and keep an audience from even getting to know his site and more importantly, his music. (If you do nothing else for the rest of the day, please click that link.)

In my search for solid tunes, I find a solid web site

My 21st birthday was recently and in addition to bringing about some cotton-mouth, it also yielded some i-tunes gift cards. I used amazon in order to discover and organize the music that I wanted to purchase.

Overall, the layout of the homepage is a pretty good one. The search bar is the first thing that grabs your eye, which is the goal for a web site like this. The search box is divided into several different categories to make searching easier. The search bar is also present on every page of the site.

There are an awfully large amount of advertisements on the site but, in general, they keep a solid proximity distance away from each other, and when you consider that the point of this web site is to sell things, you realize that things could indeed look a lot worse. A plus of the site is that it suggests things that you may like based upon your searches. When the advertisements are geared towards things that you enjoy, they are less overwhelming and bothersome. I did not appreciate the fact that if you were not familiar with amazon, it may take you a while to realize that is a shopping web site. Granted, the search box may be a big hint, but The words "Shopping" and "View Cart" are very small on the left and right of the page in comparison to the web advertisements.

Holy Cluttered Webspace Batman!

I suppose this was inevitably going to come out eventually, so I'd rather get it over with. My square indulgence in this world is what we'll call an "appreciation" for the cape and cowl of Batman. I wouldn't say I'm a nerd about it, but the fact that I check http://www.batman-on-film.com/batmovienews.html once every couple of weeks may in fact undermine my claim. Let's just say I like to stay informed. On to business....

I've never been a fan of this homepage. There a graphics and advertisements that cover a lot of the surface area of the site. In order to get too the current movie news, you have to scroll down a ways which is a pain, considering that is the purpose of the web page. The links to other interesting stories on the site are found at the top of the page, that is a plus. However, these links are small, found in one big clumpy list, and the gray font does not contrast well with the black background. These three factors combined force a reader to skim and find it difficult to find a specific article on the site. Links to other pages on the site are tiny and seem to hide in the left column of the web page. Compared to the ads and graphics they are practically invisible.

Following the most recent story, a huge advertisement is present before you ever see other stories, this would discourage me from reading on in the site, as I would assume that all important information would be found before the advertisement. A pain of a website, but the reporting is solid.

In looking at Pennsylvania’s Department of transportation website, the homepage seemed like one big traffic jam. I never thought that a website would make me wish that I were actually in line in the actual DMV but, this in clarity of this homepage certainly came close. There is no spacing on this homepage and the proximity of pieces and links are very cluttered and make my mind overwhelmed before I even read the offered links. The difference between “Online Services” and “Information Centers” are unclear and overall I feel as though the web page and links could be phrased more concisely in order to clear up the crowded homepage. One plus of the page however, is that there is no need to scroll on the page.

The sight on how to create a website is pretty basic, but overall pretty effective. The text contrast of the piece makes the text readable. While the font could be larger I think it is hard to find a text color that would not contrast heavily to such a blaringly loud yellow hue. There are links at the top and side of the page that can help you access answers to your specific questions. The fact that the links are always present on the side even as you scroll is definitely a plus. Perhaps the website could be spaced out better, as all of the site’s content can be found one page. I would most certainly put separate content on separate web pages, but the links allow for quick access anyway. In conclusion, I’ve certainly seen better and worse sites, and overall I think the site fills its purpose. (Which is found at the top of the page and should be larger, text variation is an issue, as they want to prevent the words and topics from being muddled together and/or skimmed.)

The WXPN site is pretty well constructed; there are well aligned and symmetrical links at the top of the page which make navigating the website much easier (with sub categories available once you scroll over the general categories). The homepage is busy one, perhaps a bit too busy, but with that said, each headline is within its own box and as a result do not run into each other. There are some changes that could be made to make the homepage more concise as there is a lot of scrolling to do to see the entire page, but overall the web page seems solid and could certainly be more chaotic than it is.

The science fiction site seems to have a bit too much contrast going on, as the space background combines with yellow, red, and green text, and a plethora of pictures to create a monster that one could only wish was actually fiction. It’s quite simply too much for the eyes to handle. One could find it difficult to focus on anything on the page. The green links on the side are very small and seem to be hiding amongst the spaceships and storm troopers. Just not a great layout; you have to actually concentrate pretty hard to ascertain what is going on with the website. Live long and prosper.

Light Reading

I've been taking a look at my Non- Designer's Web Book (which for the sake of not receiving carpal tunnel at an unfortunately early age, will henceforth be referred to as NDWB) and noticing what makes web design good and bad. I took look at the only website I really visit on a daily basis, nba.com to see how it related to the text.

Overall, I really enjoyed the layout of their homepage. There is a lot going on for sure, but it is spaced out pretty nicely. The homepage slams your senses with pictures concerning the top stories in the league. Currently, Andrew Bynum's 47 point night in Indy, where the defense is about as a Temprupedic mattress, (Guess who needs a nap) and the pending announcement of All-Star reserves. If you scroll down a bit video highlights are available, as well as a poll question, and various blogs from player and analysts that you can connect to. Apparently this blog thing is catching on....

At the top of the page there are various headings where you can look up teams, stats, standings, players, etc. As you navigate through the site, these links are always present in the same spot at the top of the page. Which is great so that you always know where you are and can get to different places on the site with ease. The sight is well aligned and layed out. The only issue I have is the lack of contrast in the game listings at the top of the homepage. The light and dark grey define whether a game is happening today or tomorrow. These colors are not the easiest to tell apart. Also as you scroll through the games, the respective lines stay on the screen, even when you are not looking at the games of that day. (This is hard to verbally explain) In short, I can see a person getting confused as to what day a specific game is occurring. With that said, I'm well used to it by now, and it only took a couple of minutes to get used too.
Go Mavs tonight.

Basics

Hey, my name is Tom. I'm a professional writing major at York College of Pennsylvania. Writing has always been something I've valued a great deal in my life. Working with computers on the other hand, has never been a strong suit or priority to me. This blog, and web writing as a whole is a very new experience to me, and I look forward to learning and growing from it.

I dig music, jazz, rock etc.
I do a great deal of singing and am involved with a couple of groups here at school. Including holding the presidency of YCP's Rhapsody. At home a sing in an acoustic group "The Umbrellas" with some friends of mine.

I'm a big basketball fan and enjoy playing, learning, and talking about the game. (Specifically on the NBA level)

I like to laugh and relax with good people and I look forward to sharing more with you as I traverse the treacherous terrain of the World Wide Web one post at a time.