A media product

This is a design of a website which I prepared for this module using Photoshop CS4 and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. The target audience for this specific site would be people looking for information about gardening, ordering variety of plants and flowers as well as those searching for advice on gardening. I tried to organize the website as easy as possible in order to enable users to simply move around the site. It visually pleases the eye by combination of colours which perfectly interact with each other. I have chosen green and grey colour as the main colours because they associate with nature and environment.

Design and usability

http://www.designsbypatima.com/

This example of a website is artistic, original and stands out from other websites. This design by Patima suits the personal portfolio format very well and expresses creativity. Although it visually looks very rich from the usability point of view it can confuse many users because there are too many distressed elements put on the page. I asked my friend to point at navigation buttons and she hasn't even noticed that they exist. It doesn't surprise me at all and I am sure that lots of other people would have the same problem. The users must move the cursor around the page to check what is clickable and what is not. Unless the buttons look like buttons, users might not notice them. The website itself doesn't contain much information and as it is a portfolio is only directed to specific group of people.

Site structure

This is a structure diagram of the Country Wide - another website created by me over 2 years ago. Not only preparing a storyboard is important before creating the actual website but also a diagram which will clearly show the links between each page on the site. It is a useful tool when conducting team meetings and when working in groups. When we want to show 'the big picture' along with the links and connections between the pages, site diagrams can be much more effective and straight forward than using a projector. Site diagrams are often easier to understand in order to divide site files into sections and directories and are often used by programmers before they begin their work on the server.

Storyboard

This is a storyboard which I prepared few years ago for my website called Caribbean Unlimited where customers can look for a last minute holidays. Before creating a website it is always worth to plan everything on a paper first, what will definitely save our time and visually help to organize every site's detail. Using a storyboard I can define where to place an image, logo or text on pages. I can very quickly describe the page purpose as well as link information. This is an easy way of planning and preparing before the actual work on a project begins.

Logo

A logo is mostly a graphic image associated with the company or any institution therefore it must be unique and must reflect company's activity. Adobe Illustrator is an excellent software commonly used for those kinds of designs. I have done this logo some time ago using this program and I can unhesitatingly say that it can be used as a logo for a graphic company or even a night club. This design is innovative and modern. Thanks to use of a wide range of program effects I achieved this original font and in the result great logo.

Advo Properties

Page featuring flats for rent.

Home page

This is one of the best websites I have done so far. From my experience I have learned that it is always worth to ask people for a feedback which will help to improve the own performance. I tried to make this website as easy for a user to move around on it as possible by placing the links to other pages on the top and bottom of the site.The text is mostly justified. I used a black font with size at 12 pt which on a white background is easy to read. I found two disadvantages on this site that could have been improved. One of them is green colour which I used for underlined links. I know that the blue default is more recognizable as a link colour. The other thing is that I did not put any information about the company what is very important because people can find the website untrustworthy and suspicious.

Advo Property Services

This is one of my websites which I have done before starting the university. If I had a chance to create it again I would bring a lot of changes to it. First of all I would replace Times New Roman font type to Tahoma, which looks more professional and is commonly used on many websites. Instead of centring the text I should have aligned it to the left. The other thing which users may find annoying is the logo placed on the top left corner of the website. The text appearing around the logo moves on a circular motion which can be disturbing for many users. Flash buttons are animated when the user goes over the button and make a sound when clicked. For the future I would replace them because I am aware that most users do not like that kind of features appearing on websites as they associate them with advertisements.

Nice design with some issues

http://www.camirafabrics.com/content/pages/index.asp?lang=eng


This is a website of a company specialising in contract fabrics manufacture. This is a medium size website with all the most important information. The main navigation is located on the left hand side which is static on every page, thus it is very comfortable for a user to move around the site without any anxiety of being lost. The website offers a choice of six languages what makes it highly convenient access for users speaking other languages than English. Although the design appears pleasant and look professional there are some issues which should be improved to be more usable for everyone. The font size used is at 8,5 pt. The size is too small to read, especially for elderly people. Moreover, the font colours placed on a white background are light blue and green, thus the contrast is very low and also makes it harder to read even for people with good vision.

Book cover

Photography has always played huge part of my life as it has always been my passion and one of the main interest and hobbies. Another example of a book cover I have designed is based on a picture of my brother's little daughter which was taken during my holidays in Poland. I had a great opportunity to capture it in an excellent light. Even though I made up the title and author's name the cover could have been used as a story about someone's childhood. As a media product the target audience of this type of design would have been abults. I used programs such as Fireworks to create the final image.

Tourist Guide Cover

As I am a Web Design and Technology student I put my interest not only in creating new websites but also in design in general. I enjoyed changing features of this photograph which I took while ago on a trip to Poland in Krakow. The picture shows monument of Adam Mickiewicz who was a great Polish poet and writer. I used this image to design a tourist guide cover because most people can associate the monument with the city. I used Adobe Illustrator CS4 to make the cover look realistic and interesting. I was amazed with the final result and received many positive comments from my friends who admired the authentic look of the cover.

Pop Art

Pop Art in many ways expresses everyday life by using banal, ordinary objects like food, which is obviously human basic necessity. I can give an example of work of a famous Andy Warhol whose art is recognizable all over the globe. He has inspired me to create my own can based on his famous "Campbell Soup Can 19c" from 1962. I used Photoshop to transform my spaghetti can into a Pop Art which was quite simple for me. Using a Lasso Tool I cut out the can from the original photograph and placed it on a new canvas. I changed the background to a light, cream colour. I used a Paint Bucket Tool to fill in each part of the can, replacing cans colours to very basic ones. I put the price of 14p, rotated and placed it on a top of the can, just like Warhol did on his Campbell Can.

Black and white photography

This photograph has been scanned from my Visual Diary which was an assignment for Visual Literacy and Imaging module. I took this picture in Leeds, Kirkstall Abbey Park and used a film SLR camera. I produced this image in a darkroom. I found old methods of developing black and white images with the use of chemicals and enlarger fascinating. This photograph is another example of the rule of thirds.

Bad website example

http://www.nostradamus.tarot.cba.pl/zycie.htm


This is an example of a really poor website. I came across this website while looking for some information about Nostradamus on a Polish site. From the usability point of view the design is very bad and looks unprofessional. All usability experts advise to put a text on a background which does not distract a user from reading. On this website that rule was not maintained, thus the text is hard to read and for people with vision disabilities is not readable at all. It would be the best to place a black text on a white background and use a font size at around 12 pt. Here we can see that somebody used a picture as a background which is repeated on the whole window and put a white text on it. This is a common mistake which new web designers make and should be avoided. Additionally, we can notice that the text is displayed in a wrong format and instead od Polish signs we can see a default signs. For non-native speakers of Polish translating the text would be just impossible.

Rule of thirds

I took this picture of my friend some time ago and as we can see the photograph represents the rule of thirds. In simple words the rule of thirds says that to achieve better results while taking a photograph instead of placing the subject of the photograph in the centre we should place it a third of the way across the frame. I am pleased with the final result of this image. The picture was taken in Leeds in February 2010.

Still life

Since early childhood I was interested in photography. This particular picture I had taken some time ago and image genre represents still life. I referred in this example to work of Tom Wesselmann whose skills I have been always admiring. Wesselmann usually chooses objects which are common and related and I also followed that rule and picked three items that can be found in every modern kitchen. Also, Wesselmann normally arranges real objects on a board, however I used work top and took a picture. In order to make my picture more interesting I used Photoshop and tried different features as curves and levels. Additionally I changed the picture from colour to black and white.

Telling Stories – Aesthetics

Two different photographs are set in different eras. The picture on the left hand side features a woman standing next to a column. This image comes from 18th century and the woman wears rich, colorful clothing. The woman appears powerful and her posture is straight and proud. I can guess that she belongs to a rich family, possibly royal. The woman looks young, tall and slim. To compare the first photograph with the one on the right hand side, I can notice many similarities between the two. For instance, the girls are also young, very slim. I assume that the girls are fashion models and their standard of living is also high. Although, the second picture was taken in 21st century both images tell stories about the values and standards of a culture.

Semiotics

This photograph is split into four small images of Blackpool City with the black cat positioned in the centre of the photo. The signifiers are: words 'Blackpool', 'Good luck' and the cat. The word 'Blackpool' in the photograph is iconic as it is the name of the city. The expression 'Good luck' is arbitrary as the black cat in most cultures represents 'bad luck'. The four separate images are iconic signifiers as they feature places and monuments specific for Blackpool City, for instance the Blackpool Tower visible on one of the pictures.

Sign

Love

The relationship between signifier and the signified can be arbitrary or iconic. In this example red rose is a signifier and love is signified. Red rose and the feeling of love is an example of arbitrary relationship because rose connotes the feeling of love. The opposite can be crown and the Queen, where the crown is signifier and the Queen is signified. This relationship can be described as iconic.

Newspaper

This front page taken from USA Today newspaper is an example of a media text. The elements that carry the content that make up the front page of a newspaper are sections, photographs, headings, columns, different types and sizes of a font. By looking at the front page I can notice that this is broadsheet newspaper rather than tabloid as the language used is more formal and aims at specific narrow audience whereas tabloids tend to aim at mass population. The content on the front page includes most important issues, global problems and business news. The most eye-catching information on the page is death of the Pope John Paul II. I can say that because of the size of the picture palced on the top of the page as well as the size of the font used.

“Unemployed”

To describe the content of the photograph I can notice that it includes a man, a dog, street and a fog. The picture was taken black and white and the position of the man and the dog on the photograph is centred. The fog creates specific atmosphere of loneliness, misery and uncertainty.

The picture was taken from high angle and originates in England, 1930s. The title of the photo makes reference to the times it was taken in, when the country faced financial crisis and experienced high unemployment rates. I can guess that the function or purpose of the image is to show desperation, lack of stability as well as difficulty with making a decent living for people who were unemployed and struggled financially during the crisis of 1930s.

Photograph of a girl

A photograph is always of something. The content on this black and white picture includes a girl, bed, wall, a toy and a bandage. To describe the composition of the picture I can tell that the girl is positioned in the centre of the photograph and in comparison to bed she appears small. Also, the girl looks vulnerable, scared, alone and terrified. The girl looks straight to the camera and the frame of the picture is open. The viewer faces the girl directly.

The picture was taken in 1940 in London. The original title of the photograph is "Girl in a hospital bed" and was published in Picture Post. We can associate the picture with the time of the II World War, propaganda, German invaders and Blitz. The genre of the image is documentary.