Select a text or product. Post a link to it (or an image of it) here. Analyze the design of the product, paying special attention to the conventions. Briefly discuss the conventions in terms of scale (small scale vs. large scale).
Yamaha has been selling the YZF-R6 model for years now and so they know quite well what the consumers are interested in. Thats why the website is very straight forward as far as how it's designed. On the home page (to the left) there are seven pages to select from, all having to do with something about the bike. Under specifications or "specs" page, there are small scale conventions such as single rows for various parts of the bike (Engine, Chassis, Dimension) and then there are large scale conventions such as the tabs up at the top of the page for other products, accessories, apparel & gifts, etc...
Yamaha has streamlined their website to where everything is simply a click away, and all of the title listings are very straight forward (Say you're looking for a Yamaha T-shirt, you simply click on the Apparel tab and you get a listing with color images, prices, and a short description of all the T-shirts Yamaha makes).
I chose to use the main page of facebook because the design of it changes so frequently. Every time the page is updated, for users, it becomes the biggest deal. The design seems to get more complicated each time with new features. You can get to any page through the multiple links on the side of the page, and even though there is a chat bar with all the users that are available, there is also a block with the people you chat with the most. The news feed down the middle shows updates, but the newest feature is a moving block that updates within seconds with comments friends left on other friends walls. There are so many links to explore that spatially and graphically to a new user it would be extremely overwhelming.
I chose to analyze the homepage of Yahoo. This site is very visually appealing to the reader. It has a list of links to take you to parts of the site that has email, car sales, dating ads, etc. Next to each of these links is a small colorful icon to aid in getting the point across of what purpose it serves. Also, the page has a large search bar at the top of the screen so that you can easily search the internet if that's what you went to Yahoo for. The part of their homepage that I like best is one of their larger scale conventions. It is the news story slideshow that is in the middle of the screen. It allows readers to easily see what Yahoo considers their "top 40" stories currently. It includes videos as well as basic news stories. A smaller scale convention that Yahoo uses is an area that lists all the trending topics at that time. It lists the top 10 things users have been searching that day. The spacing of the site is visually appealing as well as the color scheme they use.
I decided to use Snuggle Dryer Sheets because I was doing my laundry and while putting the dryer sheet in with my cloths, I thought about why the company used the design they came up with. The packaging is very lighthearted, being many shades of blue. Very faded flower type designs are covering the packaging as well. This gives a very fresh feeling for the blue can be a bright sky and the flowers can be ones from a spring meadow. In large bold blue text is the brand name Snuggle and it is framed by a white boarding around the letters. The Snuggle Bear is above this, smiling and holding fresh white, folded sheets. This portrays the warmth fabric has after it comes out of the dryer. Everyone loves to "snuggle" with the fresh smelling clothes. On the two upper corners of the box, quick information about the product is given in similar lettering as the title. This allows the buyer to quickly discover what the sheets do, what the sent is, and how many sheets are in the box. Also, the shape of the box allows easy transport and storage in any laundry room. On the back side of the box, more details about the product is given, all following the same set up as the front. The Snuggle Bear is still there with fresh sheets and the main Snuggle name is in the same text.
www.facebook.com (I talked about my specific homepage, but I can't leave that as a link... but everyone is on FaceBook so you all will get the gist.)
I chose FaceBook’s homepage for this week’s blog discussion. Majority of people are on FaceBook these days, and lately all of my newsfeed has been strictly discussing how the conventions of FaceBook has altered over the past few weeks. FaceBook has a pretty straightforward design. It has two main colors in the color scheme: blue and white. The font is small and seems to be a font that relates to young adults, rather than a font such as Times New Roman, which often relates to older adults because it often is associated with intelligent, serious issues. Some other conventions FaceBook utilizes is the framing. For example, there are three main columns, one on the left for “Favorites, Lists, Groups, and Apps”, one for “Newsfeed” and one for “Online Chatting”. A lot of these columns are divided into rows. For example, the Newsfeed is broken up into several rows to show that each friend has different statuses than the next. Another major convention is the search bar, which a lot of social networking sites contain. It is used to look up friends that you would like to keep in touch with, or “stalk” as some people say. Although FaceBook has been changing lately, I still find that the core of it has stayed true to its originality. Even though it may be a bit difficult to understand at first, it eventually gets easier as a user logs in more and more often.
I had just returned from a grocery run for dinner when I read this, so I decided to use the jar of pasta sauce I had just bought. Barilla is a popular brand that has been selling jars of pasta sauce for years. They use the conventional glass jar with a paper label to encase their product. The brand is in a contrasting color and is circled, to draw attention to it. The name of the sauce is written in cursive, making it look fancier. There are also images of the ingredients used in the sauce, so customers can make their selection based on the specific varieties of sauce. Across the top in small print, it says "ITALY'S #1 BRAND OF PASTA SAUCE" with the colors of the italian flag on either side, to give them more credibility as a great brand of sauce. There is also a red banner next to the name that says "new recipe," so customers will understand the new colors, fonts, and images that Barilla has recently adopted.
I chose to evaluate the Pandora radio station page. The design of the website has recently changed, I think for the better. The options to play, pause, next song, like, or dislike are all lined up in the middle top of the page. These are probably the most used options on the site. The picture of the album that the song comes from is the largest and most colorful on the entire screen (other than the advertisement on the right hand side). Underneath the song that is playing is the lyrics to that specific song along with other information about the artist, album, and record company.The entire right side of the website is full of advertisements. Advertisements are also featured on the website throughout the songs that play. Although, the left side of the page is more personal as you can add any type of radio that you would like and Pandora saves it for you. They also recommend other artists that you may like. The blue background of the page frames the rest of the page that is lighter including the album, radio stations, and advertisements.
I chose twizzlers as my product because I am currently eating them. :) Through the website you can click to see the different products, the one I currently have is the cherry pull and peel ones. However depending on what product it is, the advertising for it does not change. It is still the big bold letters with TWIZZLERS across the front, but depending on the product inside the flavor or name changes. Like the pull and peel are cherry, you have the strawberry twists, the filled twist with cherry and lemon, then the nibs, and bites which are cherry. All the same packaging with a little difference of showing the product. The nutrition facts would be on the back and you can feel guilt free eating them because they are a "low fat snack".
I chose to use a local surf shop's home page and daily surf report. The main picture changes every few seconds from a surf report picture to the local deal of the day to a larger companies advertisement. It is possible to scroll through these conventions more rapidly, and click on the links for more surf report pictures throughout the day. Other conventions include videos, advertisements, the actual surf report written information, and links to other websites that might interest anyone viewing the page. There are tabs at the top that can take someone to anything from the online shop to the forum. There is also the main surf station logo located at the top to show exactly what surf report one would be viewing, in addition to the main shop information and hours located at the bottom of the page framing the other links, stories, and information.
My item of choice is the very recognizable windex spray bottle. The product is boldly labeled with the windex trademark. With one glance at the bottle you can see exactly what it is. Even the bright blue color of the liquid is recognizable. The product is in a conventional spray bottle. This makes the product easy to use. The word "original" is printed under the product name as a way of letting the user know that it has been around and will fulfill its purpose. The bottle is subtly patriotic with its red, white and blue color scheme. Windex is, after all, America's number one glass cleaning product.
the container is cylintrical and opens and recloses so that it acts as its own bowl and advertises at the same time. the blue color is used i think to represent its status as being the best. Mr. Peanut is the mascot for planters and has been around as long as the company making him an american icon. he is on the front of the container to note that its a trust worthy brand and you can trust the regally dressed peanut. though the peanuts are nothing more than peanuts they have been shelled which makes them cocktail peanuts and more "dignified". The name PLANTERS is in all capital letters and matches the picture of MR. Peanut to contrast with the blue making it easy to read. the photo of a few peanuts on the front is there to show the consumer exactly what the ontents look like.
I have chosen the website of Twitter which I'm sure everyone knows about or is at least familiar with. Twitter's design seems to be all about convenience-After logging in right when you get to the main "Home" page, everything is right there. On the left hand side, taking up the biggest portion of the page, is a "live feed" in which everyone you have deemed worthy enough to "follow" posts what they're doing, their thoughts, feelings, and so on and so forth. To the right of that large portion is a column with all the little information, that is still in a large enough font and separated well enough to be quickly understandable. At the top is a bar with all your followers and people who follow you shown by using little square boxes with these people's profile pictures within them instead of the name-something I think not only looks better but is acknowledged faster. To the left of that is an open bar in which you can type in your own tweet to submit and add to the live feed (another convenient thing). To finish, under all of this is a group titled "Trending Topics" which displays a short list of things that are trending (what people are tweeting the most about) in your area. For example, Today a trending topic was "McDMonopoly" since Mcdonalds has just brought back their monopoly game. These trending things are almost like an informative news update as well, giving twitter not only the power of convenience but also the power to be utilized in different ways (such as news media).
The Apogee Ensemble, in a nutshell, is a tool that recording engineers use to get sound into a computer. It's on the higher end of the smaller recording studio market because it HAS the capabilities to extend the reach of a smaller studio BUT was designed designed in a way that hinders that ability.
With this product, and with most of the other products by Apogee, the design is cutting edge. They use a simplistic approach with very clean lines and little text to take away from the design. The largest text is the name of the unit followed by the manufacturer on the right side. They decided on two knobs on the front which are both rotary and push button as controls for the unit. These are supposed to do the job of seven different knobs in other similar units. They also include ten small meters in the front panel that light up in three shades to do the job of much more accurate metering on some other units.
In all, the design of this unit and the conventions the company employs in the design hinder functionality as opposed to less aesthetically pleasing comparably units.
I chose to do the poster for the independent comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding. There are several conventions just in this poster, but I am going to mention just a few of the more obvious and common ideas.
First, the text itself represents that of Greek lettering, especially in the words big, fat, and Greek, which gives off a semblance of the storyline and that the plot revolves around Greek culture.
The entire title is in all capital letters to show its importance on the poster. The title is everything, essentially.
There is a header and a footer in addition to the main focal point, the title. The header includes a cast list, and the footer includes both a tagline and some more information about the film.
As far as fine print goes, the actors, the tagline, and other additional information are much smaller than the actual title, so it shows that they are there as a side note, which also brings up the point of hierarchy.
The title is the most important, and therefore has the biggest text of the entire poster. Also, the actors are listed in order of importance, even though Nia Vardalos is not as well-known as Joey Fatone, as an example.
The entire poster is a huge picture, framed around the text, and a frame within itself (the division of the wedding and honeymoon, essentially, with the couple balancing in the middle between the two).
There are many other conventions, but these are the conventions that stick out the most and create the most important elements of the poster.
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/products/modelspecs/8/0/specs.aspx
ReplyDeleteYamaha has been selling the YZF-R6 model for years now and so they know quite well what the consumers are interested in. Thats why the website is very straight forward as far as how it's designed. On the home page (to the left) there are seven pages to select from, all having to do with something about the bike. Under specifications or "specs" page, there are small scale conventions such as single rows for various parts of the bike (Engine, Chassis, Dimension) and then there are large scale conventions such as the tabs up at the top of the page for other products, accessories, apparel & gifts, etc...
Yamaha has streamlined their website to where everything is simply a click away, and all of the title listings are very straight forward (Say you're looking for a Yamaha T-shirt, you simply click on the Apparel tab and you get a listing with color images, prices, and a short description of all the T-shirts Yamaha makes).
http://www.facebook.com/
ReplyDeleteI chose to use the main page of facebook because the design of it changes so frequently. Every time the page is updated, for users, it becomes the biggest deal. The design seems to get more complicated each time with new features. You can get to any page through the multiple links on the side of the page, and even though there is a chat bar with all the users that are available, there is also a block with the people you chat with the most. The news feed down the middle shows updates, but the newest feature is a moving block that updates within seconds with comments friends left on other friends walls. There are so many links to explore that spatially and graphically to a new user it would be extremely overwhelming.
http://www.yahoo.com/
ReplyDeleteI chose to analyze the homepage of Yahoo. This site is very visually appealing to the reader. It has a list of links to take you to parts of the site that has email, car sales, dating ads, etc. Next to each of these links is a small colorful icon to aid in getting the point across of what purpose it serves. Also, the page has a large search bar at the top of the screen so that you can easily search the internet if that's what you went to Yahoo for. The part of their homepage that I like best is one of their larger scale conventions. It is the news story slideshow that is in the middle of the screen. It allows readers to easily see what Yahoo considers their "top 40" stories currently. It includes videos as well as basic news stories. A smaller scale convention that Yahoo uses is an area that lists all the trending topics at that time. It lists the top 10 things users have been searching that day. The spacing of the site is visually appealing as well as the color scheme they use.
http://snuggle.com/Ultra_Sheets_Blue_Sparkle.aspx
ReplyDeleteI decided to use Snuggle Dryer Sheets because I
was doing my laundry and while putting the dryer sheet in with my cloths, I thought about why the company used the design they came up with. The packaging is very lighthearted, being many shades of blue. Very faded flower type designs are covering the packaging as well. This gives a very fresh feeling for the blue can be a bright sky and the flowers can be ones from a spring meadow. In large bold blue text is the brand name Snuggle and it is framed by a white boarding around the letters. The Snuggle Bear is above this, smiling and holding fresh white, folded sheets. This portrays the warmth fabric has after it comes out of the dryer. Everyone loves to "snuggle" with the fresh smelling clothes. On the two upper corners of the box, quick information about the product is given in similar lettering as the title. This allows the buyer to quickly discover what the sheets do, what the sent is, and how many sheets are in the box. Also, the shape of the box allows easy transport and storage in any laundry room. On the back side of the box, more details about the product is given, all following the same set up as the front. The Snuggle Bear is still there with fresh sheets and the main Snuggle name is in the same text.
www.facebook.com
ReplyDelete(I talked about my specific homepage, but I can't leave that as a link... but everyone is on FaceBook so you all will get the gist.)
I chose FaceBook’s homepage for this week’s blog discussion. Majority of people are on FaceBook these days, and lately all of my newsfeed has been strictly discussing how the conventions of FaceBook has altered over the past few weeks. FaceBook has a pretty straightforward design. It has two main colors in the color scheme: blue and white. The font is small and seems to be a font that relates to young adults, rather than a font such as Times New Roman, which often relates to older adults because it often is associated with intelligent, serious issues. Some other conventions FaceBook utilizes is the framing. For example, there are three main columns, one on the left for “Favorites, Lists, Groups, and Apps”, one for “Newsfeed” and one for “Online Chatting”. A lot of these columns are divided into rows. For example, the Newsfeed is broken up into several rows to show that each friend has different statuses than the next. Another major convention is the search bar, which a lot of social networking sites contain. It is used to look up friends that you would like to keep in touch with, or “stalk” as some people say. Although FaceBook has been changing lately, I still find that the core of it has stayed true to its originality. Even though it may be a bit difficult to understand at first, it eventually gets easier as a user logs in more and more often.
CHRISTINA
http://www.barillaus.com/Products/59/montanara-mushroom-and-garlic-sauce.aspx
ReplyDeleteI had just returned from a grocery run for dinner when I read this, so I decided to use the jar of pasta sauce I had just bought.
Barilla is a popular brand that has been selling jars of pasta sauce for years. They use the conventional glass jar with a paper label to encase their product. The brand is in a contrasting color and is circled, to draw attention to it. The name of the sauce is written in cursive, making it look fancier. There are also images of the ingredients used in the sauce, so customers can make their selection based on the specific varieties of sauce. Across the top in small print, it says "ITALY'S #1 BRAND OF PASTA SAUCE" with the colors of the italian flag on either side, to give them more credibility as a great brand of sauce. There is also a red banner next to the name that says "new recipe," so customers will understand the new colors, fonts, and images that Barilla has recently adopted.
http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/307497543702030565
ReplyDeleteI chose to evaluate the Pandora radio station page. The design of the website has recently changed, I think for the better. The options to play, pause, next song, like, or dislike are all lined up in the middle top of the page. These are probably the most used options on the site. The picture of the album that the song comes from is the largest and most colorful on the entire screen (other than the advertisement on the right hand side). Underneath the song that is playing is the lyrics to that specific song along with other information about the artist, album, and record company.The entire right side of the website is full of advertisements. Advertisements are also featured on the website throughout the songs that play. Although, the left side of the page is more personal as you can add any type of radio that you would like and Pandora saves it for you. They also recommend other artists that you may like. The blue background of the page frames the rest of the page that is lighter including the album, radio stations, and advertisements.
http://www.hersheys.com/twizzlers.aspx
ReplyDeleteI chose twizzlers as my product because I am currently eating them. :) Through the website you can click to see the different products, the one I currently have is the cherry pull and peel ones. However depending on what product it is, the advertising for it does not change. It is still the big bold letters with TWIZZLERS across the front, but depending on the product inside the flavor or name changes. Like the pull and peel are cherry, you have the strawberry twists, the filled twist with cherry and lemon, then the nibs, and bites which are cherry. All the same packaging with a little difference of showing the product. The nutrition facts would be on the back and you can feel guilt free eating them because they are a "low fat snack".
-Krissy Z
http://www.surf-station.com/
ReplyDeleteI chose to use a local surf shop's home page and daily surf report. The main picture changes every few seconds from a surf report picture to the local deal of the day to a larger companies advertisement. It is possible to scroll through these conventions more rapidly, and click on the links for more surf report pictures throughout the day. Other conventions include videos, advertisements, the actual surf report written information, and links to other websites that might interest anyone viewing the page. There are tabs at the top that can take someone to anything from the online shop to the forum. There is also the main surf station logo located at the top to show exactly what surf report one would be viewing, in addition to the main shop information and hours located at the bottom of the page framing the other links, stories, and information.
Katherine Kennedy
http://www.windex.com/products/original-glass-cleaner/
ReplyDeleteMy item of choice is the very recognizable windex spray bottle. The product is boldly labeled with the windex trademark. With one glance at the bottle you can see exactly what it is. Even the bright blue color of the liquid is recognizable. The product is in a conventional spray bottle. This makes the product easy to use. The word "original" is printed under the product name as a way of letting the user know that it has been around and will fulfill its purpose. The bottle is subtly patriotic with its red, white and blue color scheme. Windex is, after all, America's number one glass cleaning product.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cp=13&gs_id=1q&xhr=t&q=planters%20cocktail%20peanuts&qe=cGxhbnRlcnMgY29jaw&qesig=ZaQsZ9k-E1-ZRTcvA1W_Gg&pkc=AFgZ2tkuLoR3HVJc5A4iaIZsYKmA5Cba4pnhP35In01XQkN197SmfN7BpfI8I1ZN5TFHh_6WZul1zIb71Xmt1bbLZn3Ldu4Klw&safe=off&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=564&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw
ReplyDeleteyeah thats the link
i chose a ja plantersr of peanuts.
the container is cylintrical and opens and recloses so that it acts as its own bowl and advertises at the same time. the blue color is used i think to represent its status as being the best. Mr. Peanut is the mascot for planters and has been around as long as the company making him an american icon. he is on the front of the container to note that its a trust worthy brand and you can trust the regally dressed peanut. though the peanuts are nothing more than peanuts they have been shelled which makes them cocktail peanuts and more "dignified". The name PLANTERS is in all capital letters and matches the picture of MR. Peanut to contrast with the blue making it easy to read. the photo of a few peanuts on the front is there to show the consumer exactly what the ontents look like.
http://twitter.com/
ReplyDeleteI have chosen the website of Twitter which I'm sure everyone knows about or is at least familiar with. Twitter's design seems to be all about convenience-After logging in right when you get to the main "Home" page, everything is right there. On the left hand side, taking up the biggest portion of the page, is a "live feed" in which everyone you have deemed worthy enough to "follow" posts what they're doing, their thoughts, feelings, and so on and so forth. To the right of that large portion is a column with all the little information, that is still in a large enough font and separated well enough to be quickly understandable. At the top is a bar with all your followers and people who follow you shown by using little square boxes with these people's profile pictures within them instead of the name-something I think not only looks better but is acknowledged faster. To the left of that is an open bar in which you can type in your own tweet to submit and add to the live feed (another convenient thing). To finish, under all of this is a group titled "Trending Topics" which displays a short list of things that are trending (what people are tweeting the most about) in your area. For example, Today a trending topic was "McDMonopoly" since Mcdonalds has just brought back their monopoly game. These trending things are almost like an informative news update as well, giving twitter not only the power of convenience but also the power to be utilized in different ways (such as news media).
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Ensemble
ReplyDeleteThe Apogee Ensemble, in a nutshell, is a tool that recording engineers use to get sound into a computer. It's on the higher end of the smaller recording studio market because it HAS the capabilities to extend the reach of a smaller studio BUT was designed designed in a way that hinders that ability.
With this product, and with most of the other products by Apogee, the design is cutting edge. They use a simplistic approach with very clean lines and little text to take away from the design. The largest text is the name of the unit followed by the manufacturer on the right side. They decided on two knobs on the front which are both rotary and push button as controls for the unit. These are supposed to do the job of seven different knobs in other similar units. They also include ten small meters in the front panel that light up in three shades to do the job of much more accurate metering on some other units.
In all, the design of this unit and the conventions the company employs in the design hinder functionality as opposed to less aesthetically pleasing comparably units.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/My_Big_Fat_Greek_Wedding_(2002).jpg
ReplyDeleteI chose to do the poster for the independent comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding. There are several conventions just in this poster, but I am going to mention just a few of the more obvious and common ideas.
First, the text itself represents that of Greek lettering, especially in the words big, fat, and Greek, which gives off a semblance of the storyline and that the plot revolves around Greek culture.
The entire title is in all capital letters to show its importance on the poster. The title is everything, essentially.
There is a header and a footer in addition to the main focal point, the title. The header includes a cast list, and the footer includes both a tagline and some more information about the film.
As far as fine print goes, the actors, the tagline, and other additional information are much smaller than the actual title, so it shows that they are there as a side note, which also brings up the point of hierarchy.
The title is the most important, and therefore has the biggest text of the entire poster. Also, the actors are listed in order of importance, even though Nia Vardalos is not as well-known as Joey Fatone, as an example.
The entire poster is a huge picture, framed around the text, and a frame within itself (the division of the wedding and honeymoon, essentially, with the couple balancing in the middle between the two).
There are many other conventions, but these are the conventions that stick out the most and create the most important elements of the poster.
--Spencer