Using Flickr

I have decided after much thought and confusion to try and incorporate the porogram Flickr in my final piece. I remember using it last year with Maria and i found it quite easy to incorporate it in my idea. I have set up a Flickr account and have browsed through photos from other members. Threre are some amazing photos on here and i cant believe how creative some people are, there is an option to add the photos to Favourites - this then allows you to put the photos into your account and access it whenever you want to. There are a few photos that i have found that capture the idea i think that the Woman in White conveys and i am considering including hem in my final piece.

Discussing my Idea!

I spoke to Ian regarding the progress i had made over reading week regarding my online project idea. I wanted to create a website and portal linked to the author Wilkie Collins and his work as when i was researching him i found it hard to get basic information on his life and social background. But upon speaking to Ian my idea seemed really boring and more of the safe option. I have now decided to change my idea slightly, i still want to use the theme of Wilkie Collins but Ian siad to try and make my idea more interactive so im going to go and look at a range of existing websites and see what they offer in terms interaction.

The topic I have chosen.

Over reading week i decided that my website will be based on the author i am writing about in my dissertation. My dissertation is based on Wilkie Collin's and his novella The Woman in White. I have had so much trouble finding information on this subject, all i seem to find is reviews from the musical dircected my Andrew Lloyd Webber. Therefore i think that if my project offered other people in my position a set of links to other useful website that comment on the novel then it wouuld close the gap in the market. But i don't just want my website to attract people who have read the novel, i want to encourage people to want to read the novel also. The book is initially quite daunting as its over 600 pages long and has quite a complicated plot, so by including images both from myself and other users it might appeal to a wider audience, as i didn't really understand the novel until i watched the tv adaptation and then my idea on what was happening and what the characters were like were both clarified and challenged. So i think by allowing the reader to submit thier own visual ideas, would help others to understand the concepts of what is going on.

Working Examples (again!)

To compare to the bad experience i had whilst using the Sun website, i tried to find a website that was user friendly. My favourite one i visited was http://www.habitat.net/uk/main_uk.htm I think that this website for Habitat is well designed, even though it has been designed for a different purpose than the Sun the layout and content is much more accessable. It is so much easier and quicker for the user to find what they are looking for as the imformation is split up into different catogories e.g. different rooms in the house and even further into diffrent items of furniture. This website in my opinion is alot more successful in giving the user what they are looking for. The pages are well balanced and there is not to much displayed on each page. In fairness, both websites navigational bar remains in the same place no matter where your are in the website. They both sit left of the screen and display all the options the user needs to move through the pages. I think i will use this feature of the navigational bar being to the left of the screen as it is more natural for the user - as we read from left to right, so therefore it will be the first thing that the user will see and then recognise as they move through my project.

Working Examples

Ive been thinking back to the different examples that Ian has shown us regarding examples of good and bad websites. I keep remembering his comments regarding the Sun Newspaper website http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,2,00.html and how it is very busy and quite unclear to navigate around. I decided to visit the website for myself and try and view it critically - not really looking at the content but instead focussing on the interactivity and accessability. I found the website quite busy looking with links to many other pages quite overwhelming. Even when i clicked on a story, there was still too much on the page so your attention was drawn away from the actual story i had chosen to read. This was probably down to the amount of red on the pages, i understand that red is a trademark colour of The Sun, but i think if it was used less it would be more effective. This kind of related to the opening of the film Schindler's List and the girl in the red coat; the film is renouned for the image of the girl in the red coat and its because of the subtle use of colour that it works so successfully. I know that this example is a bit extreme but i think if the Sun only used red for the more important pages then it would be easier for the user to tollerate. I think that looking at this website has helped me to start and visualise how i want my website to look.

My First find!

Ive found this really great website called http://born-on-this-day.com/ It reminds me of when i was younger and in primary school as we were shown how to use a program similar to this where you could enter a date and see what happened in history on this day. This website works in the same way, only the search archive is so much bigger and more advanced. I have always been interested on events that have previously happened on certain days of significiance to me. Think this has derived from my uncle who used to work on Radio Merseyside and then Essex FM. Everytime it was someones birthday in the family he would always play the song that was number one when we were born on the radio and dedicate this to us; and i just like the idea of looking back at other important or even landmark events that have happened on a date that is important to me. Think i might try and incorporate this idea into my final piece, havent really thought of a subject to base my designs on yet, but im going to do some research and see what i can come up with!

Working backwards!

Since my last post my ideas have developed and changed to fit the set brief. All my ideas have seemed to develop on paper- but as you know im an English student so this is what comes naturally to me, but i will fill you in on my progress! At the moment i am working on putting my project together using macromedia dreamweaver, all seems to be going well. but first think i should start back at the beginning and explain my thoughts and how i came to my final idea.