Michael's Art 328 Process

I will be using Flash to build my website that critiques bl:nd, DESIGNFLOOD and FOG OF WAR

In order to begin creating my 3 layouts that denote the look and feel, I will need to investigate more thoroughly best practices for such a site.

Looking at designflood.com I already see a version of how to do a similar site. They too are basically just a portal to see other sites and offer a quick way to rate them. What differs in my website is that I will not offer user ratings but instead provide feedback on the selected sites. I like their mission to have the website design remain neutral and let the featured websites take hierarchy. This should be a feature of my website so that the content is the main focus and not my design. What I don't like about their site is the lack of metaphors to help drive navigation and other user interactions. I want it to be clear what to click on and where you can go.

This site, graphic-design.com has a very simple straightforward layout and content arrangement for its critique on websites. The background is white and non intrusive, it's easy to find websites and see a short glimpse of their critique before diving into the full review. Unfortunately to see the full review it takes you to another site that is just a PHP bulletin board. I feel this site change is not fluid and frustrating.

When searching for more websites that critique other websites I found that most of them are all in a bulletin board format to allow for extreme user interactivity. I believe the intention of our website is not to create a forum but more so to create a website to showcase our findings. On that note I am going to change my search criteria to websites that showcase a minimal amount of information in a purely informational fashion.

CSStux does a good job of this although it doesn't provide much feedback on the sites it has listed.

Smashingmagazine.com does a good job of breaking down elements with thorough reviews that have related screenshots to show in detail what the critique is about. I like this style of a linear story with pictures.

Sitecritic.com does the best job of showcasing websites then offering a thorough review with screenshots if you choose to dive in.

Killersites.com's website review section also has a fairly good system of showing their review but I think it doesn't look very pretty.

Commonsensemedia.com is different from the previous sites in that it reviews for a specific audience of concerned parents. This now makes me ask the question about if I should tailor my website critique to tailor a specific audience or style. I think if it did, the site would have more character since it's not just an unbiased critique. For instance I could make my website about how the 3 chosen websites work for a our student demographic and if the design relates well to our asthetic.