Project Critiques:
I think many of the projects from Fall 2007 are similar. I like that they revolve around a story as opposed to a narrative. However, there was one from previous semesters I found interesting; it grabbed my attention.
http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/tossey/default.htm
This story begins with the author’s facial cleanser to tell her story of hitting 30 and still being in school. The first line made me want to read more. I did... and found a great personal story. The page was well set up and the story well written. I identified with the story, which did not hurt my attraction to it. While I do like the actual new stories of Fall 2007 better, this one was well done and interesting.
Most of the Fall 2007 stories are similar in style, one I did not find well produced was the Hate Crime Feature.
http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/2007fall/freedman/
The opening page has a flower next to the links about hate crimes and nooses. Those themes do not go well together. In addition, the story does not read well. It begins wordy and not to the point. The author missed telling a great story because of the style. Of course, I am a broadcast student and think everything should be written conversationally…
3.24.2008
Project Critiques
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One project I really did not enjoy reading was titled Bottled Up Rage. While I could appreciate the intricate graphics in the project, right away I was annoyed at the amount of pages I had to click through to find my way to the actual story. I was then distracted reading the actual story because of the quotes which stand out from the rest of the story in a different font, color and size. I was confused as to if I should cut away from the rest of the text to read the quote or if the quotes were meant to stand off by themselves. The writer also included a separate page of links which were interesting but were largely unhelpful because they were listed in bullet points on a separate page. I would have been more interested if they were included within the story which might better indicate their relevance.
One project I really enjoyed was titled Facebook: Costing Students Jobs?. I was initially drawn to this project because the font caught my eye. I was especially impressed with the creativity of creating the story to look like a facebook page from the layout to the font and colors used. It was clever but not visually overwhelming. Unlike the last project, I liked that this one included embedded links throughout the text which allowed me to jump to other pages giving me some context. Both the fact bar and the images were appropriate yet not distracting. My only complaint with this project is that the video took a long time to load which was frustrating.
I liked the design of this one:
http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/sarahabruzzese/index.htm
It contrasts sharply with many of the others because the colors aren't as crazy. It doesn't hurt my eyes, so I want to keep reading or at least look at it long enough to see what it's about. The content is very informative and professionally written. The prominence of the quotes used show commitment. The only format problem I see is that the links aren't space far enough apart at the top - they run into each other a little bit.
I did not like this personal narrative package:
http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/robbins/
To me it is way too simplistic and ordinary, and the background color is painful to the eyes. The background should always be a darker shade in my book. Also the picture of the hand typing looks like it was lifted off the home page of a software company. A more original graphic or a picture of the creator would be better. I do like the presentation of the clips and resume (once you click on the links), however.
I agree with Jenn about the project Bottled Up Rage. The graphic at the top of the story was pretty cool, but I thought the way she handled her quotes was a big mistake. It distracted from the rest of her piece. Her home page also had differing word sizes, which shows she has some HTML knowledge. But it also looks amateurish and really distracting.
I enjoyed a lot of the other projects. One that stood out for me was entitled The Importance of Etiquette. I don't care much for dinner etiquette, but this package had a great design and cool graphics. One of the graphics was a photo of a table setting and where each utensil should be placed. The author's graphics on the left side of the page were also unique and very impressive.
I have to agree with Dan. The "Importance of Etiquette" was elegantly done. It had visual appeal with stellar graphics and a very professional look overall. I thought that the story was different in terms of subject matter and tastefully done (Oddly enough, I do like etiquette and restaurant stuff).
I did not like the personal article "The Days Are Slipping By". The background color is horrid and the overall design is just harsh. The piece seemed like it was put together at the last minute without much thought and written in a very sophomoric fashion. It would have been a better idea to treat the piece as an op-ed instead of a personal journal.
I really liked the Evolution of an Editor personal narrative. The layout is simple, yet aesthetically pleasing. The pages are made in such a way that they won't be too wide for the browser window on computers with lower resolutions. The color scheme is really easy on the eyes, and it works well with the photo on the main page. Additionally, the photos page is well done, especially the pop-up windows of larger versions of the pictures.
The project I did not enjoy was, as others have mentioned, the Bottled Up Rage web package. Although the article is decent enough, it is made unbearable to read because of the awful colors and varying sizes of the quotations. The quotes are distracting and a chore to read. If I were a reader, I would not have finished the article, and have moved on to another web site. The only redeeming quality of the page is the impressive graphic on the entrance page.
I hate to be a follower, but after reading through all of the projects, I like Allison Hoge's etiquette package the best.
It can truly be considered a "package". It's not crammed together pieces of information, which many of the others seem to be. It has a theme that ties everything together, and different components that support it. I also enjoy pages that don't have several different obnoxious fonts and colors, and although I often don't care for frames, she uses them well here.
The information is also solid and helpful, and not just a weak collection of links. She also uses links well in her feature story.
On the other hand, I was not a fan of several of the very basic narrative sites, primarily because I found them visually unappealing. I keep going back to Desair's" site, for instance, which is just...boring. The color is off, and I don't like the text art feature, which is what she used in her header. The fonts are too small for the relatively small amount of information on the page. It accentuates the brevity and leaves these phrases and sentences swimming around in the aqua sea. (Not a fan of the color, like I said.)
The substance that is there seems like it could be the start of something, but it doesn't really go anywhere. The home page is very weak. It would look like a rough draft on paper, I think. The story is so short on the narrative page that I would need to see more photos with more interesting commentary.
As far as the feature sites that we'll be constructing, I wasn't a fan of Bottled Up Rage either. Too cluttered, too much clicking, as Jenn pointed out, I REALLY hate clip art, and most of all, those differently sized fonts made my eyes go crazy. That was the real deal-breaker for me.
I know that Jenn mentioned that she enjoyed Facebook: Costing Students Jobs?, but frankly, I wasn't anywhere near as impressed. I will give credit where credit is due - the page is well-designed to draw up thoughts of the social networking site that the feature details. However, the overall execution is just sloppy. There are multiple copyediting errors in the article itself (the first one I noticed being "Imgage" in the caption of the first image) that really cheapen the whole page. Additionally, the title for the page is "feature," which shows the absolute lowest amount of creativity possible. The resume also feels very much just thrown in as an afterthought. It could have been incorporated, I think, in some sort of fashion to make it a more cohesive portion of the overall package. As it is, from an outside perspective I don't know why it's there or, more importantly, why I should care.
My biggest gripe, however, is in the multimedia "section." It's just a single video integrated right into the given page, with no warning that it's coming. To me, a header entitled "Multimedia" gives an impression of multiple pieces of multimedia, not just a single solitary video. If I'm going to see just one video, especially by clicking on the one link, tell me. Luckily everything worked on my end on the technical side of things, but if I was using a lesser computer, I'd have been pretty disappointed when I was navigating this package.
I also hate to join the crowd, but I'd be lying to myself if I didn't say that Importance of Etiquette wasn't the best of the bunch. Clearly there was a lot of time spent designing the package; instead of simple hyperlinks, the navigation is built around images that are elegantly placed in the frame. While it may not seem important at first, the fact that these images are at the left at all times makes reading this package a breeze.
The elements other than the feature article are seamlessly integrated as well. The etiquette tips are a great complement to a feature about - whaddaya know? - etiquette. After reading a story about students trying to improve their etiquette, it only makes sense to appeal to a reader who is inevitably thinking about how they themselves can improve their table manners. Possibly the most noteworthy part to me, however, was the major difference in how the resume was worked in. I know right from the start that it's the author's resume, which gives me some sort of connection and gives me a reason to be interested. Moreover, the resume itself looks much cleaner on this package than it does in the previous one.
One story I liked was "Getting Ready to Cash In". http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/valencia/
I really liked the flow of the story and how the author's experiences changed the over the course of the story. i especially liked the end where he came to appreciate not only his personal experiences but the experiences of others that are in a similiar situation as his.
The project I did not like is the "Bottled Up Rage" http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/2007fall/wald/. I think the site was well done and showed great knowledge in creating web pages but as a reader I found it annoying to follow. The article was fine but after all the clicking and colors and moving images, I was over it.
As the final one to post a comment, I'll focus on ones that others have talked less about.
I especially enjoyed Boxing at Maryland. First, the design was simple and effective, if slightly dull. The red and white motif definitely works for the subject of boxing at the University of Maryland. In fact, it almost reminds me of an older design at the Diamondback's Web site. The author also breaks up the page well with pull-out quotes, photos and bolded section headings. The overall impression is clean and professional, although the title could be larger and set off more from the header of the page. Moreover, the story itself is well-written and tight.
I found Finding a Subject difficult to read because of the lackluster design. To facilitate reading, the text should have more of portrait orientation than a landscape one. It's laborious to try to follow the text all the way across the screen. The empty robin's egg blue field above the narrative is also distracting. I don't understand the need for so much space between the header and the text. Images to break up the words would also help. The narrative page is especially poor in comparison with the Life Without Borders page off Mary Robbins' resume, where the text wraps and a photo breaks up the space.
I enjoyed the set up of the website "Bottled Up Rage," it starts of with an introduction page, a page explaining what her content was about, and links to the content of her page. The design is simple but attention-grabbing and easy to understand, and explore. It is different how she only uses the center of the page and leaves the left and right sides clear and white, which is slightly distracting. It would have been better to put more information in this area, or spread out the already existing information since the pages were long. The pictures and pop out quotes are a good idea, and keep the reader interested in the story. All in all I like the design and layout of the page by Sara Wald.
The web package I did not like as much is the "Maryland Team Building To The Future" by Zachary Herrmann. There was no introduction to the page, which left me wondering what the stories were about. The layout was basic and not very creative. The design of the page left me uninterested. A good part about the page, however, was the side bar of different links to go to. I thought that was a nice addition to the story. Also, the pictures were well spread out, but just did not grab my attention, nor made me want to continue reading the story.
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