my website is up!!!

go to andyriethmuller.uuuq.com and be amazed!!!

website finally doneskis

washed my hands of the website project, the dirt still somewhat remains but the bulk has gone

done….. nearly

With the end of the semester coming up the most painful part is now. I really think that this subject has too much crammed into it in too short time . But now just putting the finalising touches on the page and then will be able to get the rest of this crap sorted.

making progress

ive gone from stage where i thought i was not going to get this website design handed in to now being almost done. Ive chosen to do a simplistic hand written style of webpage mainly because it is easy to produce but also because i like the style. Ive laied it out with a main heading that i have drawn and touched up on photoshop just so it doesnt look too scratchy. Ive put in a ‘post-it’ looking graphic which i can put the most important information as it is the focal point of the page.

i know what i want but….

I know what i want as a final web design, its in my head and its on pieces of paper. What i cant work out is how to get those thoughts, ideas and sketches into a HTML, CSS file and have it to a state where it is on a computer screen in front of me just how i want it?

Making it mine

So I think Im finally getting the whole idea behind this BLOG theme. It is ment to represent my creative expression and that is what i am finding most difficult to employ. Firstly because i am not a website designer, in fact i despise the stuff, but i have to do it so what is the easiest way to go about this? dont treat it as a web page. Im going to look at it as just another drawing, model or any other industrial design project.

My preffered design style is simplistic, clean and uncluttered. Im going to use the least amount of text an graphic while still trying to gain maximum effect. Dont really know exactly how to do this though…….

Website features 4 – 7

4) Text

I assume the reason that most people would visit these website is that they are interrested in the models of cars from that particular manufacture. Due to this target market each site contains simple and clear text with an aproach to a minimalistic stlye. All sites use an Arial stlye font or a combination of Arial and Times New Roman. These texts are precise, direct and non-excessive, which in turn reflects the overall image of the site.

5) Graphics 2

Obviously all the sites i have researched are related to a particular brand and it is important for that company to display its image to a prospective customer. This is why all the websites used their logo heavily throughout.

6) Changing Main Page

Most sites incorporated the use of a changing or ‘revolving’ main page graphic. This allows the viewer to see a greater number of products from the sites and is also more visually stimulating.

7) Layout

I found all sites bar one had a very simplistic and clean layout. They did not try to bombard the viewer with information but have used a simple layout design so that they are able to draw the focus of the viewer to specific areas of the site. For example if there is something new on the website or something of importance which the designer wants the viewer to see, rather than adding new tabs or search bars some may be taken away so that the view has little option to click there.

Website features 1 – 3

1) Graphics

I have noticed a trend among the car websites I have visited. There seems to be something within the car marketing industry thats tells them a graphic with three cars is the best way to display their products. Almost every website I have visited and used as refference contains a trio of cars aranged within a frame.

2) Colour

Four of the five websites I have refferenced contain the use of a large area of single colour, usually black or white. This makes the entire page simplistic and easy to aproach from a consumers point of view.

3) Search options

All the sites contained a relativly simple, however in some cases not particularly easy to use, serach options. I dont not believe that this is a major downfall among the sites due to the fact that this is not the way in which they rely on communicating with their audience. In other words the reason the do not have a highly detailed and extensive search feild is that the simply do not need it, all were very easy to navigate and to access relivant information without the need for a seperate serach. Why provide someone with a service they dont need? Concentrate on making the entire site as easy as possible to navigate and people will have no need to conduct a search.

Website screen shots

I’ve finaly narrowed my chosen websites into a group that I believe have similar trates. I have a strong intrest in the automotive industry and through reasearch found that almost all of them traget a specific group by using similiar techinques which i will out-line later. As follows are the homepage screen shots and links of my chosen websites.

www.audi.com.au

www.mercedes-benz.com.au/

www.jaguar.com.au/

www.astonmartin.com/

www.bmw.com.au

 

Websites are not art!

So I’ve been looking at groups of websites and there are something about looking at how a website is constructed that really bores me. To me its hard to aproach this topic with any sort of passion because personaly i think website design is such a massivly broad feild that it is almost too hard to seperate what is a ’great’ website from a ‘good’ one. Website design and construction is not an art-form like some people have said to me. People do not create website through passion, they are designed to sell, teach, entertain and inform. They do not express the designers emotion, or if in the rare case that they do, it is always with an intention to distinguish themselves amongst an ever increasing feild  and therefore the artistic integrity is compromised. Websites are not art!