web research

Soon, in class, I will be designing a web site for my self. My first step is to research in to existing web sites to help generate ideas as well as narrow down aspects I like and dislike. Here are the web sites I have looked in to and my thoughts on them...

http://www.adamdedman.co.uk

This is Adam Dedman's web site. I really like the layout of his home page; the thumb nail sized images sorted in to a grid looks professional. It is very easy on the eye and makes navigating around the site simply done. The plain white background gives a clean look and calms down the vibrance and business of the images. Another element of his site I liked is how the image's title rolls upwards in a text box ( the same width as the image it's self ) when scrolled over.    

http://www.iamdarrenjohn.com

This is Darren John's website. I find his artworks interesting but the layout is rather dull. The works are in two columns but seem a bit messy and hard to distinguish from one another as they are so close together and the white background blends in to the images - making it even harder to distinguish one from another. 

http://davebain.com

This is Dave Bain's web site. I really like how the fresh bright colours from his work sit on the plain white background. Having headings that are not created from type using the key board but by drawing it as an image adds more interest - e.g. 'New In'. My most liked feature to his site is how clips of Images have been shown in a long rectangular shape. This is more interesting than the conventional portrait rectangle which most images are designed to fit in. 

http://jessicahische.is

This is the home page of Jessica Hische's web site. I really like how neat the layout is. All type is positioned in one left column and images are to the right. The home page has a grid of images that work really well. The images are of small close ups that open up to the larger full size version once clicked on. This is a clever way of portraying work as it allows you to select the best part of an image to show for a first impression.  

Today in class I have learnt how to create a button on a website. The program used was Flash. I began by opening a new document type - Action Script 2. Next, i drew a rectangle and chose the desired colour. All the tools in the toolbox where I found the 'Rectangle tool' are basically the same as ones I would find in programs I regularly use like Illustrator. 
I then selected the rectangle. As I did this the shape changed to have a doted texture, this is a sign to verify that it is a vector. My following step was to click 'Modify' > 'Convert to Symbol' and a dialogue box appeared. As can be seen bellow, I renamed the symbol to button 1 and changed the type to 'Button'. 

The next step I took was to re colour each state of the button. 









Here is the button's first state - UP. This is when the button is not in use but appears on screen. 










This is the button's second state - Over. What this is is when the cursor is rolled over the button.










   


Here is the third state of the button - Down which implies when the curser is clicking on the button.












This is the button's fourth state - Hit. This is as the name for the area in which defines the button. 








The document was then saved and tested to see if it worked. How this was done was by opening it by 'Command + Enter' and moving my curser over the button.