Tuesday 29 April 2008

Online Interactivity Analysis - 'Sony Bravia'



'Sony Bravia' was the first website to grab my attention. With it's fantastic colour use and strong interactivity. The creator of the site has chosen to keep the opening page very crisp and white. As the next page bursts with colour. The first opening loading page I found works particually well as the logo is 'colour like no other'. The page is clean white with a colour wheel rotating as the page loads up with a few facts about the world of colour, for example "All babies are born colour blind". However, the site took quite a while to upload which I found quite irritating as I waited for the site to dial up to 100% but the facts kept me entertained. 
Finally when it had finished loading it loaded the main menu. The main menu contained four interactive boxes. The four boxes rotate around by the clicking the arrow and dragging it across the screen, showing the user different images. The quicker you move the mouse over the boxes the quicker they spin around. By having the white background also enhances the image that 'Sony Bravia' aimed to set, the TVs have high colour resolution overall the layout is basic, yet the design outcome is powerful.I found one of the most powerful parts of the website was as soon as I opened the page, instructions were on show showing the user how to navigate around the site. The user i able to use the arrow keys on the keyboard and the mouse to navigate around the page. Once in the page three small icons also appeared in the top right hand side corner with the titles 'help', 'main menu' and 'studio', each were helpful in their own way.

As soon as you open the web page you are immediately brought to bright and vibrant colours, which is the product they are trying to bring to out attention. I feel the way the site shows users it's successful product ('Sony Bravia' and it's adverts) is different and works really well, showing the colours 'Sony Bravia' produce. Users are able to get involved through the different interactive objects the site has displayed the colours. I played around with the different interactive objects. I went back to the main menu and chose the first box that was optional to me. It was 'The Colourwall'. I found this really exciting and extremely unique, you are able to explore from 16.7 million colours by uploading an image. You then had to upload an image of choice, select a colour from it and describe it to be your own. I then followed the instructions given but when it came to viewing my image there was errors . However, I felt this was a strong piece of audience interaction and has a strong connection to the product.


I then chose to play with second box from the main menu. It was another interactive activity. This time it was a game to play around with the movement of colour. The user is able to choose from four different shapes. With each shape you are able to experience something different, I chose the the lines which was titled 'Experience Clarity'.
I then found out the lines they appeared soon to be actually blades of 3D grass. By clicking and dragging the mouse across the screen you are able to interact. It gave the idea of being small and gliding through long tall grass, calm beautiful music played in the background. When I left the mouse still for a short amount of time the screen darkened and the moving image paused with a quote from 'Sony Bravia' 'BRAVIA gives you clarity with breath taking detail'. After exploring this I returned back to the main menu and tried to to play with the other shapes optional to me but the web page seemed to be stuck on 'Experience Clarity'. There were no help or directions with how to return to the previous page. So I had no choice but to explore a different area of the site.
Users also have the option to view 'Sony Bravia' adverts that are each very popular within TV viewers, such as, the millions of multi-coloured bouncy balls lose down a steep down hill road which is played at a slow speed to really get the effect. 
There are also behind the scene clips of how the adverts were created and the ideas behind them and what really went into making them in detail.


I believe the website is well structured and organized for users to navigate through. It has been well designed. Each interactive box contains related information to do with 'Sony Bravia' in different ways. The website itself is the high quality as expected off 'Sony Bravia' as their adverts and products are only ever the highest quality. It is simple yet so effective, which makes it easy for new users to use. The strong imagery, bright colours and the interactivity involving colours make the website exciting and lively and gives out a positive identity towards the company. The website may interest different consumers and ages as it is a different outlook onto the product. Overall this website has made a strong and lasting impression.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

FontStruct.com


FontStruct is a free font building brought to us by the world's leading retailer of digital type. http://fontstruct.fontshop.com 

FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks.
You create 'FontStructions' using the 'FontStructor' font editor.

Once you have completed building, FontStruct generates high- quality 'TrueType' fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application.

You are able to keep your own creations to yourself, but they encourage users to share them FontStructions. You are able to explore their gallery of fonts made by other users and download them or even copy them or make your own variations. 

Cloning allows people to quickly make variations and extend existing FontStructions. If you'd like to use a FontStruction but it lacks some letters you need,  you can clone it and add these characters yourself.
The original authors and FontStructions are always displayed on the home page of a cloned FontStruction. So cloned FontStructions cannot be claimed as completely original work.

To clone a FontStruction go to the homepage, either by clicking on it in the Gallery or from your "My FontStruct" page if it's one of yours. Then click on the "clone" button. Name your new FontStruction, and then click 'clone' again. You will be taken to the FontStructor editor to edit your cloned FontStruction. 

You can also make pixel fonts for Flash with FontStruct as it is optimized for the creation of Flash pixel fonts.

I think this site is going to become very helpful for me in the future as I have already downloaded a couple of the fonts.