Facebook: Why so popular?

Since this terms brief is to design a social networking site I thought that it would be a good idea to look into why facebook is such a popular site. Another point for why I have chosen to analyse this site is because a big population of the user on facebook are or were students, maybe this will give me an insight to what the student population are looking for.

On first impressions I found the design of the site a bit bland however on looking at the site as a whole I feel that the designers have been limited to a very minimal layout due to the vast amount of information that facebook outputs.

What I noticed before I even logged on was how simple new users can register onto facebook. All they have to do is enter there name, email, paswword, sex and DOB and your signed up; this can be more appealing to people because its quick and simple. A question that always goes through my mind is why do people join facebook?

I asked a few people on their opinions of this question and I got a mixture of answers which are all relatively true. The main reason why people like to go on facebook is because of the curiosity of what other people i.e. what friends are doing. Having the option if being able to see what your friends are doing via photos and 'wall posts' intrigues the majority of the users (including me); facebook is like a portal into other peoples worlds.

A good application that I have noticed to be very popular is the 'Events'applications. Through talking to a number of different people I realised that a large amount of people create events inviting a vast amount of people all in just a few clicks. I feel that this is a good application because it has a good cause, I have realised that over the past few years as facebook got more popular more applications were added that really there was no need for.

An example of a bad application on facebook is the 'superpoke' I am still unsure about what it does but from asking a few people I think it gives the user the option to give one of their friends a virtual hug, kiss etc in my opinion I feel that it is a pointless application; maybe they are trying to create smaller social networking groups within facebook however hearing different users responses to this they are not popular and get more negative feedback rather then positive.

A major problem that I noticed getting bigger is identity theft. Users give out information that can enable people to steal their identities, information such as your name, where you live, birthdays, place of study etc are all vitual information and when you look at facebook as a whole this site is the perfect place to do this. Even though that user has many option with their own profile i.e. keep it private and accept or decline people they want as friends, it is still very easy for hackers to get this information.

Overall I feel facebook has its good and bad points. It is a great way to keep in contact with friends wherever they are however I feel that it has expanded so much that it is not just a social networking site anymore, with compnaies buying shares into the site it is now turning more into a advetising site and becoming more dangerous for identity theft.

So when I ask that question why so popular? It mainly comes down to people mainly curious of other peoples lives however as facebook continues to grow and users log on more and more it makes me think how dependent are we on this site? Every time I am in a computer room I look around and see at least two people using facebook.

Facebook is a way of life for people now and I cannot imagine not having it in todays world.

Flash games Initial designs

I am starting to design my flash game and its only occurred to me that the last time I posted a blog about my flash game was quite a while back and since then my ideas have changed dramatically.

Initially I wanted to create a shooting game like the 'yeti sports' game that I had previously reviewed. However after looking through more games I came across another game called 'spin the black circle' which I have also reviewed (please refer back to older blog entries) and since I have found this game I have been addicted to playing it. And so for this reason I am creating a maze; with the use of gravity to move the ball around the maze and the user having to steel the maze rather then the ball to get the ball to its end destination.

I created a few design ideas on Photoshop that I thought could work with what I wanted to do:



For the design above my first initial thoughts was what does a maze look like? and straight away I thought of a traditional maze and, that was square. When designing this I started off by only inputting boxes and that the user would only have to weave around the boxes however when thinking about every game that I played and enjoyed I had a challenge and so I thought why not put dead ends and traps to slow the user from getting to the end destination.
Looking back the design I was starting to not like it as much; and I thought that the reason for this was because of the shape. I'm not too keen on the square shape and so maybe creating a maze in a different shape would interest me more.



For the next design I took onto account the shape idea and created a circular maze. What I liked about this idea was that I found it much harder to see where I wanted to go. I am not too sure on the reason for this but if it adds challenge to the game then its a bonus. I did not add any elements to this design I just kept it a basic layout.
Looking at both designs I feel that I could incorporate both designs; with the shape of my second design and the traps and dead ends of my first I think that I am onto a winner. As you can see in the second design I have added a timer. I am not too sure whether I will use it as a count down timer or a best time timer but either way it will add a little more impact to the game.

Having chose my design I thought that I would show you what I have done so far on flash.


As you can see I have only created a very VERY basic game but at this moment in time I am trying to get to grips with the actionscript; to be honest I am understanding quite alot of it considering a few months back I just thought that it looked like a jumble of words.
As for progress on the coding I have so far managed to get all of the maze to rotates left and right using the arrow keys. I was getting trouble with centering the circles but that was just a small glitch.

As you can see here this is the coding that I have done so far. What it means is that I have given each wall a rotation function and every time I click on the left or right arrow it will turn that way.
At the moment I am trying to work with velocity variable to make my ball move on its own but I am finding it quite hard at the moment, still I will not give up and hopefully I will get the coding right.
Just to also let everyone know this is not my final design. I am using this as my basic design to work on, once I have it all working I will then focus on the design view, I'm thinking maybe an Egyptian lost tomb theme but could that be too cliche? I shall find out soon.

Social Networking - Design Ideas

Right because I am still having trouble with this php coding I thought that I would leave that and start designing the image for the site. I first of all needed to come up with an idea for a name of my site, this involved thinking about what the whole aim of the site was. And things that me and my friends thought represented my site were:

- Networking
- Socialising
- Students
- Company
- Portfolio
- Promo

In all honesty I could not think of a name and so I moved onto my friends, and after pushing them into giving me name ideas my friend Pip came up with the name 'Port Net' and I loved the sound of it. It completely represents what my site is aiming for; its a 'networking' site for students who want to show off there 'portfolios'. I feel that the name is simple and to the point, also kind of catchy.



Above shows the general theme of what I would like the general image to look like for the website. When thinking of colours I don't want a colour that is too in the users face and thats why I chose the colour orange. I am still going to work on the general theme but having researched imagery and definitions of the word 'Networking' I get the idea of hands shaking or computers but, as this is meant to be a student-company networking site I want to incorporate this idea for my theme of the site.

Below is one of my ideas for a design that I could use.



It is only an initial idea but I have already received some positive feedback from people who I have shown it too so I think that I may enhance this design.

The main idea of the of design was to clearly show networking. I wanted to incorporate something that people would recognise immediately and so that's when I thought of the male/female symbol. They are always seen together and so linking them (maybe tweeking them to look a bit more like a business man and student) I felt created a strong networking symbol. I would use a design like this throughout the site maybe change the colour.

I intend to improve the header and create a few more different ideas but; I will also pursue the design work for this design as I feel that I'm onto a winner.

Udder Insanity (the bad game)

The udder insanity game is a game that I came across in a seminar. We had to find a bad online game and this was the one that we found. I decided to reuse this game because it is a perfect example of what an unsuccessful game looks like.

Like any online game the main concept of the game is simple, though it is a little bit unusual but there is such a vast amount of online games I guess that some games are going to be out of the ordinary. The main aim is to simply milk the cows before they explode. The main concept is all simple enough but there are points of the game that I do not understand and made it the game more confusing rather then fun.

When I first loaded the game I didn't know what to expect, and that continued until I started playing the game as there were no instructions leaving me to work out how to use the game myself; it was easy to work out but some basic instructions would have helped. What was fairly off putting was the minors rules that were put in place. The player had to milk each cow before they exploded and when the bucket was full then you had to go empty it however, what I didn't realise until later was that when the people in the background of the game ran across the screen then you had to go fire a gun shot. In the first few goes I didn't even realise that they were in game play and thought that it was part of the game design.

The graphics are fairly simple but are quite humorous in parts of the game (when the cow explodes) and the design is complimented but the simple sounds that have been used. There is no background music just some sound effects when the player milks the cow.

The confusing part about the game was the general pointing and timing system. From playing I'm guessing that the days are the levels and every level you go up you get an extra cow added although, what confused me was that there was no amount of time shown whilst in play, this meant that I did not know how long the game took. And when it came to the end I even found the pointing system confusing. Just guessing I assume that you start with eight lives and every cow that dies is a life, so you could lose three or four live in one round; the amount of cows remaining makes up the points, or in this game makes more money.

In my opinion I feel that the game has got a simple game concept but its ruined by the unneeded pieces of added criteria that makes it more confusing for the player. When playing the game I got more frustrated about not knowing what to do and so, put me of the game entirely. If I was to make suggestions to improve the game then I would definitely stick to the simple aim and that is to milk the cows before they explode; taking out the extra bit i.e. the running people and gun shooting. I feel that adding simple instructions, a timer and easy point system would get more users interested. The main point of the game I feel is funny and will amuse people but this won't happen until the game is changed to a more user friendly game.

Spin the black circle game (the good game!)

The spin the black circle game was a game that I came across on the off chance when searching for ideas for my flash project. The reason for why I have chosen this game is because it has a simple aim, and that is to get the ball into the hole by rotating the black wheel.

The concept sounds simple enough however the user has gravity against them, so whilst moving the black wheel the user also has to consider what happens when you rotate the wheel. To add more complications to the game some of the walls have spikes or flames to prevent you from getting to the finish. From my description above the game does sound complicated but the only keys that you have to use are the left and right keys on the keyboard; that is to just turn the wheel.

The graphics that have been used are simple. In my opinion I feel that they are quite bland and not very appealing to the eye however what I noticed whilst playing this game was that I was so engrossed that I did not even notice the surrounding graphics. I can understand the design concept (the game name) but if I was to redesign the game design then I would give it more of a theme. However overall this design has not effected what the users think about the game itself and that is why I think this game is so successful.

They have added some sound effects which I personally did not listen to much because I felt that it was not needed. I was so addicted to playing the game that I found the music more distracting then 'adding effect' to the game itself. Another feature that made this game more interesting is the timer. Every round you are timed to get to the finish; every time that I failed I had the need to not only complete the game itself but also beat my previous time.

I always thought that a successful game would have a good design, sound and concept but I was wrong, I noticed that the simplest games are the more successful games. I think the reason for this is because small online flash games are for people wanting to play just a quick game be it in there lunch break or spare time; they want a game that they can start playing straight away and for that reason I have chosen this game to be my successful one. I have tested this game on a few people and the reactions were all the same as mine; they have the need to complete it. The obstacles used are simple but the user has to decide how far to rotate the wheel and that is why it is difficult.

This is the type of game that I intend to design because it has all the criteria that online game need. Its quick, simple yet hard and addictive at the same time.

Social Networking - Deviant Art

For the social networking project I decided that I wanted to design a site for students, where they can upload there work in order for companies to view. After having our lecture with Shaun and Simon I thought that it would be a conscious choice to look into different site that relate to what I intend to design. Having spoken to quite a few people in the class it came to my attention that deviant art is the type of site that I intend to design.


When I first opened this site it wasn't at all what I expected. In my mind I imagined a site full of bright and strong visual designs, generally a very eye catching layout but I was very much wrong. The colours used were neutral and bland however looking at it now I feel that it works to its advantage. Having done this has immediately drawn my eyes towards the art work within the site, the whole main aim to this site. From the second you enter the site you are greeted by a wide variety of art work from digital to poetry.

Even though there are alot of pages that the user can be redirected to I found it easy to navigate through the pages. They have set the main navigation bar to the left of the page, sub categorising the art work making it easier for the users to find the work that they are looking for. They also have some buttons at the top however these mainly consist of things that do not represent the art work; which I feel is a conscious idea because keeping them separated makes it less confusing for the users. This is something that I would like to take into consideration when designing my site.

What I liked the was how they continuously update the work i.e. 8 hours, 24 hours etc the work is always shown however, it does make me wonder what happens to the older pieces of work. I feel because deviant art is so popular there are so many users, with the amount of wokr being uploaded not everything is shown on the main page. For the users work to been viewed they would have to be well known or it would be by fluke that they come across the work.

What I intend to do for my site is have the categories stronger. For example if the site that I intend to design was to expand then I'd have universities as the open category followed by the art subjects, by doing this I have automatically narrowed down the choice or, area.

Deviant Art is a great example of what I would like to create, showing users work makes it a good way for companies to seek potential employers. Having seen this site though I now think that I want my site to be narrowed down to just students.

Lydfields Web site

Whilst I was back at home I noticed that my boyfriends parents did not have a website for there business and so, I have to design a site for them. This will be a project that I will work on in my spare time but I was quite please to be creating it because it will help bulk up my portfolio and help me gain more knowledge about html.
The company is called Lydfield constructions Ltd they are a contractors/building company based in Southampton.

I have started designing a few designs and I have been looking at other building websites to get an idea on what to design. From looking at other websites I can see that the majority of the sites are fairly simple, the main pages consist of a homes page, about us page, gallery, services and contact us page, so I think I will stick to these constraints.
I may try and add some flash content because I would like to add a slideshow but, I could do this on dreamweaver so I may try it on there because I need all the practice that I can get.

Design layout continued

After designing my initial sketches I thought that I could get a better idea of what my designs would look like on the computer. I have designed a variety of designs to give out a different impression/theme. I also showed a few people my designs to get a different opinion on what they thought and I thought it would be helpful but in the end I was left with mixed opinions leaving me confused, so I think before I make anymore decisions I will show my designs to a few more people to get a stronger view.



This was only a rough layout but I was mainly working around colour because I wanted to see what colours would give out what impression. I wanted a new target audience based mainly around people who would like to go out in the evening. For this reason I used the colour purple. I used this because I feel tbat this represents a romantic colour. I was trying to avoid using dark colours but after researching into some restaurants I noticed that black actually complimented the romantic/sophisticated theme very well.



And for that reason I designed a web site containing mainly dark colours (black and grey) looking at different sites I realised that the darker website used stronger more powerful imagery so, thats what I did and I have to say that it works really well. This was one of the more popular designs. What I like about this design was the pattern that I managed to find on the internet. Its subtle yet adds alot more detail to the design.



I decided to go for the complete opposite and have a design with a much more lighter and neutral look. I was planning to go for a plain white background (like first design) however wanting to be adventurous I decided to go with another image, this also received a positive result. I brought the neutral colours from the background forward and created navigation button. It all compliments each other well but I'm not sure whether it gives out the theme that I want.



The final design was probably the most popular. I got the idea from the website zizzi. The main content is directly in the center of the page. Having a neutral background I used a more bolder and powerful foreground that could catch the users eyes. I wanted to experiment with both flash and html and that is why I would input a slideshow. What I like about this design is that it is more simple.
Now that I have designed some pages I am going to try and mix the colours because from the feedback that I receive people like the 4th design yet they like the dark colours, so maybe mixing them together will get the site that I want.

Social Networking - Entity Relationship Diagram

This is the entity relationship database that I have designed (so far) I managed to work out roughly where my entities would match, here's how I picture it:

> One university has many courses
> One course has many students
> One to many users can only be a single user.
> One to many companies can also be a single user.
> A user can have one to many posts
> And a single post can be on one to many blogs.

As you can see this is how I think it works out but it could be very different, I'll have a talk with Simon in either a surgery or my next seminar to get his opinion on my diagram.
I still need to add fields to each entity including the primary and foreign keys but I feel that this will not be too difficult to input.

Flash games

For Davids project we are to create a mini flash game using some advanced actionscript. I have been looking at some different games online that can give me some ideas. There are quite a few different gaming websites that I could use but the main two that caught my eye was miniclip.com and coffeebreakarcade.com. The two sites have a vast amount of games that can keep people entertained for hours.
I have been doing my research over the past week to see what games keep users entertained and what games are not so successful. The games that I have noticed are successful are the games that I simple, easy to play but entertaining at the same time.

Polar jump was a game that I found in the top ten games and its very basic, the rules click on the bear to make it jump higher, sounds very simple and boring but when playing it you feel you have the need to make the bear jump higher, you are continuously trying to beat your own personal score or, playing against other people. Its simple yet quick to load and fun to play.

Mahjong is a game that I have played for a long time. Its also a simple game all you have to do match the pairs but there is a twist, you can only match tiles that are not surrounded by other tiles. So the tiles basically have to be on another level or you have to work your way down and along each line to get the tiles to want. However the reason I play this game is because its quite challenging and its very hard to complete a level, and thats why I want to play it again to try and complete the level.

The final game is the idea that I will most probably be using. It is called 'yeti olympics' something that I used to play at school. It is a very competitive game, the main objective is to complete a set of five olympic sports, but they are all designed in an animal setting so, rather then a golf club they have used a flamingo and a penguin for a ball, all amusing.
Overall I think I will create a game like yeti sports something thats simple but has a challenge, but I think that I will try a few more different things on actionscript, I need to learn some more advance actionscript to create these games.

Tamrai restaurant

The 'Tamrai' restaurant is the type of theme and image that I am trying to go for. Even though it is very dark the subtle imagery and colour brings out a sophisticated look.

As you can see the designers have used the strong imagery to attract the potential audience. This is the next point that I wanted to point out, target audience. Just from looking this site I can see that the designers are trying to target a sophisticated business class audience. This is where I think the dark colours have worked. Looking at a number of different thai restaurant sites they all clearly have a target audience, this is what I want my redesign to have, maybe around the age range of a young business class age.

The menu layout is also a good set up, they have inserted a scroll bar to enable the user to view all of the menu. This is something that I might try and use because you can view alot more information in a smaller amount of space.
Overall the tamarai site is a perfect example of the type of design that I would like to design. From just doing this website I want to completely recreate the image of the Golden thai, give it a whole new image bringing in a completely different target audience.

Layout Designs

Like I said in my previous post I wanted to have a set layout throughout the site below are some sketches and ideas that I came up with that I feel will work well with what I am trying to create.

In the sketch to the left I focused on having the main text in the center with the images to the side, the navigation would also be in the center. But for some reason I don't think that this will work with what ideas I have, its also very very similar to my preivous projects layout.

For this design I went for a more simple design. I put the whole content into the center of the page, it will be alot smaller but I have seen this in a number of different sites (zizzi, sinatras) and it works really well. This design I would like to experiment with a bit more because I have taken an interest to this design.

This is a standard design for any web page but, saying that it must be a successful layout if it is used so much. The general layout is the navigation to the left, title and logo at the top and main content in the center, I would like to try this as I am still very new to this web design world but, I would like to add some flash content.

My final design layout is basic as well but this time I've moved the navigation to the bottom having the content and imagery above, I haven't tried this out yet but hopefully its going to give me results that I am looking for, which is an interesting design.
I am going to try these designs out in photoshop to get a stronger idea in what I what, I have already got some colours in my mind and that is dark purples and reds but this could also change when experimenting, who knows what will happen.

Restarant - Designing

Ok so now I have finally chosen which restaurant That I plan to redesign and that is the 'Golden Thai Restaurant'. I chosen to redesign this one because when I looked at the site for the first time I didn't realise that it was a thai restaurant, the only thing that gave it away was the name.

As you can see in this image there is no actual theme to the site, my actual first reactions was that the site had been designed for a pub mainly because of the pint of beer and the background imagery (looks like decking). Another reason why I am redesigning is because of the whole general layout. There is no set theme to any page and no actual set font. This website does not help the restaurant in any way and thats what I want to do, I want to create a site that is visually interesting.

The site that I intend to design will have a theme that I feel gives out the impression of a thai restaurant. I have started looking at other sites and I seem to see alot of dark, romantic colours. I want to keep the menu on the site like the original site because that I feel is a good idea but I would like to maybe add images of more food rather then the interior, I will also try to frame the different sections i.e. text, images, navigation etc because having looking at other site this always seems to give out a more professional look.