Social Networking - Design Ideas

When I previously posted my design ideas I didn't show my initial ideas, my sketches are still to come but whilst I seem to be doing everything backwards I might as well add my designs that I created on the computer.

Having done research into a number of different sites it occurred to me that I had to think about colour, layout and font to be used for my final product. Below are some screen shots of my inital idea, having these ideas helped me create my final outcome.



The idea above is a bit basic but I wanted to design a simple idea because the majority of the networking sites had a simplistic design, the main reason for this is because networking sites shows so much information that a complex design would make the whole too packed.



For the next design I still kept to the simple design but I wanted to change the layout and font. I am not so keen on the black and white design but I like the layout. I tried to make the heading bigger and I think that it looks good but I feel that the design doesn't represent the name port name.



I wanted to add colour and I think that the colours add to the design well, I wasn't too sure on the green so I thought that I should work with colours. I like the header but after designing this I did not realise that I had not put the navigation in the design. It could maybe go down the left hand column.



I changed the colour to purple, reason for this was because blue is very popular for networking sites but I want to create something different so I thought that purple would be ideal. I tried to get a 'facebook' effect by having the same login layout but looking at the design I think that I want a brighter and bolder design.



This is my final outcome, after thinking about trying to make my design a bit different to other networking sites the twitter site came into my mind. With its simple but bubbly design I thought was different to other sites, I wanted to think of a good logo that was easy to recognise, I will post a blog on why I made this decision.

Friendster

Rather then describe all of the applications of friendster I am going to review the applications that differ from the other social networking sites because what I have noticed with friendster is that they have applied features that differ from the other social networking sites.

I have always heard about friendster through word of mouth but as social networking was not popular to my age group at the time of the website launch I have never had no particular interest. Friendster was launched in 2002 and so is the oldest networking site that I have reviewed. Friendster has all of the standard features that you would aspire a networking site to have but with also added features.

Friendster has added a forums application that I have not seen on many sites. From what I can see the forums can be on any subject that the user wants from economy to food. Having these forums is a good way to meet new people who have the same interests as you. Facebook has a group’s application, which some people could say, is like a forum but I would disagree to this. The forums that I viewed the users inputting comments are really interested on the topic of discussion.

What I am not so keen on in friendster is that I feel that the site is trying to deliver too much on a site. There is so much competition to be the best networking site that I feel that friendster has tried to pick out the pieces that the users want and have stuck them all in to their site making it ore jumbled. For example one application that I spotted was the ‘avatar’ but what I question is why do you need to have an avatar of yourself when the majority of the time the users wanting to see your profile will not be looking for your avatar but your profile picture and your photo albums.

Friendster was founded to create safer, more effective way to communicate to different people but I feel that this has changed over the years with more networking sites being launched I believe that it is not about creating a safe environment for users but more how you can attract more users to your site.

Looking back at the sites that I have reviewed they all started with a purpose but I believe that the popularity competition has taken over and its not what the users want but what they can do to make more profits.

Orkut

I thought that I would look at orkut because it has been mentioned in quite a few seminars and so I was intrigued, however my views on the site as a whole were not positive.

Orkut was launched early 2004 created by a google employee, from researching into the background of Orkut it was designed to be a social networking site i.e. meet new friends and maintain relationships (like all of the other networking sites) and users did not have to be invited to join the site. Even though the site isn’t that well known in the UK research tells me that it is very popular in Brazil and India.

On a positive note the site does function well and does the job that it was created for, it has used the same layout that most social networking sites use. There is good navigation throughout the site clearly labelling what each button does. I have not added any applications but browsing through them I can see the orkut is aimed at young professionals; the main applications I noticed were based around designing the users profile and ‘chatting’ to other orkut users. I feel that having the option to add a ‘chat’ application was a conscious idea because not every user wants or has the time to talk online, facebook has the chat application but users do not have a choice in this and I don’t like having consent pop-ups of people trying to talk.

A problem that has occurred to me since joining orkut is that I am finding it hard to get involved with the site. As I don’t know many if any people who are users of orkut and I don’t want to add random users I am not able to really gain an interest to the site. I have browsed a few of the different users because what I like about orkut is that you can browse anyone’s profile, with other networking sites you have to be accepted as a friend but with orkut you can browse everyone’s profiles, could this cause problems though? The internet is very well known for identity theft and with any orkut users allowed to view everyone’s profiles I believe that this problem could arise.

I can see why orkut can be popular as it is just like facebook, bebo or any other social networking site however it has not been recognised by UK users and so to people who use facebook it is just another site trying to compete, to be a more popular site; this makes me wonder do the main users of orkut think the thing for facebook.

Bebo

Bebo was the first social networking site that I came across; this was about five years ago. The main reason for joining this group was because many people in my college were joining.

If I had to describe bebo then I would describe it as a dated version of facebook. Initially I believed that bebo was launched before facebook because of how similar the features were and as I said before it looked quite dated however through researching I found that facebook was launched almost a year before bebo. I believe that the main target audience was for the age range between 14-17 (the age when I was interested in bebo) the main reason why I thought this was because of the applications. When browsing through the bebo site I came across the applications page and I was very surprised by the vast amount of applications that bebo has to offer; from what I saw the applications were created by users of bebo hence why there is such an extreme amount of applications.

I found the applications quite off putting, on the other hand unlike facebook bebo does not continually try and push these applications on the users, the users can add what application they want without being hassled. A good option that bebo has given the option to the user is allowing them to choose there profile design or ‘skin’ looking at the skins page they are regularly updated allowing the user to change there profile skin whenever they want.

Bebo was brought by AOL in 2008 where I believe changes were made form when I was a bebo user till now. With mobile internet growing more popular I feel that bebo recognised this and created ‘bebo mobile’ or ‘m.bebo.com’ a bebo designed specifically for your phone. I consider this to be a good idea and even though users can logon to there social networking accounts (facebooks) via phones already they haven’t designed a site specifically for a phone. With bebo they have combined the phone and site allowing for users to receive texts when a new comment or email is posted.

However it makes me wonder if bebo does this then how interactive will people be in the future. With internet access getting stronger all the time I feel that social networking is becoming a way of life rather then just a site build to keep in touch with fellow peers. So whether this application is a good or bad idea? I am still deciding.

Overall I think that bebo is a successful social networking site for the age group that it is targeted at but having lost interest in bebo now I don’t have any interest in it, maybe if more users that I knew were on bebo (main reason why I first joined) then I could still be using the site on the other hand picking different profile backgrounds and taking quiz’s just doesn’t appeal to me. I just hope that now AOL have taken bebo over they don’t cram the site with lots of advertisements spoiling the whole experience of bebo.

Ning

ning.com was introduced to me at the beginning of this year by Shaun Belcher; the aim of having the ’ning’ was to be able to have all of the ‘online environment’ students in one place. It wasn’t until recently that I realised just how much the ning has to offer.

“Ning empowers people to create and discover new social experiences for the most important people and interests in their lives.”

This is a statement that I found on the ning about the ning, in some ways I think that this statement is true. Having browsed the ning site it came to my attention that the site is based around social networking. Every page that I entered is constantly reminding the user to get involved with a social network be it just joining a network, however you have the options to search for a network, join as many networks as you want and even create your own network. I feel that presenting ‘networking’ as a main feature is extremely beneficial because having just written an essay on social networking I know the importance (and challenge) of being linked into a network, having the ning has immediately entered the user into a world of networking.

Even though the ning gives the users strong links into the world of networking I feel that the general settings/layouts could be a little more user friendly. When I first initially joined the ning I thought that I had created myself a ning profile page however what I did not realise was that I had only created a profile page for the social networking (OEP); when I clicked on my name in the top navigation bar it redirected me to my main page, this was not like the page that I designed. This is what I would change on the ning.

What I like about the ning is that the designers have not swamped the users with spam adverts. Facebook has rapidly expanded in the past years, this has resulted to companies buying shares into the site in order to advertise their merchandise, in my opinion I find this quite off putting; however looking at the ning now makes me wonder whether this site will end up being like facebook because as the ning gets more accepted I belief that more companies will want to invest into the site for advertising purposes; this may result to users losing interest because of such advertising.

In my opinion I belief that the ning can be a very successful site however having relative applications to other big network sites i.e. facebook, bebo, blogger etc I feel that the site is living in the shadows of these sites stated above. I intend to use the ning more frequently because I belief that I could really benefit from this site, be it entering new networks and gaining contacts or, creating my own and actually get my name out ther

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.