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.