My Origami Frog

Seesmic.tv

This website allows you to record a video message and post it on the website. Or you can reply to other peoples messages. I had a go at putting my own up there but i could not think of anything to say. However, i do get camera shy. But for those who are confident and have something they want to say, get off your chest or want to see what other people think about something i’d say its a great site to visit. 

The main problem i found with the site was that the video wouldn’t work on my computer, i had to go to another application to record it. Then it wouldn’t let me view it, hence others couldn’t see the content to reply to it. If things like this happened to others, maybe they would go to a similar site that works better.

wefeelfine.org

Simply put by the creators of ‘wefeelfine’ the site is

‘an exploration of human emotion on a global scale’

Each dot whirling around mindlessly on the page represents an emotion posted on a blog by someone. The system scans blogs all over the internet in search of the words in a sentence ‘i feel’ or ‘i am feeling’ along with 5,000 pre-identified feelings (in the form of adjectives and adverbs). If you click on a dot it will show you the feeling anonymously on the top of the page.

However if you then click on the words of the feeling it is a direct link to the blog it came from. This is where i think that the boundaries are pushed a little. When people post something on a blog quite often they don’t realize how accessible it can be. They may only be expressing themselves to people who know them, not realizing that now with a site like this your feelings can be seen by anyone in the world.  People who you may not want looking at your profile etc can easily do so. In the sites FAQ section it says that you can e-mail them if you want a particular emotion removed, but what if you never even know it’s on there??

 

If a feeling has a picture with it, the picture is also saved and is said to represent the words. I really like this particular part of the site as if you find an image and sentence that fit together well you can save it, it can be a nice piece of art or used for a screen saver or postcard for example.

Jonathon Harris & Sep Kamvar speak about the mission of the site-

‘an artwork authored by everyone, it will grow and change as we grow and change,reflecting whats on our blogs, whats in our hearts, whats on our minds. We hope it makes the world seem a little smaller, and we hope it helps people see beauty in the everyday ups and downs of life’

I wonder if my feeling ends up on wefeelfine.org …. i feel uneasy that anyone, anywhere can see what i write and how i express myself but then again…why do i continue to do so?

Overall i do like the set-up of the website, i like interactive websites that intrigue you and will keep you going back and wanting to show them to others. How they provide the statistical information is clear, fun and easy to use. Showing differences of feelings between men and women, of different ages, on certain days, with certain types of weather, in a certain place.

Is there actually a difference however between age groups and their feelings on the internet or are people who use the internet on the same wavelength so to speak? I think that everyone goes through different feelings throughout their life, but i don’t think what age you are depends on how you feel. I think that it is whatever is happening to you specifically at that time that is the outcome to your emotion. Everyone feels happy, sad, content, fine, emotional, great, undervalued, loved, hopeful etc… i dont believe that their is a specific age that a certain feeling happens to you more.

Tags: emotion, feelings, i am feeling, i feel, wefeelfine

A different approach to web design

3 interesting websites all with a different approach to their design.

‘Tenbyten’ is a website that gives up to the time news images in a 10 x 10 square. The layout is clever and unusual and makes you want to look further into the site. It is simple to use as there is one column of writing down the squares edge with the images information.

Digg is a site that has a variety of content posted by different users. Whichever is considered the most useful/interesting gets the most ‘diggs’ and goes to the front page of the site.

Yhchang.com is a simple but effective website that uses large words (that fill the whole screen) in succesion of each other on a single page whilst playing music in the background. It is a new unusual way of showing information. Once its playing it is hard to ignore and captivates its audience. It does what it needs to do without the need to fancy it up.

‘Bad Websites’

Below are websites i consider to be of bad design.

Tesco’s website is overloaded with information, special offers and promotional adverts. It doesn’t have options to sort through best quality or cheapest etc so you have to look through many pages which is a lengthy process for a simple home shop. There are lots of different colour writing which is very confusing. It gives you images for some items and not for others, prices for multiple items are next to single items. For these reasons it is not a website i enjoy using.    

Facebook’s website has an application called ‘facebook chat’, this hardly ever works correctly. Mid chat it fails and will not let you send the rest of your sentence. This is frustrating as it is a great way to communicate with friends and family instantly rather than sending e-mails which take longer. ‘Could not connect to facebook chat at this time’ – very annoying.

Pizza Huts website is in this category as it can be a lengthy and frustrating process to get what you want. If your hungry and you decide to order a takeaway you dont want to be messing around with lots of options and be bombarded with information. You know what you want. If you make a mistake you have to start from the beginning. The last time i used this site it took around half an hour to get a delivery ordered. By which time i could have called them and it could be on its way to me.

Tags: bad design

‘Good Websites’

Below are 3 examples of websites i think are a good design.

Asos is a great website. It is well laid out and so its easy to find what your looking for. You have all options on one column, so you can refine your search by just going down and selecting everything you need, instead of having to go through different pages etc. It makes clothes shopping a lot simpler.

 

You Tube is a great site that allows you to see almost any video you want in an instant. Tv clip’s, music videos etc. Very useful and simple. You can spend hours with friends showing each other things on this site by typing in a few related words to what your looking for.

Whitestuff has a quirky website that is also simple and easy to use. You have fun and don’t get stressed out or bored looking for that special outfit. It allows customers to add reviews good or bad which is helpful to yourself and other users. The main and most useful information is large and easy to find.

 

 

 

Tags: good website

Hello world!

This is my first ever post on WordPress. Quite exciting when you have never learnt anything about web design before! Lets play….