The site I will be using for this blog will be http://www.hulu.com/.

This site has a very understandable layout. On the homepage you have the banner which shows popular videos, you scroll to the middle/bottom of the page and you’ll see your popular videos, popular clips, and featured videos. This draws the viewer into watching something out of boredom or coming to the site to see one thing but viewing another because it’s suggested.

They do very well on bandwidth I imagine, I’ve watched a few clips on there and they seem to download resonably fast and doesn’t lag very much. They also provide some of the videos in HD as well which is another plus since HTPC’s are becoming more and more popular these days.

A good example of this in my opinion would be http://www.storyville.com/.

The reason this site is so effective with using sound is the very little sound they use but the subtlety of it. For example when you hover over sections in the side menu, you get just the perfect sounding sound when hovering over. Then if you go on ahead and click on an item a box will open up, within this box if you click on items that will change the content inside you’ll get a nice transitioning sound in between content changes.

Those are just a few example from the site, there are more sounds throughout the site if you go further onto explore.

Why I chose this site was because of how they show you visually every point they want to make, along with text to back it up. A very good example would be their “Career Development” page. It visually shows you the stages of where you need to be to get to the top. Along with each stage, you also get a small overview about the stage. With each stage, there’s also faded out image icons that demonstrate the stages. I think this holds the user’s attention while providing them with the information they need.

Another good example is their admissions page. It doesn’t have very much text on it, but the image layout and the images they show are very attractive and presentable. It gives the viewer a nice warm feeling.

Conclusively, this site makes good use of the image element because of their image selection and mainly, image layout. Providing site users with an easy to navigate image layout and easy-on-the-eye images is a big plus.

It was hard to come up with a site that would be a good example of typography, so I looked googled around and this is a site I concluded on. http://www.processtypefoundry.com/.

Yes, the site is indeed a site about typography but that’s not the reason I chose it. I chose it because of how attractive they make their site look just through type. As you may notice, there’s not many pictures on the site, they don’t have a large logo, nor do they have any animation. Their entire site design is based off of text size, text placement, font-type, content, and text organization.

The first key feature I want to talk about would be the menu. It’s a very simple menu, a nice small font, a easy color on the eyes for when you hover over or it’s an active page, and it’s very easy to follow. The right is the main navigation and the left is the sub navigation, which leaves the content enclosed in the middle. I think this is a very attractive setup.

The other key thing about this site is that it’s an e-commerce site where you can purchase types, but they don’t push this. There’s a simple order button under the sub navigtion and at the top, in a small font and a light color, there are links for you to view your cart and manage your account. I feel this is a good way to market through type, no one wants to be pressured into purchasing something from your site with large buttons and links that jump out at you that forces you to want to buy their product.

Let’s start with my name. It’s Brendan Do.

A background of computing in my life? Well, a good summary would be that I’m a developer, specifically a web developer. I specialize in PHP, XHTML, CSS, AJAX, and Javascript. I also have some knowledge in C#, Java, and C++.

Next on the agenda are my interests. I suppose my interests are mainly technology, cars, multimedia, and web & application development. Everyday I keep up with a few blogs. I read Gizmodo and Autoblog mainly to keep up with recent and future technology and cars.

My goals for this class are to achieve an ‘A’, expand my knowledge on creating several multimedia projects using the tools I have, and possibly improving my lack of visual creativity.

Concerns about this class? I guess my main concern for this course is my lack of visual creativity. I’m more about functionality than visual effect, which is why I’m a developer.

I strongly desire to view the past as a movie. Why doesn’t my life archive like my gmail? *shrug*

I really miss the fall

And my MacBook battery is boned and won’t charge.. and I hate going to the Apple store with a passion.