HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS

1. The most relevant bit of understanding we must possess in order to design an effective website solution for our client is their business objective(s). Heritage's website uses symmetry and the rule of thirds to create a well balanced, clean, and eye catching model of a website. The site makes your eye gravitate toward the center of the site.

2. The most efficient way to clearly communicate a page’s visual structure is by using a strong grid. The Grid from Heritage's website is consistent in width and horizontal spacing. The vertical spacing is slightly different making some visual noise and does not possess quite the quiet structure that Rutledge refers to.

3. Generally speaking, the lower right is the most effective position for a large image on a text-filled page. Though the images on this website aren't on the lower right part of the page, they are on the lower part. The site has published pictures of clients that they have done work for on the lower center of the page. I feel this keeps the page symetrical and keeps visual noise away.

4. The most natural and effective direction for leading a viewer’s eye through a web page design or a landscape painting is along an angle. Though its not obvious in this site, "angles" are created by the structure of the grids that draw your attention to the center of the page. When you look at the page, the lines and grids draw your attention to focus in on what is in each bubble on each part of the grid.

5. For first-time visitors who have never seen the layout or used the interface of a website, the most important non-brand related issue the designer must take into account for an effective design is a high degree of affordance or intuitiveness. It is important for first time visitors to realize through visual clues what the function and purpose of the website and business is. While other sites that I have seen make you guess, or make you read through a lot of text before you can figure out what they do, Heritage makes it very clear what it is they do. The tabs on the top of their page indicate right away that they are website design and the pictures at the bottom of didfferent web pages are a visual clue right away that "these are websites that this company has designed."

6. The main point of interest is at the area of greatest contrast. The main point of interest when you first come to this page is that one side of the grid is vertical and the other side is horizontal. These two contrasting styles force your eye to the left side of the page first, but almost make your eyes want to read what is on the right verital side after reading the horizontal parts of the grid.

7. Aesthetically pleasing designs are widely perceived as being easier to use than less-aesthetic designs. The volume of information in the website matters much less then if the website is aesthetically pleasing. Rutledge shows the differences between USA Today's website and CNN's websites. USA Today's website has a lot of noise and its images compete with the content that it is providing, while CNN's structure by creating symmetrical grids creates a more quiet structure that gets out of the way of the content and is easier to look at.

SMALL, SLEEK, AND INVITING

The product packaging that I've done my evaluation on that I feel is a good design is the package for my Apple Itouch. The top part of the box is Dark black on the top and ever so slightly fades to a slightly lighter shade of black by the time you get to the bottom. The silver linings on the side and the engraving of the Apple Ipod Itouch blend in nicely to the the black color. On the front of the box is a picture of an actual Itouch playing a John Lennon video. Lennon is an iconic figure, one that we all can relate to. The texture of the picture of the itouch is slightly raised.

Here you can see the little packet that the instructions manual come inside of. Everything is small but nothing seems cluttered.
The package uses its space wisely. There are very few fonts on the packaging at all, but the fonts that are all centered. The texture of the packaging is smooth and inviting. This is one of the packages that you want to open up. The shape of the box matches that of the itouch. There is no wasted space in the box. The packaging matches the sleekness of the itouch itself.



A CLUTTERED, VISUALLY CONFUSING MESS


I am a huge Dale Earnhardt fan and thats the reason why I ended up buying this video. But the design of the package that it came in had me less than impressed and ready to watch something else. First I will discuss flaws that I found with the packaging and then I will also talk about issues that the very average NASCAR fan may have with design of the packaging.

First of all, when I pick the case up, it feels like a lunch pail, not a CD case. The texture is clunky. On the front cover is a picture of Dale, with the background a blurred mess. I'm assuming this is to represent what it may look like for a racecar driver- a blur, but it doesn't really work for me. The spacing of the fonts and pictures on the front are not bad, but as I will talk about later, I still don't like them. Once you are able to open up the cover, all you see is pictures. You could spend a little while trying to figure out where are all the DVD's are at. Once you figure out that the DVD's are inside the cardboard coverings of these pictures, you start to wonder how long the DVD's are going to last inside a cardboard surface. Some of the pictures are ok, but some are a bit blurry and too "yellowish" in color. I also feel that its a little picture overload. It doesn't seem that there are any fonts telling me what is on the DVD's! When I finally do find the insert that tell's me what's on the DVD's I am less than impressed. You have all this space being taken up by pictures, but the font sizes are small and plain and don't really get you excited to watch this documentary. There's also all kinds of inserts that can easily fall out as your trying to find the DVD's. The lines that you see on the front of the case do seem to move horizontally along with the title, which does make the front look a little better. Looking at this case there doesn't really appear to be much done on purpose to take advantage of space or color. I feel like the designers of this DVD case just decided to throw in a bunch of pictures in a metal case to make it more "NASCARISH" and call it good.

My last complaint about this is the design factor for those who know much about Dale Earnhardt. For those who who call themselves even a little bit of a fan probably know that black was his color. The only real black on the front of the case is a very small picture of his car on the bottom right corner. A lot of people will probably also know that his car was #3. There again, the only #3 we see on the case is the small picture on the bottom right. For the casual fan, they may or may not recognize Earnhardt by just the name "Dale." So from a marketing standpoint, I don't think "Dale" was the best name for the movie. He is much more recognized by his last name of Earnhardt. One last note about the design of the case. We seem to like simple when it comes to cases for DVD's. Look at Redbox. Very easy to open and close those cases. Look at most DVD's for sale today and compare them to DVD's for sale a few years ago and beyond. How many seal stickers do you have to rip off now? One? Maybe two? A few years ago and beyond there used to be three or four stickers to rip off. My point is, that we as consumers like it simple. With this case, you get far from simple.