Donna Massam

This is sort of long overdue but ive been so busy, but ive done it now. Using the criteria that David gave us. I wanted to do a couple of reviews reguarding the subject of my theme to try and gather inspiration if the different ideas i could play with.

Website One
Absolute background textures archive.

What does it look like?
The design of the website isn't visually pleasing in my opinion. Its quite a standard template, with everything set in a place which enables the users to find what they want at ease. They have used a grey and white colour pallette, with a banner going along the top which looks like it could have been created in paint. Id probably give the design 30/100, could look better but i suppose its one of those website which is just there to serve its purpose.

How easy is it to use?
Its very easy to use, navigation is easily laid out and easy for the user to find, each button goes to its own seperate page, which each display relevant information. It is all straight forward, after looking around the different pages, i found that the user could interact in different way, there is a a wide variety of things you can create yourself on the website

For example you can create and personalise you own buttons, textures and logos's.

The same with the button above, i imputted the information, textures and colours and the website generated the image. Obviously if your a professional at website design or are working to become a proffessional then you would create your own anyways, but i think it really works well for say, novice computer users, or maybe clan leaders who want to make a site for their clan or a band member who wants to create a site for their band. I like the interactivity included within the website.

How relevant is the content of the website?
First of all, everything is free which is really cool. Second, all of the content on the webpage is related to website design in some way, for example they have the buttons, textures, logos as well as template makers and texture makers, web graphics, fonts, sound effects and you can also request web graphics to be made personally for you. The only thing on the page not relevant is a banner across the top of the page which is probably kust an advertisement from the webserver hosting the website. On thing i did find quite odd that i hadn't seen on another site before was that the designer had split there different types of textures into colours rather than what the texture is.

How clearly is the content laid out?
The layout of the site is simple, it follows a simple grid, with each different section being 'boxed'. Like i said before the design isn't good but the user will easily be able to respond to the design and figure out what to do and how to get about.

There is no flash included on the website but at a guess im guessing that it has been created using javascript or php, im not sure im not too good at any of those at the min.

What would insipre me from this site with my own site?
The only part really that i would include as inspiration for my own site would be the interaction with the user, its made me start to think of all the different methods i could include which would allow me to pull the users in. As textures are use a lot by anyone who designs really, my site needs to be creative yet easily functional as i want the user to be able to find what they have come for.