Website Research - Britnee Sapp

http://www.openloops.net/#/music/changing/




http://blabla.nfb.ca/




I found this website (openloops) to be so so neat! I want to be able to use some of the features in this website into my online portfolio. I love the negative space and how clean it is. My favorite part about this site are the links. I love how everything is linked together. When you click on or even hover over one link, a bunch of other links branch out from that one link as sublinks. I found that to be so creative and clever! I want to be able to create these features in in my own website in Flash.

I also found another website (blabla) that is strictly created for interactivity. I love how you can play with the characters and how there are just so many features. I want to be able to create similar features in my own site using my own characters I've drawn myself!

Maurer Klimes - maurerklimes.hu

Maurer Klimes

http://maurerklimes.hu/

I wanted to look at a site that is doing something with Flash, and I stumbled upon this site while looking for icon and logo inspiration. This is an artist exploration more than a studio one. I was browsing through the collection of work that artists present on the behance.net network. This is, by the way, one of my favorite resources for inspiration and constantly makes me want to push myself farther.

The designer of the site and the company branding has some information about the project at this link http://www.behance.net/gallery/Maurer-Identity/2385026

The logo animates onto the top right corner of the screen as you enter a site made of clean lines and easy to identify symbols. The interface is a unique experience, a drag and drop interface that begs to be played with. All of the icons react to the presence of the mouse and move towards the users actions. 

When you combine different icons you get different results on the website. You make combinations of the icons and it gives you the result. This is all done with actionscript and it looks really cool.

The design reminds me of that swedish style of graphic design that seems to incorporate a lot of clean lines. It is definitely cool looking and has a modern design appeal to what it is showcasing. 

The person the website is about is mr. Ákos Maurer Klimes. I like his website work than the work that he does, his personal claim to fame is a a gravestone that fills with water like a bird bath. Its not really what I am into to say the least. I like his site more than his professional work. If he never had such a cool site I would never have seen his work though. I just like being exposed to design ideas and trends on an international scale. Other countries speak in different paradigms, with unusual semantics and peculiar syntax

GE Website - Toni Wiltsey

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/landing_page

In my exploration of flash websites i can across this one and was extremely impressed. The creators really enhanced some basic design elements to affectively interact with the visitor. On the home page it is basically a simple pie cart turned 3-demenssionl and by having the area you are rolling over start animating the viewer can't help from exploring more pages. Another element I was impressed by was once you clicked on a piece of the pie cart the information that is presented is a VERY VERY simple graph and by angling it, adding shadows and showing it grow it becomes intriguing rather than a boring graph. Then there is the menu, by having it on the bottom and kind of hidden forced you to interact with the page and while moving around you notice the other elements. The alternate energy page is one of my favorite pages, like the others it is an animated graph, but this graph the visitor controls the information by plugging in more or less turbines. But, the augmented reality page is awesome! On this page you can print out a piece of paper and control the animation through your computers video cam, what a totally cool feature. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this site and hope you do too.

Exploration: Mantherapy.org

Though mental health issues and suicide are not a topic generally associated with humor, I have found a site that takes a very different approach to a mans mental health. Mantherapy.org is exactly what it sound like, a website designed to help men who believe they are having any type of mental health issues. Normally one would think that a site dedicated to mental health would just be line upon line of text that the user would have to read through before making any progress or learning anything in general. This site, with the use of flash of course, has a very unique interface that resembles a therapist's office, but this therapist acts like he is employed by old spice. With a very "manly" sense of humor, this "doctor" guides the user through the sites many features and online resources, all geared toward promoting men mental health but without giving the vibe of a suicide hotline or actual doctors office. This is a very fascinating humorous approach to a subject that unfortunately plagues many men today.