May 14 - Rockstar Games

For this review, I thought it would be cool to review the website for one of my favorite game developers, Rockstar Games. I was surprised by how simple the homepage is, but I really liked it. It had the company logo (the R with the star) and a list of popular/upcoming games that are being developed. At the top of the page I found a hidden menu of buttons (Home, Links, Downloads, etc), which I thought was kind of neat. It's nice to have those hidden, because it keeps the visual layout of the page balanced around the logo and the games under development.

Rolling over the buttons, a simple sound plays and the game's cover art is displayed. Each game button redirects you to the sepecific website for that specific game, and each website has it's own style.

Overall, I really liked this website. It was simple and clean and easy to navigate.

May 14- Black Dog Construction

This website, Black Dog Construction, took me a bit by surprise. It is a really neat design, but the hardcore rock music that plays in the background is a bit creepy to me. I guess it would work if you are trying to appeal to a specific male demographic, but I was not sold by it (I quickly muted that).

I really liked their simple intro though, with the simple linear pictures going across the screen (the table saw image was really cool looking). The rotating hammer in the upper left corner is a nice touch too. All of the buttons move smoothly, and the site is nicely organized and easy to navigate. Also, I enjoy the black background with the text in lighter colors. It is so much easier to read, in my opinion, since it does not feel like you are staring into a lightbulb (which is how I feel with websites with white backgrounds and dark text).

Overall, I think it is a nicely designed website.

May 14 - Kalahari Pepper

For this website review, I went to CoolHomePages.com and found this website. This website is for the company Kalahari, which makes a pepper "peri peri" sauce and a Bloody Mary Blender product.

At first glance, I was a bit confused on what their product was (the safari music didn't help). I started rolling my mouse over the different objects and found out that they sell products (but I still had no idea what), and then I saw the recipes button and realized they sell food products. Honestly, I think the safari theme of the website has absolutely nothing to do with their product, except for the fact that their company logo is a Rhino, but still it does not really make sense with their product.

I do like how each of the buttons have their own animation, and for the most part they all work smoothly, except for the Rhino Products scroll. When it opens and rolls up it is a bit laggy. One thing that I really like about this website is the transition between pages. It moves from page to page like they are all laying flat on the ground rather than loading a new page everytime you click on a button. I would definitely like to know how they created that.

May 11- Skittles

Okay, so for this review, I will admit that I was completely DISAPPOINTED with the Skittles website. It does not take you to some cool Flash site with a neat Skittles rainbow or anything like that. It redirects you to FACEBOOK, with a little Falsh navigation box in the upper left corner of the page.

I mean, really???? Really, Skittles?? Maybe I'm just overreacting and the company is trying to save money by doing a Skittles Facebook rather than an intricate, expensive website, but I'm still disappointed. I use Facebook to network with friends... not big, corporate, candy manufactures. Furthermore, when you click on the "Media" button to see videos, it redirects you to their YouTube page. Lastly, the button for their product descriptions redirects you to their WIKIPEDIA page!!! The more I look at this website, the more disappointed I get.

Overall, it looks cheap and shows no creativity whatsoever.

Earth Day Celebration Concert

On Wednesday, April 22nd I was lucky enough to attend the Earth Day Celebration Concert at CSUSM. I was not sure what to expect, but I was extremely excited to get to see some of my fellow classmates perform.

The first act was a vocal ensemble made up of students. The songs they sang were extremely beautiful! They sang wonderful Irish folk songs, one of which was an Irish drinking song called The Wild Rover. I absolutely loved this song! The lyrics for the chorus were extremely catchy, and I found myself humming the melody for a few days after the concert.

The second act was a gamelan ensemble of students, which was also amazing! The patterns and melodies of the traditional pieces were almost mesmerizing! The set up of the stage was also impressive. The different instruments (especially the huge gongs) were a bit intimidating, but they made some beautiful resonating sounds. Most of the pieces became repetitive, and I did start to lose interest about 2/3rds of the way through, but the students did an amazing job playing the instruments. I tried to watch and see how they were playing the instruments and was fascinated by the different techniques they used to play the long and short notes.

The last act was the most amazing one of all! A string quartet and saxophonist played a composition by my music professor, Bill Bradbury. The piece was divided into four different movements, and was absolutely beautiful! My favorite movement was definitely the first movement, which reminded me of the ocean. The violins made wonderful noises that sounded like whales singing. Overall, it was a wonderful piece and both the musicians and composer deserved the standing ovation they received!

Overall, the Earth Day Celebration Concert was absolutely wonderful and I am so glad I went! The performers were all amazing and I hope that they put on another concert next year.

March 18- Washlet Website

This next website I reviewed was a website recommended to me by a friend. The website itself is a kind of cool concept, but the product is a bit strange!!!

The website is CleanIsHappy.com and its product is the Washlet.



The introduction to the website was a bit much for me. The flashing images of different butts with smiley faces on them is really random until you know what the product/website is about.

Even though the layout is simple, clean, and well organized, the mandatory movies that start to play can get to be a bit annoying. There is little to no text on the site, since most of the information comes in video form. This can be annoying if all you want to do is find out how the product looks, or how it works. If your browser freezes for any reason, you have to watch the whole movie all over again (there is no way to fast forward to the spot in the movie you left off at).

I definitely do not like the background music that continues to play in the background, but I am a fan of the musical note sounds the links make when you roll your mouse over each square.

I think the sound option might be a cool idea for my website. I already know how to use Reason and ProTools to create my own sounds, so I think I might try using some synthesizers to come up with a cool water droplet sound.

March 18- Welk Resort Website

The next website I chose to review is the website WelkResort.com. The reason I chose this website is because I work for the resort, and just this last fall our Creative Services department launched this new website.

To be completely honest, I do not really like it. The layout seems very cluttered to me, and some of the Photoshop work looks choppy and out of place to me (i.e. the keys and the sunglasses). The source images used for each part of the homepage seem to have varying picture qualities, which bothers me, and makes me think it was just thrown together and uploaded before anyone examined it (or someone forgot to put their contacts in that morning!).


Despite these flaws, I do like how the links are in the shape of photos/post-its/notes and how they pop out a little when you roll the mouse over them. It makes it easier to tell which link you're going to click on (especially in a cluttered layout like this one).

If I learned anything from examining this website, it is that I need to be extremely careful when using Photoshop and Flash together. I definitely will make sure that the quality of my source images are equal, and if I have trouble finding a high quality picture, I will check out a high-end camera from the school and take my own photos.