Seventh lesson: Websites & group wiki

In class we were looking at good and bad examples of web design. My example of poor web design was for Russel&Bromley an up market shoe retailer ( i work there and its actually more like a expensive high street brand). Firstly it was not a secure site, so of course there was no chance of ordering off the site. It doesn't actually offer that facility anyway. The site is sooo slow to navigate that that anyone surfing may just give up before the second page turns up. The perpetually scrolling advertisement may be the cause according to Nigel. Also they did not advertise a full range of their products, they only previewed advertised or best selling products. So, you can't actually view or order something you may have seen in the shop window. They had a lot of information regarding the history of the shop and its owners (yawn) and it made me wonder 'just who is this bloody website aimed at??!!'. The answer to that question alludes me and frankly i don't care. The only useful thing on the site is the location of all the stores in England. If your thinking of buying something from Russel&Bromley don't bother visiting the site, its pants. I didn't get around to looking at good web design in that class, but from previous experience I do know that the Dolce & Gabanna website (that's D&G to me and you luv) has a really good design. Its quick and easy to navigate and previews clothes from their current and next seasons collection. If you click on the item it gives you a world of information including the materials size availability, the stockists including concessions and size availability. They separate the the high street from the couture and the kids from the women and of of course the men. The pages are mainly white but the colours of the clothes really stand out against that blank backdrop. Also the use of a lot of white space makes the whole site look very classy. The Russel&Bromley website does that as well, but the only other colour they really utilise is light blue, the contrast isn't as striking.

The group project really came together last week, for a while i was a bit worried but i feel were all on steady ground now. we've all got our essential parts to take care of and any other images or data found along the way will be placed in the relative pages. yipee.

Sixth Lesson:Group discussions...

Unfortunately I was absent on the 5th, so I really don't know what happened in that lecture.

OK, so on the twelfth, we discussed where are group was regarding the group project. Nigel had rejected our idea about deception on the Internet under the study of chat room grooming. I think that was because the subject was too 'dark' for this project. Although the subject maybe dark, I personally believe it is something that illustrates the negative possibilities connected to the Internet being available to social and sexual predators. Anyways that got scraped, so now our focus is on writings on identity online and 'gender bending' or gender online. We decided to meet early before class the following week (today) to look at academic studies on these subjects. I would be lying if I said I was either enthusiastic or motivated by this project and so I won't pretend. I have chosen to focus on writings on online identity in general, as its probably the only subject that would hold my attention. The study I'm looking at right now is called 'Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication In Cybersociety', it won't set the world on fire but it will answer a few questions.

Fouth class: Gettin there?

I mentioned before that I was getting a firmer grip on the aims of unit. It's true. However I'm still far from confident regarding the technical use the wiki programme. Nigel and others in the class can actually write html. Programme the wiki page by primary inscription!! Apparently that is not completely necessary for this project however during the class we found that it was the only way to upload our pictures (taken that day with my pink digital camera) to the computer successfully. Well, kind of. Thinking of taking a course in IT:-).

The actual discussion in the class was based on the question of what constitutes a community. I think a community is people who have a cultural activity/aspect in common and share their appreciation through actions pertaining to that particular aspect. It could be geographical, biological, a matter of taste e.g music, fashion or whatever. I could be wrong, but i don't think i am.

Besides uploading our photos our group decided to do some individual research regarding issues of identity on the web.