Blog 5: Nice design, textures, and navigation

Looking online I found http://www.andreashinkel.com/deutsch/home/home.html, the website for the Celtic Football Club. I think this site is strong because of all the texture and the overall tone and feeling it creates.  It has more of a darker homey feeling compared to the colder white designs that most web pages take on. I also liked the use of java script to make the tags move up and down when the mouse rolls over it. This small action makes the site more interactive and interesting.  I also like that the navigation is towards the bottom of the pages.  This also breaks from the traditional website formats but works well since the pages are short and the base pages are limited to a small amount.  Adding the circles, flowers, and arrows to the navigation as you roll over them makes you want to keep moving and discovering more about the page. Small elements like these can bring the user into the page and capture their attention quickly and easily.

Blog 4: Non-Profit Website (Africa)

Revive Africa (http://reviveafrica.com/index.php) is a non-profit site that allows you to donate in different ways to orphans in Africa. The focus of the site is the images of the people, the people that are in need of your help. There are large images on the home page but also large images of the individual children you can help. Photos tend to pull on the heart strings more than just hearing stories. If you show who they are helping they build a personal connection and will be more likely to donate. Because this site is for children in Africa the textures and colors are geared towards Africa. It is rough, natural, but yet bright. Non-profit sites focus is more on people but they still are effective, easy to navigate, and still have an e-commerce part.

Blog 3: Good E-Commerce/Commercial Site

While researching e-commerce website examples I found Mission Bicycle Company (https://www.missionbicycle.com/) that has a really strong design and is quite functional as a business. I think the one large image pulls your attention in quickly while featuring a product. I also like the header and navigation with the simple black symbols along with the text. The navigation is easy to follow and the structure keeps everything organized.  

ShoeGuru (http://shoeguru.ca/) is another strong commercial site with a completely different design. This is very image based in design and is very simplistic. The navigation is still easy to follow, I especially like the image based links. On one of the pages when picking flats, boots, and sport shoes it not only says it but it also has large images of the models wearing the shoes as the navigation buttons. The grayish black background makes the page have depth and all the products stand out in high contrast.

Both of these sites have totally different styles and approaches but both are very effective.