DEALS DIRECT - ONLINE SHOPPING SITE

http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/

DealsDirect is an online shopping site based in Australia.

Online shops have a lot of content and usually its hard for the user to find exactly find what he/she's looking for.

- The design is pretty clean.
- A lot of information just in the Home page.
- The use of images in the front page is good, makes it a lot easier for the user.




- The use of drop down menus in the side and top navigation is good.
- It hides a lot of content from the user unless he/she is looking for it.

- Im not sure about having a lot more navigation links in the bottom.
- User might not see the links in the footer area.

The use of a simple background makes it easy for the user to see the content.

Overall i think this is a good online store. The design is simple, making it easy for the user to use. Its easy even for a first time user.

Design: 8/10
Usability: 9/10

PULP MAGAZINE - MAGAZINE SITE

http://www.pulpmagazinelive.com

PULP Magazine is a music magazine based in Manila, Philippines. Their site promotes local and international artists that come to the Philippines.

- The design of the site is pretty clean.
- Its design looks more like a blog than a magazine site.
- The hierarchy of the content is that of a blog.


- The header looks clean and is easy to understand.
- Good use of text.

- The position of the HOME button doesn't make sense and that the logo is also a Home button.
- If the logo is also a Home button, they should have just discarded the Home button on top.


- Content wise, the Events and Featured pages have the same content, doesn't make sense to make the user go to both pages with almost the same content.



















PHOTO PAGE -
- Too much content to scroll down.
- should have separated the content into links.

OVERALL the site is alright. Content is too all over the place, might be hard to find what you're looking for. The design needs fixing, especially the Home button being on top of the logo. The Facebook on the right side and having a live twitter feed works well in the site.

Design: 5/10
Usability: 6/10

DIGITAL DOMAIN - MEDIA DESIGN PRODUCTION

www.digitaldomain.com

Digital Domain is a big time post production company. They have done big time films including Transformers1, Transformers2, Star Trek, 2012 and GI JOE to name a few.

- Home menu is pretty simple and straight forward.
- Its easy to understand and quick to use.

- The use of text is simple and big. Easy to read.
- The use of a black background and just text makes the site look very business looking and sleek.

- The use of icons when watching their work might need a little bit of work.
- some of icons are hard to decipher their meaning.


- When in the looking at the Feature film > The work, The use of images and rollover animations is very successful.
- The layout is simple yet effective.

- When clicking any of the films, the next window is still pretty simple.
- The content is straight to the point.
- No non-sense information.

All in all the design is pretty simple yet very sleek. A lot of content yet easily accessible.

Design: 7/10
Usability: 8/10

ROCKNROLLA - FILM PROMOTIONAL SITE

http://rocknrolla.warnerbros.com/

The Rocknrolla site has a splash page. One of the things i dont really like.

The main page has a really cool opening animation.

- The navigation of the home page is fairly easy to understand.
- The rollover buttons for every character is a good way to have interaction in the site.
- Clicking on one of the buttons brings you the another page but the navigation buttons are still present.
- The overall design of the site is excellent.
- Its easy to use and easy to understand.




Over-all i think the design of this site is excellent. Really good use of text, colors, images and interactivity. The interactivity gives the user a direct experience to the film. Usability wise, unlike most sites, it has rollover buttons for each character at the home page which helps alot. Navigation is fairly simple to get around.


Design: 9/10
Usability: 7/10

1st Ave Machine - Personal Choice Site

http://www.1stavemachine.com

A motion graphic design studio based in New York. Pretty simple design.

Video playback as the background.

Home navigation has three buttons, PROJECTS, NEWS and CONTACT.
- User friendly
- Easy to understand
- Its easy to memorize.
- The text might be a little to thin, might be a little hard to read sometimes.
- The background video is a little distracting, but it stops when you view a video from the projects.


PROJECTS

- The background is a distraction especially when playing the videos.


Over-all i think the design is neat and simple. The use of a video instead of a background image tells you exactly from the moment you just opened the site, what the firm is about. In some respects that is a good thing. But when playing the content the background becomes distracting. Usability wise, a really simple site, easy to use and get around.

Design: 6/10
Usability: 9/10

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