2013 Stewart Vandlen: Reflection of Sites

Website #1: Digital Media Management

 I really like the use of color on the home page. The use of red on keywords looks very professional and doesn't feel forced or out of place. The use of the colors red and black also meshes nicely with the logo and background on the home page. I think this page would look a lot nicer if the word 'manger' were moved from under 'What is a' to the right of the word 'digital' because the black space in the upper right hand corner makes the page feel cluttered and messy, diminishing the aesthetic appeal of the web page. Another way to combat this black space in the upper right hand corner of the web page is to move the logo up an inch or two. If the logo were moved up, it would still look good to have the word 'manager' under 'What is a'. I also see another potential problem in the 'FEATURED POST' section at the bottom of the home page. The text of the current featured post is crammed into a very small vertical space, while there is quite a lot of unused space in the bottom right hand corner of the page. The page would be much more appealing if the text stretched further horizontally to fill the blank space. On the 'ABOUT US' page the bios are long walls of text while there seems to be plenty of room to the left of Luigi's bio. The page would flow better if the text ran further horizontally. Also, the font size is kind of small, and thus potentially hard to read for some views of the website. I really like the way the 'OUR PARTNERS' page is laid out with the icons of each person and website as a small square with social networking links to the right of each icon. One thing that would make the page more appealing would be spacing out the icons in the 'THEATRICAL' section from 4 icons on 3 lines, to 6 icons on 2 lines. The black space to the right of the icons is a little distracting. 

Website #2: MobileiPhoneGuy

 I really like the background at the top of this website. It is very bold and unique, yet subtle and professional at the same time. Another thing I really liked about the website is the social networking icons. The color and design of the icons works very nicely with the color scheme and layout of the page. The great thing about the placement of the social networking icons is that they are placed in a ideal location: right at the top of the page. The social networking icons, while very bold and impossible to miss, are very discreet and subtle. One of the things that I didn't like about the website is that every aspect of the website (about, services, gallery, FAQ, and contact) is on the same page. Having every part of the website on the same page makes everything seem squished together and cluttered. If each piece of the site was located on it's own page, it would give each piece of the site optimal space to serve its purpose and more comfortable to use. I really like the way the gallery section is laid out. It occupies the perfect amount of space, without thumbnail crammed together or too distant from each other. I also really liked the Instagram integration in the gallery. Looking through the Instagram photos taken by the company made the website feel more personal and friendly, which gives me the impression that the company has the interests of its customers in mind. If I could do anything to make the FAQ better I would make it longer and give each question and answer more space. When the website is laid out as it is, each answer is a long wall of text, and kind of hard to read. I really liked the contact section. It is very clean and user friendly. The green text boxes look very clean and polished. I also really like how the calendar pops up when you click on 'DESIRED APPOINTMENT DATE/TIME'.