Design I really like.

A design I never got over how user friendly and welcoming is is the gmail.com interface. If you  have a gmail account you should be familiar with the classic layout it comes with, if not get one now!!! It is so clean and simple to use, yet although it is simple a few high tech and convient styles will make your emailing life so much easier. To start off with it has a colorful and simple fonted logo. 


The "M" in the logo doubling as a letter of the alphabet and a partial outline to an envelop is a witty and charming touch to the logo's already colorful apperance. Then on the top above the logo, very simply, from left to write it has all the things the Gmail account gives you such as a place to store Documents, Photos, Calander events, etc. The makers of this emailing system went the extra mile to make gmail not only a place to exchange webmail but also a place where you can organize your life and keep everything in one managable space.

The background of the interface is white which is soothing to the brain when you realize you have 40 or so emails to catch up on. The Inbox is shown in an transparent blue. The font used all over the site is constant, Sans Serif. The colors generally stay the same in Gmail, either white or the blue. The other quirky plus to having a gmail account is Gchat. Here you get to chat with fellow Gmail members that you are friends with. The Gchat icon is to the middle right of the page and there it has a list as to who is offline, available, busy, and away. A colorful circle to the right of that persons name will indicate what that person chose to be there status. Red indicating they are busy, Green that they are available and Yellow that they are away. Those colors are also the colors of traffic signals so it makes it easier for the most illiterate computer user to understand what is going on. Needless to say get a Gmail account now and see it for yourself, of course if you do not already have one.

Design I Like

Media design grabs us and brings us into a creative part of the world. For a media design to be good it must first catch our attention, if it does not do this first task it has failed it's purpose. Of course people have different preferences when it comes to design. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. Another important intent of design, as was stressed in my digital media class, was that it helps the viewer organize material mentally. To organize material properly information has to be in the most eye friendly proximity. Allignment is also a vital part of a good design. Designs should follow a train of thought so that the information is clear to the viewer. It must visually connect to each other.

Designs that I like are first of all "clean". By that I mean that they have a clear flow of thoughts and crisp design. A clear font like sans serif, helvetica, or times new roman is perferable. I find that other fonts, such as the blackletter, make it difficult for me to read what the design is displaying. A clean background, preferably white, with a readable font make the information accessible to people. This type of design does not need to be boring and in fact i find it's refreshing in an era of overly graphic design. Also I find that colors can pop out more over a white background.

I will add some pictures of the designs I find appealing. A notable website with this functional design is http://www.google.com/.





Here are some pictures: