The Square...Colour Schemes!

Ok I have completed some initial design ideas and think I have made a final decision so have now started looking into colour schemes to use within the design. Whilst looking for ideas on colours which compliment each other I found this site www.colorblender.com/ and when you go to 'Browse blends' there are hundreds of colour blends to choose from and take inspiration from and from now on this is a tool I will definitely be using!

Database...take 1!

Ok put this together as the first attempt at the database diagram set by Simon. I will review it again as not sure if this is anywhere near right!

From one square to another…restaurant choice!

There is also a ‘The Square’ bar/restaurant in Nottingham and after eating there and finding out as they are a food chain that they do not actually have there own website I have decided to use them as the client in the restaurant website task. I have had some initial design ideas and began to think about the information the website should include. Also I will be having another enjoyable meal with a few others to get some pictures of the food and the menu available sometime in the upcoming week.

Restaurant Evaluations...No.5!

The square restaurant…web based! http://www.squarerestaurant.org/

What works…

- clear simple layout
- good quality image
- scroll bar in menu keeps contained to space
- clear navigation menu and easy to follow links

What doesn’t…

- dark colour scheme
- white text sometimes difficult to read
- flash slideshow could improve interest and show more dishes available on the menu

Restaurant evaluations!

O’Neil’s…Pub restaurant! http://www.oneills.co.uk/home.php

What works...

- Good use of colour catches the eye
- Old fashion feel which reflects the feel of the pub itself
- Rollover makes the links clear
- Boxes holding information makes the page clean and highlights key areas
- Full menu opens in a new PDF page
- Good quality pictures of the food on offer with use of slideshow

What doesn’t…

- The alternative menu is located at the bottom and not obviously noticeable
- The home page with all the colours has a busy feel and picture menu hard to read
- The glowing effect on the titles of the boxed areas makes the text slightly blurred and

difficult to read

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The Balti House…Indian cuisine! http://www.thebaltihouse.com/index.htm

What works…

- The use of white gives a clean feel
- Downloadable takeaway menu
- A few pictures included within the menu sections
- Bookmarks within long menu makes viewing quicker

What doesn’t…

- Bland, bland, bland!
- Navigation menu doesn’t stand out enough
- The menu is long and involves a lot of scrolling a horizontal layout would have worked

better with such a large menu
- The text colours don’t compliment each other
- Poor quality images

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Bluu…Flash Based! http://www.bluu.co.uk/

What works…

- The restaurant summary as the first page and choice to enter or not
- Boxed and centred
- Page turn effect on menu and good size and contained so no scrolling down the page
- Consistent design throughout, theme works well
- Different location has different background representing the real bar/restaurant layout so

familiar to client when go there

What doesn’t…

- Long loading times
- Image gets in the way of the navigational menu
- The menu picture page the picture links aren’t that obvious
- Close button difficult to locate

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KFC…Fast-food! http://www.kfc.co.uk/

What works…

- Consistent layout
- Clear navigational menu
- Slideshow image or meals available click for more information
- Nice flash banners with promotions

What doesn’t…

- Some sections include large amounts of text which is overwhelming for a ‘fast’ company
- On pages no sub menus available have to use the main navigational bar to progress further
- No prices for meals available

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My social groups…who are they?

I have been thinking about the social grouos I would include myself in to help develop an idea of what my social software site will be about. Heres what I have so far....


Dancers
Students
Multimedia coursemates
Clubs
Nottingham
Essex
Tv shows
Tea
Food
Friends
Web designers
Student housing
Nottingham trent
Shenfield highschool

Social software….what is it?

Social software encompasses a range of software systems that allow users to interact and share data. Social sites have grown from this often including applications which share characteristics like open APIs, service oriented design, and the ability to upload data and media.

Types of social software include:

Blogs
Clipping
Instant messaging
Interenet forums
e-learning
Multiplayer online games
Media sharing
Media cataloging
Personals
Social cataloging
Social networks
Virtual worlds
Wikis

The types of social software I am likely to produce would be either media sharing, blogs or social networks. Following in the steps of Flikr, Facebook and Blogger.

Wordpress!

Ok wordpress account up and running....however at first glance looks a tad confusing but shall work on at it and have a fiddle with the CSS. :) Click to check it out so far.