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My favorite, and most used, website would probably be twitter. I find it extremely easy to navigate. The design is simplistic and very user-friendly. You only have a few elements of your home time line which include your text box and others’ tweets to which you’re able to “like” or “retweet” tweets you enjoy.

In terms of “not making the user think”, I believe due to the simplicity of the website, you don’t have to think often unless you’re making changes to your settings. However, in this case the website is still designed so well you don’t do much thinking.

As for grabbing the users’ attention, I do think that twitter takes hold. I follow a ton of news, media, and artists on twitter and in order to keep up with what’s going on in the world as well as my interests, I find myself checking twitter a countless number of times per day. I think though, it depends on the individual’s choice on who they follow, whether twitter will keep their interest. As for my mom, she didn’t last long on twitter.

Looking over the list of the “10 Principles”, I think twitter is effective as a website covers them all. However, links presented by individual accounts that link to other websites cannot affect the way twitter is as its own website.

All in all, I believe twitter itself is designed so well. It’s very simplistic and easy to use. It’s also a way for others to connect to friends as well as news involving their interests.

For awhile now, oliviarink.com has been one of my favorite blogs to visit. Her web design is done very well, and is easy to navigate. Being a blogger she does a good job of keeping content short. Oliviarink.com has lots of images and is never too wordy. She never makes you feel like she’s selling something and her content is kept very simple.
Her website is full of white space, which I’m obsessed with on websites. With all the white space users attention is drawn to the navigation bar, and can focus on why you came to the site. The “visible language” is present throughout the whole site, keeping everything organized and structured. Basically she incorporates all 10 principles of effective web design. to visit. Her web design is done very well, and is easy to navigate. Being a blogger she does a good job of keeping content short. Oliviarink.com has lots of images and is never too wordy. She never makes you feel like she’s selling something and her content is kept very simple.
Her website is full of white space, which I’m obsessed with on websites. With all the white space users attention is drawn to the navigation bar, and can focus on why you came to the site. The “visible language” is present throughout the whole site, keeping everything organized and structured. Basically she incorporates all 10 principles of effective web design.

One of my favorite websites is a cooking site I discovered a few months back called The Curvy Carrot. Not only is the name really fun, but the site is very well made. The creators definitely have a user friendly approach in their design, and their content of course is what makes me come back for more.

For starters the site is self-explanatory. Upon visiting The Curvy Carrot, you can clearly see it is a website full of cooking recipes. There are very few “question marks” if any that Vitaly Friedman talks about in the article “10 Principles of Effective Web Design.” The user can easily navigate the page, and there is a clear path from one point to the next whether the user is searching for a certain recipe, or just wanting to browse through the site.

The creator of the site, Shannon, does a good job at focusing the users attention. She posts photos that are well-composed, and just the right size that captures the users attention but are not too distracting. When a user gets to the homepage they are greeted with a slideshow of some of her recipes. The pictures as I have stated are appealing, but also when the user sees something that catches their eye, they can click the picture, taking them directly to the recipe. She does a very good job at capturing the user’s attention, then delivering them exactly what they are looking for.

Next I would say Shannon does a good job at using writing effectively. While the writing is slightly different because it is recipes, she does break down in an easy to understand way. Her posts also consist of a bit of blogging about herself and daily life which I think is a pretty cool twist. But mostly her recipes are what I tend to focus on, and they are concise. Both in wordage, and in style.

Simplicity is something the creator does well too. Her site is neutral, but bold enough that it captures the users eye. I like how on each of her category pages there are simply pictures, and when you scroll over you can see what the dish is. That to me is simple and easy to follow. Though there are a few ads on the homepage which is not the most appealing, they are not intensely distracting. Her logo is cute and effective. I think the site strives in simplicity and does not let design get in the way of content at all.

Finally I will say I think The Curvy Carrot is quite a conventional site. It is very easy to navigate. The user can clearly see where they need to go if they are looking for certain recipes. Also she makes her social media available throughout the site which is helpful. There is nothing extremely innovative about the website, yet this is a great thing because it is pretty easy to navigate and figure out.

Overall, The Curvy Carrot is a site I continual use. Whether I am cooking dinner for my roommates, or making banana bread. I have relied on this website for a lot of my cooking for a few months, and I think it does a great job at being a well functioning, easy to use site.

my favorite website to visit is bleacherreport.com. It is a sports news website with a plethora of sports stories and videos that cover team needs, game analysis, game predictions, and many other topics in all of the major and minor sports. I love the navigation or the website as it allows me to simply scroll over all of the stories for the days. Once you click on an article that includes a top ten list, you can easily click right or left on the keyboard to move on to the next part of the article almost seamlessly. That, combined with great content, allows for a fun and effortless sporting news experience.

Lately I’ve been really irritated with myself over how much I use my phone. It seems like even when I don’t notice it, I’m reaching for it or refreshing my Facebook page even when I just checked me feed. I think social media and phones are a great tool and they each have their place but I really don’t think that it should be used to just pass time. It can be addictive and it makes me feel like we’re losing touch with humanity since almost everyone is usually on their phone.

I haven’t really decided what angle to take with this but I found a couple of interesting articles that inspired me to pursue this aside from my own annoying relationship with my phone. The first is an article from the Huffington Post that says texting is affecting our social skills. The second article is from the New Zealand Herald and it’s about a new app called Binder that helps you break up with your significant other via text. I hope it doesn’t catch on because not only is that horrible but also pretty cowardly and ridiculous.

I would like to do my final project South Hays Fire Department. My assigned BEAT in my writing for electronic media has been Fire/EMS this summer and I really enjoy learning about all that goes into that occupation.

I think I could show a lot of different sides and angles people don’t usually see. For instance, there’s so much just on the website that people don’t realize they do. Firefighting is something I have become very passionate to learn about.

http://southhaysfire.org/

I would like my research and content to focus on animals and they’re ability to adapt to their environment. I could possibly cover some of the local habitats. I’ve also been familiarizing myself with the creatures that adapt to extreme environments, like the the frozen tundras of Antarctica. Paul Nicklen, a photographer from National Geographic, has an amazing p.o.v on the topic. http://www.paulnicklen.com/national-geographic/

To be completely honest, I’ve felt as though I’ve drawn a blank when it comes to this final.

My first idea of course was to do what I do on my FDOM blog and cover the local indie scene. I’d probably have to go to a few shows and stuff of course, but I already do that whether I have a project on it or not.

My next idea, after I took a look at some other posts, was to do a website to cover my friend Josh’s tattoo business and history. The man has over 25 years of tattooing experience. His style is definitely what you would call biker style, although occasionally have delved into watercolor and more psychedelic forms of the art work.

Lastly, you told me after class I could work with Jarrett. I know he wants to cover some sort of games, although I don’t know if you see that as a legitimate topic.

To be honest, I have no idea what I want my final project to be about. There are so many different things that I would like to do, but I’m trying to pick something that I could write about and find footage for on five pages. I also want to make sure my project is over something I have a strong interest in…

With that being said, food is a top contender for the topic of my final project. I want to write about the rise of consumers becoming more conscious of the food they eat which could be leading to the rise of alternative food chains.

I also might make my final project on talented local artists in San Marcos, Texas.

I’m going to make a website about my best friends tattoo history. He began tattooing while we were in the Army together, and then honed his skills while he served about 4 years in prison. Having recently been released from prison, he obtained a job with a studio in Freeport. I thought it’d be interesting to not only cover his tattooing, but perhaps look at how tattooing has been a positive influence in his life. Maybe even emphasize how it has served as an outlet for pent up frustrations and also as a coping mechanism.