Philadelphia Eagles

Although they are not on top of their game this year, their website boasts an aggressive and sleek look. I like the banner on top, very solid and very eye catching. The logo is placed really well. I wish I could say the same thing about the navigation, but it appears very crowded and nothing seems to pop out. I am very overwhelmed by information on this site. I like how they are trying to stick to the green and cream theme, but the site could have used help from some other colors. The background is so boring, they could have tried putting in a dotted pattern or a little more variance in the color.

I am also surprised they didn't use a little more variance in the design structure. They have kept the design very blocky whereas the eagle look is very sleek and curvy. The only place that design is seen is at the bottom right, where it mentions the company that made the site, that box shape should have been reflected more in the design.

W HOTEL

Just like the hotel the website combines luxury, elegance and modern into a beautifully done design. Navigation is placed very well, with the central navigation being on top and the room booking on the side. The one thing I love about the site is the choice of colors. With a very dull brown gray look, the central color, purple in this case, stands out very well. The site design is very soft and smooth on the eyes which is important for a hotel website. Unlike other websites, where images are blasted into your face, this website keeps images on a down low and uses design to make the site come align.

The only negative side I had with the website is the [+] Feedback sign. It looks like it was stolen from the Adobe website long time ago.

IndyaFusion

The is one of the coolest restaurants I have seen. The way the menus zoom in and out is very captivating and normally it would have been a very cheesy effect, but this looks really classy. The layout of the site is excellent. I like how the entire site just has one background color, but the placement of the spices, adds that extra flavor.

There are a couple of disadvantages to having a flash site though, especially with it being search engine friendly and things like that. I also don't like the pre-loader that they have on the website. It looks very simple and out of place.

Overall I think the website is very strong, at least as far as design goes.

Priceline

The first thing that caught my attention was the center alignment of the website. It is probably the first question I ask about a website, is it center aligned or left aligned. All the other travel websites I visited were left aligned, whereas this site stood out from the crowd. Now obviously, if I was looking for a cheap ticket it wouldn't matter but nevertheless the site looks better in the center.

The site is well arranged with the three levels of navigation, and the ease of use. It doesn't look cluttered and doesn't seem to have bother with beautiful location images to lure customers in. Unfortunately I can't say anything good about William Shatner's face being there.

That being said, I did notice a glitch on the site. Now I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the text seems to be flickering on and off every few sec. Now I am looking at this on a Firefox browser and I do wonder if it has anything to do with that. Maybe its to get the viewers attraction, but I have had the same problem with a site that I built where the CSS and image rollovers seem to have been clashing. Other than that, this is a well designed site.

Museum of Contemporary Art
Sydney Australia

This site boasts a very unique navigation style. I must add, I have never seen this done before. I think the navigation alone simply captures the essence of contemporary design. I have been impressed with a lot of Australian site designs now. They are getting very unique and surprisingly US based website lack the uniqueness aspect. Everyone seems to be interested in the grunge side of web design.

Each menu has a unique color theme to it, and everything, even the logo changes colors when its on that page or on rollover. the design of the site is very well planned for information overload. The busiest pages on the site look very well spaced out. I also love their consistency, especially with using people as a divider between information in the body content itself. Overall this is a fantastic site. The only thing I would have loved to see was a corner showing images of contemporary design featured at the museum.

OMG!
Oh My God is Yahoo's new celebrity gossip site. With an ultra modern design, and popping colors this site is unique in every way. It uses a lot of images, basically every news story is a picture with a title on it. I like the site just because of the fact they went away from the newspaper column style design and let the picture speak the story. Sometimes its confusing because its hard to notice the ads they place in between. Once you click on the site, you see a design that closely resembles YouTube structure. Also if you go back to the homepage you see a green tick mark on the articles you have already visited. The only thing I didn't like about the website was the rollovers on the text links. The pink box seemed too tight around the text compared to the big and airy feel of the website.

Kellands

Most real estate site bombard you with scenic images and information about their agents and their logo. But I found this site to be interesting in using the real estate of the website screen. Very big buttons and lots of space everything. Maybe not entirely functional or aesthetic but it gives a lot of breathing space. I feel more relaxed when I am on this site and just feel like enjoying the scenery. I don't know if purple was the right color to go with the website, but it ain't too bad. I think the website has made it really simple, "buying" "selling" and everything else. I noticed also how I did not come across any human beings in the pictures. Just the property. I liked this view better than the shining bright teeth of models posing on property pictures on other real estate sites. Maybe its because its in New Zealand but this site definitely made real estate buying really relaxing and hassle free.

Maserati

I wonder how such a beautiful product is backed up by such a boring and blah site. The car looks like a dream machine but the website is not worth carrying that beautiful name. The colors, the boxy nature, information overload and cheesy flash make this site very uniquely boring. Uniquely boring because the product is about luxury, speed, power and yet the site doesn't quite capture that essence. So I decided to check the competition, Ferrari, Porsche, they all have boring sites. Is this a trend now or is it they spend all the money on their cars and not their websites. Is it because they don't need any kind of advertisement, people who can and want to buy a Maserati know where to go and don't need a website.

Another thing I found on the Maserati website was a video podcast of their news videos. And then I found out it was just news with and image slide show. I think the world needs a better Maserati website, at least for people like me who can't afford one, but like to drool over the website.

Happy Feet



The second movie site I reviewed was Happy Feet. Other than being just a fun site, I like how they did the intro with the whole zooming in effect. One thing I noticed was how they did the mouse cursor change. I think it is both annoying and interesting. For some reason I feel is has more weight on the left side. Load time is heavy on the site and I hate how the game pops up in a different window. With pop-up blockers installed on most computers now, it could be a nuisance. I personally think they could have done a better job arranging the menu and icons. I love the dancing penguin which could be the only thing that keeps this site from being a boring site. The video link is awesome and well integrated into the design.

Transformers

I wanted to review this site because it was really badly done. The movie was good and I surprised the site didn't reflect on the movie at all. With the amount of graphics they had in the movie they could have incorporated some into the website.
The website is very lame, without having any sort of depth or 3D elements in it. They only show two robots and non of the vehicles or the transformation process or anything of the sorts. And more than anything the roll over sound is very annoying. And for a very dark and shaded movie, I don't understand why it has a white background.

Its got a lot of zoom in and zoom out effects which can become really boring compared to the extensive art work features on these robots. Infact, I think the splash screen looks better than the website.

US Air Force

The US Air Force website is probably the only website in the military world that has a unique design and is combines stealth marketing techniques. If you have seen the ads, the website is a good compliment to them. Very well organised, the website makes the air force extremely welcoming and challenging to this generation. From the logo design to the colors to the style, the website boasts a design that makes joining the airforce heroic in every aspect.

The campaign launched by GSD&M, 'Do Something Amazing" has been presented well in the website. They have tried to keep the younger generation in mind and put graphics that attract them to join the military, but at the same time present the benefits of the air force.

CNN

As much as I didn't want to do the CNN site, I couldn't help but admire the redesigned website. After researching and taking public opinion for more than a year, CNN has come out with a site that delivers news in the most simplest way. It is so easy to navigate through local and international news. The design is very simple and yet meets the standards of a world class design. Considering, the news site is seen all over the world they have avoided many graphics, even for the links and yet by simply using curves for borders they have made it visually appealing. The addition of CNN video shows that they understand the world news has become more than text these days.

Overall a very well done site, maybe one of the best news sites, maybe right next to Al Jazeera.

Airport

Zurich Airport

As I was looking through the different sites, this is the only one that caught my attention. When you think world class airports, you expect something big, something beautiful and of course a plane. This website has taken the screen real estate and made perfect use of it by putting the image of a plane right in front of the airport. I felt like I was at the airport just lost in its huge lounges and wanting to explore more. Most of the other airports try to stuff information in and make you feel so congested but this site just leaves it open.

Unfortunately thats where it ends. The rest of the pages are boring and informational. Rarely do you see an image. I like the three clocks on the top, but I wish they had taken that idea and incorporated more time zones. It would have made a good design. I also hate the briefcases that keep floating around at the bottom and I don't understand the scroll bar at the top.

Zurich Airport has no type treatment to it or a logo. I think there is so much potential with the idea they have established. Maybe someday they will run with it.

Clothing Retail

Tommy Hilfiger

This is one of the simplest clothing retail site you could find out there for a name like Hilfiger. But don't push it away just yet. Remember design serves function. If that is the case, this websites design works very well.

The focus of this website is on the material they sell. It's very easy navigation, links on the left and material on the side. Notice how everything is grayish except for the images and the logo. I also like how when you click on most materials, its got many pictures attached to it, which show every aspect of the shirt or material one is buying. It is a good assurance to know how your shirt looks like, when you are buying it online. The checkout process is also fairly easy.

The only con I have about this website is the fact that the links a little light and it might be hard for some people to read it. Other than that, design certainly serves function.

Art School

School of Visual Arts

Currently this is one of the better designs I have seen for an Art school. There used to be a couple of good art school website, but most of them have been replaced by poorly designed flash sites.

I love this site because of its simplicity but beautiful design. I love the use of color and the placement of the logo. The information is well arranged overall and navigation is easy.

I wish they had put more of their student work into the design. Not only would that have made the overall orange and red a little more easier to look at but it would have also given the site a more human touch.

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