In order to decide what a "good" and a "bad" website is, it is important to set certain criteria.
- Design
- Ease of navigation
- Accessibility to information
- Representation of the "brand"
I chose to compare websites of two "fashionable" restaurants: the "Kong" in Paris and "Sketch" in London. Both restaurants have a good reputation and are seen as more "innovative" places in terms of decoration, food fusion, and events.
At first glance, both websites seen to present similar criteria:
Nice interactive design, music, originality that correspond to the restaurants' "branding".
For me, Sketch's website is too difficult to navigate on. When you click on a certain section, it is very difficult to come back to the main menu. In order to find specific information, you have to explore the different links of the site - the information is not immediate. In my opinion, you can have an original and interactive website like the Kong without using pop ups.
I personally feel a bit lost on Sketch's website as whenever you click on something, it opens new windows. If you close a window, you go back to the intro of the website (AGAIN you hear the same music and wait for the loading of the information).
"Bad website":
http://www.sketch.uk.com/
* It is a restaurant with French owners and you cannot even change the language (only in English)
* Poor navigation:
- It is hard to go back to the main menu
- New windows keep opening up (you loose the track of where you are)
- Frustrating
* Not lack of information but difficulty to find information
* It takes too much time to get accustomed to the website's navigation
"Good website":
http://www.kong.fr/
* Clear, straightforward information
* Nice design
* Can be viewed in French or in English
* Easy access to different sections of the website
For both restaurants it is important to build a strong image and have a good website representing their values/quality/brand online. Often, you can judge a restaurant by the quality, design and services of their website. You can see whether or not it is fashionable/hype and if the food in itself is good (online menu, presentation of the chef, photo gallery, online reservations and so on).
For Sketch, I think the website is "overdone" and therefore difficult to navigate on.
Sunday, 11 November 2007
Monday, 5 November 2007
Week 5 - Reflection, research, the group project is coming together...
Links regarding Facebook and communities within Facebook:
http://webcommunityforum.com/
==> very interesting article about a company having Facebook fridays to encourage networking.
http://elgg.net/csessums/weblog/9412.html
Plans:
As a group we are meeting next week and we are going to put all the information we have together in a coherent way. We are going to structure our information and see what is missing/could be added or delete it.
Outline of the project:
Online communities = definitions, questionnaire
Communities/Groups - what is the difference?
- is a community a group but a group is not necessarily a community?
Question of identity
Conclusion
http://webcommunityforum.com/
==> very interesting article about a company having Facebook fridays to encourage networking.
http://elgg.net/csessums/weblog/9412.html
Plans:
As a group we are meeting next week and we are going to put all the information we have together in a coherent way. We are going to structure our information and see what is missing/could be added or delete it.
Outline of the project:
Online communities = definitions, questionnaire
Communities/Groups - what is the difference?
- is a community a group but a group is not necessarily a community?
Question of identity
Conclusion
Week 4
Last week I was absent as I had to go back home due to family matters. I warned my group in advance and we decided upon which research I was going to undertake. The class wiki permitted me to stay up to date to what has been covered in class and to do all the reading.
Reading Jean Lave's and Etienne Wenger's concerning "Communities of Practice" made me think about several issues. In my opinion, it is through interaction tat we become "street smart" and not only "book smart". It is important to be aware of the people around us not only because they bring us new knowledge/perspectives, but also because we are all part of a community in which we have to grow/learn/interact/live/work...
Is it possible to have that same sense of community online? Common interests bound groups together but is face-to-face interaction more enriching (socially/intellectually). Can online interaction be part of the educational process?
My research:
I continue doing research on different online communities.
I tried to use the online database (Jstor) to find some articles but my passwords did not work so I have to ask the IT person in the library for help.
Our project:
It starts to have a certain format (introduction, body, conclusion)
We are starting to build it up.
Reading Jean Lave's and Etienne Wenger's concerning "Communities of Practice" made me think about several issues. In my opinion, it is through interaction tat we become "street smart" and not only "book smart". It is important to be aware of the people around us not only because they bring us new knowledge/perspectives, but also because we are all part of a community in which we have to grow/learn/interact/live/work...
Is it possible to have that same sense of community online? Common interests bound groups together but is face-to-face interaction more enriching (socially/intellectually). Can online interaction be part of the educational process?
My research:
I continue doing research on different online communities.
I tried to use the online database (Jstor) to find some articles but my passwords did not work so I have to ask the IT person in the library for help.
Our project:
It starts to have a certain format (introduction, body, conclusion)
We are starting to build it up.
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Week 3
QUESTIONS THAT ROSE FROM MONDAY'S LECTURE
The idea of “giving something for nothing”.⇒ we use hotmail, google, MySpace for free for ex. What do they get in return?
Is a virtual meeting less dangerous then a real/face to face meeting?
What do virtual communities bring to users? (Make friends? Create yourself an entire new personality? Business opportunities?…)
Second Life: what does it bring to people? Commercial tool? Does being/spending time on Second Life cuts you out of the reality? After spending so much time online/chatting “virtually”, can you still interact with people in person, or is it too intimidating?
Second Life could be something we could explore in more detail in our group project.
REFLECTIONS
I realised this week that I was getting more secure with the idea of reflecting on this blog. It gives me the opportunity to organize myself in term of work/time/research. It allows me to see my progress (but also the group’s progress) throughout the weeks. We went from one idea (focusing on the Fluokids) and ended up with completely different plans.
We realised this week that it would be difficult for us to focus on the “Fluokids”. The main problem with this emerging youth group is that there is not much information online, especially in English. Their main blog is in French and I am the only one speaking French in the group. Also, most of the information provided is about their upcoming parties and not about the history/creation of the group.
We decided to construct our project in the following way:
Have a core structure based on theories (definition of online communities/ idea of nationalism/shared identity within a group; then introduce different examples supporting these various statements.
Should we include a debate maybe?
Are we going to find “black and white” information or is it all going to be biased?
What do online communities involve? Economy/advertising/manipulation of big companies?
Mette is going to make some research in Benedict Anderson’s book; “Imagined Communities” that she already knows.
MY MAIN CONCERNS FOR FUTURE WORK/REASEARCH
Find reliable sources.
Focus our project on the “Online Communities” = not to overlap (too much) with the theme of “Identity”.
RESEARCH FOR THIS WEEK:
We tried to map out an approximate outline of our group project. According to the outline, we divided research among ourselves:
Mette is going to put on our group wiki a first approximative outline of our project.
All members of the group have different areas they have to research on.
I have to:
Look at online journals regarding “online/Virtual communities” through Lexis-Nexis (University’s online database)
Research about:
Second Life – very visual/ “virtual”
MySpace – more creative
Facebook – basic graphics
Moodle
Elgg
Other interesting online communities
The idea of “giving something for nothing”.⇒ we use hotmail, google, MySpace for free for ex. What do they get in return?
Is a virtual meeting less dangerous then a real/face to face meeting?
What do virtual communities bring to users? (Make friends? Create yourself an entire new personality? Business opportunities?…)
Second Life: what does it bring to people? Commercial tool? Does being/spending time on Second Life cuts you out of the reality? After spending so much time online/chatting “virtually”, can you still interact with people in person, or is it too intimidating?
Second Life could be something we could explore in more detail in our group project.
REFLECTIONS
I realised this week that I was getting more secure with the idea of reflecting on this blog. It gives me the opportunity to organize myself in term of work/time/research. It allows me to see my progress (but also the group’s progress) throughout the weeks. We went from one idea (focusing on the Fluokids) and ended up with completely different plans.
We realised this week that it would be difficult for us to focus on the “Fluokids”. The main problem with this emerging youth group is that there is not much information online, especially in English. Their main blog is in French and I am the only one speaking French in the group. Also, most of the information provided is about their upcoming parties and not about the history/creation of the group.
We decided to construct our project in the following way:
Have a core structure based on theories (definition of online communities/ idea of nationalism/shared identity within a group; then introduce different examples supporting these various statements.
Should we include a debate maybe?
Are we going to find “black and white” information or is it all going to be biased?
What do online communities involve? Economy/advertising/manipulation of big companies?
Mette is going to make some research in Benedict Anderson’s book; “Imagined Communities” that she already knows.
MY MAIN CONCERNS FOR FUTURE WORK/REASEARCH
Find reliable sources.
Focus our project on the “Online Communities” = not to overlap (too much) with the theme of “Identity”.
RESEARCH FOR THIS WEEK:
We tried to map out an approximate outline of our group project. According to the outline, we divided research among ourselves:
Mette is going to put on our group wiki a first approximative outline of our project.
All members of the group have different areas they have to research on.
I have to:
Look at online journals regarding “online/Virtual communities” through Lexis-Nexis (University’s online database)
Research about:
Second Life – very visual/ “virtual”
MySpace – more creative
Facebook – basic graphics
Moodle
Elgg
Other interesting online communities
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Generating ideas...
Fluokids
I read loads of articles about this group in Paris and thought it would be interesting to have a quick look at what they do:
http://www.dazeddigital.com/projects/digital50/article.aspx?a=539
http://www.fluokids.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/fluokids
it is a whole new generation of young kids who cannot spend a minute without having constant access to Internet/MySpace/ Emails... they created a "party community" which communicates online and meets in different Clubs around the world to party!
I read loads of articles about this group in Paris and thought it would be interesting to have a quick look at what they do:
http://www.dazeddigital.com/projects/digital50/article.aspx?a=539
http://www.fluokids.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/fluokids
it is a whole new generation of young kids who cannot spend a minute without having constant access to Internet/MySpace/ Emails... they created a "party community" which communicates online and meets in different Clubs around the world to party!
Week 2: preparation/organization of the group project
Monday: we had the first meeting in our group regarding the group project. For the moment, no specific roles have been attributed to the members of the group except for Mette who is going to take care if the site/product design. We want to wait a little bit until we have a more precise idea of what we are going to focus on in the "Virtual Communities" theme.
We started our communal Wiki page and agreed to name our group "Virtual4". For the moment, the group seems to agree/compromise on different decisions. I hope this project is going to be the result of real group work in which we can count on each other in terms of advice/help/support/information finding. It may sound strange that I stress the idea of unity in a group, but I have experienced previously some difficult situations regarding group work.
For today, we have decided to browse individually through some ideas and meet in order to start mapping out what we want to focus on.
We started our communal Wiki page and agreed to name our group "Virtual4". For the moment, the group seems to agree/compromise on different decisions. I hope this project is going to be the result of real group work in which we can count on each other in terms of advice/help/support/information finding. It may sound strange that I stress the idea of unity in a group, but I have experienced previously some difficult situations regarding group work.
For today, we have decided to browse individually through some ideas and meet in order to start mapping out what we want to focus on.
Monday, 15 October 2007
Week 1 ... reflection
I find it quite intimidating to reflect on my work by using a blog as for me, personal reflection is something very personal.
I think having a blog and communicating information through it to my group is going to be easier then writing an email as we can post music, videos and links.
I am in a group with Mette, Leda and Khristina. Our theme for our project is "Virtual communities".
For next week, we each have find ideas about Virtual communities so that we can start mapping out more precisely what we want to focus on in our project.
I think having a blog and communicating information through it to my group is going to be easier then writing an email as we can post music, videos and links.
I am in a group with Mette, Leda and Khristina. Our theme for our project is "Virtual communities".
For next week, we each have find ideas about Virtual communities so that we can start mapping out more precisely what we want to focus on in our project.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
