My website reveiw...

Introduction

                For my website review I have chosen to look at www.remainsofyouband.com I have chosen to do this because it is a popular bands website that I often use. I will look at different aspects of the website such as the audience that it is aimed towards, the navigation and interface, the overall usability of the site and any other important aspects such as the semiotics and the form of this website.

Audience

                The target audience that this website is aimed at is fans, the website specifically concentrates on promoting the band and letting fans and supporters know any news. The content of this website is quite good as well as posting updates on this band they also have video links and merchandise. The website also relates to a vast age group, over both genders and through all Socio-economic groups. The site is gender neutral and appealing to all socio-economic groups by having neutral colours and is plain so that people who arernt as computer literate can easily navigate the site, they also provide a service where you can view their facebook inorder to appeal to the facebook audience. The title of the website, also the band logo, is bold at the top of the screen so that younger generations can easily recognize the website and relate it to the band, this is a clever form of a visual que, some people that aren’t able to read can still relate the REMAINS OF YOU name and logo to music, specifically through the bands well known logo of a skull and butterfly. The accessibility for this website is very good, it is easy to navigate, you can get to the place you want within 3 clicks and also has a number of sub-categories to refine your search and doesn’t have any annoying pop-ups or other distracting factors like some websites do.

Content

            The content for the website is more than relevant, it goes into substantial amounts of detail and provides reviews on the band and you can find out the general idea of what the band is like before you see them live, you can see a preview of the cover art and it also contains appropriate terminology that is familiar to most musicians such as the review from Sally Altass...

'They’re a completely different sound to the relatively chilled out LAST, being angled more to Metal, but with some occasional crossover punk. They’re definitely not for the feint hearted, with some screamed vocals and siren like guitars, they turn the dance floor into a mini mosh pit. However, they can still belt out melodies that can get the heart soaring’

The highlighted words are familiar to any musician and the review doesn’t go into detail explaining what each thing is, this shows that the content is relevant and appropriate  to musician and specifically aimed at fans who are already familiar with Remains of you and music terms.

The layout and design of the Remains of you website is very consistent, the logo is in the top center of the page because our eyes are naturally drawn to that area just like when we are reading the title of a book. The tabs are consistent as well and stay in the same place no-matter what tab you click on, although the tab you are on remains highlighted until you choose another tab.

The colour is also very consistent throughout the entire site. The main bulk colour is black and white and remains like that on each tab, there is no real sound on the website unless you are watching a video that is linked onto the site. Also, the links on site so interacting with the website is very smooth and loads fast. It has various menus and tabs that guide you around the site, more often than not this can take more than 3 clicks or less but it is achieved faster than skipping through a large amount of information to find the one you want.

Semiotics and Visual Cues

                The Remains of you website has one major semiotic/visual que which I mentioned earlier, the band name and logo at the top of the site. This is a very powerful visual que in my opinion because people who listen to local Barnsley bands and are familiar with the BMS (Barnsley music scene) and YMS (Yorkshire music scene) are familiar with the association of Remains of you with the Skull and Butterfly

The majority of people don’t read names they associate the logo with the name as logos are intended to do. The remains of you logo does both, it shows the name and is used as a general logo. There is also other things on the website that suggest it is Remains of you by the skull banners on a black background, it is very simple and doesn’t distract the audience from the band they are trying to promote.

Forms

                The layout and design of this website is very clear and simple, it also looks quite sophisticated to say is promoting this band un-like the http://www.theblackout.co.uk/ website which looks too plain and is harder to navigate. The pages on Remains of you’s website are very consistent and look clean, there is some blank spaces left on the website but I think this is quite good because it looks quite modern and well thought out. There is a sufficient amount of text throughout the site which reviews the band and explains about tours and merch prices. The entire website uses a sans-serif font apart from the logo text, it uses this type of font because it is easy on the eyes and more formal and easy to read, this is an important factor in the design of any media product that uses text.

Navigation and Usability

                The navigation around the website is very good, more often than not it does take more than 3 clicks to get where you want to but there is no options to refine your search. The usability is very good and can be easily navigated even by those who don’t really use the internet. There is also a clear and concise copyright page that is important for any website that contains photos. Also all the links on the website are very good, they are all active and relevant unlike some websites that send you to a completely different place or even a different website.

Limitations

                The only real limitation with this website is the speed that it loads at this is only due to broadband speed although the size of the website is also a contributing factor, the size of the website is 84909bytes on the home page where as on the “Gallery” tab it is 4716bytes due to the small thumbnail images. The server for the website is obviously very good as I have never heard any report about the website going down to traffic and they must have a lot of people browsing the website because is it a very popular band. The website requires no plug-ins so is very user friendly and the only plug-in that it would ever require is flash player for external YouTube links or a facebook account to view some videos. The legal and ethical constraints are as good as it can get with musicians, by this I mean that they promote songs such as the controversial ‘in Gods Name We Strife’ which has nothing to really do with religion, this to some people is un-ethical because religious people could take offence. On the other hand most Melodic Metal/Punk bands have meaningless titles for their songs

Overall

                Overall I think that www.remainsofyouband.com is a very good, easily to navigate and relevant website. It is everything you want a website to be. The audience is very vast and not matter what social background they come from or if they are good with computers they can all easily navigate the website. In my opinion the www.remainsofyouband.com website is defiantly one of the simplest but most efficient sites for local bands out there and it provides all the relevant information you want to know such as the reviews and prices for merch or new and old gigs and songs. It also ticks all the boxes that you would expect in a website such as clear and relevant content, clever and well used semiotics and visual cues, well thought out forms and layouts and easily to use navigation.

UPDATE TIME!

In my last update i explained what i had to figure out (dreamweaver CS5) and what i had already learned... In the update before that i explained what i was in the process of doing (planning)... This update draws the two together and will tell you how im doing so far in the actual design and production process. So far i have done all my photoshop work that was needed such as; Rollover buttons, Nav bar, Created a logo and edited all the pictures that i would be putting on the site. I have also cracked on with my dreamweaver work and after figuring out how to use the programe it is very simple and effective to use, i have almost finished the website and i'm currently trying to work out the last few bugs within the website such as the ''radio buttons'' where all boxes can be ticked.



Other than the slight problem of radio buttons the website seems to be functioning well. I have all the Rollover buttons sorted so that they change as you scroll over the nav bar and all the internal links to other pages are working perfectly.

over the past week...

Over the past couple of weeks I havent been in college much due to illness... I am trying hard to catch up and so far have learned what HTML and XHTML are and what they stand for. I am currently trying to figue out how Dreamweaver works and how I can use it to it full potential. to do this I will have to learn how to use rollovers, create forms and make an appropriate design that will draw my target audience in.

WHAT I HAVE ACHIVED SO FAR

Well, the pre-production and plannin process for my I-Media website is going really well. I have sived through a bucket load of ideas and decided on the one which i think would appeal to my target audience. My chosen subject is my band, REMAINS OF YOU, i have chose this subject because we have many followers on Facebook and alot of people have checked us out and been impressed. I think that my website will be easy to do since i have a good ammount of knowlege on the subject and it will be fun and intresting for me to shoose an appropriate design while thinking about my legal and ethical constraints. I need to try and make sure that i don't offend anybody with my design or the information i share on the website. Thou colour scheme of the website will be mainly black with hints of colour and white text i am chosing this because it reflects the genre of our band and is a neuteral colour. The website will also include semiotics in the form of a skull with a butterfly, i chose to use this because this is the band logo and is how people recognize us and the fans who are at our gigs see the skull and butterfly and think ''oh yeah.. its REMAINS OF YOU''. In class i have also achived alot i've learnt about different aspects of a website and how to successfully evaluate a website, so hopefully i will have a successful idea and a fully functioning website by the end of my deadline. My time managment will come into play alot on in this project as i have never used dreamweaver before and will have to learnt how to use the programme to its full potential.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSTRAINTS

Web Accessibility

                Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. More precisely means that they are able to use, navigate and interactive with the internet through a series of software such as screen filters, style sheets and auditory programmes. Sometimes they are even able to use hardware to help them such as people who are partially sighted can use a Braille pad in which the information is transferred from the text on the website onto a electronic device with a series of pins that move up to create bumps for each word so that partially sighted people are still able to interact and read the information on the web. Old people can also be a factor in web accessibility due to aging, this can affect hearing, sight, mental and physical factors. Web accessibility programmes use visual, auditory and physical things to help people with their use of the web. The Different Disabilities someone might encounter using the web are grouped under visual disabilities, hearing impairments, physical disabilities, speech disabilities, cognitive and neurological disabilities, multiple disabilities, and aging-related conditions.

‘Ms. Kaseem uses the Web to find new restaurants to go to with friends and classmates. She has low vision and is deaf. She uses a screen magnifier to enlarge the text on Web sites to a font size that she can read. When screen magnification is not sufficient, she also uses a screen reader to drive a refreshable Braille display, which she reads slowly.  At home, Ms. Kaseem browses local Web sites for new and different restaurants. She uses a personal style sheet with her browser, which makes all Web pages display according to her preferences. Her preferences include having background patterns turned off so that there is enough contrast for her when she uses screen magnification. This is especially helpful when she reads on-line sample menus of appealing restaurants. A multimedia virtual tour of local entertainment options was recently added to the Web site of the city in which Ms. Kaseem lives. The tour is captioned and described including text subtitles for the audio, and descriptions of the video which allows her to access it using a combination of screen magnification and Braille. The interface used for the virtual tour is accessible no matter what kind of assistive technology she is using screen magnification, her screen reader with refreshable Braille, or her portable Braille device. Ms. Kaseem forwards the Web site address to friends and asks if they are interested in going with her to some of the restaurants featured on the tour.  She also checks the public transportation sites to find local train or bus stops near the restaurants. The Web site for the bus schedule has frames without meaningful titles, and tables without clear column or row headers, so she often gets lost on the site when trying to find the information she needs. The Web site for the local train schedule, however, is easy to use because the frames on that Web site have meaningful titles, and the schedules, which are laid out as long tables with clear row and column headers that she uses to orient herself even when she has magnified the screen display.’

http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/#teenager

This example shows how people suffering from disabilities can use the web and look for things just as anyone without disabilities would do.

Disability Discrimination Act

"To eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination against persons on the ground of disability in the areas of: work, accommodation, education, access to premises, clubs and sport; and the provision of goods, facilities, services and land; and existing laws; and the administration of Commonwealth laws and programs; and to ensure, as far as practicable, that persons with disabilities have the same rights to equality before the law as the rest of the community; and to promote recognition and acceptance within the community of the principle that persons with disabilities have the same fundamental rights as the rest of the community."

This is an example of the DDA’s objectives

Disability discrimination is treating someone with a disability less favourably because of their disability such as not giving them equal opportunity, giving them jobs, or generally thinking less of them because of their disability. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) ensures that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users. It gives equal rights and opportunities to everyone whether they have a disability or not and follow other forms of discrimination such as racial discrimination and sexism. A good example of discrimination would be if someone enquired about a job listed their skills and their qualification but didn’t get the job because of their disability, this is what the DDA fights against. Equal rights is the law but is often broken by thousands of people all the time. This isn’t just discrimination of disabled people but also, racism, sexism and anti-Semitism.

Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act 1998 defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. This Act protects and upholds the right for people who have their data stored electronically such as in Social Networking and makes sure that no-one can steal personal information such as hackers and makes sure that is unauthorized access isn’t granted. An example of breaching the Data Protection Act is if you worked for a bank and backed up some customers details on a memory stick to post to another branch and it went ‘missing’ and someone ‘acquired’ it and accessed their customers details, this would be a definite breach of the Data Protection Act.

Computer Misuse Act

1. Unauthorised access to computer material, punishable by 6 months' imprisonment or a fine "not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale" (currently £5000);

2. Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences, punishable by 6 months/maximum fine on summary conviction or 5 years/fine on indictment;

3. Unauthorised modification of computer material, subject to the same sentences as section 2 offences.

The Computer Misuse Act works hand-in-hand with the Data Protection Act and helps prevent computer criminals from hacking or retrieving information from other people. The 3 punishments are intended to deter serious computer criminals from using someone else’s detail without permission and this is also an act of fraud. using another person's username and password without permission, accessing data or a program, altering/deleting files or programmes, copy or moving a program or piece of data or to impersonate a person using e-mail, online chat and website are examples of what breach the Computer Misuse Act and contribute towards one of the 3 punishments. A good example of a breach of this act is the work of MafiaBoy- Michael Calce,

‘On February 7, 2000, Calce targeted Yahoo! with a project he named Rivolta, meaning “riot” in Italian. Rivolta was a denial of service type of cyber attack in which servers become overloaded with different type of communications to the point where they shut down completely. At the time, Yahoo! was a multibillion dollar industry and the web’s top search engine. Mafiaboy’s Rivolta managed to shut down Yahoo! for close to an hour. Calce’s goal was not to cripple the top websites in the world, but rather to establish dominance for himself and TNT, his cybergroup, in the cyberworld. Buy.com was shut down in response. Calce responded to this in turn by bringing down EBay, CNN, Amazon and Dell.com over the next week. On 3 August 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charged MafiaBoy with 54 counts of illegal access to computers, plus a total of ten counts of mischief to data for his attacks on Amazon.com, eBay, Dell Computer, Outlaw.net, and Yahoo. MafiaBoy had also attacked other websites, but prosecutors decided that a total of 66 counts were enough. MafiaBoy pleaded not guilty.’

This example shows how the Internet and Computer can be misused, The Montreal Youth Court sentenced him on September 12, 2001 to eight months of "open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the Internet, and a small fine.

Obscene Publication Act

                Since 1857 a serious of these acts have been put in place to govern what can be published in the UK. The OPA makes sure that no offensive material is published, this can include pornographic images, violent and gory images/games/stories and generally offensive material such as racism or sexism. The first noted prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act was of Penguin Books in R v Penguin Books, 1961, because they published a book called Lady Chatterley's Lover. The book, contained the words "f**k" and "c**t" multiple times, along with graphic sexual scenes. This was banned completely in England and Wales until the conclusion of the trial. By the mid-1980s, it was on the school syllabus. A good example of the breach of the OPC is comic/comedian Frankie Boyle whose jokes are controversial and obscene. Katie Price has called in her lawyers after comedian Frankie Boyle made a vile sexual slur against disabled son Harvey on his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights. Former Mock The Week star Boyle, 38, said on the show, which is watched by one million viewers...

'Jordan and Peter Andre are still fighting each other over custody of Harvey  - eventually one of them will lose and have to keep him.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1337095/Katie-Price-wants-apology-Frankie-Boyles-sexual-slur-disabled-son-Harvey.html#ixzz1DSpsH3wJ

By Jordan Szabo

Website Principles and Protocols Report

Introduction

                For my website review I have chosen to look at www.game.co.uk, I have chosen to do this because it is a popular website that I often use. I will look at different aspects of the website such as the audience that it is aimed towards, the navigation and interface, the overall usability of the site and any other important aspects such as the semiotics and the form of this website.

Audience

                The target audience that this website is aimed at is gamers, the game website specifically concentrates on selling game consoles and games. The content of this website is quite good as well and selling games and consoles to their target audience they also provide reviews on current and upcoming titles over a vast range of consoles. They also sell other items such as DVD’s, BLURAY’s and clothing, although all clothing they stock is related to games such as Atari t-shirts and t-shirts for games such as Halo or Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game website also relates to a vast age group, over both genders and through all Socio-economic groups. The site is gender neutral and appealing to all socio-economic groups by having special offers so that people with little disposable income are able to buy from there, they also provide a pre-owned service where you can trade in your old games and buy pre-owned games for cheaper than the new RRP (recommended retail price). The title of the website, also the company logo, is bold at the top of the screen so that younger generations can easily recognize the website and relate it to the shop, this is a clever form of a visual que, some children that aren’t able to read can still relate the GAME name and logo to games. The accessibility for this website is very good, it is easy to navigate, you can get to the place you want within 3 clicks and also has a number of sub-categories to refine your search and doesn’t have any annoying pop-ups or other distracting factors like some websites do.

Content

            The content for the website is more than relevant, it goes into substantial amounts of detail and provides reviews on each game so you can find out the general idea of what the game is like before you buy it, you can see a preview of the cover art and it also contains appropriate terminology that is familiar to most gamers such as the review for Halo reach...

‘Now, prepare to relive the events which shaped this iconic series. The first game, Halo: Combat Evolved opened with a UNSC ship, recently escaped from a major battle, exiting slip-space and discovering the first Halo Ringworld. Halo: Reach documents that pivotal battle in humanity’s fight against the Covenant which sees the planet Reach fall to Covenant forces, and a harried retreat where one ship makes a fateful slip-space jump…’

The highlighted words are familiar to any halo fan and the review doesn’t go into detail explaining what each thing is, this shows that the content is relevant and appropriate  to gamers and specifically aimed at gamers and fans who are already familiar with the Halo series.

The layout and design of the Game website is very consistent, the logo is in the top left of the page because our eyes are naturally drawn to that area just like when we are reading. The tabs are consistent as well and stay in the same place no-matter what tab you click on, although the tab you are on remains highlighted until you choose another tab.



The colour is also very consistent throughout the entire site. The main bulk colour is white and purple and remains like that on each tab, there is no real sound on the Game website unless you are watching a video that is embedded into the site. Also, the only animation that is used on the site is on the home screen and this is a slideshow with active tabs that displays 3 important releases or money off and savings offers. Interacting with the website is very smooth and loads fast. It has various menus and tabs to refine searches and save time, more often than not this can take more than 3 licks but it is achieved faster than skipping through a large amount of games to find the one you want, alternatively you can’t type it in the search bar.

Semiotics and Visual Cues

                The Game website has one major semiotic/visual que which I mentioned earlier, the word GAME at the top of the site. This is a very powerful visual que in my opinion because my little cousin who is 3 can’t read or write but instantly recognizes the game logo with buying new games for her DS.

The majority of people don’t read names they associate the logo with the name as logos are intended to do. The game logo does both, it shows the name and is used as a general logo. There is also other things on the website that suggest it is www.game.co.uk such as the purple banners on a white background, it is very simple and doesn’t distract the audience from the products they are trying to sell.

Forms

                The layout and design of this website is very clear and simple, it also looks quite sophisticated to say is marketing games un-like the Game Station website which looks over cluttered and harder to navigate. The pages on the website are very consistent and look clean, there is some blank spaces left on the website but I think this is quite good because it looks quite modern and well thought out. There is a sufficient amount of text throughout the site which reviews games and explains about purchasing and pre-ordering prices. The entire website uses a sans-serif font it uses this type of font because it is easy on the eyes and more formal and easy to read, this is an important factor in the design of any media product that uses text.

Navigation and Usability

The navigation around the website is very good, more often than not it does take more than 3 clicks to get there but the options to refine your search is easier than scrolling through pages of games to get to where you want. The usability is very good and can be easily navigated even by those who don’t really use the internet. There is also a clear and concise site map that is mainly visual based with photographs and images. Also all the links on the website are very good, they are all active and relevant unlike some websites that send you to a completely different place.

Limitations

                The only real limitation with this website is the speed that it loads at this is only due to broadband speed although the size of the website is also a contributing factor, the size of the game website is 66594bytes on the home page where as on the “games” tab it is 88714bytes due to the animations. The server for the website is obviously very good as I have never heard any report about the website going down to traffic and they must have a lot of people browsing the website because is it a very popular video game retailer. The website requires no plug-ins so is very user friendly and the only plug-in that it would ever require is flash player for external YouTube links. The legal and ethical constraints are as good as it can get with games, by this I mean that they still stock and promote games such as the controversial Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in which there is a level/mission where you kill civilians in an airport, this to some people is un-ethical because civilians are being killed and www.game.co.uk are selling and promoting it. On the other hand so are most other game retailers and websites.

Overall

                Overall I think that Game.co.uk is a very good, easily to navigate and relevant website. It is everything you want a website to be. The audience is very vast and not matter what social background they come from or if they are good with computers they can all easily navigate the website. In my opinion the Game.co.uk website is defiantly one of the best game retailers out there and it provides all the relevant information you want to know such as the reviews and prices or new and retro games and consoles. It also ticks all the boxes that you would expect in a website such as clear and relevant content, clever and well used semiotics and visual cues, well thought out forms and layouts and easily to use navigation.

Reveiw By Jordan Szabo



Remains OF You

check this band out... at http://www.remainsofyou.co.uk/. "Remains of you are a new upcoming band from Barnsley, South yorkshitre they are a completely different sound to the relatively chilled out LAST, being angled more to Metal, but with some occasional crossover punk. Theyre definitely not for the feint hearted, with some screamed vocals and siren like guitars, they turn the dance floor into a mini mosh pit. However, they can still belt out melodies that can get the heart soaring.'' - Our write up by Sally Altass

http://sallysgigreviews.com/2011/01/new-years-eve-bomfest-and-walkabout-celebration-ft-last-remains-of-you-and-the-northern-swagger/

Alright imthe Drummer from Remains Of You. This is where it begins Looking forward to booking gigs with different venues Bring on 2011. We are a 5 piece hardcore metal band with a tint of melody from Barnsley UK. were had our first gig on the 9th December 2010 at Pulse bar, went well! and we got another gig on the 31st of December at the walkabout... should have some more gigs coming up in 2011 and try make a name for ourselves. We are influenced by many different artist from different genres, but, were hoping to go for our own style to make us stand out from the rest so yeah, best see all you guys at our gigs if not then Ruddys gonna be huntin' you down... stay clean guys :)

Vocals - Con Green
Guitar1 - Kingsley Ruddsworth
Guitar2 - Conner Grant
Bass - Joe "Faggot" Folan
Drums - Jordan  Szabo
Manager - James Green (ikki rat productions)