Author Archive
NME Final Presentation
Hello Everyone,
Here is our final presentation and redesign of NME.
Some screenshots of the old NME for reference; specifically, the home page, reviews page, and two artist pages. In addition, an old cover of NME from 1981 that we used for aesthetic inspiration.
And now, our redesigns, starting with the homepage in two states (showing some effects of interaction in the second); two reviews pages; two artists pages; the multimedia page in two states (with some effects of interaction in the second), and a video page.
NME homepage and multimedia
Homepage and Multimedia page. Since I was working on revising the home page, I made some last minute changes to the look of both pages. As a result, we will have some inconsistency in the look of our pages this week, which will be fixed next week.
No tag for this post.Alexandra’s NME Design
yo, here it is…
NME: Media Hub Assessment
Hi all,
I’m working on one aspect of our wireframe for tomorrow — the part dealing with how media items (video, music, photos, podcasts, etc) are displayed and used on the site. Because I found this a bit complicated, I wrote out the current user scenario when dealing with media on NME, identified the main problems, and brainstormed how these problems might be fixed. I’m including my write-up below, as I think it will clarify the decisions I make in my wireframe. Not that anyone really has time to or wants to read it...
Media on NME
And here’s our wireframe.
No tag for this post.NME: some current problems
Hi all,
Khurry, Justin and I have chosen to redesign the British music news site NME. This is the site for the weekly publication of the same name, which bills itself as a source for agenda setting music news and reviews, as well as the Uk’s most comprehensive gig guide. The website contains an overwhelming amount of information and features: in addition to displaying the latest music news, reviews, videos and tracks, it also displays all gigs, concerts and festivals occurring in the UK (it provides an entire sub-site dedicated to UK music festivals), lets you search for and buy tickets, sells clothing, cds and other items on the NME online store, has a media player, radio and TV show, gives out free prizes, and last but not least, provides a ‘myNME’ feature that gives the user their own ‘blog site’ from which to post comments, reviews, choose favorite artists, videos and songs, and connect with other people on myNME. phew. That’s a lot of stuff.
The website succeeds at providing the user with A LOT of music-related information. But this information isn’t organized successfully, making the navigation seem maze-like and underplaying key services that the site provides.
Here are three specific issues that we’ve identified:
1. The home page is organized into columns displaying information from all different parts of the site: features, reviews, music news, videos, photo gallery, NME store, etc. This makes sense for a homepage, which should give the user an idea of the depth of the site. However, this type of organization continues on every page of the site — that is, along with the main content, each page contains many different small boxes with links such as NME Video pick of the day, Win Music Prizes, NME Picture Galleries, NME Store, Latest News, Newsletter Signup, In the Magazine, Music Tracks, etc..etc. It’s overwhelming. With so many call-outs to other parts of the site, most of which are unrelated to the actual content of the page, its easy to forget about why one went to that specific page in the first place. Of course, a site as dense as this does need to have callouts to other features. But I think those callouts should always be related to the content of the current page, thus enriching it rather than leading the user’s attention elsewhere. So, for example, on the New Music Site, I think the entire right hand column of links/callouts can be eliminated, because they just detract from the actual content of that page.
2. Currently there are different pages for music videos, NME radio, the media player, information about NME TV, RSS feeds, and other media related items. This scatters related information and makes it difficult to find. I think that these elements should be consolidated into a ‘media hub’ page, giving the user all of these features, or links to them, on one page. This relates to the first point: if you eliminate all the links to unrelated parts of the site on a given page, then you can add links to the related parts, thus organizing info so that it is enriching rather than scattered.
3. One quick last point: the magazine bills itself as UK’s most comprehensive gig guide. But on the homepage there is no prominent link or search bar for tickets or gigs. I didn’t even know that you could buy tickets on this site until I had mined it for at least 10 minutes. So I think this feature should have a callout on the home page. There will be more space for that if other parts are removed…but Khurry will comment on that…
OK, now that I’ve written a %&$ essay, I will sign off for the night
az
No tag for this post.Website Redesign
Hi all,
Khurry, Justin and I have decided to redesign the music news site NME. The homepage is poorly organized and confusing to navigate, and this trend continues throughout the site. For example, try typing a band in the search bar on the homepage. It gives you a long list of random links instead of taking you to a more organized page on that artist. In general, there’s a lot to improve here.
No tag for this post.Graphic News—Final Presentation
Hi all,
Here is my final
No tag for this post.
GraphicNews v.3
HI all,
Since yesterday I made a lot of subtle revisions to my default, and carried those revisions over to the rest of my design. Most of all, I was trying to make the design look more ‘widget-y,’ which required me to learn a lot of new things in Photoshop. I’m still learning, and most of all had problems with the menu bars on the info page. I think I’m getting closer, though. Here they are:
Graphic News default v.2
Hi all,
I’m behind right now with everything in my life, this included, unfortunately. Hopefully someone will still be able to give me some feedback on this before Friday. Thanks.
New wireframe: infoarch_graphicnew
Graphicnews: Wireframe and Default
Hi everyone,
Here is my first stab at this widget.
Click for wireframe.
I also made this a widget that searches for infographics (along with op-ed illustration as mentioned), since I also scan newspapers for data visualizations.
Interesting data visualization links that I found tonight, if anyone likes this stuff:
‘Cool Infographics’ Blog
FlowingData Site
Things I want to discuss in class:
-Thumbnail with click vs. full image and no click
-Option menu (sorting by source and topic)
on 
