Jasmin's Site

jasminsun.com

Thu's website

http://thu-pham.blogspot.com/

Personal Website

I am so excited to finally graduate!! Here is my Electronic Personal Portfolio. Thank you for all your help =)

Destinee's Style Blog

Enjoy!

The Style Scribe

Pauline's Personal Website

Click here .

Toastmasters by Joshua Avelar and Tim Garlitz

You can see our redesign for the UT Toastmasters site here.

My Portfolio

Portfolio

KBE Design - web project

Here's the link to my web project: KBE Design: www. kbedesign.blogger.com

Bill Bowman Personal Website

https://webspace.utexas.edu/wjb327/personal.html

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My Personal Website

kurtito.com

Ryan Murphy - Gettin' personal

http://rdmurphy.net/

Website- Patricia Rodriguez, Victoria Garcia

diaryofayoungblackmale.com

Yep. That's it.

Site

www.djluippold.com

My website!

http://rachellevi.com

web site proposal - Erdman

Check out my Power Point proposal here: https://webspace.utexas.edu/aee338/proposal.ppt

Google AdSense: How to get ad code

Google Analytics Interface

Jasmin's Metrics Ledes and Headlines

1) Despite the high number of national news websites available today, Austinites still spend the most time looking at local news sites.

2) Austinites spend more than 90 minutes a day on the Internet, but less than 10 of those minutes are spent reading the news.

3) Survey shows Austinites still get their news from the Austin American-Stateman.

Web Metrics Results

1) Yahoo! US News, Statesman.com, CNN, MSNBC and Austin360.com are the top websites in Austin.

2) The metrics that I would typically look at are the average daily visitors and minutes per visitor. These two metrics, when considered together, paint a pretty good picture of how a site is performing. Overall though, to really understand a site’s performance in depth you need to look at all of the metrics.

3)
Average Pages per Visitor:
1)KVUE
2)CNN
3)NEWS8AUSTIN

Average Minutes Per Visitor:
1)KVUE
2)CNN
3)NEWS8AUSTIN

4) Local news outlets land 5 in top 10 most visited sites in Austin
Austinites favor KVUE over other local news outlets
More Austinites look to Yahoo! for news than they do the Statesman

Webmetrics Results

Possible Headlines:

“Yahoo News is the most popular news site for Austin web users”


“ Despite high penetration numbers for Yahoo! News, local news website keep Austinites engaged for longer periods of time ”


“KVUE news website keeps Austinites engaged for almost an hour, 45 minutes longer than local competitors ”

Austin Analytics

1. The Austin-American Statesman beats out most competitors in providing news to Austinites. It even beats out the Chronicle.

2. Austinites choose Yahoo! News, the Austin-American Statesman, and CNN as locations to get their news first.

3. Austinites spend more time on KVUE's website (hours) than on Yahoo! News (minutes), despite Yahoo! News leading overall.

Web Metrics Headlines

Local news sites such as the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE receive more traffic than national counterparts such as MSNBC and CNN.

Sports Illustrated, with 57,000 visitors per day and 9.4 minutes per usage day, more popular than USA today Sports, with 15,000 viewers per day and 4.7 minutes per usage day.

Despite average number of visitors, 46,000 per day, KVUE dominates time, with 57.6 average minutes per usage day.

News Websites using comScoreMediaMetrix

Top Web sites.

• Yahoo! News
• STATESMAN.COM
• AUSTIN360.COM
• CNN
• MSNBC.COM
• NEWS8AUSTIN.COM
• AOL News
• USATODAY Sites
• KXAN.COM
• KVUE.COM

Identify useful metrics and their level of analysis.

• Average minutes per visitor
• Total General News: 84.2
• Yahoo! News: 18.9
• KVUE.COM: 223.9 (3.7 hours)

Rank the top news sites among Austin Internet users by different metrics (i.e., sort the data if necessary). Perform simple calculations if necessary.

Most Visited News Sites (by unique visitors)

1. Yahoo! News (251,000)

2. STATESMAN.COM (177,000)

3. AUSTIN360.COM (111,000)

4. CNN (161,000)

5. MSNBC.COM (125,000)

6. NEWS8AUSTIN.COM (89,000)

7. AOL News (76,000)

8. USATODAY Sites (58,000)

9. KXAN.COM (48,000)

10. KVUE.COM (46,000)

Write 3 headlines or leads for the local newspaper.

• Most Austin users spend multiple hours in average on KVUE compared to 18.9 minutes on Yahoo! News
• Statesman.com rank number one most visited local news sites
• Five local online news made Top 10 Most Visited News Sites

Analytics assignment

1. The top 3 websites are Yahoo! U.S. News, Austin American-Statesman, CNN and MSNBC.com and Austin360.com.

2. Some useful metrics are
         • average minutes spent per day or per visitor - helps show which sites are "stickiest"
         • pages viewed per visitor - another way to show if visitors are "bouncing" away
3. Top news sites in Austin by
        • Avg. Pages per visitor:
           1) KVUE
           2) CNN
           3) News 8 Austin

        • Avg. minutes spent per day:
           1) KVUE
           2) News 8 Austin
           3) CNN

        •Avg. minutes per visitor:
            1) KVUE
            2) CNN,
            3) News 8 Austin

Headlines:
1. Austinites read most news from Yahoo sites
2. KVUE ranks as top local news web site in Austin
3. Austin Internet users spend less than 6 minutes a day at Statesman.com

Analytics excercise

1) Austinites show interest in local news over local entertainment online.

Recent online traffic data shows Statesman.com, the flagship Web site of the Austin American-Statesman, has a greater total of unique visitors as well an average of 10 more visitors a day than the daily newspaper’s entertainment information site Austin360.com.

2) Local network television affiliates at a gridlock in determining online traffic winner.

Austin’s local ABC affiliate KVUE has slightly more online visitors than NBC local affiliate KXAN, while KXAN has recorded a greater total of unique visitors.

3) Local cable news channel beats-out network affiliates in online traffic.

Time Warner Cable’s News 8 Austin, a 24-hour news channel catered to Austin and its surrounding areas, has recorded a total of unique visitors to its Web site almost twice that of the ABC or NBC local affiliates.

google analytics

More Austinites prefer Yahoo! to Austin-American Statesman for their daily news.

The Statesman beats The Chronicle.

A quarter of Austinites visit news sites each day.

Austin360 comprises 50% of Statesman's online readership

Austinites only spend 2% of monthly online usage on news sites

News8Austin garners double the amount of web users of its competitor KVUE

Headlines

Headlines based on data:

Nearly 25% of all Austin American-Statesman online readership access the Statesman jobs section daily.

Austin online news readers prefer major news sites over Statesman, Yahoo captures over 30% of audience.

Austin Chronicle trails most major news sites on readership in Austin, capturing only 3% of audience.

Online Traffic Data

1. Local residents spend the most time on CNN.com

2. Yahoo News has largest reach among local internet users

3. News8Austin.com averages more minutes per visitor than most major news outlets among local residents

What we liked in Austin, 2006 - Google Analytics

1. Identify the top Web sites.

Yahoo! News, Cox Newspapers (Statesman.com + AUSTIN360.com), CNN/Subsidiaries (CNN.com + SI.com), MSNBC.com

2. Identify useful metrics and their level of analysis.

By looking at the average daily visitors and the time they typically spend on each site, you can see that ubiquity can go a long way. CNN and MSNBC are known to be a prominent national news outlets, and no matter the location of the viewer people are drawn to them. The Statesman gets the benefit of the being the cities newspaper and pulls people in that way, but the smaller television-based web sites struggle to outdo each other. They are known for their television presence, not their web one.

3. Rank the top news sites among Austin Internet users by different metrics (i.e., sort the data if necessary). Perform simple calculations if necessary.

KVUE.com - Average Minutes per Day

- KVUE has a ridiculous number for this at almost a hour a day. I would almost think there is a problem with the data, but KVUE might just have a very loyal customer base.

Statesman.com - Average Daily Visitors

- Statesman.com commands a healthy influx of visitors to their site, and leads the pack of Austin-based media in this regard.

CNN.com/MSNBC.com vs. Statesman.com/news8austin.com - Average Minutes per Page

- The local news sites may get more attention from Austinites, but they certainly do not hang around each page as long. This leads me to believe that we are prone to glance through local news, and actually focus on the big national stories.

4. Write 3 headlines or leads for the local newspaper.

- Statesman.com leads the local news pack, but visitors do not stick around
- Austin 360 gains significant visitor base
- Television news sites keep visitors enthralled

Analytic Fun

1. Identify the top Web sites.

Yahoo News is the top site for Austinites. CNN and the Statesman are close behind.

2. Identify useful metrics and their level of analysis.

All the metrics show a piece of the whole pie that is internet usage. The "stickiness" of the site as measured by average time per day is what I consider the most important. If a person clicks around but does so very quickly without taking in the site, it will be less meaningful.

3. Rank the top news sites among Austin Internet users by different metrics (i.e., sort the data if necessary). Perform simple calculations if necessary.

I ranked them by Average minutes per visitor and Belo/KVUE came out on top with a whopping 157 and 223 minutes. This really surprised me because that is a lot of time.

Belo was only second place for total minutes though. Yahoo was on top with 1,718 total minutes, winning by a distance.

4. Write 3 headlines or leads for the local newspaper.

Recent study shows viewers love KVUE.
AOL falling behind the curve in internet viewers.
Yahoo is at the top when it comes to internet news.

Typography for whom?

Let's take a look at this interesting site: Typography for lawyers

http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/

Mac tips for PC users

Here is a friendly summary of some nice tips:
http://www.morgandayphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Helpful_Mac_Tips_Shortcuts_for_PC_users_.pdf

A full list of Mac keyboard shortcuts:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

Instructions must die

The following questionnaire is designed to provide us with information that will help us improve the site and make it more relevant to your needs. Please select your answers from the drop-down menus and radio buttons below. The questionnaire should only take you 2-3 minutes to complete.

At the bottom of this form you can choose to leave your name, address, and telephone number. If you leave your name and number, you may be contacted in the future to participate in a survey to help us improve this site.

If you have comments or concerns that require a response please contact Customer Service.

Survey starts here.

Web Critique - The Best and Worst of the Web

I decided to take a look at two magazine sites I'm pretty familiar with. I chose New York Magazine's site, simply because I like the content and read it often, and then I chose Texas Monthly's website because I intern there this fall and am thus exposed to it several times a week for work.

New York Magazine

The Good:
I love this site's content! It's so full of information; I think I looked at this site for everything when I was in the city, and I'm still addicted. There really is a little bit of everything here, from hard news, to fashion information, to dining guides. Design-wise, I feel like the site has lots of bold color choices, and fun yet unobnoxious graphics. It is also easy enough to navigate, and I like that there are drop-down menus with additional subheaders of whatever you could possibly be interested in that has to deal with fashion, entertainment, or what have you.

The Bad:
There is simply way too much going on. The tons of information thing is definitely a double-edged sword. While it's great that there's so much to read, it can certainly get a little overwhelming if you don't know what you're looking for on the site. If I didn't know anything about nymag.com and was directed here, I think I would leave immediately because all the information they show you on the front page is incredibly intimidating.

Texas Monthly

The Good:
Again, the information is a big draw to me. While it definitely is not as visually exciting as the New York Magazine site, the information seems to be a lot more streamlined, and certainly feels a lot more accessible than the former. Also, the simple black and white color scheme is pleasing on the eye, and the fact that all the text is adequately spaced helps to reduce strain on the eyes. Definitely one of my favorite magazine sites, aesthetically speaking. The menu is also very easy to navigate; everything is found either at the top menu (magazine content) or the one at the bottom (magazine production info).

The Bad:
Perhaps a bit bland, but other than that, I really don't see much wrong!

Web critique

I have chosen to evaluate the new layout of the popular user-based content sharing site Digg.com

Good
Digg's new site is soft and aesthetically pleasing. Using warm, light colors such as soft blue and lime green on a white background are good for a browsing site like Digg. If the site's main goal was to direct the eye to a specific place or it had a central purpose then stronger colors would more appropriate, but because it is intended to be for easy looking then soft and mild colors work. The curved edges also help achieve the leisurely theme.



Bad
The light colors are taken to a bit of an extreme, making the page a little too leisurely and borderline uninteresting. The page is very repetitive and its wishy-washy nature doesn't make me want to explore, and nothing stands out.



Ugly
Similar to the old Digg, sponsored sites are integrated within the pages that are prominent due to their popularity, which is clever marketing because it leads passive viewers to believe sponsored sites are popular too, but it is deceptive for the same reason.

Good, Bad and Ugly

I am kind of addicted to movie trailers; I watch them obsessively. I've used a variety of websites and I am going to compare two "good" ones (why would I use a bad movie trailer site?). There are good and bad qualities to both of these web sites so I will discuss some of them.

My favorite site is Apple's movie trailer site. First off, it's highly aesthetically pleasing. It is not inundated with advertisements; the pictures of movie posters are set in simple rows and the format doesn't change when you click to the next row of posters. You can change the order of the posters by release date, popularity, etc. The side bars are simple to navigate too. They offer more information, in lists, about movies currently at the box office.

One problem that I have with Apple's movie site (which is an issue that I have with most Apple software/products) is that when you search for something, the search isn't exclusive to the trailers site. If i were to search for "Karate," the site would come up with Ipad and Iphone applications, songs for your Ipod, etc. Even the top bar of the site is links to other apple products to purchase.

Another site I use a lot is traileraddict.com

It has a similar layout to the Apple site, but has a lot more advertisements along the sidebars which make the site more cumbersome. There is, however, a trailer search right at the top of the page to make it easy to find something that you may only have a few words to describe.

Another feature I like on the website is the "film database" functions. You can easily search for old trailers or clips with one click.

More generally, I like that Trailer addict's website is more gears towards movie news, clips, and trailers whereas Apple site is all about Apple products.

Website Picks

I chose two band websites to illustrate how important clarity, design and usability are.

The differences are really subtle, but I think it's the small things that can make a site truly great and user-appropriate.

One of my favorites is from the band She and Him.

I enjoy using the She and Him website because it has:

• a highly pleasant design that adequately reflects the direction and interests of the group and their fans,
• an extremely usable front page with clear and large buttons that are easily understood by the viewer,
• fun use of pictures and music player,
  
• and enough content to actually flesh out their page correctly.
  

One of my not-so-favorites is from the band Bloc Party.

I don't enjoy navigating the Bloc Party website because it doesn't have:

• clear options of where to go within the site and
  
• a very visible menu.

Not having a clear cut menu on a page makes it almost excruciating for me to read. The menu doesn't have to be obscenely large or stereotypically placed, it just has to be visible and useful.

What I like- and what I don't

Well hello thar everyone,

I decided that I would share both a website that I hate and one that I appreciate a lot more.

Let's start with the one that's gotta go:

Lamborghini.

I know I know, it's the roaring and timeless Lamborghini- which is exactly why I wish their home page wasn't so humdrum. Fire engine red Murcielago anyone? Please, don't be under the impression that it stops there, things get better. You have to click through two almost three subheadings sometimes before you even get to their video/photo content. The website is just downright counter-intuitive and annoying. I actually don't mind the monochromatic I'mreallyclassy look, but it's just completely snooty to ignore the value of putting an image right next to the specs and other information. I was really baffled by how much clicking you have to do before you can be visually stimulated- especially for a brand that's known for good looks.

On to what's a whole lot better:

Bentley. Ah yes.

You mean I get pictures as soon as I'm on the website?! They shouldn't have!

But honestly, from the time you hit the website you are reminded of why everyone who has a Bentley is so awesome, and why you're not. As with any website, I really want a visual to draw me in, and Bentley takes care of that straightaway. Also, the image seen in the snapshot above is actually a clip from a video showing the unveiling of their latest beauty, so you immediately have video content as well. I really am a person of simplicity when it comes to navigating websites, so it was oh-so-refreshing to have only four tabs and then drop-downs with the appropriate information. In fact, in spite of all the wonderful images and video, the best part of this website is it's functionality.

-Destinee

Web Critique: Sprinkles Cupcakes

Click here to get to Sprinkles Cupcakes website.


I chose this website to critique because I really like the design and contents they use.


1. Usability

• Tabs: they are organized and easy to find the right page you're looking for. 
• Layout: no need to scroll up and down to find something; the only downside is that the content is on the left side and there is a huge white space on right (I think it's the screen resolution...)
• Accessibility: there are links to social media (facebook, twitter), which allow them to connect customers through various ways

2. Design

• I really like the colors and fonts they use
• Simple design
• Great images!

-Pauline

web site critique-Erdman

Capital Metro's web site

This isn't the most exciting web site, but it's extremely functional and has great usability. The layout is clear, and navigating the site isn't complicated (see the side menu).

The body text on the main page is a little lengthy, but usually pertinent.

I use the site all the time and especially like the interactive features like Trip Planner and other options.

Publish Post

The Best and the Worst of the Web - Ryan's Picks

When it comes to determining if a website is "usable" or not, I look for a layout, design and navigation that provides an incentive to stay.

The Good

In the "good" category, I believe the food blog Serious Eats is a great example of a website design and layout that both is functional and attractive.

Each subsection of Serious Eats is nicely presented at the top via tabs, emulating an old fashioned recipe Rolodex. Although rotators are typically the bane of my existence, some slick Javascript implementation stuffs a lot of information in one space, it really helps.

Food always prompts great conversation, so highlighting the recent comments in the sidebar is great.

The Bad

In the "not-so-good" category, no site makes me want to pull my hair out more than The Huffington Post.

I could have a entirely separate discussion about the content, but I rarely get far enough to see any of it thanks to the sensory overload their front page throws at you. It's like it never ends. I'm a sucker for organization, and I have trouble discerning any sort of navigation, be it by time of publish or type of story (outside of the little headers) on the HuffPo front page.

The article pages themselves have their own problems. Any site that lets the main content get so distant from the comment section is doing a poor job of maintaining cohesiveness.

Worst Web Site

The George Hutchins campaign really dropped the ball with their Web site. A tool meant to organize supporters and attract new voters definitely swings hard and misses badly.

All of the links on the Web site are absolutely conflicting with the background. There's no consistency on the page, no defiant "look." It just looks like a huge scramble of images. It's hard to find any information on this site because you're just too distracted with all the colors and random imagery.

The site's webmaster makes a valiant effort in including some tube video clips, but they seems to be in random order. The videos are the only redeeming quality about this site, especially since all the text really detracts any reader from paying attention.


See George's site for yourself.

Poor Website Design

I found this website that was created this year for current Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux.

I chose this site because, despite its recent creation, it looks as if it were designed at some point in the mid-1990's. In addition to the text, which is centered in the middle of the page, the site also includes poorly laid out photos and an unattractive red on yellow color scheme.

In addition, the text is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. Some of the sentences are so poorly arranged that it is totally incomprehensible. The author intended for site to convey his political leaning, yet I would imagine it would only lead to utter confusion as to the direction of his campaign platform.

A Look at Mashable's Design and Usability

The site that I am looking at is the popular Social Media News Blog, Mashable. Overall, I like their site a lot. It is easy to read, has plenty of multimedia and is informative.

The usability of the site is very effective. The main page lists the most recent articles, but you can also click “trending” and find the most popular articles. Popularity is measured in a number of ways including facebook mentions and retweets. This method of ranking sites is very effective and gets the best news "organically" rather than by an editor deciding.

The design is good. I believe a good design doesn’t distract from the webpage and this one does that very well. It is simple clean and allows for interactivity and expansion.

There is a risk of going overboard with widgets. There is a lot of different things happening on the website, but overall I think it is a great site.

Poor Web Design

The following website is a total mess

The layout is terrible and is not pleasing to the eye. However, the usability is not as bad as the actual layout. It is o-k in the sense that it allows you to click a car you might want to look into and it expands the picture...but if I was actually trying to purchase a car, I would be freaked out by how this site looks visually that I would probably leave the site right away. Also, the way it is designed makes the site look not legitimate, so I would not think this was a good website to look for a car.

-Rachel Levi

Worst/Best Baking Blog Web Design

I'm a sucker for food blogs, especially baking ones. I already had a favorite blog in mind (because I go to it often for baking inspiration), but had to scrolled through a list of the Top 50 baking blogs to find a poorly designed one.




I considered Baker's Hours to have the most confusing and poorly designed website. Had it not been for the name, I wouldn't have been able to figure out what was going on there. The sidebars were next to the text which were next to advertisement which just made my head spin. When I scrolled down, I noticed that there weren't any text breakers. All the entries were just jumbled together. I also disliked the banner because the orange colored links were almost impossible to see.

On a brighter note, here is my absolute favorite baking website:

I love the design of Bakerella. The banner is cute, the columns and boxes are nicely spaced out, and the pictures are amazing quality. I love the rounded corners of some of the photos and boxes as well as the pink theme; it made the site look cohesive.

Website Design

I picked the following website because it is not very visually aesthetic, difficult to navigate through, and inconsistent as a whole: architect.org

Terrible Usability and Design

I have chosen this site to critique, because I feel that it is an example of a poorly designed website. The overall structure and layout of the site make it very difficult to navigate, the text is cluttered and the photos need to be resized, among many other things. I'm sure there is a ton of great information on this site, it is just hard to find.

I look forward to critiquing this site in detail during class on Wednesday.


Kurt M