Today, I will evaluate 3 websites from www.awwwards.com and share what I like about them.
Universal-Love – The site is very colorful and displays a rainbow theme. The animation transition from one webpage to the other is fun and exciting. Clicking the “About” button transitions with a psychedelic heart and a disco feeling. The homepage is also great and shows a clear theme using the colors of the rainbow. The buttons that play music also have a hearts animation while the music plays which adds some fun to the page. I also like the fluidity of the rainbow on the page.
If I were to improve something, I would change the font. It’s a bit too plain for a site like this. I understand the desire to keep it simple compared to the other activity of the page, however simple does not equal plain. A simple yet more interesting font would keep with the theme of the page. As it stands when I begin reading the font takes me away from the fun, environment that has been created.
Oat the Goat – I like the language option when I first visit the site and then the option to read or be read to. The music that plays is quite soothing and transported me into the great outdoors. The page opens up by scrolling down and gives a sense of being dropped into this new space or just arriving at a new location. The page has a very clean design with the menu button as a small icon off to the side. When clicked, the menu drops down into a full page which creates a distinct separation between the creative content and information. There is an option toe change the language and reading selections so that’s great. The website is fun and easy to use.
One thing I would change would be the need to keep clicking after the narrator has read a few lines. A “read to me” option means I don’t want to click unless there’s something new to explore otherwise I feel the story should be read straight through like an audiobook. There are other ways to make the site interactive, this feels more like a chore than interaction.
Lawrence – This is the quite possible best restaurant website I have seen. The landing page has pictures of the restaurant, farms, cocktails, knives and dishes with a navigation table that remains centered on the page. The top 3 buttons on the menu link to the three restaurants Lawrence owns. They all share the theme of pictures of the restaurant as the background but with a different for each restaurant. The Navbar is placed on the left side and the informations such as location, hours and menu are centered on the page. The boxes with information are black serif font on a white background which gives the feeling of an actual menu in a restaurant. The informational pages also share this simple yet elegant format. There’s also a button to change the language on the page at anytime to French or English.
It’s really hard to find something I don’t like about this webpage and design. It’s really fluid and easy to use and I am drawn to want to try the product which is the mark of a really good website. I am sure that some improvement could be made on this site however I am left with a feeling that I could learn so much from this design.