Website Comparison: Forms

Anti Monkey Butt vs. Dove

Anti Monkey Butt's website uses forms on their STORE and CONTACT US pages. On the STORE page, a form is used for each of the products they are selling, which allows the customer to type in how many bottles of Anti Monkey Butt they want. The forms are initially set to have 1 in the quantity box, but the customer has to click on the "add" button in order for the product(s) to be added to their shopping cart. Within this page there is an APPAREL link and this page has more forms. The other form used is a pulldown menu used for the customer to select what size t-shirt they want. This only allows them to choose 1 size. On their CONTACT US page they used text fields and a text area form to allow the visitor to type in the required information for the questions. Also, they have included a Submit button which relays the info back to the people who want your input.

Dove's body lotion site does not use any forms on any of their pages.

Website Redesign: PCTC

Pioneer Career & Technology Center

I will be redesigning a website for my Web Page Design class in the next two weeks. I plan to redesign the Pioneer Career & Technology Center website because I don't like the layout of it and the design as a whole could be better. Also, there is a problem with the animated gif on the home page that I want to change/fix. I like the idea of it, but I don't like how the info on the right doesn't move or change with the images. 

I plan to reorganize the home page and two of the linked pages, possibly the "About" page and the "High School" page.  I will also change the navigation. I don't like how the nav links have pull down tabs with more links. These links are on the nav link page and don't need to be listed twice. The color scheme isn't bad, but I might play around with different colors.

The other reason for choosing this site, other than it needs redesigned, is that the school is near my house and my mom works there. My mom even went to school here when she was in high school. Everyday, buses and kids who go to school there drive by my house. Also, it's where I went to preschool! I did not attend school here, myself, but is still somewhat personal. 

Website Comparison: Animation

Anti-Monkey Butt vs. Dove

There are two different types of animation used in websites: animated gif and flash animation. Anti Monkey Butt uses both. An animated gif is used on the picture of the monkey on the left side of the page. If you click on the image a video pops up. The video itself is a flash animation. Dove only uses flash animation. It is used on the drop of lotion that falls, creating a ripple, and on the text that appears after the lotion falls.

To find out how to determine what, if any, animation was used, right click or control click on the image. If is says "Save As" then it is an animated gif, if it says "Adobe Flash Player..." then it is a flash animation.

Website Comparison: CSS

Anti Monkey Butt vs. Dove

This blog is about how these two websites have used CSS. To view the source of the website, simply click on the "VIEW" tab in your menu bar and select view source (make sure to have the website you want to view the source of open). Both Anti Monkey Butt and Dove use external style sheets. AMB primarily uses classes, which are used for stylizing specific attributes on a page, and Dove primarily uses advanced tags, which are mostly used for links.

Website Comparison: Navigation

Anti Monkey Butt vs. Dove

This entry is about the navigation and what features were used such as rollovers, indicators, and if color and images were used. Anti Monkey Butt's navigation is white, but when you roll your mouse over the text, it turns yellow and underlined. More rollovers are used on other text, however, the only difference when you roll over it is an underline appears (color does not change). Dove's navigation is exactly the same, however, the colors are different. The text is still white, but when you roll over the text, it becomes the gold color used through the page. There are no other rollovers in the website.

Website Comparison: Background Texture & Color Usage

Anti Monkey Butt vs. Dove

In this entry I will discuss how the background texture/color and color usage enhance and/or detracts from the web page. Neither website has a background texture, but use color instead. Both use a white background. Anti Monkey Butt uses white because a lot of color is used throughout the rest of the page and white balances it nicely. Dove uses white because they are known for being clean and simple, which illustrates their products. Dove does use a background image in the bottom right hand corner of the page, which could be considered a texture. This image is of rippled water, which also illustrates the feeling Dove's products portray.

Colors used by Anti Monkey Butt Powder are based on its product and mascot. It uses red based on the color of chafing, which is what the product treats, brown, which is the color of the monkey (their mascot), and yellow as an accent color. The heading is primarily red because it is a prominent color that catches the consumer's eyes. Brown is used as top and bottom bars where the text is white. Yellow boxes help the consumer find the info for the product. Again, red is used for the sub-heading and name of product. The main text is black, being the easiest to read against a light background.

Dove used company colors which are navy blue, gold, and white. The heading is blue, since it is on a white background, the heading should be prominent and, therefore, a darker color is obvious. The sub-heading is gold, but still easily readable against the white. The coupon button is blue with white text (inverted) so that the consumer identifies where to go to get the coupon. A blue bar at the top indicates the corporations name and the navigation. At the bottom are other informational links regarding Dove. There is an image of a woman sitting in her underwear, showing her bare skin, to show how healthy Dove body lotion has made it, along with other pictures behind her of healthy skin. These images show a lot of color, but because it is mostly flesh tone, it balances well with the rest of the page.

Website Comparison: Type Usage

Anti Monkey Butt vs. Dove

The Anti Monkey Butt homepage uses all serif text except the copyright information at the bottom of the page. Hierarchy is very evident based on color and size of the text. The largest text is the headline, the company name, in red. Where the company name is repeated (sub-headlines), the same red is used. The sub-headlines are smaller than the headline, but larger than the body text, which is black. Serif type in black is more easily readable against a light background, which is what this site has used for the body text. The copyright text, however, is white, sans-serif type on a dark background, which is more difficult to read. Being that the copyright text is not as important as the body text, the website can get away with this.

The Dove body lotion website maintains the same sans-serif type throughout, except for the Dove logo. Again, hierarchy is evident based on the size and color of the text, even though the same font is used throughout. There really is no body text. The text for other sites linked to this website are smaller and placed at the bottom of the page because they are not as important as the rest of the type. They linked type at the top is small as well, but they are related to the current page, so they are at the top, more easily found by the viewer. The type may be sans-serif, but because it is large and dark on a white background it is still easily readable.