CEMCEMA

Three websites that can teach you something new

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The internet is cluttered with websites of every genre, but there are a few that stand out for me. They expand my horizons beyond the books in my library and make dull research come alive, feeding my imagination and transporting me to new worlds.

If a news item about a scientific discovery sends me searching for an in depth discussion, I turn to pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/ where I will find photos, videos and facts to explain the findings.

When I want to know more about the people of a distant part of the world about which I have minimal acquaintance, I was accustomed to pore through my collection of National Geographic magazines or a couple of encyclopedias to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Now I fire up my computer and plug into www.nationalgeographic.com/ There I find all the insightful encounters with the people of the region that the magazine provided, but in a more accessible and current form.

Finally, when references are made to past events during a news broadcast, or I am evaluating TV shows and films based on historical figures, I always like to check out their historical accuracy. A great place to do that is on the discovery website: http://dsc.discovery.com/guides/history/history.html

Four general characteristics of award-winning sites

admin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Like stars themselves, star websites need a certain “it” factor to shine. They need to make viewers want to come back for more. While award winning sites are each unique in content and design, there are general characteristics that they share.

The best websites avoid unnecessary clutter. Having unneeded frames or graphics will just annoy visitors. Music, which many websites have set to play upon loading, is often superfluous and can drive guests away. Much like jewelry or makeup the elements that make up a website should not clash or have to fight for attention.

Another important element is making sure everything works. It seems obvious but even professional websites have broken links or graphics. Design isn’t everything. There’s also execution. Broken sites won’t win awards.

What will win awards is interesting, up to date information. Generally people visit websites for specific data and that data needs to be current and accurate. A beautiful website with out of date or incorrect information impresses no one.

Last but not least, award winning websites have interesting elements and interactive graphics. Just as clutter should be avoided, clever ways to combine functions should be sought out. For example, if a website menu can be integrated into a photo rather than simply being listed as links on the side of a page it’s often more interesting.

That said, every site is different. The best sites are the ones that people just want to keep coming back to.

The pros and cons of using animations on your website

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When designing a website there is often a temptation to utilize animated graphics. To those who are putting up a new site as their first foray into blogging or e commerce, animated graphics may seem like an easy way to grab the user’s attention and make the pages more interesting. However, in most cases all that will be accomplished is annoying the user. Animated graphics do have their place on certain types pf web pages, but only if the animation is relevant to the entire site or specific page(s) that they are placed on.
For example, Cindy has just created a blog page to discuss her love of puppies. It is perfectly acceptable for Cindy to place an animated graphic of an adorable puppy wagging its tail. This kind of graphic is relevant and will add to the overall feel of her blog page. If Cindy chooses to place an animated graphic of a winged unicorn flying over a rainbow on her puppy blog, users are not likely to find it interesting. In fact, seeing this type of graphic will be a distraction from the original purpose of the blog- puppies.
Animated graphics can either hurt or enhance your page. Keep relevance in mind if you plan on using animated graphics in your page design.

Interaction: a key to success?

www.cemcema.com — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There is no sure-fire way for your website to win an award. After all, there are a lot of websites in the world, and only so many awards given out in a single period. There are some ways to improve your chances, though, and adding interactivity is one of them.People love to be in control, and interactive features are a great way to do that. They are even making their way to television, and users will have more Direct TV control than ever before in the coming years. With that being said, adding interactivity to your website has to count for somethingsimply having a trail of letters follow the mouse around will hardly guarantee your success. Instead, the interactive elements should be designed to improve the relationship between your company or product and the customer. There are several ways in which you can do this.Interactivity can be between the user and the site or between the user and the site master. An example of the first might be areas where the user can register for special bonuses, or to become part of a newsletter. Polls, surveys, and search engines also fall into this category. An example of the second might be a discussion forum (which the webmaster checks in on regularly) or a simple e-mail address.Many interactive features can be added with server-side scripting. Breaking the term down, we find that this refers to scripts which are run directly on the web server (as opposed to client-side scripting, which is run by the web browser). Server-side scripting is generally used to provide instant responses to a user’s actionsi.e., interaction. If you are unfamiliar with server-side scripting, or would simply prefer to have a more experienced development team on the project, there are plenty of agencies that will be happy to helpmany of which are award-winning in their own right.As we said above, adding interactivity will not guarantee you an award. There are other kinds of rewards, though, and you may find that your customers are more attached to your company after you give them a little more control. It may take some time and a few tries, but it’s clear that there are definite advantages to adding a little interaction to your site.

First annual Vimeo Awards winners announced

www.cemcema.com — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:31:25 +0000

Forget Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. The new wave of filmmakers is here, but you might not know where to look for them. Enter Vimeo, the video-sharing website which launched in 2004. The site, which is more discretionary in its content than Youtube, hosted its first awards ceremony October 9 at the SVA Theater in New York City.The awards featured winners in nine different categories:

Narrative: “Thrush” by Gabriel Bisset-Smith
Documentary: “Last Minutes with ODEN” by Phos Pictures
Music Video: “Liars ‘Scissor’”by Andy Bruntel
Animation: “Between Bears” by Eran Hilleli
Original Series: “Break-ups The Series” by Ted Tremper
Experimental: “oops” by Chris Beckman
Motion Graphics: “TRIANGLE” by Onur Senturk
Captured: “Fluid Sculpture” by Charlie Bucket
Remix: “BREAKDOWN the video” by Kasumi

“Last Minutes with ODEN,” a documentary about a dog’s struggle with cancer, also won the Best Video award, and the directors were awarded with a 25,000 grant to produce a new work. The celebrity judges also bear noting. Morgan Spurlock was featured in the documentary category. Other judges included David Lynch (Experimental), M.I.A, and Roman Coppola.

Webby Awards honor websites and more

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:21:55 +0000

No, the Webby Awards are not Spiderman’s newest trophy. Instead, they’re an all-inclusive celebration of the Internet, awarded to those who make us laugh, cry, or just stare in awe at our computer screens.The Webbys are awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. I’d never heard of it before, but I recognized several names: the Academy includes musicians Beck and David Bowie, artist and animator Matt Groening, Virgin’s Richard Branson, and Harvey Weinstein, among many others. All told, the group contains over 750 names. It’s impressive that they had the foresight to begin issuing these awards in 1996, when the Internet was only a seedling of the megalithic network it has grown into.Every year, more than 100 categories are judged, divided among Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video. In addition, each category has two winners: one selected by the Academy’s judges and one chosen by online voters (“The People’s Voice Award”).The Webby ceremony has grown into quite the event, and this year’s was no different. Held on June 14 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, the event was hosted by B.J. Novak, actor/writer for The Office. Perhaps his performance in the 2^nd season premiere, “The Dundies”, was an inspirationthe episode centered around an office awards ceremony.Another feature of the ceremony is the signature five-word acceptance speeches. Several winners had obviously prepared theirs. Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Andrey Ternovskiy won the Breakout of the Year Award for his site, ChatRoulette.com, and said, “Internet is a cool thing.” Zach Galifianakis, star of The Hangover, won Best Actor for his Internet series Between Two Ferns. His speech: “How am I on time?”

Interactive Media Awards want to improve the internet

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:13:25 +0000

If you’ve ever looked at a website so full of animations, graphics, and poor color choices that you didn’t know which way to turn, be thankful for the Interactive Media Awards. This competition seeks to raise the standards of what constitutes a “good” Internet site. The governing body is the Interactive Media Council, Inc., an organization of web professionals with experience in design, development, and advertising. Winners are rewarded with online tools they can use to increase traffic and market their success.Entering costs 125, or 75 for nonprofit categories. While this entry price is a little steep, the IMAs offer over 70 very specific categories, improving your chances of winningyou won’t be judged against a site of an entirely different genre. However, the categories are dispersed over the four quarters of the year, so only a certain number can be entered at any given time. The Council also emphasizes the rewards that can come with winning an IMA, including highlighting your site’s expertise in a specific industry and getting an evaluation by qualified professionals.While the announcement ceremony may not be as exciting as the Webbys, there is no shortage of winners. You can easily search the winner archives, or you can look at the Top 10 Sites for each of the last four years. These winners are selected by a panel of Judges from the sites with the best scores among the “Best in Class” sites. Sites are judged on five criteria: Design, Content, Feature Functionality, Usability, and Standards Compliance/Cross-Browser Capability. With more companies vying for the IMAs, we should see better sites all around, which should mean less wasted hours trying to figure out exactly where to click. If that sounds good to you, check out the Interactive Media Awards site to find out who’s doing it right.

Design tips for an award-winning website

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:11:59 +0000

There are many ways to win a prestigious web award, but without fantastic design, your website could be dead at the starting line. Design improves usability and encourages users to explore your content. Many cutting-edge websites have experimented with design in several ways, but there are a few basics to learn before trying to break the mold.

Don’t distract your visitors with moving text, animations, or sound. These sorts of movements, which aren’t initiated by the user, are distracting to the point of rudeness. They also make for long load times for users with slow connections. People won’t be patient for something they haven’t asked for. On the same note, if the text is scrolling faster than the user can read, they won’t speed up for it.
Follow HTML standards. Making sure your code is in standard HTML can be tedious, but it’s worth it for everybody to be able to read your site, no matter what their browser. This can also make browsing your site more efficient, such as when the browser loads placeholders for images with height and width tags instead of slowing the entire process. You never know what browser your clients will be using, so prepare for all of them.
Keep your navigation simple. Users are more likely to stay on your site if they know how to find what they’re looking for. It can be useful to design your layout before coding. If you know you will have too many links on a page, use a drop-down or flyout menu. Also, always have a link back to a home page/site map so users know where to go if they do somehow get lost.
Keep your website easy to read on the screen. Nobody wants to scroll across a giant page. Lines of text should be about 600 pixels wide, and the entire page should be visible at 1000 pixels since most users have 1024×768 screens. You can tradeoff and go lower to accommodate the 10 of users with smaller screens, but this will mean most users will see a lot of wasted space.

Clio Awards celebrate advertising and design

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:10:19 +0000

Unlike most website awards programs, the CLIO Awards have been around since 1959. That’s because they honor creativity in advertising and design in all media. For example, in 1983 Apple made special arrangements to air their famous 1984 commercial before Super Bowl XVIII. The Clios have survived more than half a decade, despite a historically disastrous 1991 ceremony where the presenter and the winner’s list both failed to appear, and the Awards now include an Interactive Category. While Interactive applicants don’t have to be websites, the 2010 winners do include several, such as HBO Imagine and BK.com. Other winners included the Monopoly City Streets online game and a Pringles “Can Hands” ad.The Clio awards are known for their exclusivity. Less than 10 of submissions make it to the CLIO Shortlist, from which the Gold, Silver, and Bronze statue winners are selected. Even more impressively, less than 3 of all entries win a statue, with less than 1 receiving the Gold CLIO. One piece in each medium may also be awarded the prestigious Grand CLIO.It’s fitting that the CLIO awards should be staying so current with modern times, since their name comes from the Greek muse of history, who recorded great deeds and accomplishments as an inspiration to later times. The CLIO awards also encourage fellowship and humanity, with ambassadors serving in 42 countries. Like all great awards, the CLIO awards encourage friendly competition and make people strive to accomplish something great. It’s only fair that websites should have the same opportunity.

Beesker has found the best accordions websiteand many more

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:05:02 +0000

The best accordion website in the world is Accordions Worldwide. It was founded by Harley Jones, Vice President of the New Zealand Accordion Association, and also has an office in China. Among its main sections, it features a News Center, CD Reviews, Celebrity Interviews, and a Stolen List, where users can report instruments that have been stolen. The site also includes a healthy dose of Accordion Humor.This may seem extraneous to you, but consider: if you were doing a paper on accordions, or wanted to play one yourself, wouldn’t you want to know which site is best? And what if you could also find the best site in almost any other imaginable category? That’s the thinking behind Beesker, a “recommendation” site that awards the title of “Best On-Topic” site in a variety of fields. On the home page, you can either search for your subject in the search box, or browse an extensive toolbar.Beesker is published by Extonet Ltd., a British-based company which also publishes Abacus Construction Index, a directory of the best architecture and construction sites. Astonishingly, the site lists only two membersManaging Director Dr. Alex Reid and Director Sian Reid. However, the sites are chosen by individuals or groups with a passion for that subject.Unlike the Webbys, Beesker takes no money from any websites. The entire site is supported by Google Ads. Users can submit their own feedback on any selection, or presumably suggest a new one, as I could find no “Best On-Topic” category for “Comic Books.” The idea of making a “best-of-the-Internet” directory certainly seems daunting, but Beesker appear to be giving it their best shot. Stop on by, find your favorite subject, and see if you agree with their selection.