4/22 Readings

I thought that the changing room was pretty plain looking but was also effective. Clicking through the website you actually get a sense of who the eight characters are. The website was actually very long and I didnt feel like I kept finding things that I had already read. Some of the links were confusing, again, because there were a few links to choose from so you had to make a decision as to where you wanted to go next. The splash page and the background throughout the site is really plain and sorta boring. I did like that she added color and cool fonts to the page where the eight characters are mentioned. Also, I saw that the splash page gives the reader an option to either read the introduction or skip it and get into the text on the website.
Random paths had a cool first page and I saw it was also labeled roman holiday. The site didnt really have a splash page, because the link to the website was on another website. That page too was really colorful, and the pictures too were interesting. I actually had a hard time getting to the web site because a page came up that had tons of pictures and it was taking forever to load. The pictures came up and were blinking and changing. At first I thought this page was supposed to work this way but I think there was a problem with the browser and it uploading wrong. It was sort of frustrating but then when the page actually uploaded, I saw what the structure of the text and pictures were supposed to look like. I thought that the pictures used on this website were really cool. Some were kinda creepy, but fit well with what the mood seemed to be. The statues and the buildings too were cool to look through. I like that the text was sweet and short and there werent a ton of links to search through. Also you didnt really have to decide where you wanted to go, and could just click. I liked that he used text that was in poetry form, and also incorprated abstract pictures, in a sense he melted two art forms and put them together. The pictures make it seem like it took a lot of time to take these pictures, and organize them per page.
The hypertext garden was my favorite because of the ongoing metaphor of hypertext being like a flower. The splash page was fun and I liked that the background was black and had light blue font. Also, if you clicked on the Mark link, you got a striking difference with the change from a black background to a blue one. Again, he demonstrated good hypertext while actually writing about it within the website. The flowers at the bottom of the pages added a cute touch. He gives 7 lessons on how hypertext should be organized to be effective. I liked that he talks about how using regularity and irregularity grabs attention. He says to stay away from always doing whats expected. I think we can learn a lot from what he has to say and use it towards our final project in this class.