katrinaexercise3-1-2

HIDDEN HEROES http://www.hidden-heroes.net/

1. Hidden Heroes is an exhibition that pays tribute to everyday objects (e.g. lego, flip flops, bottlecap). It provides history and little tidbits of information on them.

2. The site makes use of a lot of white space. It utilizes bars of bright colours for each object... So, while it has a lot of white space, it is also quite colourful. The bars, which represent the objects, are centered in the middle of the page. As you navigate the site, the navigation stays in the center of the page. For typography, the site uses a sans-serif. The titles/object names are in all-caps and colour coordinate to the object's bar colour. The weight of type ranges from a light to a bold.

The pairing between the white space and small bars of multi-colour is effective because it balances what could be a very visual overloading composition. The all-caps sans serif also mimic the thin, long bars of colour.

3. All the content is laid out in a navigation of thin bars, upon which you can hover over and see the object's name and image. You are able to select a couple objects that you want to look into. From there, you can view each object one by one in detail. Everything is structured pretty clearly and intuitively. The exhibition part of the site lays out the information in a way similar to print. It all is very simple to read; the hierarchy makes sense

4. As you hover over a bar, a simple sound effect is played. Clicking on things also plays a sound effect. When an object is clicked, the sound of the object in use is played (e.g. clicking a drill, plays a drilling noise). The sound effects really help to ad to the experience of exploring the site. Hovering over the bars also reveals the object's name, vertically aligned to the bar, and the object's image in the center of the bars. Because of the different lengths of the object names, hovering over the bars allows for a whimsical sort of experience. The sound effects and rollovers are pretty conventional interactions but are very effective and add value to the experience.

After the object selections are made, and you enter the exhibition, the navigation makes a 3D transition, that adds to the dynamic of the page. Upon clicking on each object afterwords, it continues a 3D-like transition, where the information rotates in. This use of a 3D like experience is pretty innovative, as it makes the site seem much more bigger and dimensional than it actually is, which, I think, is pretty appropriate for a site that contains encyclopedia-like information on many objects.

5. The quirky sound effects and 3D transitions all were pleasant surprises. Also, all the information on the objects were pretty interesting!