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jorybrodkin

SEVEN ELEMENTS OF GOOD STORYTELLING - 0 views

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    Looking at this reading on elements of good storytelling, the writer informs on 7 crucial parts in every good story. Starting with the premise, this gives the story a base, in which the characters are able to evolve from. In a good story, you need a main setting as well, where all events take place and gives reason to the story. Within the context of this story, you need both a protagonist and antagonist character, who are the main fighting force in the story. They add to the conflict, which is the rising part of the story, connected by arches, leading to a final resolution.
Tanya Tan

How to Make Viral Content | Social Media Today - 0 views

  • But all viral content shares common features.
  • Viral content needs to address real-world problems.
  • They discovered that posts inspiring feelings of awe, anger or anxiety are shared more often than others, with anger being the most viral emotion of all.
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  • Most viral campaigns are shared so widely because they make people laugh.
  • How you deliver your content, and when, are two vital factors often overlooked by brands.
  • e originator of a novel idea will reap an outsize share of the benefits and, while attention is focused on them, turn that attention into the foundation of a great business.
  • In recent years there have been some fantastic viral campaigns invoking the element of surprise,
  • You can give your content a nudge towards popularity by partnering with social influencers such as bloggers, tweeters and other social media stars, or celebrities.
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    This article explains how although it is not always possible to predict if content will go viral, there are some similarities between content that has gone viral in the past. For example, Walter explains that viral content shares common features like addressing real-world problems, by evoking emotion (such as anger or humour), and usually has an element of surprise. Walter also adds that how material is distributed and by whom (ex. if celebrities are endorsing it) often plays a key role in whether it will reach a level of virality.
Talia Baksh

Website design aesthetics - 0 views

  • The Internet can be a cruel place, where the laws of evolution apply. You have to adapt, be adept and adopt a new attitude about your site's aesthetics - and the look and feel and the impression these design aspects have on visitors.
  • Even if you're working on your own, with free website templates, you still have to consider that first impression on your site visitors. If the website looks cheap, it won't instil visitor confidence. In fact, most of them will click off before your dancing bear Flash animation fully downloads (and you thought it was so cute).
  • Product selection, tone of screen text, motifs, marketing strategies, links - virtually everything about an online business must be targeted with laser precision on a known demographic.
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  • If you aren't a writer, outsource the writing to capture the right tone, the appropriate slant and the most cogent organisation of content. You may be working on a shoestring budget, but this is one area of ecommerce where it pays to get professional help if you don't know much about effective written communication and visual appeal.
  • Do some market research. Visit other sites - successful sites - to see how they're doing it so well. It's unethical to rip off an existing site, no doubt, but you can't copyright an idea and ideas - the right ideas - are what you're after.
  • Look at your homepage
  • Eye appeal is everything, but what's appealing to one pair of eyes can be singularly unattractive to another.
  • Site design and eye appeal
  • Consider the elements of visual design. Are the colours appropriate for your target demographic? If you're selling quilting supplies, pinks and lavenders are perfectly appropriate.
  • Put yourself in the place of the ideal visitor (the one with something to buy) and ask yourself if the colours work for that individual.
  • Consider the balance and proportion of the elements on your homepage. Is that gigantic banner attractive?
  • Site demographics
  • Market expectations
  • So what does your target demographic expect when they shop online? A certain attitude? Certainly the 'right' look and feel. Warm and fuzzy? Razor's edge? Comforting and welcoming?
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    This article deals with website design and what to make note of when designing, as most first-time visitors will give you less than five seconds to "wow" them, making the aesthetics a vital part of reeling in customers. The website must be both visually appealing to your targeted demographic as well as communicate important things to know.
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    This article covers website aesthetics. Clara Teoh advises web designers to design their websites with: the preferences of their target demographic in mind, the right tone  to focus on designing the layout of the website to capture the attention of users by choosing appropriate colours and  correctly sized buttons. She also says to compare your site using other successful websites as benchmarks. She goes on to say that site aesthetics even affect variables like conversion rates and sales for businesses.  
Talia Baksh

An Introduction to Color Theory for Web Designers - Tuts+ Web Design Article - 0 views

  • What is Color Theory?
  • 3 terms which define the basic Color Theory:
  • Here are 3 of the commonly accepted structures for a good color scheme: triadic, compound, and analogous:
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  • Rather than straining to accommodate for a particular area of the color spectrum, the eye is provided a balance.
  • Contrast Contrast reduces eyestrain and focuses user attention by clearly dividing elements on a page. The most apparent example of contrast is an effective selection of background and text color, as shown below:
  • Vibrancy
  • Brighter colors lead the user to feel more energetic as a result of your design, which is particularly effective when you are trying to advertise a product or invoke an emotional response. Darker shades relax the user, allowing their mind to focus on other things.
  • How Do I Select an Effective Color Scheme?
  • Complementation Complementation refers to the way we see colors in terms of their relationships with other colors. When colors occupy opposite ends of the color spectrum, they lead people to consider a design visually appealing by establishing a happy medium the eye can reside in.
  • Triadic Color Scheme
  • Composed of 3 colors on separate ends of the color spectrum. There is a very easy way to create a Triadic color scheme:
  • Take a color wheel, and choose your base color. Draw an Equilateral Triangle from this point. The three points of the triangle will form your tri-color scheme. By using an Equilateral Triangle, you can ensure the colors have equal vibrancy and compliment each other properly.
  • Ways to Make Your Life Easier
  • The Compound color scheme is based on providing a range of Complementary Colors: two colors are chosen from opposite ends of the color spectrum.
  • Analogous
  • An Analogous color scheme is based on a careful selection of colors in the same area of the color spectrum.
  • Compound Color Scheme (aka Split Complimentary)
  • there are a few tools at our disposal that make color selection extremely easy when utilized properly.
  • Kuler
  • A tool developed by Adobe, Kuler is aimed at providing an intuitive way to create a color palette. Every color on the palette can be individually modified, or chosen as the base color, with a few simple clicks. Palettes can be saved and published, and there are a number of great community entries available on their site. Under each color, the export codes are provided (including hexadecimal).
  • Color Scheme Designer 3
  • By providing a very simple and controlled selector, Color Scheme Designer provides a very low barrier of entry, and its choice of color principles present a variety of options. While it doesn't teach its users why the colors work well together (Kuler's dynamic color wheel is much more effective in that regard), its results are great as a starting point or to finish a prototype.
  • Its more advanced options are very useful: features such as the ability to adjust an entire palette's saturation and contrast, color blind overlays, and sample website previews are things I hope Kuler implements very soon.
  • Summary Choosing colors on opposite ends of the spectrum creates a visual harmony for the eyes. A high contrast between elements makes text easily readable, and guides your reader's attention. The brighter the colors, the more mental energy they will consume. Don't be afraid to use tools such as Kuler and Color Scheme Designer 3, they only make your life easier and prevent you from becoming frustrated with the learning process.
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    This website contains very detailed information on colour theory. It defines and explains the 3 core principles of colour theory (complementation, contrast and vibrancy). It also advises the reader on structures of how to select good colour schemes (triadic, compound, and analogous). Furthermore, it includes advice on tools the reader can use to design colour schemes.
Sasha Ross

Augmented Reality - 0 views

  • Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.
  • replaces the real world with a simulated one.
  • interactive and digitally manipulable.
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    Although this link is a very short paragraph, it is still very important and clear when defining augmented reality.  This link gives an easy to understand definition of the term, and very interesting things to think about once you are done reading.  At the bottom of the article there are also many other links related to augmented reality, and the new things happening around the creation.  
Sohyun Kim

The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly of Parallax Web Design - 0 views

  • Parallax is the web design technique of using CSS to make different layers on the web page move at different rates. So, when scrolling down the page, instead of having all the text, photos, videos, and other elements move screen altogether, it feels more like a visual page turn, with a new layer of beautiful imagery or video or a pull quote gliding up to replace the just read "page."
  • Take last month's Fast Company story about Baratunde Thurston quitting the Internet for 25 days. Toward the bottom of the page, the designers used parallax to make leaves and flowers bloom onto the page. Unless your browser window is extremely wide, the details ended up covering the text, however, making it difficult to read the story: 
  • "It's getting a little overused everywhere," Trei Brundrett, the chief product officer for Vox Media, which owns SB Nation, The Verge, and Polygon, told us. The makers of "Snow Fall" and the other parallax pioneers who have used it made it the defining feature of thoughtful web design. "It's a signifier of quality. It has become a trope,"
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  • Unfortunately, that means it has gotten very tired, very fast. The Pitchfork team sees the whole trend winding down in the next year or two. "I think people will start to use it a lot more and possibly tire of it," said Renaud.
  • The low barrier to entry means, a lot of the times the effect doesn't add much to the story. "I think it's cool if used appropriately or in moderation," said Brundrett. A good use, he says, would be to "cleverly position" photography next to supporting copy
  • "Designers are excited that there is a lot of energy and curiosity around more thoughtful design and breaking out of our optimized content world," added Brundrett. 
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    This article talks about a new trend in Web design- Parallax- and how it became popular. It shows examples of what websites effectively used this trend, and others that have done the opposite. It ends off with how this trend effects designers and readers alike. 
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