Well balanced website that evenly distributes the page weight between the interactive menu and information related to choices made. Color is used very intuitively.
This link is to an analysis of Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. The MIT Press, 2000. By Time Barrow. It is interesting how the blogger touches on the principles of Transparent Immediacy and Hypermedia. He discusses how the online video conversation (OVC), acts like earlier media in that it makes its presence known to the user by hyper-mediation. Though this type of video does include a face to face view of a recorded person, it separates itself from video conferencing and Skype by allowing the user to pause and ponder responses, respond at request, and post re-recorded responses live. Technologies like this have a huge potential in distance learning with online classes. Imagine your instructors recording their lectures with every view having a front seat in the class. Combine this with the ability to pause the lecture to reflect on information and develop scenarios for different problems that are presented. All while having the ability to ask any question about info covered and re watching any portion of video until clearly understood.
I think this page does a good job of describing what Manovich meant by variability in new media. The last statement, "Consequently, new media position the audience as users; able to manipulate and customize the media's experience for themselves to a greater degree than any previous form." is an ideal way to describe this phenomenon. The user of new media plays a huge part in how the media being viewed plays out over time. Interactivity is the cornerstone of this variability principle and I can see it being extended in the future to accomadate our (the users) needs and wants in ever more changing ways.
In this site, Microsoft uses font plus size contrast to distinguish between information order, as well as with the video being that it uses a sort of detail contrast to draw you to it when compared to the simplicity of the rest of the site.
This website displays very clear contrast in font types between the "We Love The Web" and the other fonts for the clickable objects. Size and color contrast are also used being that the whole site is the same color except for the important links that the designer wants you to focus on.
I like the contrast in this site when it comes to colors and font sizes. The quotes really grab your attention off the bat and give the viewer information about what makes Snog different
An important part of this project will be creating an interesting guide that illustrates just as well as directs the user how to accomplish a task in the application.
Emphasis throughout this site is divided into different size thumbnails representing different games. This can be seen in the featured items and spotlight as well as the new releases tab.
Emphasis is used throughout this site to separate different documentaries according to different categories. Headlines are distinct from the documentary name being that they are in caps and have colored backgrounds.
Being that this is a news site, emphasis is a huge priority. As you can see the articles are displayed very well with a clear difference in informational hierarchies in regards of titles, body text, and headlines.