Interactive Design - Task 1: Exercises
April 25, 2025
22/4/2025 - 27/5/2024 / Week 1 - Week 3
Zhang Tianyao / 0376838
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University
Task 1: Exercises
LIST
1. Lectures
2. Instructions
3. Exercises
5. Reflections
Lectures
In this week’s Interactive Design class, Shamsul introduced the course structure and project timeline, emphasizing the importance of user experience (UX) and performance evaluation in web design. He instructed us to identify three websites with potential for improvement (excluding e-commerce, news, or overly content-heavy sites) and select two for in-depth analysis as part of Exercise 1. He also outlined the three main projects: Project 1 involves a group proposal for website redesign; Project 2 focuses on developing prototypes based on the proposal; and the Final Project requires each student to individually develop a fully functional website with at least five pages. Additionally, he reminded us to prepare the necessary software tools and mentioned that he would demonstrate how to capture and analyze websites in the upcoming class.
Instructions
Exercises
Introduction:
In this exercise, I selected five different types of websites for analysis, identifying their strengths and weaknesses in terms of design, layout, content and functionality, in order to learn how to design websites that can more effectively convey brand image and user experience.
Website Analysis Report:
Web 1 : cargo
1. Purpose and Goals
Cargo.site’s main purpose is to provide designers, artists, and creative professionals with a simple yet flexible platform to build personal portfolios or showcase pages. It encourages users to express their unique style through visual design and layout, emphasizing creative freedom over rigid templates.
2. Visual Design and Layout
Cargo’s visual design blends minimalism with experimental elements. Its layout is open and flexible, often mixing grid-based and irregular arrangements. Typography is bold, and color schemes are modern, creating a strong artistic impression—ideal for users seeking a unique and distinctive look.
3. Functionality and Usability
The platform supports drag-and-drop site building, custom pages, and multimedia embedding, making it easy for beginners to use. However, some advanced settings and detailed adjustments may require learning, which could pose a slight challenge for users with no web design experience.
4. Content Quality
Cargo’s official site showcases high-quality, real user work as examples. The copywriting is simple, direct, and stylish. Although the documentation is limited, the platform encourages hands-on exploration and creation, which aligns well with its creative-driven philosophy.
5. Performance
In terms of performance, Cargo’s loading speed is moderate and overall responsiveness is decent. However, the use of large images, animations, and transitions may impact performance on lower-end devices or slower networks. Despite this, most templates maintain good responsive design and multi-device compatibility.
Web 2 : Too good to go
1. Purpose and Goals
Too Good To Go is a social impact platform that aims to reduce food waste by connecting consumers with restaurants and stores that have surplus food. The website’s goal is to inform, attract, and guide users to download the app, while also raising awareness about sustainability and responsible consumption.
2. Visual Design and Layout
The visual design of the website is clean, friendly, and accessible. It uses soft, natural colors like green and beige to evoke environmental themes, combined with rounded fonts and smooth illustrations that reinforce a warm and community-oriented brand identity. The layout is simple and well-structured, guiding users smoothly from information to action.
3. Functionality and Usability
The site functions primarily as an informational and promotional gateway to the mobile app. Navigation is intuitive, with clear CTAs (“Download the App,” “How it Works”), and responsive design ensures good usability across devices. There are no advanced or interactive tools, but for its purpose, the functionality is effective and user-friendly.
4. Content Quality
Content on the site is concise, engaging, and mission-driven. It focuses on the impact of food waste, how the app works, and user stories that build credibility. The tone is positive and action-oriented, well-aligned with the platform’s environmental mission.
5. Performance
The website performs smoothly with fast load times and responsive behavior. Lightweight images and optimized layout contribute to strong technical performance, ensuring users can access content quickly even on mobile or slower networks.
Web 3 : sinchew
1. Purpose and Goals
Sin Chew Daily’s website aims to serve as a major Chinese-language news platform in Malaysia, delivering up-to-date information on local, international, business, entertainment, and community news. Its goal is to provide credible, timely, and in-depth reporting to Chinese-speaking audiences, fulfilling both informative and public-interest roles.
2. Visual Design and Layout
The site uses a traditional news portal design: multi-column layout with dense content. The color scheme is mainly white background with black text, supported by red and blue for highlights. While functional, the layout can feel cluttered, with a lack of clear visual hierarchy, which might overwhelm new visitors.
3. Functionality and Usability
The site offers strong functionality, including categorized news sections, search, video content, subscription options, and social sharing tools. Navigation is straightforward and well-structured. However, the user experience can be affected by the abundance of ads and pop-ups, which occasionally disrupt reading flow. The page structure relies on pagination, which slightly hinders continuous browsing.
4. Content Quality
Content is rich, timely, and covers a wide range of topics. It features a mix of original reporting, translated news, commentary, and lifestyle columns. The writing is professional and credible, though some headlines may lean toward clickbait. Overall, it maintains a relatively high standard among Chinese-language news outlets.
5. Performance
Site performance is moderate. While most content loads reliably, the heavy use of ads, images, and third-party tracking scripts can slow down the experience, especially on slower networks. Mobile compatibility is decent, but some interactive elements are less responsive on lower-end devices.
Web 4 ： mailchimp
1. Purpose and Goals
Mailchimp clearly positions itself as a platform to help small and medium businesses with email marketing. The homepage headline directly conveys this purpose, though first-time visitors may feel overwhelmed by the range of services.
2. Visual Design and Layout
The site uses a distinctive yellow-black color scheme with playful illustrations, creating strong brand recognition. Layouts are generally clean and structured, but some pages feel dense and could benefit from more whitespace for better readability.
3. Functionality and Usability
Mailchimp offers comprehensive tools like automation, analytics, and A/B testing. Navigation is logical and responsive, but new users might need time to fully grasp how different features connect and where to begin.
4. Content Quality
Content is professional and well-organized, with helpful guides and case studies tailored for business users. However, technical terms are occasionally overused, which might confuse users with less marketing background.
5. Performance
The website performs decently, with good responsiveness on mobile and desktop. However, heavy use of graphics and animations may slow down loading times on weaker internet connections.
Web 5 ：innocent drinks
1. Purpose and Goals
Innocent Drinks aims to encourage a healthier lifestyle by offering natural, wholesome beverages. The website clearly conveys its mission with straightforward slogans and a playful brand voice, making it easy for users to understand the healthy, feel-good nature of the products.
2. Visual Design and Layout
The site uses vibrant colors and cute illustrations that align well with the brand’s cheerful, approachable image. The layout is clean, with a good balance of images and text. However, some pages feel slightly cramped and could benefit from a clearer visual hierarchy for better navigation.
3. Functionality and Usability
The website is user-friendly, with easy navigation to product details, brand story, and purchasing options. Interactivity is solid, providing a smooth user experience. However, some areas could use better guidance for new visitors, especially in understanding product varieties and benefits.
4. Content Quality
Content is simple, engaging, and reflects the brand’s values around health and sustainability. The blog and social media links are active and encourage consumer participation. Some pages could benefit from more practical examples or deeper insights to add variety.
5. Performance
The site performs well, with fast loading speeds and smooth mobile responsiveness. While the overall experience is stable, heavy use of images and animations can cause slight delays in loading times.
Conclusion
These five websites span creative design, environmental services, news media, marketing tools, and beverage brands. They all have clear objectives and effectively communicate their core messages. Some focus on creativity and personality, while others prioritize simplicity. Content quality is valuable for their target audiences, and performance is solid with fast loading speeds and smooth user experiences.
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