Web Dev Blog Lab 1

https://amisfield.co.nz/ Amisfield is a winery/restaurant based in Frankton, Queenstown. It is a world renowned restaurant known for its curated wine selection and award winning degustation menu's. I have chosen this website for it's unique design, in almost a picture book theme. The main page of Amisfield is rather plain, with only an image to the left and the navigation tabs to the right, however it's elegantly designed to not feel too minimal, with the image taking up enough space and the font of the writing being simple but bold. The image on the left periodically changes via a slideshow which is a nice touch, showcasing the restaurant and the winery: The part that I feel makes this website unique is how they've style each page that you can navigate to. Instead of a scrolling style website, where you would navigate down the page, this website lends itself to a design that is across two sides of the screen - one for a picture reference, and the other is where you scr...

https://www.allpressespresso.com/ Allpress is a global coffee business that has both cafes and roasteries all throughout the world, including in New Zealand and Dunedin. I've chosen this website as it is sleek, simple, and it has a solid theme that I enjoy. This website has a coffee based theme, which is actually unlike a lot of coffee/cafe websites you can find. It has brown and beige tones that make the website really easy on the eye, but also make you aware that this is a coffee based website and you can find all things coffee here. Something I like that is related to the theme, is that the backdrop of the header of the homepage appears to be a close up of an espresso shot or crema of a coffee. I think the placement of this backdrop really aids in drawing the user further into the website: As you scroll down the website you come to a point where you can view each of their individual type of roasts that they offer. This is in a really neat side scrolling design with a short parag...

https://www.reburger.co.nz/ RE:Burger started as a food truck North Dunedin, around the Otago University, in 2017. Since then, the business has gone on to open stores nationwide, including 2 locations in Dunedin, as well as stores in the North Island. I chose this website as it has some unique design elements that I find really interesting, as well as it being one of my favorite burger spots. To start off, when you land on the web page you aren't greeted by a typical home page layout.  The main title of the page is actually located in the middle of the screen and grabs your attention as soon as you enter:  I think this is a nice design choice, and moves away from the typical style of home pages. They have also decided to keep the home page really simple, with a few buttons to choose from, such as the Order Now button etc., it keeps the user engaged on why they're probably there in the first place - either to check it out for the first time or order online. As you scroll down, ...

https://firebrand.nz/ Firebrand is a digital marketing & website agency based on Dowling Street in Dunedin, New Zealand. They offer services from website creation, business branding, through to online marketing and SEO. I chose this website as it has an array of interesting design elements and generally has a nice feel about it.  The top of the home page feels like an introduction as well as somewhere you can navigate from, with a Menu button and a header that states what they do. One thing I really like about the initial home page is that there's a button to play a video, but it's style differently than what other websites might display. Instead of a video that you can click, they've saved on space but using a circular button that takes you to a different page that displays the video: I enjoy how simple they've kept this section of the website - it doesn't confuse the user with too much information and clearly displays what options are available on the website....

https://www.perc.co.nz/ The Perc Cafe is Dunedin based cafe that has 3 locations - The Plaza at the Stadium, Lower Stuart Street, and Princes Street by The Exchange. I chose this website as it is very simple but retains a unique quality about it. When you enter the website, you land on a page that that has some quirky design elements. Things such as the header of the page grab your attention with it's wavey design that scrolls across the screen:  After seeing this header, you can scroll down the website to be taken to its multiple pages. Instead of having these directional pages along the top of the web page, they have decided to have it cascading down the center of the page in a staggered format. I think this is a nice touch to the website that adds a bit of character. Some of the pages are a bit generic, however there is one that stands out from the rest and that is the "View The Percs Cafes." page. They have taken what could otherwise be a text based page, and highligh...

https://biglizard.co.nz/ Big Lizard is a bakery/cafe located on Vogel Street in Dunedin, and has just recently opened. I am interested in their website as while it is a simple website with not a huge amount of content, I found their design elements and how they chose to format the website really interesting. The color scheme is really unique, with a lime green and lemon yellow color palette. The only thing you can seem to click on is a large button labelled "Order Online", which while it doesn't seem that interesting, I find it quite cool how they decided to keep the website rather simple and only include a single CTA that makes the user experience easy. As you scroll down the web page, they've included a really cool design element where the main header of the webpage dissipates/breaks up. I think this a is a nice creative element that doesn't necessarily signify anything significant, but I think it's a touch that adds some flair to the website. Below are a co...

https://www.vanbrandenburg.co.nz/ Architecture Van Brandenburg is a mixed studio that creates not just architecturally design buildings, but they also produce collections of objects and artworks. They have a very unique website that also has a Māori & Chinese translation, as well as the typical English translation. The homepage of the website is a slideshow of different projects they have worked on, and it displays at a sensible pace so that you can appreciate each project as it is shown. It can also be selected to go next & previous slides if you wish to look back at one slide just viewed. The mouse is also different to a regular mouse on a website, and shows as a small circle instead of a generic Microsoft/Apple courser. As you go through the different pages of the website, you will at some stage land on their "Object" page. I like the look of this page, as the objects aren't displayed in the particular fashion (such as the product and a white backdrop), instead...

  Digital Simple https://www.digitalsimple.co.nz/ Digital Simple is a medium sized marketing agency based in Christchurch, and I am interested in their website for a number of reasons. First off when you land on their webpage, you are greeted by short message, "Marketing That Makes You Money" coupled with the company logo. This is a short, bold and intimate way of greeting the user and draws you further into their website: After this short message, you are then taken to the main website which has a video playing instead of a typical website background. This website takes you through the companies office and briefly introduces you to some of the key members of the team. This seems like a great way to make the user familiar with the company, and learn some faces before taking the jump into making contact with them. I think this really adds to the user experience, as lots of pages nowadays have separate links that take you to the company team whereas this feature gives the user ...