Most creative ad agency in the world (i think)

ok, some of you might have been looking around for an ad agency to showcase your work. i gotta say there is a lot and i mean a lot of cool ad agency out there and they all have awesome visual and concepts to them. i wouldn't be surprised at that considering we designers ROCK! (ok that's just my brain talking).

but there is this one agency that has a very unique concept and implementation. it uses youtube as a base! yeah i know it sounds weird and confusing, but it exists and it works! below is the link to it if you wanna check it out. they also have a normal website if you guys prefer it

http://www.youtube.com/profile?annotation_id=annotation_800806&feature=iv&src_vid=Xtk66p1DM-U&user=BooneOakley1

(for the normal website http://www.booneoakley.com/)


Ok so here's how it works, you guys know how youtube videos has that links that appeared in the screen that you can click and it goes to other page with other videos? they use that as their links if you wanna navigate around their agency. well yeah the videos on the youtube has a few weird placement of text, but that is because the videos are uploaded 3 years ago and youtube had a different layout then.

Design wise, it looks like a child made it. the colours are only black and white, there are few drawings here and there that looks like a kid's drawing. The fonts are no different, it's kinda like someone drew on a blackboard with a chalk. the way they used negative space is very good, it doesn't have much going on here and there, they only put the essential things and that made it really good for me. yeah. it may seem simple and boring to some people, but the design gets the job done

The non-youtube site has a very similiar feel as well, lots of negative space, black and white. there are more navigation thought, with it being placed on the left side and uses normal fonts instead of the chalk-like writing.

For the usability, it may seem a little bit odd and need some getting used to with the youtube site but you just need a bit of time to adjust yourself with using it and you'll be alright. while it looks like a very cool idea to use, it might have a little drawback. it utilises youtube video which means buffering, and not all countries are able to buffer that fast (where i come from for example) so navigating throughout the site using youtube links might be a bad choice if used in under poor internet connection. still, they provided a non-youtube site which remedies this.

the site itself is very easy to use since it only has few links to it. there are several choices you can select on the youtube video and even more selections in the website itself. once you enter the home page, there is an animation working in the middle and a man talking explaining stuff and the choices are on the left side. it sounds a bit crazy hearing me ranting about it being easy, but once you open it, you'll see for yourself that it is no work at all.

Another blog review

i'm doing another blog review, but this time it's about the New York Times (yeah i know it sounds boring)

Since it was first established in 1851, it has become one of the most famous newspaper in the world. Sure the newspaper itself is ranked #3 in the US (behind The Wall Street Journal and USA Today) but the website is the most popular newspaper website in the country.

Some of you might say how come it's the number one news website, so i'm going to review it here to enlighten you just a little bit.

In terms of design, it's not as good as you might thing, it lacks colour compared to it's other two rivals. but that is what makes it better than the others in my opinion. The other is just so full of colour that it lost the basic newspaper website capabilities. New York Times' website uses monochromatic colour scheme with dark blue as headline's links and coloured images as thumbnails. the placement of everything is also very neat, without giving away a lot of negative space, giving the feel of a real newspaper. They make up for simplicity and colour lack feel for the recreation of a physical newspaper. 

One thing i have to complain about this is that the fonts are too small. sure some of the headlines are big enough to notice but if you choose a story and tries to read them, you'll find them quite small. in the case of real newspaper it's ok since it is real paper. but you read the website from a computer or a tablet maybe, and not all computers are good for long time reading. 

For the interface, i have no complaint whatsoever, it's very to use, with navigation on the left that divided it into subjects of news, which allows for easier selection for the reader. also, once you choose a news to read in the 'home' page, the navigation moved to the top of the page. i don't know why they did this, but i find it easier if they just put it on the top the whole time.

Blog review of ASOS

i've never been a fan shopping, i just hate the way we have to look around a shop, pick something and then try it on to see if it fits us or not. when it does not fit or when it looks bad then we have to return it and look from something else, i think that is just a waste of time. not to mention the prices of things here in Australia...

But still, as a human being with social life and a girl to impress, i wouldn't wanna look bad when i go out.. so i have to use an alternative to shopping physically, and that is shopping online (yeah i know it looks kinda sad)

one of my favorite shopping place is ASOS.com. it is a fashion and clothing store for men and women based in UK. they sell both branded goods and their own range of clothes, which is relatively cheaper than the branded ones. for this review, i'm not gonna talk to much of the history and whatnot, i want to talk about its design, its interface, and its easiness to use for those who wanna buy from them.

first things first, the design.
ASOS has a very simplistic design to it. it has two basic colour scheme (white and black) which is really simple in my opinion and it fits really well, considering that they are selling clothes so the focus of it has to be merchandise. if they were to use colourful design, i reckon that would take the eyes of the user off from the products.

second, the interface.
The interface is also very easy to use, there is a big button on top that says 'MEN' or 'WOMEN' which is the basic structure to have. There is also a search bar on top which lets user choose the brand that they want. other useful navigation is the types of product they're selling on the left side. once you select the thing that you want, the navigation on the left changes. for example, if you choose hoodies then the navigation will change itself to categories like brands, sizes, colours, etc. simple but also very useful.

last is the usability.
while it seems that it's an easy site to use, there's actually a two complaints i have to say. first is the navigation, there's just so much button there, everywhere in fact, at the top, the bottom, the left, the right, it just confuses me. (maybe i'm just the one who isn't used to seeing so much button or my brain couldn't cope with all the links there. lol). the second is the basket feature, i find it a little bit slow to use once you chose to save an item you want to buy, but that's just nitpicking for me. overall it's a great site with cheaper prices than Aussie (sorry aussie) :)