Stripping Carnival.com and Kristinacruises.com

After stripping both sites of its color, layout, and images I noticed the importance of adhering to CSS standards. Different browsers and computers display websites differently causing your content or images to be distorted or lost due to its inability to support the website design. But if you follow the CSS standards you can at least expect to have your content read legibly despite what a computer can processor and support.

The Carnival website, after disabling its color and layout, was still functional and pleasing to look at. The purpose of the website was still delivered for it did not depend solely on its design. The Content carried the website. On the contrary, Kristinacruise’s website was difficult to look at when stripping out its web presentation elements. When disabling all styles of CSS on the site, it showed a photo display of places to visit (taking up half of the page), and all the content was cramped up on the far bottom left column. It felt more like a blog instead of a cruise website.

Color, layout, and images are important on a cruise line website but content and function is essential for it is you main purpose for creating the site. A cruise website is intended to bring up revenue and inform customers on their services. If you cant deliver a website that is compatible or closely capable to providing content on all browsers, than you might as well stick to advertising on a newspaper.

cruises sites form/function a good balance

I have looked at two of the listed cruise webs sites. The two I'am going to pursue and write about more is the Silver Sea Cruises and the American Cruise Lines.

The Silver Sea Cruise line site offers a good balance of form and function. It shows off some really nice pictures. The layout of topics I can look into on the site is well organized. It seems that whom ever crested this site seems took a lot of time and effort. I'm sure they have a full staff that caters to the site development.

The other site I was looking at is American Cruise Lines. After looking at this site it doesn't have enough form or function to make it worth coming back a visiting again. The site doesn't have any interactive with the social media networks like the Silver Sea site. They can add that to their site to allow more functionality. There also isn't enough color to attract the eye.

Stripping Away the Form

Stripping away elements from different websites truly opened my eyes on how sites are built. This lesson definitely showed me that form really does follow function. When designing a website the form becomes extremely important determining the functionality and essence of the website. When we began stripping away different aspects of the form is when I realized that the function seems to lose its own importance in the matter.

When you strip away the color in the Norwegian Cruise Line website you lose the pop but it is still functional. The blue background is no longer there and I felt that, that really helped bring out the beautiful colors in the site. The white background, although slightly boring, is still functional.

It was astonishing looking at the Norwegian website with no pictures. The main page wasn’t eye catching and there was nothing to look at that would make you want to explore the website further. Some of the mains tabs, such as the ship layouts, became useless because the images no longer existed. Well stripping away this part of the website I realized how important images are to all of us. We sometimes look at the pictures before even reading anything. If the picture isn’t exciting we assume the information isn’t exciting either.

The biggest difference in the form of the website came when we stripped the CSS. I was furious at this point. I felt like I was looking at the website on an old cell phone. Stripping away the CSS results in the website being boring, hard to navigate through, and a true pain to look at.

After performing all these tasks I realized that the standard form of CSS doesn’t work for all websites. Some websites rely heavily on their images, color, background and so forth. Without these specific aspects the websites wouldn’t have the same impact on us as they do. Sure some websites still function great when removing the CSS but others struggle to keep their visitors on the page.

Form vs. Function - module 1 - Dave Kalkanoff

What I learned after reading about form vs. function was that form ever follows function. Form ever follows Function was a dictum expressed by Louis Henri Sullivan. What it basically means is that function of anything created comes before the form. You must consider the function of a site before diving into the form of a site. I don't know if I necessary agree with the fact that function must come before form. I believe that form can come before function. To me the form is the foundation of a building or site you are trying to construct. In determining what the layout or form of your site will be it will allow you to come up with ideas regarding how the site is going to function. There must be a balance between form and function. You can't have too much and not enough of the other. Whenever you are creating your function you have to keep it simple enough that the users will be able to figure it out. It will be straight forward enough that won't have anything confusing wrapped in it.

To follow CSS Standards or not that is the question?

While stripping out elements from different websites I noticed the majority of them became disorganized and cryptic looking is this a problem since we normally see all the pieces of a website together?

I began with the two cruise sites I choose to discuss- Louis Cruises and Sikurimi. To my amazement Sikurimi looked better without it’s CSS style, images and colors. While Louis Cruises was chaotic when I took away the CSS style. When I removed the images from the site it appeared as a hollow shell and without the colors there is no characteristics to the site.

I was curious about what would happen with major sites I visit such as Target, Mashable and Gmail I began to pull them apart to see what would happen. I found that all of the sites I find visually appealing and functional become empty and useless when their elements are stripped away. I noticed that color, layout and images do help structure a website and complete the message. Without color I notice websites to be flat and unattractive to look at. The text just appears on the page with no life unless it is bold, italic, or a different size. When the CSS style is stripped away the sites fall out of their current layouts into paragraphs or lists of words that a viewer has to interpret for them with no visual aid. Finally the removal of images left holes in the websites creating them to look skeleton like.

While it is nice that Zen Garden can withstand having all of its elements stripped and still read the same, I do not think that the standard CSS works for all sites. The elements being stripped away from the sites in this exercise shape their websites and help make the sites appeal to their audience. If all sites followed the standard CSS the only changes would be the background image, color and concept the main layout of the sites would all be similar which could be boring.

Stripping Away Form - Larry Mendte

Our most recent assignment was an eye-opener for me about form and function. What I discovered is that form indeed follows function.  But once function is born, form becomes immensely more important.  For when you strip away form, function is lost.  I didn't realize this until we stripped away form and saw what remains. 

The most jarring difference was when you stripped away CSS and saw the stark list of images, information and links compiled with little form and no reason.  I had argued before that form can't ever venture too far away from function or its very purpose is lost.  It always must remain true to its function.  With this assignment, I also found that form can't stay too close to function either.  For when it does, function is lost.  It must compliment, market and support function, but in its own way and on its own terms.

The Zen Garden is a great example.  It wasn't very "Zen" without CSS.  I'm sure that was the point.  I am curious as to why CSS is not taken seriously by Graphic artists as it seems to be a powerful tool?  But I guess it is the way an artist looks down on a paint roller. or a musician looks down on computerized drums.  Sometimes the mechanism diminishes the craft, or at least is perceived to do so.

What I have take away from this assignment is the importance of each aspect of a web site's design.  As an example I urge you to visit the Norwegian Cruise Web Site.  I love the design.  The image is big and bold and absolutely seduces you into buying a cruise.  As part of the image slide show, there is a video that further enhances the mood.  Everything is framed by the page colors, that are purposely dark and muted shades of blue so that the image will pop.  When the page color is removed, the image doesn't work nearly as well.  Its like someone turned the light on in a theater.  All of the colors compliment the central image, as does the layout and layering provided by CSS.  The information and links are easily accessible and nearby when you want them.  They are not intrusive, but instead compliment the image.  They answer the question the image stirs inside of you.  How do I get one of these cruises?

Form supporting function.  The function is to sell a cruise.  The images and colors make you want the cruise.  The links and information make it possible.  Not to belabor the point, but think about it.  Yes, form follows function in initial design.  But after the site is designed, function follows form.   Or, maybe its better said this way - when a site is designed well, form leads to function.



















 

Heather Kick- Stripping away the form

We've learned that good design requires a certain balance of form and function. I really enjoyed playing with the form elements and seeing what specifically helped make a site successful. On the Louis Cruise Lines website the function of the site is strong, but still reliant on form. Once elements such as images or color were removed, the functional elements were less user friendly. The Louis Cruise Lines site uses form such as color blocks to segment links into separate categories. Once the color is removed the links become confusing and easy navigation is lost. So, although the functional elements were unaltered, the usability of the site was greatly effected. 

The CSS Zen Garden site still works seamlessly with the form elements removed. It is nice to have that kind of reliability if a certain aspect of your site isn't working. It's smart that the formatting is not messed up when elements are removed. By following the CSS standards you are assuring that the form will not distract from the function of your site.