Editted Project Proposal

On the Internet there are many websites that display families of pictures. A family of pictures is any set of pictures that were meant to be viewed and grouped together. An example of a \family of pictures is the search results that come up when you search for a word on Google Imagers. Another example of a family of pictures is set of pictures that show up when you click on “jeans” at Gap.com. All kinds of websites call for displaying families of images. Some other examples that display families of pictures are Flickr, Facebook Pictures, photography portfolios, and many more.

Websites have different purposes for displaying families of pictures. Because they each have different purposes in showing pictures, their interfaces are different from website to website. I will be researching how interfacing of picture-displaying websites reflect the intent of websites. There four categories of websites that display families of pictures. These categories are defined by the intent of the producers of the website.

The first type of picture-displaying website is websites that display families of pictures as information\. Users will ask the website for information about a keyword, and the website will return a set of images. An example of this is Google Images.


The second type of website is websites that display pictures for the sake of social networking. Examples of this are Flickr and Facebook Photos.




The third type of picture-displaying website is websites that are trying to market items to the public. Examples of this are Gap.com, BananaRepublic.com, and Buy.com



The last type of picture-displaying website is websites that are trying to market the originator of the website himself. This can be considered a portfolio website. For example, photographers will show their portfolios online to entice the public to hire him, not so that they will necessarily buy the pictures he shows.






I will be researching how the interfacing of each of the websites from different categories compare and contrast to each other. Things I will be examining include how the layout of the page is setup, how pictures are linked to each other and other pages, how much information is displayed, how graphic styles are used in the page, how graphic objects and pictures are placed and sized, how dimensions compare, how buttons are placed, how the name of the website compares to the information, and other elements.

After all the research is done, I will be making and designing my own websites under each of the categories based off of the research I have done.
I will make a website that returns search results when you type in certain words.
Then I will make a website that displays a family of pictures that looks like it was intended for a social network. I will also make a website that look like it is selling products. Finally, I will be making a website for my own portfolio.
When all is said and done, as a class we \can judge based off of my research how successful my own interface designs were.