whitevoid - online web task

Whitevoid are a great example of multimedia practitioners. Their site suitably reflects this by being really dynamic and subsequently highly efficient (to me anyway!) to showcase their past work projects.

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The company set out to be a modern, professional interactive and graphically designed body. The site seems to use a primarily visual basis, keeping textual information to roughly one slide out of six. This is probably the best approach as most of the time, all we want to do is look at what they've made, not be grossly over informed at long length, the theoretical background, inspirations, artistic contributions, it's positioning in society etc etc.

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You are presented with a light airy screen and then the main whitevoid box/catalogue/whatever it actually is. From the off, the site clearly breaks the mould, ditching the traditional navigation bar with home, contact us, products, terms and conditions and instead you simply get home and back in the top left hand corner - needless to say, I found these obselete as the site is so well designed, you simply do not need to use them.

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It is organised in a familiar setup that computer users will recognise: an expanding folder setup, sort of like a tree diagram or heirarchy. You click on the main folder and it gives you the next folders to choose from below. These are all sectioned thematically, and so you know what to expect when you open that layer. And indeed, when you do so, it all happens very smoothly, giving it a well made, professional feel. It's quite flashy and shiny too.

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An interesting thing about the whole piece is that it is set on a sort of 3D axis, so that if you put your mouse in the outer parts of the screen, the 'camera' will pan to give you a perspective from that angle. It's pretty cool, but sometimes gets in the way when you're trying to look at something and the camera is still swirling around.

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When you click on one of the images, it brings up a larger view of it, whilst still still showing the surrounding images and if you decide to choose them, the camera will swish across to show you. Alternatively if you click on the blue background, it will zoom out and take you "up" a menu level. To me, it all very much makes sense and would too, for an inexperienced computer user.

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One particular thing I fought was ideal is that if you want to just go back to a specific location on the site, you can click on the required box, regardless of where it is in the 'stack' and straight away you get what you want. In normal websites, if you want a previous menu it can sometimes mean going back and forth through several pages - time consuming and inefficient when compared to whitevoid's solution!

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Admittedly, some websites use a text based scheme which displays what sections you have clicked through to get to your current position. However, I think it is the visual layout which brings it all together, as you can remember clicking on that specific icon etc and it just seems simpler to understand.

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In regards to interactivity, nowadays interaction is all about being suitable for the user, and simplicity - their site is this. We get videos, the swirling viewpoint, the clicking of links to sections (again pretty much the standard fare for browsing a webpage, yet this time, in a unique and successful manner). It lends well when thinking about the work they produce too.

Any mention of easy navigation this analysis simply contributes to the image of the company and the associated philosophy for good interaction: understandable to the audience and easy to use. If you were to look for a company who could make a Flash based site, and make one well, you wouldn't doubt Whitevoid are capable and talented enough to do so. - The best public image you could hope for!

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