Mining - interactive timeline - genre analysis #2

Cadbury's World was the place I first found inspiration, when thinking up interactive ideas.

It caught my eye by being visually interesting and lively. The blending of the chocolate colours, the swirling pattern is makes, the sparkling title, the warpy purple background. From this there are certain things I should be taking note of.

In terms of what this piece informs of, it lists, sort of linear, the stages you will explore as you go around Cadbury's World. Each section has it's own little cartoony like character and it gives it a likeableness.

On hovering over, the section motif is enlarged slightly and a white starry graphic placed behind. This continues the sparkly/magical feel already created. Furthermore, the title of the section is presented. I can't decide whether I would prefer this on the main piece, but that would admittedly hinder aesthetics.

Unfortunately, whereas first you are presented with an interesting colourful piece to look at and interact with, the information slide that appears when having clicked, looks rather dull. The background is darkened and a flat white box placed on it.

The same little logo is reused, bigger this time so you can appreciate more of it's detail, however the description text is small and feels rather cramped. Imagination and excitement is not maintained with this. Here there is too much whitespace and it makes for a boring, barren feeling.

Usefully, there is a link which takes you to the next stage's information, but again, it's the same bland affair. 

If I were to change this setup,  it would to be more similar to the BBC. The pop up information would appear in the main interactive piece, rather than being on top and largely blocked out. Furthermore, OK it is information but it can be made fun with bigger text, colours, layout etc. Images wouldn't go a-miss. The purple heading shows they have tried.

I think this type design will work well for Bestwood. It warps the idea of left to right timeline into something visually interesting, at the same time being educational. As we are catering for youth/community, the bright colouring and graphics will be required too.

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