The virtual experience

The virtual experience is the main purpose of the site, it must allow the user to experience what other cultures have to offer in the same way a normal visit to that country would in a safe and consistant manner. Once the user has selected a country they would like to visit, they will be confronted by a confirmation page. They can be seen here;

On this page there is a faded flag in the background while the country name is written a typeface traditional to their history. Once they havee selected start and began the adventure, they will be presented with a screen where it tells them some basic information about that country such as a weather forecast for that week, the time difference, popular foods and attractions. This page should also offer the user the ability ot customise their frog with items from that country.

The next section is about a touristic area within that country, and a guide can give the user random facts about that place. This part is to encourage learning about that country and important facts about it’s culture.

The next section is about encouraging socialising between users, in this area all users who are on this trip at the same time are available here. Therefore this means people are able to talk with users around the world in this section. When they are socialising, they are able to speak in a chat or play mini games with that user. There is a ‘bot’ frog who speaks in both the users language and the language of the country they are ‘visiting’ who can speak to the user and also play mini games with them, this is ideal for realibility and also while there are no other users in the chatroom.

Once the user has finished in the chatroom with the other users, they are able to progress onto a new section that gives the user a lesson in the language of that country. This is done using images that relate to words as recommended by my research.

The next section is a modern connection to people now taking selfies. The user will find a picture of their frog dressed in the way they have been customised in the scene of the country. It is a great way to reflect on what they have learn at a later time.

The next section is quite important as it allows the user to start a conversation with a resident of that country, it shows the user the other persons frog, their name and some other basic information then encourages them to send them a message to say hi.

Postcards are related to the tradition of sending a message back home to people you know with a short message about your trip. These can be sent via messages to other users and can fully customised. The screen below lists a grid of postcards available to send.

Then once selected the user has the ability to be able to edit the postcards with stamps, drawings and pictures of their frog whil also being able to add a message to the card. This encourages other users to learn about that specific place too.

It is important to note that the screens are a mixture of textured backgrounds or gradients, this is something that has been noted as requiring further work in ther development stages of these sections.

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great E-commerce examples

Given the site we are reproducing, is effectively an ecommerce store, it is vital to understand what makes a good ecommerce site.  I understand that some of the examples I look at are specific to a category such as fashion but the same principles of design and layout still apply, with that said, let’s look at some brilliant examples of e-commerce.

The Diesel website works well with a landing page featuring ‘party scenes’ where models wearing the brand seem to be mid-dance and having a good time with smaller captions below them;

 

Please note the menu section above also seems to get rid of drop down menus in exchange for the drop down box to avoid the bad user experience issues noted in the standard drop down menus. Once you arrive on the section of the site that you require, in the case below, it is ‘apparel’ which is split into three categories for the user to choose from;

Once you land on the section page, you are overwhelmed by large images. There is a close up image in the background, then there are smaller images that feature other pictures of the items of clothing which sell them really well instead of the standard grid. It features close up images, models wearing them and gifs of american terrain, fitting in with the overall theme of the site. I think this is an excellent way to sell products as it is much friendlier user experience, it doesn’t look like being sold to as much. Note I have hovered over some of the images to show the option to purchase;

Once you click on a particular image that you like, you are taken to a large image of the model wearing the item and the option in the top right hand corner. I found this experience very appealing and I was almost tempted to purchase some of the items;

Reiss is another nicely designed ecommerce site that features large images across the screen splitting the products into different categories;

They also have a full width drop down menu that contains all the links, making all the pages clean, clutter free and simple.

The section that features all the items for sale is organised and symmetrical, all the images look very similar which helps you focus on the item rather than the unorganised fashion in which it is organised in.

It is also worth looking at some great examples of help pages because as it stands the high noon holster help section looks like this:

Youtube has really good help page as it creates categorises the informations and shows them under different sections;

99 Designs has really good FAQ page as it has categorised the questions but also has a search bar at the top allowing the user to find their answer really quickly.

References:

http://www.diesel.com/
https://www.reiss.com/