The Simpsons

The first website I choose to explore was an easy choice. My sister and I were musing about what movie we were going to go see. She suggested that we go see the Simpsons movie and proceeded to pull up the simpsons movie website on her laptop. I was really impressed by the level of thought put into the design of the website. When you first enter the site the loader is cleverly designed as introduction to Springfield. When the site is fully loaded you have a bird’s eye view of Springfield from the top of a hill. There are many interactive elements available at this point. At the top there is a navigation panel that allows you to select from three main themes. The first theme is a Simpson’s avatar creator, second is a games section, third is a index of places in Springfield you can visit. In the foreground we are presented with an overview map of Springfield. Many of the shops or buildings on the map are interactive buttons that allow you go inside and explore them. In the middle right there is a welcome sign that doubles as a second navigation panel. This panel is simpler and would be much more visually appealing and easier to use for a child. There is also an animation of Bart that you can control to knock the birds off of the welcome sign to Springfield. On the bottom there is a bar of menu item that will allow you access the more advanced features of the site such as picture and video gallery.

Accessing the individual aspects of the site we can see the depth of the content you can create with flash. The first aspect I was drawn to where the tours of Springfield which allows you to navigate around Springfield and explore shops and the Simpsons home. Once you select a location you would like to explore you simply click and loads giving you close up view of the location and many interactive buttons that link to relevant content or games. Some of these games include the Simpsons Ball O’ Death and Simpson Naked Skate. The later of which was my favorite. The part of the site I most liked and that surprised me most was the avatar creator. If you do not know an avatar it is a internet user's representation of himself or herself as a picture or icon for use as visual reference during online communications. I didn’t think that it was going to be as much fun as it was to create my own. You can log in to the site create your own Simpsons character this is done by giving a choice of body styles, facial features, and clothes. Flash was used in almost every aspect of animation and games to the avatar creator and video player. The animated world that is the Simpsons are best recreated with flash especially since many of the characters and backgrounds are shaped based and easily manipulated in flash. In my opinion I don’t believe designers could have used any other medium other than flash to create and display such a complex environment inside a browser.