Top 5 Design Websites

Top 5 Design Websites

http://www.studio7designs.com/

http://www.sterlingprm.com/

http://www.digimode.co.uk/

http://www.forwardslashtemplates.com/index.php

http://www.myspace.com/icondesignuk

looking deeper

Referring back to both journals this is how i would look into the subjects more to find out more about them.

For urban design I would take a walk around the city centre on a busy day such as a saturday and have a look around at where people are meeting and ask myself these questions. Is it because the meeting place is well known? is it because thats where everyone meets anyway? Is it due to good urban design and is designed as being a meeting point? And why is it in this exact spot?

I think the only way to find this out would be to ask the public themselves and they would be able to give me some answers as to why they are meeting someone at that particular spot.

Looking at maps of the city centre would be a big help to see from a birds eye view of how the town is layed out and why it is layed out that way.

Id also like to find out why people socialise in certain places around the city. But again, i would have to ask the people themselves.

As for young adult having paranoid thinking, id like to ask around college and university students and find out if theres anyone they know or know of who has had these kind of problems. I am saying this because college students are always usually out at weekends and living the student life. I'd like to find out if theres many young adults who suffer from paranoid thinking in the a more fortunate country such as ourselves. In the journal it only tells us of paranoid thinking in non-clinical countries. I know that young adults in this country would have some kind of paranoid thinking but i don't know if it would be worse. It may be, because so many young people in this country are put under pressure with things such as college, school and family life, there for the rate may be higher. Once again id have to interview people/young adults to see what they think themselves and see what would give them this kind of paranoid thinking and self consciousness.

comparing social journals

Urban Design and Social Interaction on Streets.

Vikas Mehta

In this journal we find out about how urban design can effect people in their social interaction with others and how it is used to get people in certain places.

"The biggest competitive advantage of the neighbourhood commercial street is its ability to support social interaction as a part of the daily routine"

This mean that cities and towns are set up to provide easy access to peoples every day life and how they go about it. This would be good urban design because it serves peoples needs in every day life and if there is something they need then they know where to find it. We learn that streets in towns and cities were used as places to serve basic needs of communication such as political, religious, commercial and social aspects.

"However, especially in many centre-city and mixed-use neighbourhoods, people still depend on streets for functional, social and leisure activities, for travel, shopping, play, meeting and interaction with other people, and even relaxation"

I find this interesting because I have never thought about towns and cities this way before. When i read this quote it makes me realise that people actually do use these places to meet and socialise.

I think the point that the author is trying to make here is that places such as towns and cities have to be designed properly for he general public. We learn from this journal that the shopping experience isn't just for shopping, its also about going with your friends or family and socialising together and not just to buy goods. We are told that there is such thing as a 'behaviour setting' which consists of a milieu (a particular layout of the environment) This is interesting to know that people are designing places not just for shopping but for a social experience. This journal gives us facts about how long behavioural studies of open public spaces have been in use for. We are told how people do surveys on the general public to see how they perform in and around the designed areas and how there are certain points in these places that are classed as meeting points for social groups.

Social Skills, Paranoid Thinking, and Social Outcomes Among Young People

Heidi R. Riggio and Wing Yee Kwong

This journal aims to tell us about links between paranoid thinking, social skills, and social outcomes among young adults from a non-clinical population. We get some useful information from this journal about how young people feel self conscious about themselves because other people. I think personally that this may be down to social group and how some may be classed better than others because some people have more money than others. I believe that there would be better off groups compared to others and this is why some are singled out. Also in this journal we find out that some groups lack in social skills, i think that this will be down to the fact that these people don't have things such as social networking sites. They don't get the chance to 'mingle' with others and share personality and beliefs.

"Engelberg and Sjoberg (2004) found that individuals with poorer abilities in reading facial expressions and interpreting social events were likely to be lonelier than others" The author here is bringing up a good point but it think that if these people have the sites that we have such as facebook, bebo, myspace etc then they would have a place to start their social skills and take them to the next level, and i think that this is why people in places such as the UK and USA etc are really good communicators because we start to grow up with sites such as these. In the journal i feel the point that the author is trying to make is that the people in non-clinical countries need the social groups and aspects of social life that people in more fortunate countries have. If they had the same technology as we have then they would have a better social life and wouldn't be so self conscious about themselves. Not only that but there would be more different types of social groups to suite other peoples personalities.

I think that these two journals are related because people from less fortunate countries don't have the money to spend on designing places for people to meet up with their friends or family and actually have things to do. People from more fortunate countries have it easy because we have these facilities and places and social networking sites. We can interact nearly anytime we want. Yes people in more fortunate countries are still self-conscious about themselves but i think that people here can maybe find themselves a lot easier by sticking to the social group that suites their personality and what they like to do. Urban Designing may have a big part to play in the 'self conscious' side of things because people plan out streets, towns and cities so that big brand names are in your face so people will buy. Some people may not be as fortunate and wont be able to afford this and this is why they are self conscious. In my opinion urban design can be good for getting people together and to meet in certain places etc but at the same time it cant maybe make people feel bad about themselves and make them feel that that they aren't as good as others. There for some people may not socialise as much as others. I have found both journals interesting and it has made me thing more about the social aspects of life and how urban design does actually help and affect people.