7.12.08




Not as overtly snobby as Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes is another music review site on the web that caters to the indie music crowd. The navigation is also extremely simple, with no rollovers, no selected states, and really only one level of navigation. There is a main navigation bar along the top of the center content that points you to the different sections of the site. The most recent music reviews are available in the left hand navigation, and the left is film, and if you scroll down, you can get to mix tapes in the left, and news on the right, which has its own secondary navigation that sorts news into a few catgories. They seem to primarily be about the reviews, as the review header appears high up on the page, and you can figure out where you are on the site based on a sub header that appears just above the content in the center. You can always get back to the home page, but you have to click just the name of the site. I am not a huge fan of the location of the news or mix tapes sub header, bcause you have to scroll down pretty far to see them. The site has pretty shallow architecture, much like Pitchfork, and you have basically three categories of page; main, sub category, and article. You can, however, access most sites on the page. There is also a pretty nifty search feature, even if you can't refine it by category.
The typography is pretty clear cut. THe bold, large type is the headline, anything not black can be clicked, and size differs between headers and content. The labels are pretty clear as well. The structure is a pretty constant grid, and the only thing that changes is the content in the center from page to page (as well as the advertisements, I suppose, but they don't actually change position). There aren't many icons, and the pictures are all pretty relevant to the content. The colors are yellow, blue, and an ambiguously orange/red. There is also a tan that is on the left and right, white on the center content background, and an olive green for the background. The main content is also bordered in black. The colors aren't particularly purposeful, but they do create a more dynamic feeling to the site.
The main objective of the site is to provide information about new music and movies. However, there is an interesting other section where users known as robots create mix tapes lists for submitted mix tape requests. There's nothing terribly confusing about the site, but I would like a highlighted state or two.

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