Week 4: Part One

Problems:

National Park Service: www.nps.gov

After just reading the lecture on C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D., the first problem that I noticed was the the search bar for finding parks is center justified whereas the logo and newest content is at the very top of the page and left justified. Since I have just been reading a lot and doing other things on the computer, I realized how fatigued I was and annoyed that my eyes had to work that much more to find the search bar.

Another thing that stuck out to me is how the search bar and font blends too well into the main picture of a group of people hiking in the snow with their skis. The font and search bar are white and the landscape of the photo is also a white/gray. The NPS website moderator should consider changing the color of the font and bar, perhaps to a black since that is one of the most simple to contrast with. If the moderator is set on the placement of the search bar in the center of the page and almost at the start of the viewer’s second scroll, then she or he should close the gap and reduce the dead space between it and the new content blurb.

The second portion of the main site page has a very nice 2x3 grid set up but the “Celebrating 200 Years” blurb with an image of Frederick Douglass appears out of place. I was confused at how what seems to be a feature story for the mission of the NPS was given a header whose copy does not flow with the other headers to new site pages. Other headers include “Eyes on the Sky” and “Presidents in Parks” and fit with the goals of the NPS. This one should be made larger like the other two since it is a feature story on Douglass’ bicentennial. When I clicked on the story, I had to scroll a lot and make the connection myself that the NPS is not only featuring Douglass but his estate in D.C.

I can see how the designer wants to keep the links to other pages on the website brief, but a lot of confusion could be dissipated if they considered something like this: “Celebrating 200 Years: Cedar Hill Estate.”

Riverside Art Center: www.riversideartcenter.org

I chose to critique the Riverside Art Center since it is my field of non-profit arts administration. The first glaring issue that caught my eye was the speed of the banner slideshow and the featured photo slideshow next to the RAC mission statement. The picture changes at the longest every five seconds, and since both are changing at the same speed but starting at different times, it is very distracting to the eye. Also, the rate of picture change feels somewhat frantic. The moderator should customize the speed of the slideshows to about seven seconds and either sync the two of them so they change at the same time because my eye jumps around to look at each change.

The next issue I noticed was that the drop-down menu for their About Us section is seven levels long. This causes the About Us section to cut into the name of the non-profit and their mission statement, which are key to building their brand and reputation. They should remove the “Newsletter” and “Volunteer” sections to the Contact Us drop-down menu instead and there will only be two levels.

Finally, it took me four scrolls to get to the bottom of the main page. On the third scroll I saw the plugin for their Facebook feed, center justified, and without any caption or subheader to accompany it. This is a missed opportunity because the Facebook feed looks like it was slapped on their as an afterthought. Since social media is critical to the survival of all kinds of companies, the moderator needs to amend this quickly.

Positives:

Apple: www.apple.com

Apple has gotten their design aesthetics down pat. Everything is very clean cut and nothing is too crowded on their webpage. Whichever font they use, when I see it I know I’m looking at an Apple production. Since Apple has a multitude of products and services, they do a good job at spreading out the information so that the visitor is always engaged and not too overwhelmed. Another thing that I like to see on any webpage is the verification that the site is secure. In Firefox, the little green lock gives me the confidence that I’m in the right place and my information is as secure as it can be.

Headhunter Hairstyling: www.headhunterhairstyling.com

The color blocking design across the website is very appealing, the custard yellow with the teal blue logo and then the white background for different modules works well for their brand. I like that on each page their logo and the navigation bar are at the top left of the page. They have the social media icons along with their contact information on the bottom left of the page too, which is convenient if I were looking for a service and wanted to still look at the details and not scroll or jump too much. I like the simple 5x4 grid of pictures in the Gallery page. It can fit a lot of imagery but still look clean.