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Re: web sites for class critique
My "good" website is the home page for The American Prospect
(http://www.epn.org/prospect.html). I find it much harder to say why a
web page is good than why it's bad, but here goes:
1) The design is VERY simple but effective;
2) Everything a user really needs is available immmediately: the menu on
the left addresses every possible reason for accessing the web site from
casual reading to submitting article proposals to looking for a job to
researching back issues;
3) I like the type size for the lead articles--big and easy to read.
4) Although users do have to scroll I think there is more than enough in
the first screen to grab a user's interest so they would find scrolling
unobjectionable.
BAD websites:
The joint home page for Bon Appetit and Gourmet:
http://food.epicurious.com/
Why it's bad:
1) There's a truly gratuitous amount of white space on the right.
However, that may be a function of the computer screens on which I have
accessed it. How has it looked to everyone else, on their screens?
2) The colors in the topmost graphics/links are colors I would just
rather not have associated with food (for example, that sickly pond-scum
green).
3) Aesthetic consistency: I find the contrast between the Times
Roman-type menu down at the bottom and the crude blocky letters in that
link/graphic conglomeration that is the first thing you see when you
access Epicurious really irritating.
4) Duplication of links: it bugs the Hell out of me that the
graphics/links
menu up at the top duplicates most of the links on the type menu you see
when you scroll down.
5) The degree of scrolling down you can do on the first page is
ridiculous.
And speaking of bad pages: check out the Houdini Museum Page
(http://www.microserve.net/~magicusa/houdini.html). It could almost serve
as a textbook example for "Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design."
Also, I am curious as to what you guys think about The Onion Home Page
(http://www.theonion.com). Something about the design bugs me: not only
is it too busy, but it's also too serious (to me). I realize that satire,
to work, has to be presented as seriousness (e.g., fake newscasts on
Saturday Night Live), but somehow The Onion's USA Today look doesn't work
for me.
Kevin