In this assignment, we were asked to look at principles of good social media design. Below is my opinion of the websites I viewed
National Park Service
So, I took a look at the National Park Service website (https://www.nps.gov). The first thing that hits
is the Black History Month picture and link banner in the middle of the page. It’s
a little overwhelming and consumes so much area. The viewer has to scroll down
to see other links of interest. When I clicked on the MENU button, the menu
appears and pushed the entire page down. I feel they could fit more content
into the page with less scrolling if they were to reduce the size of the banner
promoting Black History month. Now this is my first time visiting this website.
I do not know if the web developer does this with all promotions. If they do,
they may want to dial it back a bit.
The “FIND A PARK” banner goes across the entire screen. The “FIND
A PARK” is a link to another page with a map. Below the “FIND A PARK” is a drop
down list which you can select a state. Below the drop down list is another
button “See All Parks & Search By Map”. If you click on this, it takes you
to the same page as the “FIND A PARK” button. Both the “FIND A PARK” and the “See
All Parks & Search By Map” do not actually look like buttons. The viewer wouldn’t
even know they are buttons until they scroll over them and the mouse cursor
changes. The website could use some layout improvements. Some buttons, I feel,
should have borders and, maybe, a change of color so they are not blending into
the banner they are on.
The website looks to be professionally done. The overall layout
and link are pretty good. Pictures with titles are clickable links. I have seen
some websites which this is not the case. All the pictures look professional.
There are social media links at the bottom of the page for those people interested
in following the NPS on those platforms.
Penny Juice
The next site I visited was Penny Juice (http://www.pennyjuice.com). Having never
been to this website either, I didn’t know what to expect. The home page color scheme
and picture of two kids immediately lets you know that this is a product for
kids. The picture of the two kids on the main page is cute, but I can’t tell if
they are finger painting or if that’s the juice and they are being really messy
with it. When you scroll the page, the picture of the kids stays in place, like
a background. The rest of the page runs over the picture. The page appears to
lack in content, so they made up for it with large, block like color segments
for each area with a link. Its great that the header banner stays in place, but
the picture could roll with the page.
About halfway down the page is a picture of a product label
with nutrition facts. The product label picture could be a little bigger or at
least the text so that the viewer can read it without zooming in. The picture
is a clickable link. I clicked on it in hopes of seeing what was on the label
or getting the nutrition facts. Nope! Just more generic info on the product,
most of which I learned on the home page.
If this website is professionally done, which its probably
not, then it was definitely low budget. Most of the links on the home page take
you to the page. I think someone at the company bought a domain name that came
with three pages. The designer did their best to fill up those three pages.
Rover P6 Parts
For the MGBD Rover P6 enthusiast, go check out http://www.roverp6cars.com. This website
is chock full of parts and links for meet-ups. If I owned one of those cars and
was looking for parts, this website looks like the jackpot. The designer makes
it appear as though they have everything you could ever need or want for one of
the vehicles they specialize in.
The website lacks in professional design. Links area very
blocky and many don’t align well on the page. The column of links on the left
side can be difficult to read. The overall layout looks like they tried to cram
everything they had onto one page. Pictures and logos could have been cropped
better. I clicked on links to get to other pages which are a little better laid
out. The whole first page gives the impression that it was not professionally
done.
Gates and Fences
While the Gates and Fences (http://gatesnfences.com)
website is very informative, it’s a bit wordy. I found the content very informative.
There are an overwhelming amount of links. The list of links along the left
side lack consistency with the buttons. This is another website which I feel is
not professionally designed. A generic background, gray text blocks and bland
text throughout makes for a bland page. Now, if I were looking for gates,
fencing, part and pieces, this is probably a website you want to visit. It
might take you a little time to sort through all the info to find what you are
looking for.
Other Blogs I responded to for Wk 2 Part B
https://csit155-sp21agomez.blogspot.com/2021/02/week-2-part-b-business-research.html#more
https://csit155-sp21ttruesdale.blogspot.com/2021/02/week-2-part-b-business-research.html
Hi Ty,
ReplyDeleteYour's is my third comment, and I think that it is interesting the different takes that different individuals have on the same websites. It makes me think that a lot of this stuff is subjective, because many views I am reading about are in direct contradiction to my own! Haha, in this case it is the National Park Service.
I thought their website was well designed and especially blazing fast considering the amount of information they have on some of their pages. I can see your point however with their emphasis on an event that probably isn't why people are going to the national parks service website. I see how that can detract from the user experience.
Ty,
ReplyDeleteI found your opinions about the websites you chose very interesting. I looked into Penny Juice's website as well and it was cool to read a different perspective on it, but to also see that we noticed some of the same things. I agree that the site was a bit confusing initially. It does appear to be low budget or as if they didn't spend much time creating it. It has a good starting point but could use some serious editing of their aesthetic, color scheme, and photo choices.
Great post!