Web Design Goodies Critique #25
Published March 8, 2001 By Joe Burns, Ph.D.
Greetings, Fellow Designers…
Let’s say you’ve been put in charge of a Web site that’s
meant to help people. The site is to be built for the sole
purpose of providing information. If you create the site
by posting all of the relevant information have you truly
finished the job? I would suggest you haven’t.
I see the Web as a form of communication. To that end,
people want more out of a Web site than a simple posting
of information. I believe viewers would like an
“interaction” of sorts. I believe viewers would like to be
lead far more than attempting to find their own way.
Today’s site falls into this category. The site is visually
striking, offers all of the information required to complete
the task, yet doesn’t really offer any help in what one
should do with the information.
It’s all about navigation today.
Now the obligatory release clause statement…
>>>>The critique below represents the opinions of Joe
Burns, Ph.D. Feel free to disagree, argue, forget, or
accept anything he writes. The purpose of the critique is
to offer examples that you may use, repair, or forget
when it comes to your own Web site. As always,
remember that there are simply no hard or fast rules to
Web design. Any choice is the correct choice as long as
that choice aids the user and adds to the site’s purpose for
being.<<<<
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Title: RIT Premedical Studies Advisory Program
Author: Reagan Kelly
http://www.rit.edu/~premdwww/index.shtml
Load Time: 11 Seconds, 57kps modem, cleared cache, 02/07/01 12:42PM.
My Screen Size: 1024X768
Browsers Used: Internet Explorer 5.5 and Netscape Navigator
4.5
Concept: The Rochester Institute of Technology offers
numerous premedical study programs geared to getting its
graduates into any of a number of prestigious medical
schools. The site that was sent to me represents an
advisory board that will help perspective and current
students through their studies. It’s a great idea. I can
only imagine how nerve-wracking pre-med would be. I
actually went into school thinking about pre-vet. My
science courses killed me. I figured if I was afraid to do
work on animals, maybe changing over to pre-med to
work on humans was not such a great idea.
Praise: Hey, I like the look of the page. Dig this:
I like the color scheme and the anatomy image peering
down from the top of the page screams out that this page
is dealing with medicine in one form or another. I like
the way the text is framed. I like how the author used
three colors and stayed true to that small color scheme. If
I had to say one negative about the design, it’s that the
red bars should not span the entire page like they do. The
text has set a margin and those bars should respect it.
That’s nit-picky I know, but once you become a teacher,
you’re pretty much given the go-head to be that way.
I’m going to, again, eschew the traditional
concern/suggestion format in order to get one big point
across.
I like the design. It’s obvious the author, Reagan, thought
it through. She’s a bit of a tech head. She even made a
page that describes the tools and software she used to
create the site.
She paid attention to the site. She paid attention to the
content. Everything a possible, or current, student would
want is there. What I think she failed to consider was the
user and how he or she would interact with this site and
this content.
Let’s think about what we’re trying to do here. This is an
advisory program. The program is meant to advise, to
give guidance. That means the users will not quite have
their sea legs just yet. Users will be looking for Regan
and her partners to help them through the process of
preparing, completing, and leaving the program.
I wonder if the actual concept of the site was discussed
before putting it up or if the site exists for the very
common, “We must have a Web siteeveryone else
does” reason.
Let’s say I am a perspective student. I arrive at the page.
I read about what the program does.
Now what?