Web Design 101 Research

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Homepage Research: King's College

King's College:

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Critique: I don't like much about this homepage. The yellow and red combo hurts my eyes and the font style on the navigation is too big and blocky. The hover color doesn't look good as white. Pretty much the only part I like is the background of the header. The texture gradient fading to black looks very nice, especially with the contrasting solid gradient box of the header placed over it.

Homepage Research: Penn State

Penn State:

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Critique: The footer is huge. It's pretty much one half of the whole page, and definitely needs to be condensed. The faded effect on the header is a nice touch, the color alone being very appealing. I think the font choice on the navigation needs to be changed, though, to something sans-serif and a little smaller. The site is more interactive than most with how every bit of text has its own simple hover effect. They do this without making it distracting or obnoxious, and it's a nice touch. The information in the body is laid out very well as it lead my eye from one block to the next. Overall, I really like this site, especially for it's color scheme and organization.

Homepage Research: McDaniel

McDaniel:

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Critique: There isn't too much to say about the page since there isn't much going on. The mass of images in the body are laid out pretty well, but they don't lead your eye in any direction, and they aren't present in a way that makes the viewer interested in looking through them. The text gets lost in a handful of the images, and there's no consistency in the copy style. If they incorporated the same green opaque banner that's in the "Got Spring?" image in other images, it might help tie things together. It would also help to get rid of some photos and just replace them with text over a solid black background. I think that would help separate some of the info a little better. I do really like the secondary navigation as a drop-down. It helps keep what little space they have left open. While footer is aligned with the navigation bar, I think it should be moved over and center aligned, instead. There's too much empty space in the footer that could be used for quicklinks or social media links.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Homepage Research: Temple

Temple:

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Critique: Temple's maroon theme color is very appealing, but can be overwhelming. They avoid this by using it sparingly throughout the site. The very subtle grey gradient in the background halfway down the page helps the first three columns in the body area pop. The drop-down menus seem slow to show the information when you mouse over, and the text within the drop-downs is too small and cramped. Instead of having the links underlined when hovered over, the background behind each link should change to the aforementioned subtle grey. The main navigation type seems too blocky at a glance and should be smoothed. My favorite element of this homepage is how everything in the body area is aligned from top to bottom. It's adds diversity and keeps the simple organization from becoming redundant. The footer is kept simple by including little informtion, and the social media links stand out without feeling out of place.

Homepage Research: Pheonix University

Pheonix University:

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Critique: I think there's too much white overall. The lack of color variation makes the site boring to look at and leaves and unfinished feeling. With that considered, it is a nice touch that the header isn't a segregated box, which ads an interesting flow. The black bar at the very top gives a bit of definition, so if this element was pulled down and used on the navigation, it might help make the site look more complete. Having a thick border on the drop-down menus isn't very attractive and should be thinned out a little if they plan to keep it. Also, the pale blue color of the links should be used more throughout the site so the links don't feel so out of place. There's a little too much information in the footer that should be condensed. If there was a background color and variations of body area colors for each category of information, the site's good organization would stand out more.

Homepage Research: Towson University

Towson:

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Critique: The contrasting navigations are eye catching and clean while doing well to utilize such a small space. The secondary navigation doesn't distract from the main navigation since white text on a black background stands out more than black text on yellow. Plus, the yellow hover color on the main navigation is a nice touch. They do a good job with spreading out the two theme colors and using them to organize the whole site. The three body area columns organize a mass amount of information really well, and is an overall good design with how they're spaced apart from each other. Overlapping the columns on the headline image box also adds a nice dynamic to the page. I'm not sure what's going on with the green clouds background, though. It's really out of place. Even just changing the green to a light gray would fix this. The footer takes up more space than most footers seem too, but it balances out with the weight of the header. Again, the color of the quick links on the footer ought to be changed on this site, as well.

Homepage Research: Carroll Community

Carroll Community:

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Critique: The Carroll site isn't awful, but it could use a lot of work. Having an actual background would do wonders for the site, rather than having the four color bars stretch out from side to side. If they're sticking with these four colors, the links should be changed from blue to a shade of dark gray. The header is also a bit empty. Adding social links or an image would be an easy fix to this. They could also take all the quick links and move them into the header as a secondary navigation, which would free up that first section of the body for a larger image and maybe one headline pertaining to the image. All the image links, like "Make a Gift" and "College Calendar" need to go. If they want those on the homepage, they'd be better placed in the footer. The footer itself should be divided from the rest of the page, and should be stretched across the three columns in it's own div tag, rather than being placed in the middle column of the body. Again, the site need a lot of work, but at least they made a decent font choice.