Website Feedback

We've been asked to critique the webpage designs of others in the course:

• Chris Andrews: Chris has designed a website with clever homepage navigation that I really like. On the interior pages of his website, he's included rollover effects on the images that are subtle but entertaining. There's a good combination of both personal and professional information here. A couple of suggestions that I have include looking at how his name is formatted on the home page as opposed to how it is formatted on the interior pages. I would probably format these the same and think that the interior formatting has greater impact. I might also treat the presentation of the podcasts differently so that they stand out from the other list of links. The inclusion of the podcast control bar embedded in the list of links is a little awkward. This is a nice website that, I think, gives a clear picture of who you are (or at least who I know you to be from our online class interactions). 
• Jessica Badger: I really appreciate that Jessica took a very personal approach to her website. The addition of photographs is an effective way to supplement the very personal narrative that runs throughout the site. There is a good balance between her own story and external resources that supplement her story. The dual blogs are also nice. I think the blog page is probably the one page on this website that is not as strongly designed as the other pages. This page might benefit from larger photos and larger headers that include the titles of the two blogs. The white space between the photos and text attracted my attention as much as the content did. After reading these blogs and noting your husband talk about your food journals and how important these are to your progress, I wondered if including your food journal might be a nice addition to the Progress page – provided you were comfortable sharing it. 
  
• Sharba Chowdhury: I really like the color scheme and strong color contrast on Sharba's website. I think the organization of the website into an implied timeline of "me, past, present, and future" is a creative approach to a web design. Because Sharba's site engaged me with its design, I wanted to know more than what was included here. I think this site will continue to benefit from additional information and content. As a side note, I did encounter some issues with the images loading correctly or not loading at all when browsing with Safari. I also appreciate Sharba's personal approach within the narrative included on her website. 
  
• Dominic Evans: Dominic also created a clever web design. I can remember when we started talking about our homepage project and Dominic mentioned in his blog what a private person he is and how he was struggling with what to include on this website. I have to admit I was fairly surprised to see him produce what I consider to be a pretty personal website. I think the content works well at catching who he is as an individual. There's a lot to engage with in this website. I think it was a good decision to support the graphic links with an additional link bar at the top. The redundancy helps with the navigation. Having said that, I did encounter some confusion about how to navigate once I got deeper into the site. At certain points in the site, the main link back took me "Back to the Bar" even though that wasn't the page I had arrived from, nor the page to which I was looking to return. But overall I really like this site and the insight it gives into who Dominic is both professionally and personally. I also think the "Looking Window" gallery is a nice touch
  
• Shawna Hayden: Shawna's homepage is a really attractive design. I'd use this in my design classes to help students understand that "simple, clean" design does not have to be boring. I do worry a bit if it's not too close in its design to the site that influenced her webpage. On the homepage, I really enjoyed how the boxes drop in from the top of the page, as well as how they drop down with content when moused over. I did, however, encounter some issues with the rollover. When I moused quickly over the boxes, instead of one box closing before the other opened, I ended up with several of the boxes remaining in their extended positions. I would also suggest taking a look at the legibility of the white type on the yellow box on this page. I really enjoyed how Shawna carried her design consistently into the interior pages. I think these are well designed pages that are interesting to engage with. On the training manual page, I was disappointed that I couldn't click on the slightly larger image that appears for a full-scale version. I was interested in seeing these in greater detail. I think this site includes a lot of valuable information that represents Shawna and her professional life well.
  
• Adrian Jackson: I think Adrian's site has a really nice color scheme and I like that she took a chance and introduced a number of motion effects. I think the rollover states on the secondary links on the home page are a nice touch and I like how they indicate that they've been rolled over. This site uses strong graphics and good color contrast. I would like to see the type size on the primary links be a little larger to aid readability. While I enjoyed the movement in this site, I found that the photo strip moved a little too quickly for my tastes. Once I clicked on an image for a larger view and caption information, I couldn't find a direct way to return to the photo strip itself. I really like this effect but there might be some opportunities to refine it slightly. This is a good looking, contemporary website.
  
• Carie Lambert: What I really appreciate about Carie's site is that she created a website that directly responds to the concerns and desires of her students. I think this site has a very sophisticated color scheme with clean, well organized design. I do wonder if the contrast between the brown type and black background is sufficient enough for those with accessibility issues or sight impairments. I'm not sure there's anything I'd change on this site other than getting rid of the redundant "click here" on the email contact link at the bottom of the page. With the rollover state in effect, the "click here" comment isn't necessary and as I understand it, it's a technique that has gone out of style. As I've said before I'm interested in hearing from Carie how her students respond to this site. I also applaud her for coding this entire site from scratch.
  
• Ashley Owen: I think Ashley's homepage is well designed, attractive and attention grabbing. Quite a bit of this is due to her color choices. I'd love to see the ability to click anywhere on the boxes (not just the titles) and have that action redirect you to another page. I'd also consider making the "Quick facts" title linkable to something. It's the only title within the colored boxes that doesn't link to something else. Like the comment I included in the paragraph above, I wonder if the dark grey type on the light grey background possesses enough contrast for those with sight impairments. Just something to think about. I also think Ashley did a good job providing a wide range of professional sample work. These were really interesting to look at and I enjoyed seeing what she was capable of. Some of the PDF files did take awhile to download. If Ashley hasn't already optimized her PDF file for quicker viewing, she may want to consider this option.
  
• Melody Wainscott: I think Melody faced some challenges in her design that none of the rest of us encountered. She was faced with working within the constraints of an existing website and its style guides. This can be a challenge but I think she designed her page in a way that left her mark on it while still staying within its parameters. Her approach to the linkable graphic on the homepage is really creative, although I do wonder if I would have picked up on it had I not been in this class and known to expect it. I wonder if there's any way to incorporate movement on this page to cue the visitor that the image is a link. Once I got into the interior pages, I really liked how she included much of the information in a narrative versus including lists of achievements, experiences, etc. I think this helped increase the level of engagement with the visitor. This is a good example of how style guides don't have to constrain all aspects of one's design.
  
• Rebecca Widder: As others have already mentioned, I really like the color scheme on this website and the background texture created by type. Like other sites included above, I think this website includes a good balance of both personal and professional information. I am concerned about the way that the menu bar is anchored to the right-hand side. This may just be a Safari issue, but if I resize my browser window, the menu moves inward with it and quickly disappears behind the rest of the page content. When Rebecca shared this in the MOO the other night, I couldn't see the menu at all and hence didn't know what to do with her page until I opened it in its own browser window. I wonder, too, if there's any use in combining the two links that only include external links (these are the pages that include the Tech Doc links and the personal links). Just something I was struck by. This site has a good combination of imagery, type as texture and interesting content.
  
• Brett Oppegaard: Brett's webpage opens with another clever interface and plenty of room for future expansion. I like the rollover effects that immediately clue me in as to what to do with the phone. I think the organization of this site is executed well, and I wonder what you'll eventually do with the "old home page." The one page that I enjoyed the most was also the one that I wondered if it would benefit from a different organization, and this was the "Nonfiction" page. Brett has several levels of information here – nonfiction not only organized by decade but also by topic. For me, the long scrolling list didn't present these multiple levels in an optimal way, but I don't immediately have a solution to offer. My concern here did not, however, keep me from engaging with the content which I found to very enjoyable.
  

As I look over all of these websites and know that most of us are self-acknowledged novices when it comes to web design, I am struck by the very different approaches that each of us took and the skill with which everyone executed their sites. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't know that for most of these sites here, their web authors have little experience in this realm. Great job, everyone!