Writing and Designing for the Web - Recently Updated Pages

James Dodson- Designer Manifesto

jhcollier3 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:56:04 CDT

At the beginning of this class, I knew absolutely nothing about web design. Practically everyday, I see a plethora of different sites on a wide variety of subject matter, but I had never thought about what goes into the design. By taking this course and making “theDudeson’s Hole Sale,” I learned what makes for effective communication on the web.

There are so many things to think about when creating a website. In order make a well-designed site, I tried to think of what potential users would need to peruse through the items and words that I post. I made an external style sheet, which was linked to every page so that the site remained consistent in its entirety. The colors I chose were blue backgrounds for the headers with orange font. Those colors contrast and capture the eye without being too vibrant. The background color for the body is an off-white color. This color was not as boring as plain white but still allowed the elements on each page to be seen clearly.

Specifying the margins, borders, and padding was a difficult task for me when my site began to stray from two dimensions. Elements began overlapping and this provided some problems. But I did eventually find a margin for my text that looked attractive on the screen. White space is important in web design. It is easy to get in to the motions by writing large blocks of text without spacing words and paragraphs appropriately. Websites that are overtly text- and image-heavy are exhausting to read and usually do not get read. By creating a margin for the text, I was able to make my site more pleasing to the eye and easier to read and use.

The images were difficult to arrange on the pages. Often, I would add images but they would never be placed where I wanted them. This is something that I wish I would have spent more time on even though in class we did not focus too much time and energy on it. In the style sheet after the position property, there are several values that an image can have. I experimented as much as possible with the absolute and relative values until I found a position that I felt users would be comfortable with.
At times, I needed images aligned vertically, and at other times, I needed them aligned horizontally. It was much easier aligning them in the center vertically; horizontal alignment took much more time because the image would often skip down a line. Eventually, I did get the arrangement I desired.

After I posted the first set of images, the site would take a long time to load. Apparently, you cannot simply link the images to the site. I went to a photo editor and resized those pictures making them 300 pixels per inch and much smaller. This simple task made the images appear better on the page, and it cured the site’s long download time.

My menu provided my website with the ultimate usability that I needed to have a sophisticated, functioning site. It is a drop down menu created with javascript. The two headings in that menu that drop down to offer links to the other pages are:
1) Progress and;
2) Available Merchandise.
I added the progress section to my original idea. On the homepage, I gave background information on why the site exists. So, I decided to make a page that keeps users updated on progress made on the house. (My time has been occupied thus far, so no real progress has been made.) The “Available Merchandise” section is the bulk of what my original site was to be—an e-commerce website where I could post miscellaneous objects that I do not want around my house anymore but cannot throw away. I organized these pages as well as I could. Now, I just need to sort through my possessions and post those items.

Overall, I would say my site is designed well, thanks mainly to the drop-down menu. Now, what my users require is more content. Everything is placed where it should be, and the style sheet keeps everything consistent and pretty. I still need to fix up the progress pages, but my main concern is the merchandise. I plan on writing brief summaries and brief logs in the progress sections. By keeping my statements brief and by having a functioning menu and website in general, “theDudeson’s Hole Sale” should prove to be both persuasive and usable.

Brittany Beerse- Designer Manifesto

jhcollier3 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:47:06 CDT

I have grown up to realize that people are often more critical of themselves then others. That being said, it is easy to understand why I look at my website design, and feel disappointed. I find it to be easy to use and follow, but it is lacking the creativity I had hoped for in several areas. I think that the ideas are solid, but they were not executed to their fullest potential. For example, the homepage of Bryler Communications started out as I had hoped. I searched for hours trying to find out how I could include tab links for my site that would make it easy to navigate back to any page at any point in time. But the pictures I wanted to incorporate to imply the company standards were not formatting as I had hoped, and instead made the page look cluttered. The crisp design I had strived for began to look very scrapbook like, and it seemed like there was no turning back. I can not blame my abilities for this problem because I knew when I started this class that my lack of programming skills would affect what I could and could not do. I blame my design malfunctions on my stubbornness. Instead of accepting my limitations, and creating a design off what I knew I could incorporate I instead kept my original vision, and struggled to achieve it.

The Pages I am most proud of are the marketing campaign link pages. Mainly because I designed the graphics on the one page, and thought up an entire ad campaign for Nike. Those two pages represent what I want to do with my life, and I feel they are both great marketing concepts that would grab the consumer’s attention. Of course I still think that these pages like all of the others still needs work. I would love to have had a video of a women walking, which then faded into a man jogging, which faded into a woman and a man competing against each other in hurtles. I think that the transition would have helped show have everyone is Nike, no matter how they wear it.

My advice based on what I have learned is be realistic. If you set your goals at an average level and work hard then it will be easy to bust your goals. By setting your standards at a level that is impossible for a knowledgeable computer programmer to meet in the allotted time frame will only set you up for disappointment. Also make sure that the site is easy to navigate. There needs to be a way to return to all of the main pages via each page. No one wants to have to constantly hit the back button to navigate through your site. Also make you purpose clear from the get go. There needs to be a clear understanding of what is going on, on each page that is clear and to the point. Do not bog down pages with text because no one will read it. Believe me, think about the last time you read through a sheets worth of text on a webpage. And lastly change pages up. Do not leave the same background on every page. There is something to be said for unity, but try to do it without being monotonous and boring. Perhaps you maintain the same design in the background, but alter the colors. Just make sure that each page has something eye catching that forces people to read further.

Craig Harmon - Designer Manifesto

jhcollier3 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:36:09 CDT

During the construction process of this web site, I encountered a lot of different obstacles. Most specifically, because I am in the process of constructing a web site for my business that will be seen by many different people, a lot is at stake. Every single decision I made was scrutinized and mulled over to the extreme because of the seriousness of the result.

When I began, the first real issue that I wanted to tackle was the visual theme or design of the web site. And the challenging part was not so much how I could create a design that would make the web site visually appealing, but the business appealing as well; after all, the web site is a directly representative medium for the business.

The first set of decisions I made was which background images to use. I knew that I wanted to use only images that I personally took, so I went through my photo library and scanned through about 100 pictures before I settled on a picture of the open road (taken in upstate New York). I wanted to direct the visitor’s vision forward, as the road travels forward straight to the content of the site.

I already knew, for the most part, how I wanted to design the structure of the web site. I love iFrames, because they offer so much flexibility and help with the structural integrity of the site. This is all that I had planned though; I knew that I wanted a sort of “boxy design” with a border, a header, nav bar, and iframe. I chose the layout also because I did not want the web site to require a large amount of screen real estate, as well as no scroll bars (on the right side of the browser window). After I finished perfecting the layout of the web site, I focused heavily on the look of the images within the box; this presented a large amount of design challenges.

I chose the sky image because I thought it meshed very well with the background image of the road; we have the road and the sky -- day and night. Even though the colors sort of “clash,” I felt they clashed in a good way and provided a good contrast and symbolism to the business: Craig Harmon Multimedia -- versatile design no matter what the project (night or day).

The final decision that I made was the format and color of my text; I wanted to push the envelope a little more and put some space in between the characters because I felt that enhanced readability and added an interesting look to the text. I went with white for the primary text because I felt that it would make the important information stand out a bit more; it was difficult because the sky background is so variable in color; sometimes it goes light, sometimes dark. And I chose black text for the “headers” -- which later proved to be ineffective (in the usability test) because of readibility issues.

The ultimate question is: “what has writing for the web taught me about how to communicate on the web?” I think writing for the web has absolutely helped me to analyze the decisions I make a lot more; and I am extremely happy about that. In the past, I think I just made design decisions on a dime because I thought they looked good and then I simply stopped thinking about it. But this class has taught me a tremendous amount about the amount of thought that a web site requires during the design process to be effective. The usability test assignment was unbelievably useful; this is something that I will do in the professional world as well. Even this assignment is requiring me to write about design decisions I’ve made and truly dissect my thinking process which will result in a better web site in the end. I am very happy that I’ve taken such a useful course.

Amy Gay: Designer Manifesto

amygay07 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:44:29 CDT

The first major decision I made in designing my website was choosing a topic. I honestly had no idea what subject I could possibly build a website on, since I really had no desire to make a website. I spontaneously decided to make a website about Prince’s new EXO3 racquet technology and the racquets that use it, since in helping my friend choose a new racquet, I came across these racquets and was interested. I didn’t have a better idea, so I decided to have my site feature these racquets.

After choosing my topic, I then had to worry about how I was actually going to go about making this website. I knew absolutely no code, and I was a bit worried about attempting to learn it for an online class. I tried using Dreamweaver at first, and it did help me obtain a better understanding of HTML, especially with images and links; however, I soon ditched Dreamweaver deciding I preferred coding everything myself, since I felt like this gave me more control.

While I found HTML to be pretty straight forward, I had a few issues with CSS at first. Without the CSS, my website looked terrible. It had no structure, and the text stretched across the whole screen. I knew I had to change this, so I continued to work on understanding CSS. My main problem was that I couldn’t see how CSS and HTML related to each other. I have to see things in order to learn and understand them, and once I was able to see Professor Collier’s CSS for his kitties website next to his source code, it all made sense. I was then able to make my own CSS page and reference it in my HTML. This gave my page some structure and color, making it look much more organized and professional.

Understanding CSS allowed me to move on to page design. I decided to make my background color complementary to the majority of my pictures. The pictures contained a lot of teal, so I made this my background color. I also made some design elements myself using InDesign and Photoshop. Some of these worked, and some did not. Having once been a layout designer for a print publication, I wanted to use some of my InDesign skills; however, most of these attempts did not look good, which was hard to accept since I had spent so much time designing them. Some successful InDesign products were the buttons I designed to use at the tops of pages to link them back to the homepage and racquets section. Unfortunately, my most time consuming InDesign endeavor failed though. I tried to create infoboxes for racquet stats in InDesign, then copy them into Photoshop, save them as JPEGs, and upload them to my filebox. This method sacrificed too much image clarity, and I eventually took these off my website in favor of a bulleted list. Though I lost some color and the neat little box, this made the information a bit easier to read and also put the information closer to other racquet facts in each racquet profile page. It also made my racquet profile pages less cluttered.

Overall, learning to design for the web has taught me to be more direct and simple in my online communications. People will probably ignore half or more of my site’s content, so I might as well accept that fact and make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for.

Stephanie Bridgeman - Designer Manifesto

StephanieBridgeman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:03:45 CDT

I encountered so many obstacles in building my website. I think one of the biggest limitations I had was the fact that I was redesigning a website that already existed. It took a long time for me to realize that I could change the content and structure of the website—not just the layout. Once I overcame that obstacle, I looked through many other Chapters’ websites to get an idea of what type of information I should keep on the site and what structures worked for them. The major goal I had in redesigning the website was to give it a more professional look that would show the Sorority in a positive light to anyone who visited the website. I feel that through a simpler layout, better navigation, and more consistency, I was able to achieve this.

Through building this website, I’ve learned so much more about XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I had had some previous experience with web design, but I realized that I had never truly understood it. I had just been given a link to the w3schools and a few example CSS layouts to change how I wanted. It had been more of just a trial and error process of getting things to do what I wanted them to. I started out creating this website using that same method, but through all of the lessons, I found out that I was learning more and more and actually understanding what I was doing. Soon, I was creating my own elements without relying on examples or premade code.

When I first started learning web design, I was basically banned from using any type of program to help with the coding. The only thing we were allowed to use was notepad or wordpad. I also coded my entire website using notepad because it was how I was familiar with creating web pages. Looking back, I think that it would have been a lot easier to use a program like Dreamweaver or NVU to create the website because they have features specifically to assist you with making a webpage. However, I think that by not using those resources, I had to learn to understand the actually code a lot more. I think a lot of my ability to pick up on the coding and need to understand it comes from my experience with various computer programming languages I’ve had to use in my engineering courses. At a basic level, it’s all about understating a specific coding language and just following the rules that govern it. If a student has ever had programming experience, I’d suggest that they use those basic principles to better understand the web programming as well.

I’m a huge perfectionist. I always criticize my work so much more than I probably should. However, with this project, I found that my biggest critics were actually the other members of the Sorority. At the beginning of the course, I gave them my filebox address so that they could view the website as it was being created and give their opinions, since it is their organization too. However, I soon realized that everyone has an opinion that is completely different. The good part was having every single spelling error, every missed name, and every unfinished item continually pointed out to me. But, everyone has different tastes. The hard part for me was having to listen to people’s criticism of things which were purely based on taste, and often contradicted basic web design principles which I had learned in class. It was really hard to know the long hours that I had put into a page and then to be told that it wasn’t very good or no one liked it. I feel like the usability test helped me to understand what elements of the website truly worked and what didn’t because I was actually able to see how people used the website as opposed to just what they thought of one portion of it. In the end, I realized that I just had to be confident in what I was creating and as long as it was usable and followed basic design principles, then it didn’t really matter if one person didn’t like one thing on the site.

In terms of writing on the web, I’ve learned that is a lot harder to be succinct than you would think. I tend to be a long winded person when I write, and it was hard for me to decide what to cut out. Since most of the content for my website had already been created, I had to do a lot of editing. I realized that if I had never bothered reading a long chunk of text on the website, then neither would anyone else. Therefore, I cut out a lot of the written material on the website. For many sections, I actually just rewrote information entirely to make it more pleasing on the web.

In terms of the layout design process, my major obstacle was creating the navigation. At first I had organized my website into sections. When you went to the specific section, then a side bar had links to more pages with related information. However, when I was introduced to JavaScript through the class, I was able to put all the navigation into one menu bar and didn’t need the side bar anymore. This required me to redesign many of my pages. However, I later realized that every page didn’t need to have the exact same layout to look consistent. I then ended up redesigning multiple pages to include a side bar for more links or information. For me, it was a constant battle trying to decide how to make so many different pages look uniform besides just having the same header and footer. By using similar fonts, styles, and graphics, I feel that I’ve been able to give my website a uniform appearance. One of the biggest things that I’ve learned through the design process is that you can’t always go by what looks the best. Something can look really cool, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s usable or the best fit for your website.

Designer Manifestos

jhcollier3 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:55:01 CDT

Welcome.
On arriving at this page, please add a new page and post your manifesto. For reference, the assignment.

Katie DeSouza- Designer Manifesto

katiedorcelina — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:08:49 CDT

I’m going to start by saying this: technology and I have never gotten along. Before I decided to take this class, I only used my laptop for three things: writing papers, talking on instant messanger, and using the internet (basic stuff like facebook and webmail). I know, I know- I should know more. But seriously, there’s stuff on my computer that I 1) have never even used/opened up, and 2) still have no freakin’ clue what they are. Never had I thought that one day I would be creating my own website, or that I could be smart enough to figure out how all of this internet stuff works. I’m kind of proud of myself, in that respect, because I was able to actually execute this project and create a working website.

Let’s face it; I am no computer whiz... My CoffeeCup HTML editor hated me so much, that it died on me, so I had to restart everything with Nvu HTML Editor. And tags… don’t even get me started about those. I don't know how many times I’ve freaked out about why something isn’t working as it should, only to realize it's because I forgot a </p> or something. Ugh!

Yet, this course has made me realize that, hey, even if I don’t possess the awesome creative computer designing skills of people with legit-working websites, I can still create something simple, honest, and a little unique.

In the beginning, I really struggled with an idea for my website. I literally had no clues as to what kind of website I would build, and I definitely knew it wouldn’t be all fancy-schmansy or anything. After stressing out for a little, I settled on creating a food and wine pairing website. Who doesn’t like food, or good wine for that matter? So, I wanted the main focus to be on the wine as well as on the interesting recipes I came up with for Casanel.

Honestly, I know that my website is extremely simple. There aren’t any flashy graphic designs or ridiculously cool colored fonts; however, this is how I wanted it to be. I wanted my recipes to stand out for their uniqueness and because they do pair extremely well with Casanel wines. I want my site’s visitors to see that I put a whole lot of time and effort into creating these recipes so that they would appeal to everyone (meat-lovers, vegetarians, kids, heck, the whole family for that matter). I picked the fonts and font sizes, color schemes, links, and pictures to show that even if it is simple, it’s still interesting. I want people to understand what I’m trying to do with my website: I want people to go home and cook these recipes for their family and friends and enjoy what my site has to offer (even if it looks a little ordinary).

In the end, I know that my site could be way more attractive and cool; yet, I’m an English major who still hasn’t figured out track changes on Word (it can be so confusing , don’t even lie). I know that if I was a little more web-saavy and able to understand just what the heck I’m doing in an HMTL editor, I would have a prettier website. However, I’m still proud of the work I’ve produced and I look forward to working more on my website in the future.

Katelyn Webster Designer Manifesto

KateWebster — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:24:50 CDT

While creating my website, I found that I became my harshest critic. Throughout the process, I would consistently add & delete as I worked, whether it was content or layout. I found that I was never fully satisfied with my work. This is my first attempt at developing a website, and I found it quite difficult from the designer’s point of view. Most of all, I wanted to create a website that others would find interesting, while it also was something that I felt strongly about. This is why I came up with the idea of creating a website about options to pursue after graduation. I feel that most students my age would be concerned about the same thing.

My first huge crisis was choosing a layout that really presented my information well. It was hard for me to do this because all my attempts at CSS never delivered what I wanted. At first, I worked by building a table into my html document and by handwriting my CSS. This initial layout looked like something a scammer would build. It was basic and didn’t really stand out as anything special. In order to learn as a designer, I needed to find a few resources to help me, and I needed to “write and preview” as I drafted my website. After playing around with CSS (and resorting to tutorials online and a book from Barnes & Noble), I was able to create a new layout by building my tables in my CSS instead of my html file. I found that this created a much cleaner and more professional look. Also, from a designer’s point of view, CSS is altogether an easier way to build the website. Although, I found that one aspect of my new layout didn’t work as well as my initial layout. I found it hard to expand my new layout to cover the entire screen, and I still haven’t been able to fix this glitch.

Content development was fairly easy for me because I care a lot about the subject matter. I chose four options that I have been considering post-graduation. I gathered my information and I simplified it so that the major benefits of each option were emphasized. In looking at my website, I feel that the supplemental links that I provided on each webpage are strong additions to my website. From a designer’s point of view, I feel that these links augment my website by allowing users to easily obtain more information without having to open a new window or tab. I feel that the entire process of writing CSS and HTML by hand is the best way to learn as a designer. I know that while writing code I failed more times than I succeeded, but it was the only way to learn. Once I got the basics down, I was forced to find resources to guide me through the process in order to build a more professional and pleasing website. While taking the class on the web, I have learned that designing and writing for the web isn’t as simple as it seems. I never knew what went into designing a website. I definitely have more appreciation for writers and designers of the web because even the simplest websites take a lot of effort to create.

Nathan Denny - Designer Manifesto

NathanDenny — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:47:49 CDT

Building this website was probably one of the most challenging assignments I’ve had in college, simply because I had absolutely no web design experience. Just knowing where to start was difficult, because—more or less—we were starting from scratch. CSS and HTML were like foreign languages to me, but they slowly started to make more and more sense as I began working on the website.

The first step in this process after I decided that I would build a portfolio website was deciding how I wanted it to look. To help me I looked at some homepages of other composers and just other websites in general. I decided to make it simple, bright, and professional. I couldn’t stand looking at websites that were completely white, or websites that had all text and no visual. So color and pictures were a must for my site. I also like sites that used interesting fonts—not necessarily all the way through, but at least for headings. So I went online and downloaded a font that I thought would be interesting for users.

Since a lot of the inspiration for my music comes from places that I’ve traveled to, I chose several panoramic photographs of mountains and rivers and plains to capture that sense of a distant land. This also helped me choose my color scheme. I went with fairly neutral, earthy colors, with one thin bar of bright colors (blue, green, maroon, purple). I think the neutrality keeps the website professional, but also keeps it from being bland or boring.

The text of the website was probably the part that I had the least trouble with. I wanted the site to be informative, but not overbearing—that way, users would be able to find the information that they need without being overwhelmed by the amount of text on each page. I generally tried to keep sentences and paragraphs short, with a good amount of space in between to help out the eye of the reader.

One thing I regret is not having more description or more space for the originals and arrangements. In the future, I will hopefully be adding more music to this page. If this is the case, those two pages will get continually longer and harder to read and find information. Ideally, each original piece would have its own page with a longer description of its compositional techniques and how it was written. It would also have the audio file, and perhaps a sample of the written notational score. I think giving this kind of deserved attention to each piece would make the site stronger as a portfolio and give users a better understanding of each piece. This is, perhaps, a project that I will take on later, when I apply to grad schools and this site becomes even more important.

This project has taken me from zero on the “web design knowledge” scale to a much higher level of understanding and appreciation. I have also learned a lot about communicating over the web. It is such a different medium than anything else I have been taught at Tech, and having web-writing skills will most certainly be of importance in a work world that depends so much on web communication.

Jerran Anderson- Designer Manifesto

jjdaman20 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:28:22 CDT

Tackling the creation of a whole website using CSS and XHTML was probably the most stressful but enjoyable task of this website project. Designing a website is not the easiest task ever but it is a process of being patient and creating each page under the pretense that it has to be consistent with web writing and the norms of communicating on the web.

I used Dreamweaver 8 to construct my website. So, the first tidbit of advice I would give to any designer is use a web design application that you can easily familiarize yourself with and go from there. I hadn’t used Dreamweaver 8 before but I have used an updated version to create a less complex website of only text and images.

My learning of new styles and language helped me a lot in creating this website project. Before taking this class, I never really paid attention to learning the ins and outs of HTML, I just wanted to throw a website together in the least amount of time possible just so I could say I had a website. Fortunately, this class really gave me a different outlook on how to communicate on the web and construct pages based on the content I wanted to put on my website.
I used a 2-column format of CSS to build my website. It is very easy to work with and simple to use if you know what you’re doing. It made it easier to make each page consistent with each other in the long run because each text format was a style that could be highlighted and selected from a dropdown box in Dreamweaver 8. Even creating pages from pages that I already made was easier since the text was the only thing that needed to match up in order to make each page usable and viewable.

The graphics part of the website became an afterthought. Thinking like a designer, I felt that the graphics of this page did not have to be complex or self-made because from a writing standpoint, I want my writing to standout, not my graphics. If I used graphics more, it could have potentially taken from the purpose of creating an opinion website based on my blog.

All in all, the ultimate creation of this website came from learning more about things like CSS, linking, and having a consistent style to fall back on to. The color scheme and layout worked out more than I thought it would simply because I started from scratch and knew how each page should look it in its final version. In the past, websites I created were more or less done with a beginner’s mindset. Let’s make a homepage, now some links, then throw some cool graphics/buttons in to make it look professional and it didn’t turn out too well.

With this project, I took my time, sat down, wrote material I felt would fit the topic, then sorted each piece out to the necessary page it belonged to. It sounds easy but some things are easier said than done. So with each work I produced, I made each page layout different. For Miscellaneous, I went with an “article” type format, for NCAA, I went with a more “excerpt” look since the NCAA is definitely a tougher topic to write about than professional sports. Essentially, I gave each page a different look in order to not only create consistently but to create separation from each sports genre.

Exercise 2: James Dodson

Jedodson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:49 CDT

Although the website for the 5 Safe Points Driving School is not that big, I felt lost while using it. There are too many links in such a small place on the homepage. In fact, links are the only means of navigation throughout the site. The red hyperlinks lead to other pages for this specific driving school; the blue links lead to other sites that might be useful to visitors, such as various websites for driver improvement programs in Virginia. I don’t know if I should consider these other programs competitors because I’m not sure how driver improvement programs work together. I guess they’re all affiliated with the DMV. Besides this simple color coding with the links, the homepage does not offer effective organization.

The links are too wordy. Every link that takes the user elsewhere in the site says “click here,” but there is no need to tell people that when it is perfectly clear that you click on the links. A much simpler label would be “Virginia Driver Improvement
Class room Schedule.” These links are right in the middle of the page, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a bit tedious reading “click here for this” in every link. If the statement is shortened to feature just the title of the next page, I feel that would be less irritating to users.

It was not until the third or fourth time I returned to the homepage did I realize that the two images also serve as hyperlinks. The images are horrible first of all. I guess a student sitting in a desk sort of pertains to a driver improvement class, but there are so many other more interesting pictures that could have been used. How about a crazed driver on one side and a relaxed driver on the other to serve as a before-and-after perspective? The happy, young people on the homepage show no indication that they are in a driver improvement class.

The rainbow colors are also visually irritating and provide nothing to the site. The layout for the site does not fit in my normal window, so I had to maximize the screen to see everything or scroll around (which I really did not feel like doing).

Everything that a potential user of this site would want to know is available, but the way it has been set-up makes it difficult to use. The more I looked at the pictures on the homepage, the more they bothered me. I finally figured out the one on the left is for classes taught in person, and the picture on the right is for online classes (duh); thus, the pictures are of a man sitting in a desk and a woman showing her computer screen. I guess there was more organization than I originally saw, but still…5 Safe Points Driving School shouldn’t make me work so hard to figure that out.

Jerran Anderson Exercise 2

jjdaman20 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:10:23 CDT

To begin this usability test, the overall layout of this website creates a lot of “visual noise”. At first glance at the homepage, I don’t know what to click, what to look at, where to go to. I don’t know what the site is about, especially with a “Do You Like Saving Money?” graphic in the middle of the page.
The organization could be done a lot better and the links could have more meaning than just being a description of what I might click on. To be efficient, users do not want to look all around the page for what their looking for but rather directed to it with help.

The layout for the website doesn’t help at all. Nobody would like to have to search a whole page then scroll all the way to the bottom which is white space. White space creates clutter for this website. Overlapping images, links to other websites, and dull words can create confusion for users. Using images of 2 people doing two different actions creates even more confusion. The title of the website also creates confusion because it is too long.

It could use a contact us link, an Online Course link, and a Locations link. Just those 3 changes could help make the homepage simpler to comprehend. Clarity and brevity are two very important things in writing and helping readers gain meaning, the only meaning that could possibly be gained on this website is “I should never be this unorganized.”

And to top of the unorganized state of the page, it posts links to other web pages and I don’t even know why. What is “DMVNOW.com?” Why would I need the DMV for other areas on the right side of the page? Some things just are not self-explanatory and that creates even more noise.

Brittany Beerse: Excercise two

britty76 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:41:47 CDT

I’m unsure of where to start with this review, but a coach of mine once said it is best to sandwich a review allowing things to open and close positively- so I’ll try my best. The 5- Points to Safer Driving site’s home page makes it easy to find links to the different DMV’s in the state of Virginia. Also all of these links do work, and lead start to the respective homepages. However, this site looks as though a twelve year old made it. The links are scattered, in plain text, and are formatted to where they appear to be sentences. To make the site flow better why not have a single link that says, Drivers safety courses. By doing this is would relieve the access distraction on the home page. Also this would allow the opportunity to provide a brief summary of each class on the Drivers safety courses page, and a chance to provide a corresponding link that says more information/ sign up. By doing this it saves people time from having to go back to the homepage each time if they happen to click the wrong link (although that’s the least of this site’s problems). Not only would this new format save time, but it may also stop a stroke. Once an unsuspecting individual clicks on the link for a class they will find themselves bombarded with spam type flashing. Immediately I, also an unsuspecting bystander, thought one of two things, Professor Collier has tricked me into going to some gag site, and secondly thank God I’m twenty one and not seventy five. I don’t see how anyone can find anything on this site after being hypnotized by Rainbow Brights color spectrum. Clearly this site was constructed by several different people, however, because as I continued through the links I noticed some quite useful. Although all the pages looked very basic the links on the main page lead to useful summaries about different areas of Virginia, also the link below the image of the girl was a clever way to lead to something useful. Also having an online course link on an image of a computer creates another point of recognition for the reader. Overall I think this website needs a lot of work. There are to many distractions, and frankly if I was not required to review this website in detail I would have immediately closed the browser and gone to the DMV to sign up.

Stephanie Bridgeman - Exercise 2

StephanieBridgeman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:09:05 CDT

When I first looked at the 5 Safe Points Driving School website, I thought it was a joke. To me, the site was just a blur of randomly placed images and text. One of the things that particularly bothered me was the page sizing. The width of the page was too large to fit into my browser window. I had to scroll over to see the text that went along with the image links on the right hand side of the page. Also, after the search option at the bottom of the page, there was an extremely large section of white space.

In addition, it is very hard to distinguish what are links on the page. When moving the mouse around the screen, almost the entire page turns the cursor into the ‘hand shape’ indicating a link. At first glance, it seems that all of the red text signifies links. However, the phone numbers are in red, but are not links. After further inspection, it turns out that the text along the side of the page and at the bottom is also links, but is in blue. Every image on the page is also a link. Some of the image links are label with text, while some are not. Also, the same images link to different sites. The DMV approved logo on the left links to the Virginia DMV site; however, the logo on the right links to the 24/7 Online Driver Improvement page. Also, there were many different links that led to the same pages. In addition, the pictures of the thumbs up only links to the image itself, which seems pointless.

The organization of the site is also horrible. The site leaves the user confused as to the hierarchy of the site or what it contains. Although there is a title at the top of the page stating what the site is about, it is smaller and less attractive than some of the other material on the page. I found that I was so distracted by everything else that it took me a while to figure out what the site was about. There was no layout that grouped similar links together, and the text on the site was not scannable.

In terms of Jakob Nielsen’s usability components, the site is extremely unusable. It is very hard to learn how to perform basic tasks on the site without searching through many links and clicking them to see where they lead to. The site also lacks efficiency. Even if you did become familiar with the site, it will still take time to scan through all of the links to do what you wanted. The site isn’t memorable either. It has no structure which would allow someone to easily remember how to navigate the site after a period of time. I found that it was easy to make errors with this site. I often found myself clicking on random links and then having to back track using the back button to get back to the original site. Finally, I found no satisfaction in using the site. It was disorganized, cluttered, and too complicated to use.

Katelyn Webster Exercise 2

KateWebster — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:44:41 CDT

The "5 Points of Safe Driving School" website is incredibly unusable. The homepage lacks formatting that allows the user to easily navigate or find what they are looking for. The links are placed randomly throughout the page without any structure. Additionally, two of the links say the exact same thing (“For the Online Virginia Driver Improvement Course”) with one exception: one link opens in the same window as the homepage and the other link opens in a new window. One of the images on the page is also a link, but the image does not place emphasis on where the link goes –instead, it places the words in small text on a computer screen in the image. The text on the computer screen says “Go to the Defensive Driving Online Course” and after clicking the link, it takes you to the same page as the two previously mentioned links that say “For the Online Virginia Driver Improvement Course.” So, now the homepage has three links to one page AND uses two different names for the same course: Defensive Driving and Driver Improvement.

Also, the link that says “Click here to view Virginia Driver Improvement Classroom Schedules & Register Online” takes users to a page that is too noisy with a blinking header and vibrant background. It makes the header appear to be the most important information on the page (whereas, the information on the page actually is). The information on the page is not easy to navigate. It should be placed in a table with visible borders to help users navigate the information. More so, none of the additional pages provide links to return to the homepage. As a result, users are forced to use the back arrow or button on their web browser to return to the homepage. Lastly, the homepage provides a search engine, but places it at the bottom of the website, which is a poor position. Search engines should be placed on the top left or right of the screen where users will be able to easily locate them.

Craig Harmon - Exercise #2

craigharmon — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:10:40 CDT

This is quite possibly one of the worst web sites I’ve ever visited. There are so many concerns in the sites usability that it would probably take much more than 500 words to break them down. However, I will focus on the most important issues first.

The first problem that jumps out at me is the lack of order on the homepage. There is no order in any of the images, text (besides the various driver improvement links on the right), and the page has a feeling of chaos, like the designer simply tried to pack whatever he/she could fit onto the page, including two DMV badges (unnecessary), two search bars, about 50 links, and links to search engine submission services. In short, it looks like the web designer tried to squash an entire web site into one web page. For a visitor, it is nearly impossible to filter out the useless information from the important, and leads to confusion, and probably aggravation.

The second major issue on the site is the lack of repetition. In Gestalt theory, which I am a strong believer in, repetition is key. The only thing that this site seems to repeat is disorder. Even the links are not one color; they alternate between red and blue. This means that even at the absolute basic level of site navigation, the user will be confused about what to click on. The heading sizes change frequently, which is strange because the “DMVNOW.COM” links at the bottom of the page are in a larger heading size than the “5 Safe Points Driving School” header at the top of the page -- it makes no sense.

The third issue, and possibly the most important because even if the entire site was poorly designed, we could still say “well, at least the content is well-written” is the writing quality of the site. There are spelling errors everywhere; “driver” is spelled “drier,” there are punctuation issues, things that shouldn’t be capitalized are; it’s basically a disaster of epic proportions. The last thing that really sticks out to me is the scrollbar; if you look at the code, it looks like the web designer just copy pasted a lot of code from other web sites, which would be OK, except for the fact that he forgot to take out some code, which causes the scrollbar on the page to appear endlessly.

In terms of usability, the site would confuse most visitors to the point that they would probably either sit in front of the computer for 15 minutes trying to filter through the information, or simply close the browser window altogether. If I had to change the site, I would probably cut about 75% of the material on the page now -- the search boxes would be gone, the RSS feed (I think) from the DMV web site would be gone, and a lot of the “do you like _______?” advertisements would be gone. I think that the web designer needs to prioritize which information is the most important; in specific, the schedules and register links should be emphasized, and the links to different driver improvement courses can still be kept but not as prominent. Even if you kept the exact same basic design concept -- times new roman, white background, etc., you could improve the site drastically by simply cutting a lot of the fat. I think that emphasizing the navigation, and working on continuity, repetition, and order would improve the overall experience of most visitors of the site.

Exercise 2: DeSouza

katiedorcelina — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:09:43 CDT

Seriously? And I thought my website was bad… The 5 Safe Points Driver School website is like one giant jumble of stuff (and my simple brain cannot handle that); I feel like someone just threw a whole lot of text and links onto the page, then realized they needed some pictures (and corny ones at that), then walked away... I literally took one look at this homepage and wanted to LEAVE. It’s so dizzying to me that everything is so lumped together. I asked my mom what she thought of this website. She took one look, laughed, and then went back to washing dishes. If a website actually makes you want to go back to washing dishes… well, then it’s definitely not that great of a website.

After the initial shock, I looked at the 5 Safe Points Driving School site more closely. I figured it couldn’t be all that bad on an initial cursory glance… I stand corrected. I will give the site credit for one thing and one thing only; they do make their links easy to pick out, seeing as they’re all in red and explained fairly well. And, I mean, let’s face it. Everyone hates the DMV and hates going there, so I can see how being able to go online to do things rather than going to the actual DMV is extremely appealing to people. But after seeing this website… I’d almost rather wait in line at the DMV.

I thought about what Jakob Nielson talked about in his Alertbox on Usability, concerning learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. I really don’t understand how you’re supposed to navigate this webpage. I didn’t really get why there were more blue links underneath the pictures and red links; it’s redundant. Some of the misspellings are glaring, like with the “Florida Online Drier” stuff. What is that? Oh, and the gigantic double DMV NOW links? Yeah, those aren’t obnoxious at all… And p.s., what’s with all the white space going on for miles and miles? There’s two minutes of my life I won’t get back after all of that scrolling.

This site sure is memorable, though, I’ll give it that… for being quite horrible.

The biggest problem for me is that I still can’t get over the overall layout for the website. I don’t get why there’s a random sidebar with what seem to be DMV articles about the Virginia area. Are people really interested in that? I ask this because the bulk of the website is dedicated to Driver Improvement courses. So, the majority of people going to this website would want to get in and get out, so to speak, and more concerned about getting their driver’s improvement course info rather than reading random articles. Plus, I’d be mad in the first place when visiting this site. People going to driver improvement most likely got a ticket or points on their license—and after seeing this website, I guarantee they’d be even more angry.

Nathan Denny, Exercise 2

NathanDenny — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:53:11 CDT

There are so many things unaesthetically pleasing about this website, but what’s worse is the page also violates many rules of usability for the functionality of webpages. The first thing I noticed was the lack of layout that this page seems to have. There is a heading at the top, but beneath that there is little organization of layout. The photographs, the pictures, and the clipart are the only things that divide up the series of links that make up this page.

The amount of links on this page make learnability extremely difficult. The basic tasks involved with this page are not immediately evident—there are too many options and not enough explanations of the page’s links. There needs to be some other headings to distinguish the different driver improvement courses from the other links on the page.

As far as navigability, most of the links open in a new window, and bring users to another page of unaesthetic layouts and more links. What might be better in this situation would be the breadcrumb approach to webpage navigation. This way, users would know the line of links they had followed—they would remember each page they had come from.

Several links on the page seems to have little relevance to the page’s purpose. The “For Our Driver Improvement Classroom Locations” link bring users to information that is already found in one of the registration links. Towards the bottom of the page, there are two DMV links right next to each other—this is unnecessary and could cause needless confusion. Below that, there are seven links to Florida driver improvement classes—why those are on the page I’m not sure, but this can hinder the learnability of the page. Users can get confused by superfluous information, and seven unnecessary links is certainly excessive.

I don’t think the page has the memorability that users need, nor does it have the overall satisfaction of design. There is not much to really guide the users through the page, and the layout is not pleasant or user-friendly. Overall, I would say this website needs a serious usability makeover to ensure that all visitors to the site will know exactly what they are doing.

Exercise 2: Amy Gay

amygay07 — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:36:31 CDT

The five points safe driving school web site is not usable at all. The page is a mess of visual noise and mystery links. It is not easily scannable, it appears to have no visual hierarchy, and the design is terrible. The first half of the home page seems to have five columns consisting of images and links, one following another in almost no logical order, and the second half is even less organized, since info boxes and links have pretty much no identification. Many of the links in both the first and second halves are also too long. Some links, such as the one for “Florida Online Drier Improvement Courses,” are misspelled, and the names of some links, such as the huge ones at the bottom of the page for dmvnow.com provide no hint as to where they go, and there is no text to provide the information lacking in the links’ names. It’s also obnoxious that there are two of links to dmvnow.com right next to each other and in large type. Actually, much of the page is obnoxious, since it looks like someone just dropped a bunch of links onto the homepage, kind of like a link collage. The design, which is already bad, is also sloppy. Some images partially overlap others, and there is an excessive amount of white space at the bottom of the page.

As a result of the issues I listed, it would be very difficult for me to navigate this site. I seriously I doubt I could find what I was looking for on the first try, and I don’t think I could easily learn the site’s navigation even after multiple attempts to do so. It’s likely that I would make many navigation errors on this site, and I would probably lose my license due to the accumulation of too many points before I ever became familiar with the site’s navigation in my normal use of it. Probably the only person who can easily use this site is the person who created it, though there’s even some doubt there.

Exercise 2 Forum

jhcollier3 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:06:54 CDT

Welcome.
Once you arrive on this page, please create a new page and post your response to Exercise 2.