Part
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“The site that I liked the most was ‘Scripting News’. Although
this site also has white space on the left and right, it is appropriate there.
It adds to the design and makes the information on the screen the center of
attention. I thought the site was easy to read and easy to navigate” (PG).
Colors were frequently cited as positive or negative factors. Eric Alterman’s MSNBC weblog “has a nice, clean, easy to use design. And uses harmonious colors (blue, dark grey, black and white)” (AD).
“The website (Plasticbag) is pleasing to my eye because content is neat, easy to read and easy to navigate. It looks very comfortable. . . . White background with pink and blue color design gives me warm feeling” (WH)
Having a title with an esthetically pleasing banner at top is an important
convention to observe, either for connections with institutions or for branding
the website on its own. “Oxblog site is so so in my eyes. I don't like
their design. i don't like red color as a stripe and they have a lot of stories
in it. (Too much for me)” (CV) Similarly negative comments came from a
student in the Winter 2004 group
:
Overall, there are literally no photos, no entry headers for content, a boring
masthead in a rust color, and crowded text throughout the site. I take back
what I previously wrote that the first site is the worst layout. This one takes
the cake for poor navigation and information design. The entries are all listed
by time, without actual dates. All the entrys are added by a variety of authors.
The names of these authors are the headlines, and there are no topic headlines
to follow.
“[Altercations, above] uses the MSNNBC logo & name at the top. The layout is well-organized & looks professional, as if it was a regular news site. In terms of format it uses 3 columns - makes good use of these-which results in it being easy to navigate.” (DF)
Hard-to-read fonts (size or choice) are an immediate issue. Visually “busy” sites are not well received, but empty use of real estate is also bad. Four font sizes is definitely too many. Small fonts were generally regarded as a negative factor in design. “I thought Douglas Rushkoff's website was very poor in content and poorly designed. Uses small fonts which makes it hard to read and navigate” (MW).
“Fuckedcompany and Slashdot were difficult to read due to the small and italic font” (RE). “The text is nearly all the same size and color, making navigation difficult. The white space on the left and right should be used to ‘jazz’ up the site a bit, it serves no other purpose as it is. This site needs a complete re-do!” (PG)
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