Week 3 Part A: Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

 Best Electronics CA

    Right off the bat, despite Best Electronics having updates from 2020 this website looks like many of the early 2000's GeoCities and Angelfire user created websites. This website has a couple of things that could help it improve such as alignment and contrast(mainly in typography) to improve hierarchy, but also improve the ease of use to make it less chaotic and appear more professional or at least credible.

Alignment:

    The first thing that stood out to me was the lack of margins and padding for the site that make it appear like a giant wall; jumping between a small monitor to a large monitor made the issue worse because it was an even bigger wall of text which made it intimidating to tackle all the information that was on it. There are a couple of purple line and colorful box outlines to separate content from one part to the other the lack of negative space between the text keeps the content of the web pages all squished together and makes the text without it look like it is part of the same paragraphs. 

    The alignment of the text is mainly left aligned with some blurbs at the top of new sections and some links to new pages at the bottom of sections being centered. I don't this would be an issue if the sections were spaced out better and if this was a rule throughout the website; A third of the way down on the landing page is a section about Wizztronics Atari 8-Bit that seems to be body text that is all centered and makes it hard to read the paragraph (paragraphs?) about it.

Contrast/Typohraphy:

    Contrast in typography between font sizes could be increased for headings for the sections and decreased for the body text to not make everything look like a heading; there is some effort towards trying to create a hierarchy at the top of the page between the logo/company name, the blurb about the site purpose/navigation links, and the body text below that. 

    Text color is an issue for the site that creates confusion on things such as hierarchy and links. There are some key words that are highlighted in colors such as in the section that follows the "Bests Atari Hall of Fame" section where the word "gold" is colored in a gold color several times; this creates to much focus to the use of the word each time and could be eliminated with a proper heading at the top of the section and the word even in the heading would not have to be colored in gold because it already stands out enough as a heading. In this same section there is also the text "Enhances/Upgrades" that is colored in the same blue as the links on the site, which occurs more times throughout then page, and creates confusion on what is a link and what is not. I would keep all text the same color unless it was a heading and be mindful of things like links that may be the same color.

Ease of Use:

    The company name is at the top left of the page on the landing page and the two navigation links but is not but should be displayed on any other links that go to other pages on the website; as a side note, the animated logo for Atari should be moved away from the company name on the home page because this makes the website look like it is owned by Atari and not Best Electronics. Page title on the pages to other parts of the website should also be adjusted to reflect the website and content of the page and not just say "text".

    Navigation through Best Electronics website should be improved overall by having a more in depth navigation bar at the top with the index and site listing links and moving some of the content on the home page to their own separate pages. The landing page is a mile long with all the different products/services/business info, etc. that could be put onto new pages or at least have jump links to make it easier to find what a customer wants to see; having an "About us" page could help the company stand out more as a brand and make it easier for customers to find the contact info as well. A jump to the top link would also be useful at the bottom of the page or each section if the page is still very long.

Gates N Fences

    This website to me looks like a small businesses website where the company owner designed it themselves because of a limited budget or because they like have a hand in everything that goes into the business. The website has plenty of information about their services and about their business info that make me trust they are a legitimate business but that they may not be the most professional or have a well organized business operation. This website could  be improved with polishing the concept, alignment, and editing their depth of content.

Concept:

    It's very clear that this was created to show a business that builds fences and gates for homes and helps to educate potential customers about all of their services. I think there is an information overload such as how different gates and fences are listed and given a description of what they are; this can be shortened to a bullet list of each kind that can be provided and if a customer is unfamiliar with that term they can always google it. 

    The website strays off the content it was intended for by adding in information about separate businesses. I'm guessing that the owner has two other businesses for auto care and hydroponics that are advertised on this site but could either be removed all together; this could also be moved to an "affiliated" web page or under the businesses about us page under owner information but it would be better to remove this all together to keep the content more concise.

Alignment:

     A grid would improve the flow and organization of the content. At the moment, there are text boxes and pictures placed everywhere throughout the main content of the page and there is no definitive column or gutter spacing which makes it look very unorganized. The top of the home page starts and the bottom ("Why our Custom Made..." and on) are ok, could be refined a bit more, but the middle of the page completely goes off the rails by  throwing in text boxes and pictures everywhere with little regard for the columns that were already created. Along with the left navigation bar, the main content could could be placed into two columns for text and pictures or into one column for all the content.

Depth of Content:

    The email to the website, phone number, and fax is on the header and at the bottom of the page which makes it easy to find the contact information for more details and booking but it can be improved. A section at the bottom of the home page can be added as "Need more info or ready to book?" with quick contact form to reach out to the business. The form that is on the "Contact us" page is very in depth so it may not be the best to use at the bottom of the home page. The contact page may benefit with a quick explanation to use the in depth form if the customer is sure of the details for their booking or to fill out the simple fill in form if they have any questions or need more guidance on booking; this makes the process much less intimidating for first time users.

    The website has a lot of information so it should be proofed for spelling and grammatical errors to shorten and correct things like "hand made" to handmade. I think it would also be useful to have more people proof the content to see what things can be eliminated to reduce the large amounts of text that are provided.

Apple

    The company's colors are kept monochromatic but reference their old rainbow scheme and the vibrancy/quality of their products through their graphic content. They do this by using subtle and smooth pastel gradients for their text/product picture boxes to create pops of color that highlights certain info; they will also use light grey text and picture boxes to separate out their content and sections to create contrast.

    Depth of content is short and sweet to get their point across without over explaining but offer links to more information for those interested. The website it centered with lots of margin space on the side that is only broken by large pictures that reach the edge of the web page but still have the focus of it centered on the page. Large body text and large lists of link are left aligned but some small bodies of text and the top navigation bar is centered to fit the centered theme of the website.

    Apple has a great website that is professionally done and fits the well with their branding as a company. Their logo is displayed on the left side of their navigation, at the footer, and throughout their pictures to remind customers that these products are apple products. It's clearly organized with consistent padding between content, high resolution images, and easy navigation at the top and bottom of all of their web pages. It makes me trust that their products are a of a high quality and that will also be as organized and clean as how they present themselves through their website. 

National Park Service

    NPS has a great layout that keeps all of their information organized in sections and within the sections. There is good spacing between the content that is consistent through the different sections. The website keeps most of the content within the margins but also has some content break this such as the header image and the horizontal lists but these do not bleed off the web page this structure is repeated through the rest of the website which makes it clear that it is still the same website and not a new one. The website has an expandable menu as the main navigation that does not obstruct the website with all of its links unless dropped down and also has a footer with links for easy navigation.

    The use of text in front of images is easy to read because of the contrast that is created by using a mask over the images to darken the image, using a darker text box around the text, and making the text a white color to stand out among all of these elements. Colors of the website, other than black and white, are complimentary colors or exact colors of their logo that a reminder of the earthy nature of the organization.

    The website is very clear on its purpose and is easy to navigate to find useful information. The way that the content is laid out gives it an informative feeling that is provided in the written content without making it feel overwhelming. I think that this website has done a great job of making it easy to dive into visiting and caring for our national parks.

Going through these websites has been a fun but stressful experience because of the opportunity to analyze good and problematic design. I think that it was very useful to be able to look at the not so good websites to recognize how chaotic these designs are and how this can impact a visitor to stay or immediately click off; had it not been for this assignment, I would have immediately closed out any of the bad websites because I could not take them seriously. It was also a great experience to find solutions to remedy for the problems with certain websites. While looking at the better designed websites was a nice palate cleanser, I feel like I learned less from looking at good designs. It felt more like I looked at these sites and thought these look good and I should replicate that if I ever need to; I had to really look at these and ask why are they appealing and why do they fit so well with their branding.