| 1. Jacob Nielson's Website (useit.com) | |
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Comments When I first looked at this site, I was really disappointed. There were no graphics, too much information on one page, and the color scheme was not aesthetically pleasing. I expected a better website from a highly regarded web (usability) expert. But as I was touring his site, I found a page which explained his rationale. He said he did not want to use graphics because it would increase his site's file size. He tried to keep his site downloadable in less than 10 seconds on a dial-up modem. I believe he makes a good point and I understand his rationale for not using graphics. But pertaining to the colors of his site, I felt he could have done a better job at it. On the site, he used yellow, light yellow, blue, light blue, and red. Those colors just does not make the site appealing. Although it's usable and assessible, it's also very BORING. |
| 2. Peter Joel Blog (peterjoel.com/blog/) | |
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Comments I really enjoyed visiting this site. The content is very well organized. Although there is a lot of content on the page, the content is divided up into sections using colored boxes. The color schema is well executed. The shades of blue make the site very calm and easy-to-read. I really liked how he designed the graphics and background (which gives the site it's uniqueness). What's also great about this site is the functionality. I especially like how the comments are viewed. When you click on the comments section of each post, all of the comments are dropped down and while still being on the same page. This makes it very easy-to-use from a usability's standpoint. |
| 3. Blake A. Vargas Homepage (students.ou.edu/V/Blake.A.Vargas-1/) | |
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Comments When I first glanced at this page, I was very frightened. If that was his/her goal, then it suceeded. There are numerous design crimes on this site (too much to name). The most disturbing thing on the page is the blinking text saying 'ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!'. The crop job on the text is not well executed (giving it jagged white edges). Another thing I notices is the black text on a dark-red (maroon) background. It make the site very difficult to read. The good this is that this is just an intro page. Once I got onto the main homepage, I was a little more pleased. Most of the text was white, making it easier to read. But the text is too large and some had red text (on black background). Another disturbing thing I found was the OU logos. The logos were enlarge too much, making the image blurry and pixelated. The only good comment about the page is their resume section. It was very simple and easy-to-read. |
| 4. Dumbnuts Great Homepage (wolverine.cameron.edu/~ds070632/) | |
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Comments When I first entered the site, it has a little flash animation banner, which was kind of interesting. I like how he noted the viewers that the site is 'best viewed at 1024 X 768 resolution'. This gave the user an awareness that it might not be viewable on some monitor resolutions. As I entered the main page, I found the layout to be fairly good. The text on the content seems a little too small. The part that really disturbs me is the left navigation. The images makes the links very hard to find. Also, the text on the images are difficult to read. |
| 5. Koolaide (wolverine.cameron.edu/~aw045088/) | |
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Comments As I was viewing this site, the main thing that bothered me is the loading time. It took a while for the page to load on my computer (and I have T1 connection!). The graphics are too large and needs to be compressed. Also, when I click on one of the links, the page says 'Under Construction' with a big graphical text. It is usually not a good idea to have pages that say 'under construction' on it. It would be much more appropriate to say 'coming soon' or just leave that link out until there is content on that page. |
| 6. Horizon Zero (horizonzero.com) | |
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Comments When I first entered the site, there was a flash animation which revealed a stunning graphic of 3D models. The graphic looked really nice and was a great reflection of his artistic talent. The only negative side of the intro section is that there was no 'skip intro'. When I visited the site again, it played the animation again (about 15-20 seconds long) and did not let me enter the main page until the animation finished. I think it would have been better if he had added a 'skip intro' and just straight to the main page. |
| 7. Harvard University (harvard.edu) | |
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Comments I really enjoyed visiting this site. This is by far my favorite university webiste. The color schema is nice and the navigation is very easy-to-use. |
| 8. Krystle's Webpage (students.ou.edu/P/Krystle.L.Parish-1/) | |
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Comments When I first visited this site, the part that stood out the most was the background. It seems too colorful and made the text very hard to read. The animation was pretty neat but there's no meaning in having it. All of the text is centered, which makes it even harder to read along with the background. It was really hard for me to find any good things to say about this site. It just needs a lot of improvement. |
| 9. Steph's Personal Site (students.ou.edu/P/Stephanie.D.Parnell-1/) | |
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Comments On my first visit to the site, I found the background to be very pleasing. The text matched the background very well, giving the site a theme. The thing that bothered me was the audio. There was no way of turning the audio off, unless I just muted my speakers. The site should have some way of letting the user turn off the audio. |
| 10. Neave (neave.com) | |
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Comments This is one of my favorite sites on the web. I like everything about this site. The colors are wonderful. Each section has it's own color scheme (which is basically using one color but adding shades of that color). The layout is very organized and makes the content very fun and easy-to-read. I love the interaction on the navigation icons. The site is very original and the functionality and aesthetics is great also. |
