Response 9_Photoshop

This week I dove more fully into the website design project, so reading about the dos and don'ts of navigation was really helpful. Navigating through websites is something I have essentially grown up with. By the time the internet had proliferated through the country, I was right around the age that I could understand it all. Web navigation has become so second nature that there will be times I click through to a website from a Google search and within the first 3 seconds, decide if I'm going to engage with the site or simply hit back to the Google results and choose the next option down the list. The design and layout of a website is so crucial because there are literally billions of sites to compete with for user attention.

While speaking with the people I am designing for, they had pretty set ideas about page titles and where certain information will fall. Since they are apart of a larger nationwide association however, there are guidelines about how all Boys and Girls Club websites should look like. Now I'm trying to find a balance between following the guidelines laid out at the top level while still portraying the individual club's voice.

So as I read the chapters in Information Architecture and thought about my own design process, I began to think about what makes a good website in my own mind. I think the most important factor personally is having control over my own experience with the site; being able to decide how much time I am going to spend in order to get the information I need. I hate it when sites only have a video to explain something for example. By only presenting information in video format, the site is determining how long it takes for me to understand a topic. By having a video to supplement a textual explanation, I can scan the text and then decide if the video is relevant and worth my time. I also don't really like it when sites add pages that you have to "skip". I understand that sometimes it is a necessary evil... but if I am going to a site regularly then I start to develop a navigation routine, suddenly having extra pages thrown into the mix just to promote an event or an accomplishment is distracting and frankly annoying. This little bit of thinking led me to look further into examples of good and bad sites. The following links are to Time Magazine's list of 50 Best Websites in 2010 as well as Time's contrasting list of 5 Worst Sites. It's always helpful to learn what people are doing right and wrong!