Web -20- Maryland.gov

Welcome to Maryland.gov the home page for the government of the state of Mary- OH MY GOD WHY ARE YOU SO CLOSE TO MY FACE.

This is what you're greeted with when you enter the website for the state of Maryland. I had to zoom out to 75% just to comfortably browse the site. Everything looks like a jumbled mess and I'm not sure why because I don't remember it being like this the last time I looked at the page. The navigation is under a huge content block that doesn't warrant it's own space like that or at least not a space that large. If the picture was a bit thinner and didn't stretch across the entire page it would be more of a focal point rather than making it look like the page broke, and trust me I refreshed to make sure this wasn't some horrible browser error.

I really like the opaque header which is why I thought this was going to be a nice one to do, but the rest of the website is mangled. Do the rest of the content background as a solid color, bring in a bit more white and yellow to tie into the colors of the Maryland flag and for the love of all internet users make your website size appropriate for those who don't suffer from vision impairment.

Web -19- Blackboard

Carroll's website style with the crazy purple header causes problems on the website that they tell instructors to use to post information for students and handle grading. This is the default look of a course's blackboard page if the instructor chooses not to add any embellishments to make it more interesting for the students. The default look is usually a sign that an instructor rarely uses blackboard to actively work with students. Now the layout of Blackboard is nice, there is a header navigation area for the overall site controls and a sidebar navigation that I don't actually hate. The sidebar navigation provides functions and links for the course itself. The site works pretty well minus some issues where links don't look like links when they're in the header, and other minor hindrances, but...

 ...when an instructor tries to personalize their blackboard page to be more unique to the course that they are teacher some issues arise. Here you can see the blackboard page for my web design class. My instructor has chosen a green background with the light grey and white on top for the side bar and content area. This works pretty well on it's own, and if it weren't for a grotesque purple header at the very top this would look fine on its own.

There is another issue where instructors get a bit too crazy with their choices for background and navigation button background and can turn great potential into a nightmare of random colors that look like Willy Wonka's nightmares. I think there needs to be a bit more neutrality with the colors for the overall website leaving a bit more freedom to the instructors that choose to take advantage of it.

Web -18- Wikipedia and the wiki style

Wikipedia is a website that is loved for it's ease of information access, but despised for the ease to change information on a whim without any real sources. It's something that is unfortunately hated upon by many educators for all of the wrong reasons and is always cast in a negative fashion when really it can be used as a nice tool to get a starting point on any assignment and even link to reputable sources; however this is not the point of the blog. I want to talk about the style of Wikipedia and the imitations that every other wiki site tries to emulate over and over again.

A Mario Wiki not shying away from the Wikipedia roots. 

Wikipedia is a very content heavy website that has to present itself in an according fashion. The sleek contemporary website design of the 21st century is something that doesn't translate very well to a website that is so focused to shoving text based information into your face.

Amurica Wiki! Fuck Yeah! 

As you can see the text heaviness only becomes a bigger problem once you enter a page for information on any subject. The first thing you'll notice is the bar on the far right that shows the subject of interest and a long list of facts about it that is stated with every like subject.

I cannot fairly critique Wikipedia's website design because on one hand it breaks what designers want in websites today and on the other it does its job well and has a style that's emulated by others. All it goes to show us is that not every website can fit into this sleek, modern style and that exceptions have to be made and even sometimes the best of both worlds have to be put together.

Web -17- Adobe

Adobe would probably be a best for last critique considering they are the company that gives designers the proper tools to do all of their work, and the maker of the software that I am using to design websites myself, but I would like to touch on their choices now. Once again we see that the navigation bar is darker than the rest of the body which as I go further along seems to be pretty common now. The logo and search functions are cleanly integrated into this navigation area with the logo dropping down into the body area a bit ( something that I wish I knew how to do for one of the websites I've been working on for a class. Then there is the large body area on top of more vertical ones that link off to other pages bringing the user to become more interested in what they have to say.

There is something a bit odd about Adobe that I just realized. Their website is alarmingly similar to Apples when you look at it for awhile. maybe it goes along with the unholy alliance between designers and apple, or maybe just a funny little coincidence, but none the less Adobe has worked hard to bring their website into the present.

Web -16- Bing

Bing is a fairly new and generally ignored search engine, and it's too bad because their page shows good understanding of contemporary design choices. Even more surprising is that it does this when the site's owner Microsoft was so easy to critique earlier on this blog. The dark navigation and footer give the entire center of the site a nice panorama feeling, and to add to that more bing actually fills the background that would otherwise be black with beautiful high resolution images that are relevant to the time that the user is visiting them. There are even little points on the image that bring up text kind of like the tags on facebook to show more information about the image and the meaning behind it. Then at the bottom of the page there is a dark opaque bar that appears showing trending searches, images, and videos. everything about it is so clean and I had no idea until I thought to do a bit of research on them. If their searches are as good as advertised they could prove to be a worthy adversary to the powerhouse that is google.

Take notes Yahoo because you could learn a lot from Bing.

Web -15- Yahoo

Yahoo is another popular search engine and multi-service website, but not quite up to par with Google. Yahoo still sports a late 20th century design with a dated side bar for all of the links to the various services that the site provides. Recent news stories transition in the center of the screen while trending topics, advertisements and other information such as weather appears on the far right. everything feels very clustered , and the age of the website shows through the lack of flow in the design. I think a nice horizontal navigation bar at the top above the search bar or under it would help clear the clutter of the left navigation, and a lot of this information could be condensed down into a few vertical columns that only take up the vertical width of the screen (600px).

Web -14- Google

Yes this post is going to be about the big dog itself, Google. Google has been the top search engine in the world for quite a long time now and their clean website design may be part of the reason why.  The thin black bar at the top of the website adds a bit of weight to the top breaking the rule of having heavier on the bottom, but somehow pulls it off like artists who break design rules to make a point of their creations. Today is Saint Patrick's Day so the familiar logo in the center has been replaced with Irish dancers. The changing logo for different holidays and occasions has become a staple of the website for over ten years now. Recently with microphones being built into laptops the option to speak what you wish to search for was integrated into the website. Not something that is often used but does help out the mobile users a bit more or those who do not type at a faster rate. Google has changed a lot over the years but only in slight increments keeping true to it's original roots but changing to fit in better with contemporary design.

All of the white feels like purgatory though. maybe the homepage could use a bit more, but the other pages are jam packed with content.

Web - 13- Towson University

Towson is another four year college that has recently updated their old and tired website. The new website proudly shows off the school colors with use of some neutral tones to pull together a personal brand. The addition of the changing pictures at the start of the body area was a great idea that shows off  the latest news with a bit more emphasis than the three columns below it. The navigation bar is stretched a bit due to the design of the logo and I think there could be a bit of tweaking there to make it not as obnoxiously large. Even if the correction only took off 10 pixels vertically it would still be an improvement. Otherwise the new layout holds up to other websites much better than the tired former design did. 

Web -12 The Quill

The quill is the online news source for Carroll Community College that has fallen out of the spotlight a bit. Their website shows some good design techniques but there are a few problems within their good design .I'm not the biggest fan of having  navigation bar at the very top of the website and then having the header logo below that, but it does save the viewer of the website from having to see navigation menus on top of navigation menus. Despite this there is a large amount of space between the navigation bars and the logo itself which is unnecessarily stretching the page vertically.  The subscribe button and the search bar could also be put higher up because it's only adding to the vertical stretch.

web -11- Microsoft

This is another website that is guilty of the overkill on the vertical scrolling. I only captured 1/4 of the website in this screen shot and that's just the changing pictures under the navigation. It is nice however that on a smaller display when you scroll down to the next area the height of each body area is tall enough to take the entire screen so you're scrolls are all even. I can't fathom however how the discover menu seemed like a good idea. This could be a simple drop down like the rest at the top of the website! You do not need to add these stupid, ugly, unnecessary mens on the side of your body areas for more links that could easily fit well with the rest of the content at the top of the website. Then underneath of that do you know what there is?

MORE GOD DAMN MENUS

Why do you need these in the bottom of the body area that nobody will probably even scroll down and see? It's the same information that's in the navigation bar at the very top and leads to the same place! Are you just assuming that everyone who uses your operating system is an idiot? Not every computer user is your mother or grandmother anymore and there are tons of competent users that go to your website so don't make it a "website for dummies" deal.

Stop doing to your website what you're doing to your operating system because it was a bad idea the first time it's a worse idea now.

web -10- Mcdaniel.edu

When I decided to put McDaniel College in my list of websites to critique I was unaware that they had changed their old tired website into something a bit more modern. The changes in the header and navigation areas are much more refreshing compared to the old tired navigation bars going horizontally and vertically just to contain all of the links to the many nooks and crannies of the site. The main area is interesting though. The first thing that I thought when I saw this style is "Oh my god they're doing the windows 8 thing." After taking some time from this initial shock I have to say that it's still much better than what the site originally was and is a very interesting way to organize the content. My only complaints are that the content starts out in the middle and yo do have to scroll to the left to see that there is information there too. You do see the flash area scroll to the right when the website loads, but if there were some way to just keep it on the far left to start it would make an even bigger impact. The footer area also doesn't display on a monitor of  1366x768 which is really surprising because that is a bit above the average  display vertically but the same horizontally. This means that the website was created without consideration for all of the students that would be viewing them through a laptop screen's resolution. It's a really poor choice on their part because it caters to those who have a really nice desktop display, but alienates everyone who uses a laptop.

Despite all of this it's still better than the old one.

web -9- Carrollcc.edu

Carroll Community's web site is one that i have to look at on a regular basis, but not of my own free will. Every page is very heavy on content and leaves one feeling a bit lost when searching for something specific. First of all I'm really unsure of the color scheme. The school's colors if there are any aren't very clear and leave the connection to the school up in the air. The space between the navigation and the header is a bit too much which only adds to the vertical content stretching. The quick links are a nice feature but honestly they're an enabler for this design. These could be corrected with a navigation drop down menu for Degree Students, and Continuing Education Students. The search bar could also be moved up into the header area then freeing up a space for the picture to become a panorama making the changing flash images more appealing. Once this is done the body area could be split into a larger left and a smaller right. The left would contain the updates that are currently plastered in the center of the page, and the right could contain all of the links to e2campus, the social pages, calendar, ect ,ect. This would give the website a little bit more flow while still keeping true to the current feeling that the website gives. The other option is to totally scrap it and start over with a new layout.