Web -27- Canada

Canada's government page is a lot less formal and more friendly looking than the United State's website but comes with come compromises. I don't see much purpose for the words on both sides of the maple leaf. They could easily be part of the black header bar and then have the leaf going in between the two somehow. Also I think a lot more could be put into the navigation because it doesn't even go across the width of the page. I'd also like to see a bit more of a color scheme to the entire site. I know Canada only uses red and white for colors so blue seems out of place and the background actually looks like a powerpoint slide design.

Web -26- Whitehouse

The website of the United States government. No pressure to make a good impression here right? Everything is clean and contemporary. There are a few things I don't care for but don't make a huge issue with the site like the location of the search bar, or the one right body area overlapping the image of the picture that accompanies the main focus story. The social network stuff is also a bit bland but it's a good start.

Web -25- Access Washington

Washington State has a really clean design that does it's job and doesn't throw any excess at you. First of all they have a really clean logo and the colors work really well together. The display of the news items in the body is really modern and the footer is filled with extra useful information. The only qualm I have is the header area is really huge; I think the search or language select could come down into the navigation and take a few pixels off the top by bringing everything down a bit.

Web -24- MVHS

MVHS is the newest school in CCPS so the website while following the same formula as the other school sites has still had a bit of an advantage design wise. The color scheme is consistent which gives the whole thing it's own "brand". I feel the addition of the side navigation on top of what's already in the drop downs is too excessive, although some items only appear in once or the other, but fitting all of that in once place would be nicer. Also there is a serious lack of photos for a new school that was so hyped up. Everything is text and tables which is making this feel older than it should be.

Web -23- DC

This is the website for The District of Columbia, capital of the United States. The design is fairly contemporary with the navigation under the header and the nice use of a simple background image. There is some balance between the two halves of the site thanks to the side links on each side of the news story. I would bring the social network icons down a bit and maybe allocate a little more room for the news stories because I only see a header and not an abstract which most people would want when scrolling through news.

Web -22- CCPS

Carroll County Public Schools changed their website last year following the induction of the new logo to the school system. They still follow a bland side navigation. There's way too many links at the bottom of the page  telling me there needs to be some rearranging of the news stories in the center. I do however like the neuteral tones. The weird pop up thing is also blocking the header.

Web -21- Websites over time

No Google didn't change the layout again they save that crap for Youtube. This is Google Beta as it appeared in the mid 90's when the site was just starting out. I want to bring this up because as we pick and critique what works and does not for sites the idea of something looking old or dated always comes up. Well what was the trend way back when websites were just getting their start? Google Beta clearly shows what websites were all about back in the day, there wasn't a lot of information and design was all about just using different colors and different colors to keep things distinguishable. 

There's also this fondness for big buttons that you can click the heck out of until your mouse breaks under the stress. Once again there's not a lot of concern about strong design that pops out because to have a website back in the day was what made you stand out, and not everyone had a computer to view these things. Now everyone is out there to judge and ridicule you.