After performing a quick google search, I’ve found that there are many components to consider when creating a good website. Perhaps this is why companies large and small pay trained professionals to carefully craft websites that reflect their brand and ultimately enhance their business. Out of all of the potential components of a good website, the most salient and all-encompassing seems to be usability. All of the design elements within a website, from the font and colors used, to the layout of each page, work together toward this goal. From my own experience, I can say that I am quick to close out of a website if it does not seem easily navigable within the first few seconds of looking at it. One example of a website that does not seem particularly usable is http://www.arngren.com (depicted below). This website has a plethora of clickable links on the home page with no clear organization. There are also many font sizes and colors without consistency of use, and an overwhelming amount of content, making it difficult to know where to start.
An example of a website that stands in stark contrast to arngren.com is Harvard University’s webpage. This website effectively uses empty space to draw the user’s eyes toward important information on the page. The navigation menu is simple and placed at the top of the screen where it is expected to be, allowing the user to draw on prior knowledge of familiar web interfaces in order to use the site. The most attractive component of the page is its color scheme. The home page sticks to just a handful of colors; red grey, and white. These are also the school’s colors and therefore match the purpose of the site. The page also contains a single featured story to highlight some of its content, but is not filled with so much content as to overwhelm the user.
Harvard University’s webpage is more user friendly by leaps and bounds than the Yale university school of art website. This page provides an example of a less appealing user interface in which the background image detracts from the content and does not serve a clear purpose. The school’s address, which is written at the top of the screen in orange, is also not located at the bottom of the screen as is the convention for this type of information. The address location, along with the many colors and shapes present in the background image, makes the page appear cluttered. This prevents the user’s eye from going directly to the navigation menu on the left hand side.
Overall, it seems that an aesthetically pleasing website contains the same characteristics as anything else that is aesthetically pleasing. This includes but is not limited to use of a few different font types and sizes, as well as colors, that help break up the site’s content while also complementing each other. All of these elements must work together to provide the user with a website that is easy to navigate and not overwhelming to the eye.
Bread & Bones 