The museum’s website is in serious need of an overhaul in terms of its’ content and usability. Neilson’s chapters three and nine describe many factors involved with usability and layout of a web page’s content, and the Blanton site would undoubtedly get two thumbs down from the author. A list of problems would be too long to spell out so let’s just flag every topic of chapter three for much needed consideration. Some broad issues I identify as top priority are the overall layout, page chunking, and legibility.
The main thing I cannot stand is the two column layout: it is confusing, distracting and usually unnecessary. They often use the left column for within-page links, which is a Neilson no-no. You can’t tell where you’re going, where you’ve been and most importantly where you are. I think that’s one issue we will completely change through the re-design process. To take the abundance of content crammed into the right column, and break it down into manageable and recognizable sections or subsections with clear and informative headings will be a main concern.
The layout does not taking advantage of the online medium; it is controlled by the view port and should maximize its’ ability to provide fast and useful content to the surfer. Right now, attempting the simplest task requires too much squinting and is overall an uninviting experience which makes me wish the internet was never discovered by the Blanton Museum. No offense to their webmaster or anything…

I have heard people say that only when organized will data be information. Well, in the Blanton's case, they obviously have a lot of data but how informative is it?
Here's some problems making their website usability a pain:
- Big chunks of text are often lumped together in long lines that may be tiring to read
- The pictures on the top of the screen is so far removed from the body text that it offer no connection and if the user can't relate or give meaning to it then it will just go unnoticed
- The redundant links displayed between the top images and the body text is 1) disruptive (refer to previous bullet point), 2) annoying because users clicked on it just now and, 3) Add scrolling time to every single page which is even more annoying
- The sidebar alone takes up about 2/5 of the page and often comes with big chunks of text on it's own displayed side by side on the already crowded body text
- Inconsistency. While they have a real time webcam on the construction, the construction progress page stopped updatting since may 2005

The Blanton Website doesn't work well in terms of scanability. The home page is okay because there is not a lot of detailed text. However, when you click a link you must scroll down to read the text. The text is small and presented in three different colors which is difficult to read. I would say it fails on the ease of use criteria presented in the readings as the HOME RUN acronym.

So in terms of legibility, the Blanton site is extremely hard to read. The text is too small and the colors of blue, yellow, and black make it difficult to identify the reason for using three colors. Increasing the text size and changing the font will make the site more accessible.

The page titles appear to be well written. For example, when searching from google for modern art at the Blanton, I was directed to both the main page and the page I was searching for. When I arrived at the page I was searching for, it was pretty clear where I was within the Blanton website. I was able to navigate back to the home page easily. However, creating a search tool within the site would increase the usability by allowing visitors to search for what they need and not have to try by trial and error. This would be relevant to users needs. It seems that the current site has a minimal download time which increases its usability, but the need for scrolling decreases the value of this positive aspect.

The first major problem with the current Blanton site, in relation to the reading is the content. There is a lot of good content. But that is where the problem lies. In some of the information pages, there is way too much content. It is all over the place, and extremely long. Neilsen talks about keeping text short, so the Blanton site definitely does not conform to that. People would just be skimming all over the content pages. I would shorten some of the text and instead of having it on one page, spread some of it out over several pages so that the user would not get overwhelmed. One thing that the Blanton has right, is that the text is very readable. I would not change that aspect at all.

The second part of the reading has to do with simplicity of the design of the site. This is the area where the current Blanton site fails the most. While it has a "simplistic" modern design, it is so cluttered and random that it makes the pleasing, modern design technique look bad in itself. To sum it up, the usability of the current Blanton site just plain sucks. There is no way around this conclusion.

I feel that the Blanton Museum Web site can offer a lot of good content, but the way the content is presented can make a visitor have negative feelings towards the museum, or not want to visit it at all. The overall organization of the Web site is very confusing. All of the primary links are structured in a list in the same area, but all secondary links are scattered all over the page. The links should be structured and ordered in a way that users can easily navigate from page to page.

Another usability issue presented in the site is most, if not all, of the links are images instead of text. Lots of images on a site can make the site load slower and sometimes broken links for images may appear if there is a secure firewall. Also, if the resolution of the screen is not high enough, users may have trouble reading the links. The rollover secondary links can be confusing as well because they are also images, and when you click on a primary link, secondary links appear somewhere else on the page. The images links should be tossed out and replaced with actual text and The design of the site won't be compromised.

The text used in the site is also very small. This can strain the users eyes. Also, there are sometimes links within the text that users may not be able to distinguish because unless you had keen eyes for color differences. Also, some text used in the main content are images instead of actual text. Therefore, users are not able to highlight information if they wanted to and again, if screen/pixel resolution is low, it will be hard to read. All text information should be text, not within an image. Text should also be scalable. If someone wanted to expand the size of the text via IE or Firefox, they should be able to do so instead of squint their eyes.

As Nielson so strongly notes in his book, content is number one. I think the Blanton site definitely has that going for it, in that there is lots of text, but I am not convinced that the content’s presentation is at its best. For example, the museum visitor information, like hours of operation and location, are two clicks off the main page. This type of info should be on the main page or only one click away from it.

I think that the content on the Blanton site is well written and informative. There is info on the museums history, its permanent and temporary exhibitions, programs, etc. However, the layout of the page is not done well by Nielson’s standards. Firstly, the text runs quite long on a lot of the pages, forcing the viewer to scroll a significant amount. This is especially tragic for this site because it’s not as though the rest of the space is being occupied; there is so much white space. Also, the page does not readjust when I decreased the browser window size to check if it was formatted so that people using smaller monitors would not have to scroll horizontally. At least the site does provide links throughout the page for the user to return to the top of the page.

I think the Blanton site could use some changes to the content in terms of usability. The text font and size is not the easiest to read online. A viewer can increase the text size on their browser, but that doesn’t seem to do anything for the links. The Blanton site would also be better if it highlighted or colored the main points on each page to make it easier to scan. I also think the site needs page headings, just simple titles, so that the viewer doesn’t get confused and feel lost.

Nielson explains that the main reason users visit your website is for its content. The Blanton website has some good content, but it is not “quality content” because users spend most of their time searching and sorting through the pages to find the content for which they are looking. Reading from a computer screen is 25 percent slower than reading from paper and is generally an unpleasant endeavor. Considering these human-factors, it is no wonder that 79 percent of users in a study by John Morkes and Nielson always scanned any new page they came across. Web users want information that is timely and relevant. Because the web contains massive amounts of information, users will resort to skimming and scanning to find their desired content as quickly as possible. In relation to web usability, “quality content” will meet the needs of today’s goal-driven and impatient web users.

The biggest obstacle for the Blanton website in achieving higher quality content is the lack of scannability. The most obvious example of this lack of scannability is in the fact that on every single page the user must scroll down to get past the navigation links to reach the first chunk of actual content. Another usability and scannability problem with the Blanton website is its lack of legibility. The font sizes of the texts are too small and there is insufficient color contrast between the white background and the blue and orange navigation and title texts. I also found it to be particularly bothersome that the texts are aligned to the right instead of the left, for this layout runs counter to the general path of my eye on a website. The Blanton site also confuses users by using the same color blue for links and hypertext links as for titles and subtitles. The “Past Exhibitions” page is a perfect example of a page that is too long. The page is so long, in fact, that the web designers apparently got tired of adding “Return to Top” jump links towards the bottom of the page. And lastly, every page looks the same and makes the user feel like he has never left the homepage or accomplished anything in his visit to the site.

From reading chapters three and nine in Designing Web Usability, the content of the Blanton Museum site probably contains too much text and lesser graphics. For example, on this page, http://www.blantonmuseum.org/general_information_section/about_the_blant... there is way too much text as the user would have to scroll down too far to finish. As discussed by Neilson, reading too much text on the monitor can be displeasing to the eyes. Also, I would think that many users wouldn’t bother to scroll down, due to the way the text is laid out. One positive thing about it though is that it contains headings/sections but they can be used on separate pages so that there isn’t too much text on one single page like it is currently. Another thing Neilson mentions is legibility! The font size on the current Blanton Museum is quite annoying—it’s too small so most users would probably have to squint their eyes and read if they wanted to read for long. The font size currently in place is about the size footnotes and legal disclaimers usually are—the things few users are expected to read. Also Most text is scattered around on the Blanton Museum site—it should be left justified so that the user can read faster as it is the starting point for the eye to start scanning. One thing mentioned in chapter nine is HOME. The Blanton Museum has some of the HOM, but lacks the E, the ease of use. Once you click into some of the internal links in the Blanton website there is no way to go back on the homepage with just a click of a button. You either have to go back multiple times or retype the main address in the address bar—this can be quite annoying sometimes, and can refrain users from coming back to the website.

Chapters 3 & 9 from Nielsen's book provide some very useful ideas that if the Blanton employed would create a better site. First off, the Blanton page is hard to scan. The pages that do contain text, contain too much of it. The yellow text on a white background can be changed to colors that provide better contrast. The poor contrast creates poor legibility, and makes the text hard to read. As Nielsen suggests, if subheadings and bulleted lists were used, the page would also be more scannable. The inconsistency of color and font size on the Blanton web site also creates confusion over what is important. Many headings are the same color and size as the text underneath it. It's also very hard to determine where the hyperlinks are located on the page. This could be made clearer by consistent use of color and contrast between links and non-links. Almost every page from the Blanton web site requires scrolling. The site could easily be re-designed to prevent scrolling from being necessary, particularly if the white space was re-organized. For being an art museum, the Blanton site is strangely lacking images. The site could be balanced out with fast-loading pictures to create interest and offer the website visitors a glimpse of what the museum holds. Although the Blanton may be interested in recruiting volunteers, I would not have volunteer in all caps & put it in a box for emphasis. There could be a better way to draw interested parties to this link without distracting from the rest of the site. Following Nielsen's HOME RUN acronym is an all around good idea for the Blanton. If the webmaster did not want to have to frequently update the site, the homepage could be programmed to change the main image with each refreshment of the browser, similar to the homepage of the Chicago Museum of Art. Creating clear links and headings would ultimately make the site easier to use, and because each hyperlink would contain less information, the pages would download quickly.

The Blanton Museum webpage is should be made to target and entice students, professors, philanthropists, and scholars as these are the people who will be visiting the site the most. It should represent the new museum in a more sophisticated and organized manner. Right now the content on the Blanton Museum web site is very scattered. I find it hard to navigate and find any useful information. Although there may be the information that we need on the pages, they are completely useless if we can’t get to the pages.

For the Blanton site the links are overlapped from different pages on the webpage. The first page you come across is the home page and already you get a feel of disorganization. You don’t really know where to start looking for what you need. The text “about” the museum is not even noticeable at the very bottom next to the location information. Links are scattered all over the page and do not stand out from actual texts. They don’t have rollovers or underlining at all. Also, there are not very many pictures or anything to spark an interest, especially considering that it is a new museum. All the pages are full of white space and have no main layout. The subpages are also poorly designed. They don’t have titles or headings on them, making it hard to see which subpage you are actually at. Also, the subpages go to the first sublink off of that page instead of to a front page. Again, each link is equally boring and disorganized as the previous one with lots of white space. There is a very thin line between simplistic and just plain boring. The Blanton Museum website definitely falls within the latter, making me wonder what I should expect from the new museum itself.

The Blanton Museum website is not an efficient site according to Nielson’s idea of usability. The website does not utilize graphics. A large portion of the website is text, which should be written for scannability according to Nielsen. This is not so for the web site, it requires the user to read large amounts of text to figure things out like the general information about the museum. Another topic raised was page titles. The Blanton site does not have title pages that change from link to link. It is unclear what page a user is on and for usability, the title should be able to be bookmarked or different from one another in case someone wanted to go to a specific page from the history list. Legibility is also a problem with this site, the text is rather small for the amount of white space on the page and some of the links are sentences long or different colors. The only way one would know they were links is by scrolling over them. A user could also easily get lost because there are far too many links on the home page. Each of these links also has far too many sub links. They get confusing and are not necessary. I also do not feel that the site is geared toward its audience. The site is for a museum and a visitor would like to see what is at the museum if he or she were to visit, but this site only had a few pictures on certain pages. There is also very little Texas influence or attractiveness to students. The good thing about the site is that the download time must be short due to the lack of multimedia or graphics. The site should also have important links clearly and easily accessible, instead of going through sub links to get to them, from the home page like how to join, what is at the museum and where it is. The site also does not attract attention at all. The site is more on the side of scaring users away then making them feel welcome. The lack of images, mass amounts of text, and confusing navigation add to the site’s lack of usability.

The Blanton museum lacks the qualities that make a good website standout and makes users return to their site frequently. According to Neilson there are 4 main reasons user return to certain website and not to others. Blanton fits into the category where users don’t return. It lacks the high-quality content that all users are looking for. Which could be having excellent multimedia that attracts a younger audience? They can also improve the layout of the design by changing the background color or use an image as a background. The headline on the web page can also change by increase the font-size so it standout to the user. Maybe move their purpose statement to the center of the page. One thing that must absolutely change is the font-size. The other reason users may not return is that the website is not often updated to new information. The updates could take place monthly where the museum could post information about their collection or maybe a small summary of a historical item they may have in display. The other area that the Blanton museum lacks is in easy of uses. Users must be able to find their way around their web site and be able to find what they are look for. This is important because most users who will be visiting their web site would be student, professor, local people, etc. Blanton need to improve their site navigation and maybe offer some type of a search engine to their user.

The Blanton violates one of the three “main guidelines for writing for the Web,” and takes the other one too far. Most of the text on the site is not scanable at all. There are no bulleted lists, few subheadings (those that are given are very generic), and a long drudge of text in certain pages. For example, when visiting the “About the Blanton” section of the site, the reader sees two full columns of uninteresting-looking text, something that should never happen. Long sections of text (especially in small font sizes) tend to get ignored and increase the user’s frustration with the site.
Another rule Nielsen gives is to split up information using hyperlinks. This is done too much with the Blanton site, sometimes. Users have to navigate through two or sometimes three levels deep in order to find what they were looking for. For example, it took me three clicks just to get to a map of the Blanton (which didn’t exist, anyways). However, other times, information is not split up at all, like the “About the Blanton” section mentioned above.
The Blanton is also hard for users who are goal driven. There is no direct way to get to the most important information for different users. The viewer has to explore the website and make guesses to where they can find content. What is the difference between “Programs and Events,” “K-12 Programs” and “College Programs?” Where is visitor information? One of the most goal driven aspects of the site is the ability for the user to become a member online, and a link is provided on the front page. However, the link is separated from the main menu, and is in a different color (yellow, which is very close to the background color). There is a high probability the user will not even see the “Join Online” link without some searching.
Legibility is also an issue, as the massive amount of white space makes the page hard to read. The links are also hard to discern as such in certain areas, mainly because many do not change color when rolled over. Many of the page titles do not change from the default “The Blanton Museum of Art.” However, some do, which is confusing and inconsistent.

The content of the Blanton Museum site is far from ideal. Starting with the homepage, there is an excessive amount of links and very little text is actually given on this page. The majority of the pages have too much text which could be reduced by saying the same thing in fewer words or only giving a summary of the text and having a link to page with text that goes more in-depth into the topic. The lengthy texts result in excessive scrolling for the user and the user will often not read or even scan over the text if it is too long. A good idea would be to give a conclusion of the text at the top of each page, so that the reader will not have to search through the entire text to find the main idea of it. Neilson refers to this as “inverted pyramid principle,” where detail is gradually added as you read the text. Also there are no images on any of the pages other than a few images of paintings at the top right of each page. Adding more pictures that are relevant to the text or other forms of multimedia would be a big improvement to the content of the pages, especially the collection pages. The page titles also could use improvement because it doesn’t change based on the section of the site that you are in. Neilson would suggest changing the title at least for the second level links on the sitemap. He writes “different pages need different titles.” The text on the site is pretty legible since the colors are the basic black text on white background. However, the font size is a bit small to comfortably read and some of the link colors such as orange do not have great contrast with the white background. Most of the headlines on any page are an image rather than actual, which isn’t ideal, but not a problem as long as it sticks out enough so that the reader knows it’s a headline. The font size of the headlines is only slightly larger than the text which is not best for people scanning the site. However, the color of the headlines is different which makes it clearer that it is a headline. The file size of the pages is small since they don’t have much on them other a few small pictures and text. Thus the response time should not be a problem for users. However, an easy optimization of response time, which might be useful for dial-up users, would be to put text rather than images in for links and headlines, because text is obviously less bits of information than a small picture. Therefore, the file sizes would be decreased with this optimization and the response time would also be decreased. These changes would greatly improve the usability of the Blanton Museum website.

The Blanton website seems to be very simple and plain due to its lack of pictures/design and over usage of text/links. Its layout, however, makes for very poor user ability. The top of the page is over run by many links which can make a viewer overwhelmed, especially if they are just scanning the site and don’t know exactly what they are looking for. The links also have too many sub-links, many of which are repeated to the same page. If a site map was of the entire website it would be a complete mess. Too many links back and forth give it unnecessary confusion. I don’t think they need the rollovers on the main link menu if while at the same time showing the same exact links on the right after you click on it. Also it is hard to tell links on the top left are the main link menu since the text changes to the right and also right below. This could be fixed by keeping them in a side bar (which would also ad to design aspects).

The text below is also very over played. On almost every page there is way too much information with no visual support. The amount of “return to top” anchors proves that there is way too much to read. Just when you think you have found a page with simple text below, you can click on one of that page’s links and you are right back to a novel. There needs to also be more evident section titles. Maybe changing the type face, size, or color would help. A user would be confused by the time he/she finished navigating through the site since every page is over powered by the same layout and text. The text does seem high quality in that there is almost any information one might need. It is also well written and speaks to the navigator. Losing some of the text content, however, wouldn’t lose the high quality. After getting rid of the unnecessary links (or even certain pages as a whole) there would be room for optional extra information. The prints on the right top are the only things that seem to save the page. A lot of the site seems to repeat itself verbally while at the same time not offering enough visuals. Instead of just leaving them at the top they should try to incorporate them within the whole site. No one wants to go to a website for museum without seeing some of the work.

The Blanton website lacks design and usability. Because the menus are images instead of text, the viewer might have a hard time seeing the text on a larger screen resolution. Also, because of the light color, printing might turn out to be a problem, not only if the viewer wants to print out in black and white but also the waste of ink. The navigation layout is a mess. The viewer can easily get confused with the poor organization and might even get lost within the many sublinks in the site. Much of the information can be condensed into one page and less white space.
Graphically, the site is also poor. Being the website of a museum, the site must reflect the creative interest the museum itself. This site does anything but that. The thumbnails of the art in the upper right corner overpower anything and everything else on the screen. The viewer is instantly drawn to them, instead of what they should be drawn to: the information. Being the website of a university, it must also reflect the ideas of UT. There is barely any UT influence on the site. The only reference would be the small grey logo on the top of the page which is easily overlooked.
While I definitely appreciate the attempt of the designer to include a short blip of what the museum is, the information is overpowered by all the rest of the scattered information around it. This but of information should be featured prominently at the top of the page along with the name of the museum. Within the subpages, the text is the same size and font, which makes nothing stand out except for the list buttons. While these list buttons are useful, there is still a bunch of empty, white space in between the text. This white space could be deleted to not only make the page smaller so the user doesn’t have to scroll so far down, but also better organized to create spaces between sections and even paragraphs.

Insufficient design results in the Blanton Museum web site’s low usability. On the home page, there is almost no text leaving the entire page to be divided between white space and links. This needs to be replaced by a brief explanation of the museum along with current news that is easily accessible to users. The organization of the links was poorly done because links often repeat one another or don’t offer appropriate sub-categories. The number of links needs to be reduced and combined with similar categories to avoid confusing or overwhelming the users. The web site also fails at having page titles that help the user know what page he or she is currently on. This should be corrected by having appropriate titles according to every main category that can be found on the site. Some pages have too much text on them and result in excessive scrolling. The amount of text should be reduced or perhaps indexed so that users can select to view more information. There isn’t enough multimedia to incorporate other Nielsen recommendations because there are a few images of the art or photos from the museum.

In order to become a successfully redesigned web site, the acronym HOME must be satisfied. High-quality content, or at least content that is appropriate in representing the museum, should be implemented and available for users. The web site should be often updated because users who visit the website for information want to be aware of any sudden changes in museum hours or special events. Since the amount of content seems to only revolve around images and the occasional pdf document, the download time should be controlled efficiently so that users can navigate without trouble. The ease of use involves a more appropriate design layout tending to the needs of all potential visitors of the web site. Links for members, contact information, current news and events, history and current exhibits are some important areas that the web site must clearly define.

The content of the current Blanton website is primarily text: text describing what the Blanton is, text describing the permanent collections and past exhibitions, text describing the location of the Blanton, text describing what programs are available and how to donate money. There are few graphic images on the site, and they are far removed from the content text, separated by big chunks of navigation links. Since the primary task of the typical visitor to the museum’s website is to see what the museum has to offer, the Blanton needs to adjust its content from being primarily text-based to a more integrated mixture of graphics and text. While there is some sample artwork available on the current website, it is far removed from the text that it illustrates. To make the website more relevant to the user’s needs, the Blanton needs to make more of its artwork available for viewing online. The art is why people will want to visit the museum, so the art should be a prominent feature of the website.

All of the text that is available on the current Blanton site provides (potentially) valuable information to the user, but it needs to be rewritten and reformatted so that the value is more apparent to the user. Because blocks of long text are hard to read and off-putting to users, the text needs to be condensed into short paragraphs, with subheadings so that users can more easily scan the content and decide what is of value to them. The text also needs to be relocated on the page so that the user doesn’t have to scroll past the navigation and images at the top of the page to see the content that they came for. If users can’t immediately see the content, they may not be willing to hunt for it.