final design comments
The following are not comments in the traditional sense, but observations of small bugs and inconsistencies in your re-designs. There are also some comments about aesthetics. If you have specific questions about certain aspects of your designs, please email me. Please fix the below prior to the presentation on December 1.
Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4return to site final
Group 1
- A line appears under the logo when hovered over, causing the page to shift.
- I understand the rationale for sections in the right sidebar/content area, but the thick black underline is a bit heavy, especially with all the black in the background. A separation similar to what Cody has on his graphics page (gray dotten line with plenty of margins and padding) might be nicer, as would a nice soft solid gray bordered box for each section, somewhat like Frank has on his CSS journal page.
- For the STA pages:
- I'm not sure why you have elected to have them open in a new window and to a page that looks nothing like the main site. This goes completely against your usability analysis. Plus, the STAs play a major role in LA ITS and should have pages that have the same layout as the rest of the site.
- Images do not have title tags.
- Please remove javascript, as it is not necessary.
- Add the "What is an STA?" info above the images, as that is what people are going to want to know before they actually wonder who is the STAs are.
- Not all images have title tags (the navigation boxes do not need them, but the inner page banners do).
- Contact Us link broken on Facilities page.
- You can find information on the Faux Columns at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fauxcolumns.
Group 2
- As mentioned in class, please replace the background image with something more subtle. I actually quite like this tan background.
- Would be great if the current page link was different than the other links.
- Replace "Welcome to Liberal Arts" text on the right with the "Who We Are" text from below. Its hidden below the fold, and while nice, the text explaining the layout can be moved to the Accessibility page.
- I'm conflicted about the amount of screen real estate that the banner and links take up. They look great, but they take up so much spec. See what it looks like if were reduced by, say, 50 - 75px, taking a few pixels from each section of the top portion of the page.
- Building Network links are broken.
- There is an inconsistency when some of the mid-page section headers have links and some don't. Please be consistent.
- Reverse the heading "Sales and Funding" to "Funding and Sales" -- makes the unit seems more concerned with funding than sales, which they are. Move Funding/IT Grants to top of list. And replace IT Grants page image with a screen shot or something having to do with the grants. Its about the education not the $$$.
- Where are the STAs?
Group 3
- Try bringing the UT header down to the light blue top border of the content area, and remove the think black line and see what that looks like.
- I know you all really like the collage image on the front page, but in the new design, it really doesn't mean anything to anyone other than those who saw the old design. You guys can come up with something more like a screen shot from and course page, or a (non bleached) head shot fron an STA with the phrase, "What is she desiging now?"
- Space needed between Texas Grammar and Corridos.
- Need to tell users which pages are going to UT EID sites. You can try something like this
. - Add screen shots next to the the courses instead of the bullets, something like what Cody has done (but without the bullets) on his graphics page.
- Add borders and padding to all inner images to make them consistent.
- Where is a link to Grant Funding? This is the most important thing LA ITS does. Oh, I see the "Web Development" right sidebar link. That is really not enough, and it is buried deep in the site.
- Large space between the links and the footer on the Pruchasing page.
- Contact page text runs over.
Group 4
- First off, MUCH better design than the last one. More refreshing and inviting to look at.
- Why a globe for Courses?
- Is there a way to get Grants on the banner? Finances really isn't the same thing, though I understand they are both money related. But, Grants is for Course Development, and is the main interest of LAS ITS right now. Grants also needs to be near the top on the right navigation.
- Not completely sure about the side links jumping to the inner-links and then having to click "back to top" all the time. One of Neilson's big points is to reduce scrolling, and now we have a lot of scrolling (many people do not use the "back to top" links). Plus, it is quite disconcerting the first few time you do it, as its not the type of navigation a user expects. They expect to see the top of a page when they are linking. And when we go to sections like Classrooms and Labs, its just a list of section headings, with links that go elsewhere. Furthermore, when using a screen reader, the user will be lost as Jaws will not have a recognizable page title to read them. Please try and re-do the navigation so links go to new pages each time.
- Page titles are not consistent with the actual page content. For example, the Classrooms page title reads, "Welcome to the College of Liberal Arts Information Technology Services."
- Course/Web Development link is broken.
- Add screen shots next to the the courses instead of just listing the names, something like what Cody has done (but without the bullets) on his graphics page.
- STA page link is broken, and hidden way down at the bottom of the Courses page. Like the Grants, STAs should be prominent on the site.
- Try adding more content to the home page, like features or new or something like that -- and remove the navigation instructions as they are not necessary.