Website Analysis, Williams Principles

The design of a website, as a whole, still involves many of the same principles as a linear document. That is, contrast, alignment, repetition and proximity should be consistent throughout the site. Choosing logical flexibility within these design elements can enhance a website to a desired level. On the flip side, overemphasizing differences between pages can lead to a poor design. The following analysis strays from applying the design principles in a traditional sense as we take a look how they are applied to the document as a whole.

The Centre for Sustainable Design maintains a simple, yet professional appealing website. Style decisions using contrast on a black background for the homepage give the site a preliminary degree of credibility because it has been made known that the majority believes that white and black contrast is the easiest to read. Of course there is a san-serif font, like most other websites because serifs seem to be more difficult to read on a computer screen. Repetition in the focal graphics on the homepage begins to lead the audience to a comfort level within the site. The general template remains the same, with the navigation being on the left and the top, maintaining its black color and when you click one of the main focal points on the homepage, one of the four pictures, it takes you to another page that still have that same picture/focal point to a degree.

Specifically, the repetition of size (170x142pixels), color (greyscale), and angle variance in the graphics create a complimenting montage. Each of the repetitious graphics also lead way into the article they represent. A repetitious feature is also utilized in the navigation bar above the graphics. A mouse rollover displays a description of each topic area.

The text appears on a white-on-black contrast in the upper right corner, again leading the audience to what lies within the page. However, once the site is entered, the navigation bar loses the rollover feature. They could have simply copied the code from the homepage and changed the color of the text to allow for the repetition of the rollover feature. This would allow the audience to read the descriptions from pages within the site to determine their interest. The authors of this homepage may have guessed that the user would have looked at all the rollover information before deciding on which part to click on, therefore, making the rollover unnecessary in the following pages. However, making assumptions like that usually are not what really happens, the design should be the same throughout, with the same rollover text as the homepage to help the