Working title: Post Baccalaureate Adventures
Report Author: Kassandra Finklea
Date: 11.19.2009
Jessica: Student in 541 and My mother: 55 year old teacher, computer literate
I told them to click through the links in the normal way they would any other website, but while their doing that to dictate what they’re doing: why they are doing it, as well as what they like/dislike.
Jessica liked the home page image, and found the overall website clean and easy to navigate. She went first to the links of each page before perusing the individual page contents. She found it confusing to have links to the same page on that page. She also noted that the archive links went nowhere. And felt that because of the type font the body copy looked a little sparse. She also suggested that within the body copy we should include some external links, to places visited and personal pages.
My mother thought the opposite of Jessica, thought the initial page looked too plain. There wasn’t enough color. She looked thought the links page by page, but would forget which page she was on. She suggested highlighting in a different color the current page. She also found the pictures, slideshows to be too small. She thought the pictures should be the entire focus. She liked the external linkage to the pictures in bigger form on the Picasa page, but thought it should be within the site. She liked the witty content, but didn’t find it informative enough to explain all the pictures. She suggested captions.
The overall impressions of the website was different for both users Jessica found it to be clean and nicely done. She liked the pictures within the page and the slideshows, and the content as well. Her major criticism was of the type font. She suggested changing to a larger or more solid print. My mother however, found the site to be a little amateurish, and chalked it up to the plainness. She suggested adding more “pizzazz” and suggested more pictures in the headings for the pages, as well as more colors in the menu bars.
I agree with Jessica that the font might be more visually appealing if it were larger or in a stronger print, and although this wasn’t one of my mothers complaints I think it would still be advisable to consider changing. Also I agreed with my mother’s assessment of the plainness of the pages, more pictures or color could be added to the headings and the footer of the page. However I don’t want it to look too cluttered. Finally I liked the suggestion of adding captions to the pictures, because some are not self-explanatory.