“Good” web design:
http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/index.html
This site is easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and meets Williams and Tollett’s four basic design principles (alignment, proximity, repetition and contrast). The top and right side remains constant throughout the site except for on the search page (although the search page has consistency in the header which gives the visitor the sense that he or she is still within the same site). The site is balanced, the text is neat and mainly easy to read (although the text could stand to be a bit larger on the homepage). The only feature I do not understand is the one-page inset from Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Swine on the About page. It doesn’t seem to serve a purpose other than to suggest what the rest of the site is about and it is oddly placed because one cannot read the entire article when one enlarges the page. In any case, that one feature is not distracting to the eye and the picture of the cow is appropriate to the subject matter. This site is a fine an example of “less is more.”
“Bad” web design:
http://home.comcast.net/~dboals1/boals.html
The most-obvious design flaw on this website is the flashing title. There is no need to have text that repeatedly moves; it is distracting, annoying and it makes me want to leave the site as soon as possible. But this is only one of four items on the home page that moves. The Netscape icon in the upper left corner is completely unnecessary, but it is made even more disturbing than it otherwise would be by displaying moving shooting stars. On the right side of the page the word “NEW” is continually circling and a bit further down we see tiny text scrolling by, which we can neither click on nor stop (it says something about students and John Kerry, but I nearly got a headache trying to read it).
Other bad design features on the homepage include the following: a huge space between the top of the page and the title; the text beneath the title which is meant to explain the purpose of the site is too small and has what appears to be an accidental paragraph break; a cluttered table with improper alignment; a hideous set of dates located within multi-colored boxes which reflects bad color-contrast and which is far removed from the heading that it belongs to; and text which runs from one edge of the page to the next. Surprisingly, the rest of the site is not nearly as bad as the homepage; however, the ability to navigate through the site could be hindered due to bad design.