Prompt: You probably have some websites that you frequently visit. Have you ever looked closely at the design elements? Now that you have completed the design readings and heard Mauve Pagé’s best practices, please pick a website of your choosing and describe what works or doesn’t work. Please post a screencap and the link.
A website I frequently visit is GoodReads, https://www.goodreads.com/, which is a website that allows users to leave reviews on books, while also allowing them to keep track of books that they would like to read.
“Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Our mission is to help readers discover books they love and get more out of reading. Goodreads launched in January 2007.”
https://www.goodreads.com/
With readings from class and Mauve Pagé’s best practices, I have learned that 5 design principles are important to keep in mind while doing design, these being Balance, Rhythm, Proportion/Scale, Contrast/Point of Focus, and Unity/Harmony.
When putting GoodReads under the scope of these design principles, many aspects are followed and clearly show the use of these principles but there are some that are lacking. For example, with regards to unity and harmony, the same layout can be seen with any book review (image on the left, with description, reviews, etc.), so users are able to navigate any book review and find what they are looking for.
But with a principle that is lacking, they lack Point of Focus when it comes to their Home or Landing Page, as there is a lack of content on the home page making the website seem like it’s under construction or that the user has ended up on a dead page, when in reality it’s meant to be the page that draws outside users further into the website. And with a mission “to help readers discover books they love and get more out of reading”, the design aspects play a huge role in getting more readers on board. But regardless i, along with many other readers will continue to look past these design aspects and continue to use GoodReads, as the information it can provide outshines these design flaws.
