The USS Monitor Center web site was produced for the Mariner’s Museum by a professional design shop. While I expected it to look good it quickly struck me as an effective site. It incorporates many of the elements that were mentioned in this week’s design readings. For example the viewer can quickly see who is responsible for the site. In this case the Mariner’s Museum logo is clearly displaced. The site is organized into 3 main sections: Life Aboard An Ironclad, 1861 – Present: The Interactive Story of Monitor, and Preserving An American Icon. Other supporting elements are also present but not in a manner that confuses the viewer. The design clearly indicates what path the designers suggest the viewer should take without forcing them into it. Other useful elements such as a site map and credits are available from this splash screen. And while not available from this first screen updates are posted with regard to the Monitor project.

The supporting pages maintain a consistent look and feel by using the same pleasing color schemes. Navigation around the site is fairly straight forward. Visual clues make it fairly obvious where one is within the site. Despite a being a little busy, the flash animation in the interactive story section actually presents useful information and helps fulfill the mission of educating the viewer rather than just dazzling them. The layout for the Life Aboard an Ironclad section was very attractive and workable though the depth of the content was a little disappointing. The Preserving an American Icon section used the same layout and generally provided much more content. I also appreciated the fact that despite having corporate sponsors and the obligatory gift shop, those elements are not thrust into the foreground to compete with the subject matter.

My example of poor design:

The Australian National Maritime Museum

Sigh….where to start. I decided that to be fair I wouldn’t pick any site that appeared to be run by a small group of volunteers trying to get something up on the web in their spare time because I am one of those people and I know that you don’t learn if you don’t do. Not that any of them will read this review but still, that would be too easy. So, I looked for a professional organization of some sort and, trying to stay with my maritime theme here, I picked the Australian Maritime Museum.

The first page literally made me jump back in my chair. I was too close to the monitor and wasn’t prepared for the onslaught. I don’t mind black backgrounds; I’m using one myself for our class website. In this case, however the wavy lines of bright blue and black combined with 4 different colors, sizes, and fonts of text and the other images combine for a total of 8 different colors blazing forth in all their glory.

I was somewhat at a loss as to where to start due to the competing internal links and the graphics shouting out their offer of free entry. And if you were uncertain what they mean by free entry it is repeated to the right in large text. Just why they use the green symbol as a link to the “WHAT’S NEW” page is unclear. Below that is a dotted line with two arrows separating the top of the page from other internal links. I’m not sure why.

The visual roller coaster ride continues when selecting a link as we go from the dark front page to this:

I counted 4 different internal styles of background for this site which breaks any sense of being on the same site. Internal navigation links while present were often only available at the bottom the pages despite some of them scrolling for extended periods. Some sort of navigation at the top would have been helpful. To be fair they did do a few things well. They do allow you to exit the site, that’s a plus. (ok that was snotty) They do clearly state who they are (perhaps they shouldn’t?) and when the site was last updated. Considering this a site for the Australian government I was surprised how poorly it was designed.

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