Lisa Scharf

Project 4: Visual Design Critique

Critique #3: USS Arizona Memorial web site

Overall Pattern

Alignment Acceptable Everything on the site is lined up with a good flow.

Images are squared off and are aligned symmetrically.

Shape Acceptable The site does a good job of dividing its explanation of

the memorial itself, the history of the Pearl Harbor

attack, the casualty chart, and the photo gallery.

Balance Acceptable Balance is achieved with the use of division lines between

topics and color changes. All images are either aligned

to the center or are squared off neatly with text wrapping.

Style Acceptable There is nothing flashy about the style of the site, but

due to the serious tone of the site, it’s simple style fits

the tone.

Color Scheme Acceptable The site primarily uses red and blue on a white back-

ground. This patriotic tone fits with World War II.

Color Appeal Acceptable While not overly warm or inviting, the colors are simple

and invoke patriotism. If it were a non-war related site,

the colors would not be appealing, but due to the deaths

at Pearl Harbor, they are fitting.

Arrangement

Proximity Acceptable Titles lead to content that matches up, so facts are

arranged in a good proximity and flow.

Directionals N/A-Poor There are actually no directionals to guide the viewer’s

eye in one direction or another. The page is arranged a

lot like a text, so the eye defaults to reading down in the

page in a straight-forward manner.

Figure-Ground Poor The blue text does stand out against the white

Contrast background, but are not as crisp and easy-to-read

as they should be. Font size also contributes to the high

effort needed to read the site.

Consistency Poor The first page uses patriotic colors, but the linked photo

gallery page uses black, white, and grey. These blend too

much with the black and white photographs to make the

site look dull. Yet the link to the USS Arizona Memorial

shows that this portion of the site keeps the original

color scheme.

Verbal Elements

Lettering style Poor It appears that Times New Roman font is used. This serif

style font makes the wording harder to read than a san-

serif font, which is less cluttered.

Letter Size/Spacing Poor Most of the content is a little to small to comfortably read.

The color, size, and font style together make the content

hard-to-read.

Appeal

Surprise Poor There are no real surprises in this site. Information is

conveyed in a conventional manner that does not

capture interest. The only thing surprising about the site

are the images of the Pearl Harbor attack, but these

are only surprising if one has not seen them before.

Texture N/A This is a two-dimensional web site that does not try to

create a depth or texture.

Interaction Poor The site essentially just calls for passive reading of

content and passive viewing of images. There are no

activities or surprises to pull in the viewer’s attention.

It would be easy for students to sit back and passively

view without feeling any emotional engagement with this

tragic event. This is unfortunate, because the images are

striking and interesting if students can be better motivated

and engaged while looking at them.