Design Critique Exercise

The goal of this exercise is to critique the visual design of a website, and to identify what aspects could be changed to improve it. For every part of a design, you should ask: Does it serve its goal – what the designer wants to make the viewer think, feel, do? Here are some of the things we discussed in the lecture:

• Expression
  • When creating a design, begin by describing the personality, values, atmosphere you want to evoke in adjectives. These adjectives should be expressed in all parts of the design: shapes, arrangement, colors, textures, imagery, typography, tone of voice.
• Alignment
  • Maintain consistency across shape, color, texture, imagery, arrangement, etc. Deviate from it only to support your goal.
  • Align elements to good gestalts: forming continuous lines and closed shapes through similar appearance, chunking (putting things that belong to each other close together), and a grid.
  • Use a base grid to support you in aligning and arranging elements.
• Reduction
  • To emphasize an element, mark a difference, or establish hierarchy, use the smallest effective difference.
  • Reduce elements, shapes, colors, textures, words etc. until you cannot take anything away anymore without hurting your purpose.
  • Use white space to calm and guide the eye.
• Stress
  • Provide a clear visual hierarchy: Most important, second most important, etc.
  • Establish a clear view path from most to least important.
  • Provide straight scan lines for the eye to move along easily.

Site Selection and Critique Process

1. Pick a genre of web site. You may choose from the list below or come up with your own.

   • government agency
   • university
   • law firm
   • design company/consultancy
   • game software company

2. Discuss the possible goal (or goals) for that type of website.

3. Create a new Google doc in your note-taking group’s Shared Drive. Then Write down the type of site you’ve chosen, and the goal(s) that you identified.

4. Each member of your group should now find one website of the type you picked in step #1 and add it (with a link) to the Google doc.

5. As a group, look at each person’s selections and discuss why you think each site is particularly good or particularly bad, addressing aspects of typography and design covered in this week’s lecture and in the readings. What was done well? What was not? Be specific, and include all aspects of the “GEARS” model, starting with what you think the intended goal of the site is, and how well the site does at using expression, alignment, reduction, and stress to meet that goal. For things that you feel were not done well, what kinds of changes would help?

6. For each site, the person who chose it should summarize the group’s comments in the Google doc. You must each do this yourself; if you do not, you will not receive credit for the exercise. If the group was not in agreement about the site being good or bad, note that as well.

7. As a group, come to a consensus on which you feel is the best site in each GEARS principle, and the worst. Make sure you clearly note that choice in your document.

Deliverables

This exercise is due by the start of class next week (3/3). I will be checking each group’s folder for a document with the required components, as well as evidence of individual student participation.