[thelist] site crit requested

Wed Jul 18 18:08:19 CDT 2001

Jason,

You've done a nice job integrating content with images and links. The
overall experience is pleasant and informative. Below are some comments I
have in the order of importance. Or the order you should consider them.

+Organization & Navigation

   ¤ The primary organization scheme is divided into "Features" and
"Interactivity" and is represented by the navigation bar on the left side of
the screen.

These two categories are rather arbitrary and serve little use to the
user -- since mainly it is (it is?) just a distinction between pages coded
in HTML and (some) pages brought to you by ASP. May I suggest giving some
thought to how your users need/want to seek information? Perhaps there are
browsers and there are direct info seekers. In the first case (browsers),
you need to create some atmosphere around the content (e.g., related links
in context, calls-to-action for enticement, quizzes, headline news (in
context, of course), etc.) Direct info seekers are looking for how to plan
an event, how to get to an event (maps, directions -- I found this
cumbersome that there was a link to the map page on the directions page
http://www.fountainsquareindy.com/directions.html, and then a link back to
the directions (rather than just saying, go back), when the section was
titled "Map and Directions". Perhaps put these on the same page. And give
users the ability to format to print (I didn't try to print, so maybe you've
solved that :)
OK, so you've figured out you need to support two user types, browsers and
direct-info-seekers. Make your organization scheme fit your users' needs.
I'll emphasize this is just a simple example of user profiling. I recommend
reading _User & Task Analysis for Interface Design_ by Hackos and Redish and
_Contextual Design_ by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt for learning more
about your users, and how to fake it if you can't talk to any real ones. You
may end up doing some card sorting excercises and paper-prototyping with
them (your representative users) and iterate before you come up with the
optimal solution.

   ¤ The secondary organization is labled "THEATRE", "EVENTS", "MERCHANTS",
and "COMMUNITY" and is located in the horizontal navigation header at the
top of the screen.

It appears the axes are reversed here. Most sites place the primary nav in
the upper horizontal space, and the secondary nav in the LH column. However,
it is not clear to me that "THEATRE", "EVENTS", "MERCHANTS", and "COMMUNITY"
take precedence over the items in the LH column. ESPECIALLY becuase these
navigation links are duplicated. Knowing something about your users will
help you decide what to prioritize and where. Please do not duplicate the
primary nav in the secondary nav.

Some sort of onMouseover feedback in the top nav would be nice. It is rather
understated compared to the nice, but unconventional (white squares --> red
diamonds) onMouseover event in the LH column nav.

Moving from "Fountain Square" to "Fountain Room & Diner" produced some
strange alignment behavior in my browser (W2K IE 6.0b).

Why are the features organized in the order they are?
Why are the Interactivity items organized in the order they are?
What is the difference between Atomic Duckpin Bowl and Atomic Bowl Duckpin?

Oh yeah, and optimize those images. They're huge!

+Graphic Design and Layout
   ¤ Most importantly, the color scheme and typography remain consistent
throughout the site. You may want to explore some other possibilities for
table layouts (menus, etc.) The green gold and gray is quite a jump from the
muted dark red and light gray used everywhere else.
   ¤ Imagery: it's certainly nice to have some real pictures of your
featured property. However, I'm not super-psyched on the soft edges and
inconsistent border styles (e.g., border on image on homepage, no border on
most other images.) Also, there are some full color images mixed with groovy
monochromes (http://www.fountainsquareindy.com/rooftop.html).
   ¤ Iconography: text links to accompany the graphics would be nice here.
The icons have a nice soft, hand-drawn look to them. I didn't recognize the
mailto: icon until I clicked on it. Also, it's nice to orient the home icon
near the upper left hand corner of the page. That's where most users look
first. (I read that somewhere :)
   ¤ Imagery behind the nav bars. Tone down the background image. I can
hardly read the text over it.
   ¤ The font size cannot be resized by the user. You really should let your
users choose what size fonts they view, rather than hardcoding it. You're
already using stylesheets, so go for it.

+Overall User Experience
I got a sense of the place based on the retro images and the cool little
star-shaped bullets. You might consider doing this up even more by studying
some Wilsonart-esque (Herman Miller will do) shapes and colors to really
emphasize that lounge feeling and new, but nostalgic aesthetic. Check out
http://www.ballantineshotels.com/ or do a search on "50's retro design" to
see what comes up.
Also, you may consider a layout of the entire space and each merchant's
location within that space. From a floormap or blueprint, maybe. That could
be the unifying object that ties the site together.

And last but not least, optimize those graphics!

:)

Best,

-- Carl

----- Original Message -----
From: Jason E. Burk
To: the|LIST
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 5:08 PM
Subject: [thelist] site crit requested

just wanting a few basic comments on usability and functionality to help
perhaps in my next endeavor.  a few links are inactive, but for the most
part it is complete...i'd say about 90%.

http://www.fountainsquareindy.com/

tia.

jas
*************************************************
j a s o n  e . b u r k
HALSTEAD | architects
[ 317.684.1431 ]
http://www.bsu.edu/World2000/research/burk/
http://www.halstead-architects.com
jasonb at halstead-architects.com
[ monkeybuoy at moose-mail.com ]
icq # | 33425254

---------------------------------------
For unsubscribe and other options, including
the Tip Harvester and archive of TheList go to:
http://lists.evolt.org Workers of the Web, evolt !