Reading Response 5

http://www.sixtiespress.co.uk/

This website misguidedly uses a combination of the organizational structures illustrated in the palmquist chapter. The collage of links that make up the “home” page takes you to the content, each page being accessible from every other page. Though, no information of the site’s content is offered on the homepage so the likelihood of the reader traveling further then the initial page is slim.  In this instance use of the interlinked structure, ironically, provides no structure. This website fails to point out the important information because of the undistinguished hierarchy of content.

The site’s focus is poetry from the 1960’s, so the page containing the bulk of the poetry should highlight each specific poem, right? WRONG. Poems are placed horizontally and vertically making the page look like a giant chart fill with stanzas. The first step in cleaning up the page is separating each poem so each piece is easy to find, dedicating more room to focus on each one. The palmquist chapter urges designers to keep it simple, this site desperately needs to simplify. The only helpful navigational tools are the links at the top of the page listing the authors which direct the reader directly to their poem.

I would develop a side bar which could create a clearer way to navigate. This side bar would appear on every page to provide more of a consistency and repetition of themes throughout the site. Organization aside the design elements make reading and finding information really difficult. The color of the text almost blends in the background color, which opposes the rule of contrast. the links are spaced well, beside the header which overlaps over some of them.