Week 3 Part A: Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

 

For this week’s blog post, I will be reviewing a few websites that I view as having issues with poor design, as well as a couple well designed websites that I find aesthetically friendly and easy to use.

The BAD

1.    Gates n Fences

First, for the poorly designed websites... and this first one is about as bad as they get https://gatesnfences.com/.  To begin with, I am not able to quicly ascertain the actual name of the company when first looking at the website homepage.  Only by referencing the name of the website “gatesnfences” am I able to then play Where in the World is Waldo to try and find the name of the company hidden discreetly in the upper left had corner.  The second issue with this website is that information is overloaded between random words and paragraphs blasted across the entire screen, very difficult to casually read.  The third issue is that of navigation and the way it is oriented; all stacked together on the left hand side of the page is simply exhausting to the eyes.  This website is overly cluttered and difficult to read in just about every way possible.  If I was a customer shopping around for gates and fences, and this was my first time visiting their website, I would immediately get the impression that this business is unorganized, unprofessional, and simply a mess.  This website is an immediate turn off and I would look elsewhere for similar products. 

To this business’s credit, it does look like they do offer quite a bit options and services, and they do have a good number of pictures that appear to be their completed work.  They could make significant improvements to this website if the plethora of information that is currently blasted on the homepage was better organized into a variety of categories and drop-down menus along some type of hierarchy.  The typography is also simply overbearing and could be cleaned up with some variety and contrast.  The depth of content could also be cleaned up and consolidated for easier navigation. However, as it stands now, this is one of the worst business websites I have ever seen, but with some organization and creativity it could be significantly improved upon.

2.      Yale School Of Art

When I came across this website https://www.art.yale.edu/ , I almost thought it was a joke at first because it is simply awful.  I looked up statistics on Yale Art School, and it is extremely competitive with only a 6% acceptance rate.  With some of the very best artists in the nation attending this school, is this really how they want to represent themselves?  The website itself puts up a disclaimer of sorts in that their “website exists as an ongoing collaborative experiment in digital publishing and information sharing.”  Clearly they are failing in their collaboration experiment.  The website violates just about every aspect of what makes for a good website. To begin with, the homepage it is conceptually baffling…I am not really sure what I  am looking at, but it definitetly does NOT portray the concept of an art school.  Secondly, the typography is all over the place, with confusing font sizes randomly smattered all over the place. Finally, the organization and hierarchy of information is a mess; it was only by randomly clicking on links was I able to find their “quick links” that allowed me to further look for any actually helpful information.  If I was an aspiring art student looking around on the web for the best art schools to attend, this website is so bad that I would actually look somewhere else other than Yale!

This website simply needs a complete overhaul.  If Yale Art school does not want to be seen as a joke, they should clean this up.  If I was the dean of the Art Schol, I would stop the “collaboration experiment” and ask a couple of my smart art students to recreate a site that is more aesthetically pleasing, organized, and easy to navigate.  A little bit of focused effort on the concept of this website could improve it almost immediately.

The GOOD

3.  Vista Fence Company

In contrast to the Gates n Fences company above, I wanted to see what a similar type of business website might look like.  After a simple google search for fence businesses near me, the very first fence company I came across was the Vista Fence Company at https://www.vistafence.com/ .  The website, to my surprise and delight was very clean, well-organized, aesthetically pleasing, informative and easy to navigate.  This website is simply the polar opposite of the Gates n Fences website.  I really enjoyed looking around this website and it was easy to review they types of fence services they offer, look at recent reviews, and look at their well layed out gallery.  This website had a very thoughtful concept in its design, and if I was looking for a fence as a customer, I would definitely want to check out this company a bit further…their professionalism shined through on their website.

4. Savannah College of Art and Design

In stark contrast to the Yale Art School, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has a website https://www.scad.edu/  that is aesthetically pleasing (as you would hope an art school would be), intuitive, and easy to navigate.  The website makes good use of concept, contrast, repetition, hierarchy, typography, ease of use, and depth of content…it is well C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D.  The SCAD was also recently listed by Art & Object Magazine as the best art school in the country for 2025.  If I was an aspiring art student and was looking on the web for potential top art schools to attend, I would be confused by the Yale website but would be informed and inspired after visiting the SCAD website.  What I also liked about the SCAD website is that is be easy to browse their various programs, take a virtual tour, and then easily find the application link if I wanted to apply.  Maintaining a navigation bar at the top of the website throughout the various pages also makes navigation a breeze.

Wrap-up

It was clear to me after spending some time looking at “bad” website design and then looking at some “good” website design that the value and importance of design and aesthetics can not be understated.  I think that an organization’s website (whether that be a business or school), can often be the first impression left upon a customer.  Additionally, if a website is poorly designed and organized, it can also be the last impression as that same customer becomes frustrated, disappointed, and begins to look elsewhere.  If an organization is to put a website on the internet, it should be a strong representation of the type of business or institution that they want to convey to their customers.  In today’s competitive e-commerce marketplace, first impressions (websites) often lead to lasting impressions and that may ultimately lead to deal or no deal.