I was doing some research for my dad on gold sluices and what’s needed to go panning for gold. When I searched on Google, a plethora of sites showed up, but there was this one in particular that actually caused me pain to look at. After learning in depth the design principles and all that sort of stuff in this class, I find I’m very aware of the design choices people make, and unfortunately in a lot of circumstances I find it hard not to critique.
So, this website. www.GoldHog.com. This website is absolutely dreadful. The only thing this website has going for them is they have a great logo that stands out from the rest of the content on the page.
Their navigation bar has WAY to many links. It’s hard to look at. I was searching for sluices, but there were so many options. “See sluice mats, how to measure, the perfect sluice, minors moss, full product list.” All of these options should be separated into subcategories to make them easier to find. For example, links like “home,” “tutorials,” “reviews,” for starters.
All of their content they have mumbo-jumbled in the center and it makes it rather hard to look at. If they took the time to section off important parts of information, or even separated that information to different pages, this website would function a lot better. When we are creating a website, we need to keep in mind we only have about 11 to 15 seconds to make an impression on the viewer before they click off. This holds true. I clicked back on my browser and continue browsing Google until I found something else that was easier to look at, however I did bookmark the page to create this blog post.
Long story short, when you’re creating a web design layout, make sure you group necessary information together. Don’t try and cram everything onto one page, that’s why we have hyperlinks! As well, keep the navigation bar to a minimum at first glance. If necessary, have a rollover menu show up when someone places the curser over the hyperlink.
That’s all for now.
Kyle
Words on Images 