When beginning to strip away form from the Royal Caribbean website, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew the site would look boring and a little messy but I soon realized that I underestimated what it would truly turn out to look like.
Stripping away the color changed the entire background to white and all of the words and links changed to bright blue. This was a little sore on the eyes but manageable. Stripping away the images didn't make too much of a difference but did leave the site looking a little empty. The image on the homepage (which is also the main focal point of the page) was removed and replaced with a gray box. This took away a lot of the sites initial appeal. Next, stripping away the CSS had a large impact on the site. This just left the site boring and difficult to navigate. All the the text (primarily links) were pushed to the left side of the page and organized in one very long list. The image on the main page was also added to this long list, but closer to the bottom than to the top. One technique that really affected the site was linearizing the page. This moved everything on the site to the left and created a jumbled, unorganized mess. Finally, the small screen rendering option wasn't too terrible although, the site wasn't entirely viewable without scrolling to the right and down.
Overall, form plays a very important role in a websites functionality, appeal, appearance, and ease of use but we have learned that a site is able to function (though not well) without it.
Isn't it funny how loosing one element of a website can make the whole site turn into a mess and less appealing to look at? This exercise shows the importance of all the elements working together to create the final result.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely interesting to think about. I also stripped the formatting from www.http://americancruiselines.com/ and learned that this site (which is much less appealing originally) looked about the same as each piece was removed and added back in again. The more complex the site, the crazier it seems to look when stripping the format.
ReplyDeleteI found that with the www.sikurimi.com site, not the prettiest thing but when you strip away all the elements it maintains itself pretty well. However I would rather have a flashier site like the ones that fall apart with certain elements gone than a basic site that can easily loose color or images and still look the same.
ReplyDeleteThe second website I analyzed was Kimberley Discovery Cruises. You can definetly see the differences when you begin to strip away the form but the website is relatively simple and the differences aren't that bad.
ReplyDeleteI do like having an atheistically pleasing form, that is also useful. Sure, something that's pretty and useless won't get me far. But combing both usefulness and usability is what's important. The function will still exist, but I feel like it's better when form is present.
ReplyDelete"This just left the site boring and difficult to navigate". I had that same reaction when I stripped away the Norwegian Cruise Line site. I certainly think that a site should be compatible with most browsers, but not to the point where it makes me bored while viewing. Shiny things make me happy. Perhaps finding a happy medium?
ReplyDelete