Team 1: https://thegreenspringreview.art.blog/
Effective:
- The color scheme goes well because it matches Stevenson’s school colors, which I feel is important for a university’s literary magazine.
- The search bar makes it easy to find posts and navigate their website.
- The menu is very easy to navigate with clear headings and subheadings.
- The header and logo are clean and simple, which makes it visually appealing.
- I like how they have a subscribe option in the side nav to receive emails when there are new posts because it keeps the readers up-to-date.
Needs Improvement:
- I am not a fan of the bookshelves because I feel like it distracts me from the main section of the website.
- The reader must scroll back to the top of the page to view the header or side bar. It would be nice if it remained at the top as you scrolled, so you could easily access the header or search bar at any time.
- You cannot upload pieces of work directly in the website, which adds more steps for the viewer.
- The “email us” link brings you to Google Maps, which does not make any sense. It would be convenient if the “email us” link opened up your mail app with their email automatically typed.
- It tells you that there are only 3 followers. They might want to hide this information because it shows a new reader that the site is not very popular.
Team 2: https://jennaaye.wordpress.com
Effective:
- The header sticks at the top, which makes it easy to access at all times.
- You can submit your work directly to the website, which makes it easy and convenient.
- I like the “About” page because it is original, creative, and it does not state basic facts about the editors.
- I like the “Read More” option because then the reader does not have to scroll a lot to see all the posts.
- I like how the “Issues” header has a drop down menu that organizes the different genres of posts to make it easy to find what you are looking for.
Needs Improvement:
- The header is huge, bright, and overwhelming.
- I would rather have the home page include recent posts in chronological order rather than the featured posts.
- There is no search bar, which is an important feature to include to make the website easy to navigate.
- You cannot click on the pictures on the “Visual Art” page, which is surprising and might deter a viewer.
- They could have a side nav since there is a lot of wasted space that could be used to add categories to make it easier for the reader to navigate the website.
Team 3: https://greenspringreview.art.blog/
Effective:
- The website has a side nav with plenty of options to make the website easy to navigate.
- The website offers a subscribe option on the home page to keep the regular viewers in the loop with new posts.
- You can click “The Greenspring Review” and it brings you back to the home page, which is important for accessibility.
- The search bar makes it easy to find what you are looking for within the website.
- You can submit your posts to the website, so it makes it convenient.
Needs Improvement:
- The color scheme has no relation to Stevenson, so I think it would be better if they included some green colors within their website.
- There is no sticky header, which makes the website harder to navigate.
- They could have subheadings within the “Issues” heading to make it easy to get to your desired page. Instead, you have to do a lot of clicking to go to your issue and genre. They could put all of these in the menu, so you can just hover over the “Issues” tab to see all the options.
- They could post their email address for people to contact them. They have the submission page, but there is no way to contact them for individual questions.
- I don’t really like the picture at the top of the page since it feels unrelated and unimportant.