Affordances:
The website overall isn’t very interactive. It features mostly buttons that redirect the visitor to a new page. The only interactive features are the search bar and the article gallery on the homepage. There are some buttons that are distinctly designed as buttons including “Read More” and “View Category.” The author’s name in articles kin underlined and in a different font, so the visitor can tell the name can redirect to a page about the author.
Color:
The Stevenson Villager is easy to read because of the colors selected. Most of the site has black type on a white background, which is an optimal combination for reading lengthy text on a digital platform. On the top left on every page is the green Stevenson Villager logo. The only other forms of color come from photographs. Overall, the color choices, while easy to read, are very boring and plain, leaving the site visitor disinterested.
Font Choice:
The font and typeface choices for the Stevenson Villager work well for an online student-run newspaper. Almost all text on the homepage is in upper case font, except for the body of the articles, which is in sentence case. The “Recent Posts” on the side navigation bar should be in title case. Article titles, authors, article categories, publish dates, and more are in upper case. Too many elements are in uppercase, and a few elements do not have good tracking. The choices of typeface work well together. There is never more than 3 typefaces on the same webpage.
Layout:
The layout is very easy to follow. There is a top navigation bar and a side navigation bar that allow visitors to explore the website easily. The layout follows a simple grid design. Most sections are separated with space or with solid black lines. Some of the lines create too boxy of a feeling. The side navigation bar includes too many grey lines in between items, which makes the section too busy. Overall, the layout makes the website easy to navigate, but the extra elements make the website appear too busy and boxy.
