Critique of the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce S Website

Brooke Way April 19, 2012 Web 2.0 Professor Schultz Design Critique Essay

Critique of the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce’s Website http://www.rmicc.org/index.html

When deciding on which site to write my design critique on, I chose the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce’s (RMICC) website. After reading Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, I noticed some key design concepts that the site could improve on. I discovered the RMICC because I had to write an article on the organization, and I noticed that their website had some successes and failures in terms of usability and functionality. I would suggest that the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce improve their design faults in order to make their site easier for others to use. A company called DesignMarket.net designed the site, however they failed to meet Krug’s first law of usability, which is “don’t make me think!” Krug emphasizes in his book that when it comes to this cardinal rule, “It’s the overriding principle— the ultimate tie breaker when deciding whether something works or doesn’t in a Web design” (Krug 11). The RMICC website makes the viewer have to do a lot of thinking in order to navigate around its pages. The home page is also very unorganized, and there isn’t much of a hierarchy to the page’s layout. In my opinion, the home page is not very self-evident, which Krug says is important in terms of usability. If someone were to visit the site without knowing what the RMICC is about, they still would have trouble finding out what they do because the site is so cluttered. The first thing that viewers see at the top of the home page is a membership payment option, which might cause people to wonder why they would pay to join an organization that they know nothing about. Directly under the membership payment link are numerous sponsors listed, which confuse the viewer even more. By putting these sponsor logos above the fold on the RMICC home page, it highlights and promotes those companies, which distracts from what the RMICC actually does. Because the payment section and sponsor logos are the first things listed above the fold, they also comes across as being the most important things to the RMICC, which makes me question their values as an organization. It is also unclear as to what the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce actually does, and the visitor has to do a lot of searching in order to find their purpose. Krug says that, “As far as humanly possible, when I look at a Web page it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory” (Krug 11). This does not happen when one visits this site because they are left wondering what the chamber’s main purpose is. To solve this, the RMICC should have an “about us” section, either on the home page or in a link in the navigation. The closest thing they have on this site is a long paragraph at the bottom of the home page that is not easy for readers to scan. The website would benefit by creating an “about us” section that explains what they do in a clear and concise way. The RMICC needs to pay more attention to what might be forming question marks in peoples’ minds when they visit their site. Krug writes that, “The most important thing you can do is to just understand the basic principle of eliminating question marks” (Krug 17). When someone visits a website, they should never have to search its pages to try and figure out what an organization does, because they will be forced to look for the information elsewhere. Another usability problem is that on the RMICC board of directors page, the board members are listed with their pictures, however there is no contact information, such as an email address or a telephone phone number. As a journalist, it’s important to be able to find contact information about the people I come across on the Web, especially board members of an organization. It is frustrating when I have to visit other sites to find information about contacting them. I think it would be beneficial for the RMICC to list their board members’ contact information so that potential members and people within the community can contact them with questions or concerns. Another point of consideration that Krug suggests is creating an ease of navigation. This site needs some improvement on its navigation, for example, when looking at the vertical navigation bar on the left, there is a procurement page. First of all, this might cause visitors to question: what does procurement even mean? Second, when you click on the link, the page says that it is “undergoing renovations,” and for visitors to “please come back soon.” This is the definition of poor usability, and could potentially cause people to stop visiting the site permanently. I would suggest that they remove their procurement page all together, or make sure that it is up-and-running properly if they keep it on their site. This site also struggles with ease of navigation because some of the links are not clickable. Krug mentions that, “As a user, I should never have to devote a millisecond of thought to whether things are clickable—or not” (Krug 14). When you are directed to the “links” page on the navigation bar, all of the community links are clickable, however the business links are not. When people go to put their cursors over the business links to find more information, they are going to be confused as to why they’re not in fact links. My suggestion for fixing this problem would be to either make them links, or to re-name the page so that people are not confused as to why these “links” are not working. Another design concept that I think the RMICC’s should consider improving on is cutting out all of the “noise” on their site. Krug notes that, “Users have varying tolerances for complexity and distractions; some people have no problem with busy pages and background noise, but many do” (Krug 39). The author says that when designing sites, you should keep the noise down to a dull roar, and this site fails to do so in many ways. First of all, when you are directed to the home page, a Native American tribal song starts to play. Although this song is nice and goes with the culture of the organization, there is no “off” button for visitors to press if they don’t want to hear the music. This may become a problem because music on a page can get annoying, and people might not want to visit the site if they are unable to turn their volume down. People might not return to the site because they remember the obnoxious music they had to listen to the last time they were there. Whatever the reason, I would suggest that the RMICC get rid of the music on their site, or add a clear “off” button where people can mute the music if they want to. Another form of visual noise the site struggles with are all of the different colors that make up its home page. Krug says that when it comes to designing for the Web, “When everything on the page is clamoring for my attention the effect can be overwhelming” (Krug 38). Although it is fine to spice up a Web page a bit of color, splashing different colors all over the page can be distracting. On this home page, there are numerous different colored sponsor logos in a white box, while the pictures to the right are green. There is also a lot of different colored text on the page. Along with the music, the coloring of the home page is very overwhelming and a little off-putting. The organization needs to clean up the site with a much sleeker and simpler color scheme. The RMICC’s site is also very wordy, and it forces people to have to read through a lot of text in order to find information. Krug writes that, “One of the very few well-documented facts about the Web is that people tend to spend very little time reading most Web pages. Instead, we scan or skim them, looking for words or phrases that catch our eye” (Krug 22). Because people are usually in such a hurry when reading information on the Web, they are not going to want to sit and read the numerous paragraphs on the RMICC’s site. The organization should think about bulleting more of its information in simple and concise lists, so that people can scan through the facts easier. I would also suggest that the RMICC pick out the most important information they want their visitors to know, and eliminate the rest of the unnecessary text. Although the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce’s website is better than some sites I have seen in terms of design, it has the potential to be even better based on Krug’s design concepts. By considering these suggestions, the RMICC’s site could be much more user-friendly, easier to navigate, and much less overwhelming. Bibliography

Krug, Steve. Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability: Second Edition. Berkeley, Calif: New Riders Pub., 2006. Print. Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce. 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. .