Navigation
The website is very easily navigated. It consists of simple pages and a menu that disappears when you run the mouse over the lower images. It basically leads you from the menu page to subsequent pages. There isn’t any trickery and you don’t have to click on multiple things to see what you want. It visually lets you know where to move next by either making the menu disappear when you scroll your mouse downward or highlighting the words in the menu. The only real use of a metaphor is the visual metaphors of the arrows, which suggest that you can move to the next page. It is a simple website that scrolls photos across like a slideshow and allows the viewer to pick specific things without having to search for them.
Information Architecture
Like I said before this is a very basic site. It functions by having a menu that appears. One can choose all the categories of information from that menu. From there the imagery comes up. There is no visual hierarchy among imagery but after clicking on the main menu the secondary menu’s words are in pink. This gives the viewer the idea that these are the categories that should be found off the main menu.
Usability
Overall the site is very easy to use. It is straightforward and there aren’t any distracting elements that make it overwhelming. However I find it a little boring. Even though the works are interesting the site itself doesn’t maintain my interest. It might be that I don’t really enjoy “surfing” the web so if there really isn’t any interaction between me and the site then I don’t care to keep looking. It is also visually boring. It’s just the works being shown. I like when pages connect with some sort of visual metaphor and this site doesn’t have that.
Meaning-Making (Narrative and Metaphoric Structures)
The narrative of this site is definitely linear. There aren’t any links back to other pages, there isn’t a connection between different categories and there aren’t any real interactive pieces. The only real metaphor is the “home page”. It isn’t a real home but it’s the beginning of the site. That is a metaphor that we’ve really gotten used to without noticing it.
Reflection of the User
There isn’t a reflection of the viewer in this site. This question is similar to the one asking if the website was linear or not. It is an organized website and doesn’t venture outside of that. The website forces you to pay attention to the content and not the design. There really isn’t a design to it and therefore all you really have to look at is the content.
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