California Heritage Museum / Original Website Critique
California Heritage Museum http://www.californiaheritagemuseum.org
The Grid - There is a grid being used in this website, and it does effectively layout a clean design throughout the website. The problem with the use of the grid on this site is that there is not enough repetition in its use from page to page in order to unify the web site from start to finish.
Color - In short, the use of color is terrible for this site. There is no true color scheme repeating in the design and in turn there is no unity. A true color scheme is needed.
Navigation - The navigation is simple and effective. Effective meaning you can see where your going, but you don't necessarily want to go there. Kind of like a Motel 8, you can see it from the freeway, but it doesn't look like anything good can come from it. There is nothing particularly appealing to the navigation stylistically but it is clean in the sense that it's obvious and easy to navigate.
Design Principles - The design of this web site, if you haven't guessed from my previous entries above, is lacking in any type of creative design. It's actually reminiscent of the classified section in design aesthetic, minus a few pictures. It lacks identity and its call to action is not as clear as it could be. Repeating the grid from page to page, and creating a true color scheme, would help nifty the design from page to page. A retooled navigation bar and improved graphics would also help.
Typography - It's random. in part because the images themselves contain so much text, which vary in font type and family from image to image. The body text is all the same family, but the kerning is a bit tight and, in some cases, the fonts inexplicably change in point size from one line to another for no good reason. Again, consistency and a little creative design would take this web site a lot further than it is currently.
What did you learn from your competitive analysis and how did this impact your re-design?
During an analysis of CHMs current competitor web sites I found that not only is there a lot of things wrong with CHMs current website, but there is also a lot wrong with its competitors. With the exception of one, most heritage museum web sites are far more boring than even CHM. CHM actually has an edge on its competitors in some cases, and with just a little help in the areas listed above it could become an exceptional website compared to other heritage museums on the net. I now know where CHMs current website shines and where it could be retooled to suit its needs more effectively and positively set itself further apart from competing web sites.