On the home page, there are six main primary links, which stay on the top of each page. There is another set of these links that stays at the bottom of each webpage, but disappears once you go into the third level of the website. Once you go into one of them, there are five secondary links on the right side of the page, with tertiary links on the left. The grouping and the labeling is a little confusing, however. For example, clicking on the “Resources” link takes you to the “Features” secondary link, which will then give you four more links, one which includes “Features.
Also, not having a clear hierarchy among the three navigation systems does not help with being able to comprehend the logic of the website. I would guess that the secondary links would be on the left side of the page, separated by a vertical bar from the rest of the page. Each page consists of the content, and more links to the right of it. It works the other way, however, the secondary links being on the right side of the page, not separated from the rest of the content and the tertiary links being on the left, separated from the rest of the page.
Upon going into the third level of the website, you lose the secondary links, which means that in order to go back, you either click the “Back” button in your browser or click on the main link that you were in, which can be hard to remember since there is no selected state, let alone a rollover one (the secondary and tertiary links have one, but not a selected state). Because this is the case, the architecture of the site is far from flat. There also is no breadcrumb, which means there will be times when you do not know where you are within the architecture of the site. This is something the website can work on; having the user be able to know where they are at within a site is very important and can eliminate a great deal of confusion he/she may be experiencing. The site does not seem to have a deep architecture, since once you go into the third or fourth level of the site, there is nowhere else you can go other than to go back. The site visitor can always go back to the home page, though, wherever you are in the website.
The hierarchy of the typography is apparent, but some pages do have them muddled. For example, in the “Stories” section under the “Resources” link, there is a list of “STORIES AND POEMS.” Some are bolded and in caps, while others are bolded and not in all caps. This might have to do with the fact that poems are indicated by all-caps, while stories are not. This can be fixed easily by having two separate categories of “Stories” and “Poems” rather than grouping them together. Some of the techniques used to make the headlines more prominent than the others were weight, letter-case, and size.
The structure of the pages stay consistent for the most part, until going into the third level, where the secondary links disappear and either the content expands into the area where the links were previously or is replaced by another navigation system. The designer of the website kept it this way in order to maintain consistency throughout the pages in order to minimize the confusion users may experience. There is still, in my opinion, some more cleaning up that can be done to increase the usability of the website.
The home page is really the only page with a focal point, being the photo thumbnails of those interviewed for the website since it differs in terms of color from the rest of the page. Once you click on a main link, you see text only and no images. It is only when you go into the third level of the site where you start seeing photos again, placed as a vertical strip down the right side of the page. I am not sure if I would like to see more photos, since there is considerable number of them. I think the issue is placement. Arranging the photos to be more prominent, perhaps on top of the content, would help with making the site more aesthetically pleasing. There are no icons/symbols used anywhere on the site. It seems as if there is one at the bottom of the page below the second set of main links, but shows a broken image icon.
Three colors are largely used: black, blue, and white. The content on each page has a different color; the main links are blue, the text, secondary, and tertiary links are black, and the background of the website is white. There is also an adjustable white bar with a shadow that separates the tertiary links on the left side of the page from the rest of the content. These colors were chosen because they are very basic colors, and the site is run and maintained by only one person, the founder. This may explain why the site is confusing and does not seem well-organized.
The purpose of this site is to increase the online presence of a mixed-Asian heritage community. It does not include a search feature, but I find the interviews and the list of prominent half-Asian celebrities and figures because it allows you to realize the heritage of someone you may already know.
I have already addressed a few aspects of the website that is confusing. Another feature that is not clear is the photo gallery in the “People” section. Upon clicking on one of the links, it only gives you the headline of the website, “HalfKorean.com Pictures,” followed by “Enjoy the pictures…,” without any pictures. This led me to think that there were no photos. It took a few seconds for me to realize that there was a list of names – additional links – to see a photo or two. They could improve upon this by having a default expanded photo, with thumbnails running along the bottom of it (horizontally with arrows) that allows users to navigate to other pictures.
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