Bad design on WPI’s website
As a student in WPI, sometimes I need to search the information on the official website. I am used to use the main menu instead of searching the key word. When I open the main menu, I realize that I can’t find what I expect efficiently. I think this is because there are too many information laying on together even though they are in the group which makes this website becomes a bad design. After all, the principle of being a good design is working well.
The designer does use the strategy of proximity to combine the interfaces which are in the same field together. However, the interfaces in one title may be too many, like those under the ‘ACADEMICS’. In my opinion, undergraduate studies, graduate studies, and faculty are supposed to be more specified as improvement. Also, I am wondering why the yellow titles are interfaces too, what is this for, after all, each subtitle under it is an interface linked to another site. This really confused people, which takes time from people who is trying to open it. In addition, I notice there is nothing under the ‘ATHLETICS’ tag, which breaks the unity created by proximity. Do you see the white line on the right side of this menu? I do understand what this line for, which it makes the contrast between the subevents and main user interfaces(students, parents, faculty…). However, the ‘GIVE TO WPI’ interface is also the yellow big title with sub-interface which is definitely belong to the left side. In the point, do you remember I mentioned the interface of faculty under the academics title. It shows up here again with ‘FACULTY & STAFF’. A good design should avoid the useless repetition to enable users to find information effectively and conveniently.
After this experience, every time I try to look for something on this website, I go to the search tag directly instead of attempting the menu again. Moreover, I think the interface should be more clear to tell people this is an interface. The yellow titles are not required to be an interface, but they are underlined. On the other side, those subtitles in white are supposed to be used which are not underlined to be clear.