What is wrong with fishladder.org?
Fishladder is Grand Valley’s annual student writing publication. The style of fishladder promotions and materials is often simplistic, artistic, and very student oriented, as it is written and run by students.
Visual Elements
When entering the site it is immediately obvious that there is too much text. The text is in a serif font, organized into paragraphs which are the only elements on the page. The black header image contrasts the white background but does not create any visual appeal. The font color used inside the header image does not contrast the black enough to stand out. There are no visual elements used to create interest or flow in the page, the reader has to scroll down through the text. Among the problem areas are:
Alignment – All of the text is aligned flush left, there is no variation to separate content under headings, or items in lists.
Chunking - Instead of being in a web content format, the text is separated with spacing in between paragraphs. This does not visually separate the content into different sections.
Contrast – While the main image heading contrasts the rest of the page the content does not use effective contrast. For example the headings do not stand out against the rest of the text, while they show repetition of the green color they are not stylistically formatted to stand out from the body text.
Some contrast is created stylistically within the body text. For example, there are some words with varying text weight, color, and kerning. While these variations are used on important sections of text, it creates visual confusion on the page as a whole. It also makes it more apparent that there is too much text on the page.
Content Elements
There are many improvements to make on the textual content of the site. First of all, the text needs to be simplified and written to be more straightforward. Since it is not written as web content the sentences are too long and descriptive. The text is also too repetitive because it lacks organization. The page needs to incorporate more headings and shorter sentences. Along with a more straightforward style, the tonality should also be changed to sound more inviting and conversational. Changing these elements of the text will appeal more to the students visiting the site.