Within lecture we were joined by Mauve Page, a member in the department of publishing at Simon Fraser. In which she taught us how to be a critical examiners when it comes to web design, especially on the design principles that allow for an effective sight. Allowing us to view and critique other sites in order to better understand what principles work in offering a better look within our own webpages. Thus, with this new knowledge I decided to do a critical examination of my own, choosing to pick a part one of my favourite artists websites. 

Thus, without further ado I will be looking into Kendrick Lamar ’s oklama site. In which I don’t go through often, but was more just curious as to if/how famous music artists offer their information on webpages. Leading to itch my curiosity by jumping right in and critically evaluating it.

Balance:

When discussing balance of the design I’m referring to the distribution of visual elements on the page that create a sense of equilibrium and unity. This can be achieved through symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangements. However, the oklama website lacks balance, with disproportionate elements all over the page, it feels almost loop sided in a sense. While this may have been intended as differentiating his website from others, it ends up taking away from the sleek visual concepts he has going for it otherwise. Thus, making the page difficult for visitors to navigate efficiently by allowing confusion on what items we are to possibly start with or even what each uncentered file represents.

Proportion:

Moving on when diving into the proportions oklama offered it was hard to give it a gold star. For reference, proportion relates to the relationship between different visual elements, such as the size of text and images, or the spacing between elements. The oklama website has a few problems with proportion, such as the font size used for the navigation menu. The text is small and quite hard to read myself, let alone people who have visual impairments. As well, the elements from which to find content and interact with are miniscule too, leaving ample amounts of blank white space, almost too much. With this it is also clearly seen that the space between the elements is not equivalent to each other, showing disproportional placement of the files.

Contrast:

Lastly I looked into the contrast from which the design of the website offers. Now for contrast I refer to the use of color, texture, or other visual elements to create emphasis and differentiation between different elements on the page. This is one of the principles from which the website follows more, yet still it doesn’t use contrast overall effectively. The background and font colors are too similar, making the text difficult to read for some. Additionally, the good part is that due to the white background the visual elements/buttons they are wanting to be seen are easily viewed. This allows for their users to find and click on the content faster then if it where hidden by paler colour schemes. 

My Final thoughts

Though I may be biased as I love Kendrick as an artist, I truly do enjoy the full look of the website he offers to his fans. The ability to step outside of the ordinary design scheme that most sites follow has allowed the captivation and curiosity of those who enter to want to click on every button offered (though few). But as stated above no matter how much the younger audience and myself may personally value the website, it ultimately falls short within all the principles that Mauve discussed in our lecture. Leaving me sadly sour about the overall truth, but glad to have been able to critique and evaluate the design principles within his webpage.