Yale Art School Ergonomic Web Design

Ergonomic as a design principle refers to that which is meant to provide optimal comfort and avoid stress to the user. Ergonomic design involves two main concepts, effectiveness which consists of embracing solutions that are appropriate for the required use of the product, and its utilizability which refers to how well the product is adapted to its user’s ability.  As part of the utiliizability schedule, there is marked reduction in the physical toll that use of the product applies and protecting the user by applying only those solutions that are appropriate. In websites design, ergonomic design involves application of such measures as to respond to the need of the user and provide them with comfort while navigating the website. For this study, the Yale art school found at the url http://art.yale.edu/ will be studied. Ergonomic design of websites makes the use of a website comfortable, and appropriate for use, and in this way ensures the website more easily achieves its stated goals.

The first item to be observed will be the information and content design. The website does not provide a sufficient introduction that would enable a user be able to tell if the article contains information that is relevant to them. Moreover, the homepage is particularly bare and offers very few articles on the art school. Furthermore, the articles that are included are confined to small sections of the screen while leaving most of the page blank (Fig. 1). This forces the use of scroll bars for looking at the whole content (Fig. 2). Also, the website does not scale well to smaller devices, leaving out a large portion of the content. This presents a problem because of the large number of users who access the websites on smartphones, tablets and other small devices. All these shortcomings could be mitigated by chunking content into more manageable bits, the use of  screen resources well so that the articles are not jammed and make the website more adaptable to smaller devices.

Fig. 1

The second consideration is the graphic design. One item that stands out is the use of repeated and animated backgrounds (Fig. 1). These have two primary problems, the first being that on some pages, they do not provide enough visual contrast to make the discerning of test on screen clear. The second lies in the fact that they tend to distract and make reading of content even more difficult. A key consideration in designing websites is to try and make the content easily readable as content on the screen is usually harder to read than that on paper. In this respect, the website fails as the poor choice of color and unadaptable fonts makes reading from the site an unpleasant experience (Fig. 2). Furthermore, the site as it stands offers a challenge to a visually impaired person trying to access it since it has no adapted contrast. This could be corrected by the use of adaptable contrast, resizable fonts and use of such colors as to make the text readable even by visually impaired persons.

Fig. 2

The third consideration pertains to navigation on the site. The navigation placement is on the left hand side, which is consistent with user expectation. Users tend to expect the website navigation to be at the top, or the left hand side. The website though lacks a clear way to distinguish to the user the page they are currently navigating (Fig. 3). The website’s navigation menu lacks any markers say an underline, or change in color that shows the current active menu item one is navigating. Also, the site fails to include a breadcrumb menu that details the current location in the site’s navigation structure (Fig. 3), and how a user landed on the page. The failure to include these two options makes for an unpleasant navigation experience. Corrections will include the creation of a breadcrumb menu to give users bearing as to where in the site they are, use of markers to identify the currently active menu item and making navigation back to the homepage easier.

Fig. 3

To conclude, website ergonomics makes sure that website design is comfortable to the user and makes for a pleasant and stress free browsing experience, and in this way follows through with the stated goals of the website. This is achieved through following a number of laid down rules that pertain the use of graphic design, the site navigation and how information is structure. The Yale art school website fails on all three counts, and can be significantly improved upon if it followed the desired considerations.