For whatever random reason, I was looking at the NASA website (http://www.nasa.gov) just now and was struck by some of the navigational faux paus we discussed in class. First off, there are three navigational options that would confuse anyone (even a rocket scientist). Secondly, NASA misjudges common human reasoning that says web designers put the most important information on the homepage. Most of the homepage material seems like the more entertainment-based stuff, which doesn't seem appropriate for a branch of the US Government.
PS If you ever want to remember what bad sites look like, google "(insert state here) department of education." These are some real threats to human reasoning.
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I liked the NASA page.The variety of navigational from text links at the top and interesting graphics to the right made the site intriguing, at least to me.
But when I think of NASA I don't necessarily think of the government, but about space and high tech stuff, which I think is what the site is trying to play off of.
hmmm, i can't recall a site that tried hybrid architecture/nav but delineated them so much. i don't think the multiple navs are necessarily the problem. their location in the real estate of the page seems the bigger issue to me.
At first I thought perhaps the site's home page was designed to appeal to students who might be sent their to learn about the space program. But the language used does not support that theory. The icons on the right represent subsections of "News" but there is no indication on the homepage that that is the case. You have to click through a few times and figure it out. And when you click through it takes a few seconds to be sure you have gone to the right page. There should be a better connection between link and page.
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