This blog will serve to analyze the website of lifehopeandtruth.com, to decide whether the website follows basic principles of good design, both on desktop and mobile versions. The categories that the website will be judged by are gathered from various industry expert articles on what constitutes good web design. They are as follows:
How much of the space on the website is being used optimally? I would say that there is rarely any dead space on the Life, Hope & Truth website. Yet, the articles and sections do also have enough breathing room that they do not seem to be crowded together in a distracting way.
Another important thing to consider is ease of use in a website. As mentioned before, Life Hope & Truth has a search bar to help with any questions that the user may be looking for answers. Also, the navigation up top is great for browsing. I have used the website frequently and haven’t seen any problems trying to find any specific content, or finding something to spend some time looking at during a random browsing session.
The focus of the page is obviously the sliders on the homepage which recommend articles to read. I believe that the website overall has a great focus on it’s own content. Engagement though, I believe could be improved. There is some animation in the sliders, but I believe that video could be used more on the site to improve engagement. In addition, I believe that the learning center landing page should be featured more prominently as it includes a lot of engaging content.
I think all of the color and graphics choices for this website are done very well. The colors are a great mix of readability, excitement, but allow for the reader to focus on the articles and such without being distracted by flashy graphics and colors.
Viewing the Life Hope & Truth website on a mobile phone, it is quite different than the desktop site. The headlining article is a single one, instead of an animated slider. The menu is collapsed rather than each word being a scrollover option. The search bar is still prominently present, above the fold when scrolling. Overall, I feel that the website is very mobile friendly. I think that the Learning Center could be emphasized more in the homepage or navigation in some way to draw attention to it. I also think that each menu option could do with a short blurb about what kind of articles can be found underneath as some of the topics are very broad.
Overall, Life Hope & Truths’ website uses good design principles and is a good example of a website that is successful on both mobile and desktop platforms.
Purpose
The purpose of any website must be evident through the design of any website. The purpose of the Life Hope & Truth website is to encourage browsing and reading articles, as well as to encourage more interaction with the learning center section of the site. Life, Hope & Truth seeks to be a resource for answers about relationships, morals, and religion -- basically the big questions about human existence. This purpose is definitely evident within a few moments of loading the homepage. The banner encourages interaction with a featured article, and the search bar underneath suggests that if the user came for any information that isn’t in the featured area, it can be found by searching.Navigation Flow
The navigation flow of a website is also very important to consider when talking about good website design. There are a few contributing factors to navigation flow. One thing to consider is the natural F pattern that users tend to look at web pages with. The Life, Hope & Truth website does have important navigation at the top, but it seems much of it is centered rather than more geared towards the left side of the page. In fact, there are important buttons like the “Visit the Learning Center” button, which are on the far right of the webpage where they are a little less likely to be seen. I’d suggest moving important links/buttons to the left or center of the page rather than right aligned.
Use of Space
How much of the space on the website is being used optimally? I would say that there is rarely any dead space on the Life, Hope & Truth website. Yet, the articles and sections do also have enough breathing room that they do not seem to be crowded together in a distracting way.
Ease of Use
Another important thing to consider is ease of use in a website. As mentioned before, Life Hope & Truth has a search bar to help with any questions that the user may be looking for answers. Also, the navigation up top is great for browsing. I have used the website frequently and haven’t seen any problems trying to find any specific content, or finding something to spend some time looking at during a random browsing session.
Engagement / Focus
The focus of the page is obviously the sliders on the homepage which recommend articles to read. I believe that the website overall has a great focus on it’s own content. Engagement though, I believe could be improved. There is some animation in the sliders, but I believe that video could be used more on the site to improve engagement. In addition, I believe that the learning center landing page should be featured more prominently as it includes a lot of engaging content.
Color/ Graphics
I think all of the color and graphics choices for this website are done very well. The colors are a great mix of readability, excitement, but allow for the reader to focus on the articles and such without being distracted by flashy graphics and colors.
Mobile Friendliness
Viewing the Life Hope & Truth website on a mobile phone, it is quite different than the desktop site. The headlining article is a single one, instead of an animated slider. The menu is collapsed rather than each word being a scrollover option. The search bar is still prominently present, above the fold when scrolling. Overall, I feel that the website is very mobile friendly. I think that the Learning Center could be emphasized more in the homepage or navigation in some way to draw attention to it. I also think that each menu option could do with a short blurb about what kind of articles can be found underneath as some of the topics are very broad.
Overall, Life Hope & Truths’ website uses good design principles and is a good example of a website that is successful on both mobile and desktop platforms.
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