Critiquing "art.yale.edu" Website

Exercise 2: Critiquing "art.yale.edu"
Objective: Making Subjective & Objective critiques about the web site http://art.yale.edu, using artistic terminology.

Home page - Art.Yale.Edu

The Moment I visited the website, I somehow felt that they didn't update their website since year 2000. Frankly, the website is updated in a daily bases, even the home page thumbnail image above is different from what it's now. Yeah it's kind of wired that a well-known art website for Yale University is neglecting and throwing aside all the rules of legibility and usability away. Well, aside from that absurd and irrational layout, I do really think that there's a concept relaying between the lines. Implemented or rescaled on different perspectives.

We do all agree aesthetically that the website didn't even meet the minimum requirement to be at least visually pleasureful. But, putting into consideration that a flawless design doesn’t necessarily should indicate an effective design. For example; the Dadaist art practices opened indeed many gates to different art forms & conceptual potentials, while firstly it was harshly rejected by many well-known artists. I know relating the website to a movement sounds vague, but actually the website also could be following the same ideological & speculative approach.

Constant Header 

Constant Navigation menu 

Constant Footer

 The website carries many pros and cons that need to be pointed out. What the website emphasized the most is the visual communications atmosphere; Having a tiled background could influence a day event or a mood expressed. On the other hand, graphically wise, it's creating a disturbing graphic interface which create some confusion & attention disturb. As a result, barely the eye can rest on the content. Also, having the numerous amount of links, highlighted text, text boxes and scrolls are scattered vertically in the page create a sense of maze or codes to analyze. Despite everything, the hierarchy of the website is working; The Menu is constant through navigating in which influence an escape from all the madness. While the header is disentangled from any style, and have the footer look alike characteristic.

In conclusion, as I mentioned in the introduction; I do really feel that this website is intentionally made with such characteristic & layout; laying under the dadaist atmosphere. They redefine a nice approach in the web design field indeed. Critiquing such a clever work is a pleasurably experience, enhancing and feeding my brain with the purposes and needs of such an ideas, concepts and how it's applied.