Paper prototyping for good and bad interfaces

The bad interface which was the dowse art museum website, while I found it confusing as it wasn't laid out the most clearly, once I paper prototyped it the steps to get to the information I was looking for were quite simple and only took  3 steps, so to re-evaluate this interface as also quite good but could change the layout to make it clearer and give the information more defined levels of hierarchy.

My good interface was stuff.co.nz which is clearly laid out. The steps I took to find an article only took 3 levels of interaction and was very clear and had options to find related articles. 

Case Study 

A good website needs to be clear and concise, needs to have good hierarchy of information and needs to be fast and responsive to use. Familiarity is key and personally I think an attractive interface entices the user and gives them a better overall experience.

I assessed the two websites I chose to look at against the criteria I addressed above.

The good: Stuff.co.nz

The stuff website has its information clearly laid out and has a good hierarchy of the way it lays out the information. For example, the more important news stories are bigger and more of a focal point rather than the lesser important stories.

It has clear concise tabs at the top of the page to direct you to the different areas of the site specific for what you are interested in/looking for.

The layout of the website is familiar, as it is a similar style to many other websites/user interfaces. For example with the tabs at the top of the front page which you can use to navigate through the site.

The site is quick and responsive for a good user experience. 





For the hard to use interface I looked at a website my flatmate had told me about that she did not like and found confusing, I thought this would be a good one to choose as I would be experiencing it for the  first time.

The Bad: Dowse.org.nz  The Dowse Art Museum

At first look of the front page it was not very clear at all. Too much information being thrown at you without a clear way to work through it. 

I undertand maybe the abstract look they were going for but I don't think it is very efficient or necessary for a website.

There is no obvious hierarchy of the importance of information so made it confusing for me as to how to navigate the site.

There is no familiarity to the site as it is not like any website I have ever encountered before, this doesn't necessarily make it a bad website but would make it confusing for many users.

The layout of the site is quite unattractive which makes it more unpleasant to use.

Although the layout is unnattractive it does remain pretty consistent throughout the whole site..