Dr. Jim Kalmbach
English 351
November 5, 2003
Introduction
Utahconvention.org is actually the organizational website for the visitors' bureau of Vernal, Utah--the town where I grew up. I've been away from home for three years now and am feeling more than just a little homesick. So as I was reminiscing and searching around for pictures on the web of my beautiful mountains, I came across this site. I decided to do my critique of this site a) so I could spend more time staring at pictures of home, and b) because I think that the website, while actually a pretty strong site, has some things from which I can learn. In the following paragraphs, then, I'll explain what they did right, and what they might have done better as they built this website that represents our home town.
The following links will take you to the different parts of this critique:
Audience & Purpose | Information Architecture & Navigation | Usability | Design | Quality of Writing | Big Picture
The primary audience for this site is easy to pick out. On the first page, the bureau makes a second person address to future events planners, urging them to choose Vernal as the place in which to host their event: "Let us assist you in planning your next convention, conference, trade show, trade event, reunion, meeting, exhibit, seminar or banquet." In an effort to convince these events planners that Vernal is the place to be, the visitors' bureau has put together all of the information that they felt would be most attractive to those planning a large event. They've tried to show that Vernal is an interesting, tour-worthy place with it's dinosaurs, and its lakes and mountains. They've proven that accommodations and dining are adequate to service a large group of visitors. And they've attempted to show that the convention facilities are suitable for a large number of people as well as a variety of events. They've kept it pretty simple, and I think that if I were planning an event, I might give Vernal a second look.
Although the primary audience is undoubtedly those who may be planning a large event, the website might also appeal to those individuals who might visit Vernal, and especially if they themselves will be attendees at one of the hosted events. The very extensive list of lodgings, with it's inclusion of all the options available at each is pretty clearly meant for those who might need to make personal accomodations. An event planner would probably not need, for example, information on campgrounds and RV parks. An organization hosting an event at the convention center, if they provided accomodations for their participants, would almost certainly not do so at a campground. Consequently, the thoroughness of this page can only be for those who may be visiting the Vernal area and need to secure accomodations on their own. So while the primary audience may be planners of events, the secondary audience is certainly those who will then attend these events.
Information Architechture & Navigation
It is in the area of architecture and navigation that this site really does itself proud. The organization of the site is very clear; there are separate pages for conference facilities, attractions in the local area, lodging, dining, local events and activities, a map, and a contact page. All of the titles and links to these pages are clear and obvious, and take you to precisely what you would expect from a link called, for example, "Restaurants."
The navigation is simple and straightforward as well. There's a menu at both the top and bottom of the page. This menu stays consistent on each page in the site, enabling users to navigate through the site without ever feeling lost. Furthermore, the link in the menu that corresponds to the page that a user is on turns a different color to show the user where they are. There are a couple of links on the first page that take you outside the visitors' bureau webpage and into different sites (such as that of the Dinosaur National Park, and Flaming Gorge Recreation Area). These links open new browser windows instead of taking the user to the new website in the same window. This allows you to explore Flaming Gorge to your hearts content without fear of losing the bureau's page in the process.
I have two minor, and one slightly more major, critiques in the area of architecture and navigation. First, on the first page, the words "We are the Convention and Visitor's Bureau of Northeastern Utah, also known as Dinosaurland" is in bold navy blue, unlike the regular black text that had just preceded it. This is a little confusing since that very color of navy blue is used in the text to indicate links. And although that abberant line does not have an underline like the links do, it's still too close for comfort.
Secondly, I think the link title for conference facilities should have been "Facilities" and not "Conferences." This is the only link that I feel is really ambiguous; I wasn't sure initially if I would be seeing a list of future or past conferences or the kinds of conferences that are possible. What I was not expecting were diagrams and pictures of the conference facilities. This is possibly the most important information in the site--future events planners will need to see the center to determine if it is suitable for their purposes. Consequently, the link title should be more clear here.
Finally, the page that should contain the information on "summer activities" is blank. Now I know it's not summer, but having a blank page is just plain irritating. Furthermore, conventions etc. are not only held in the summer time--some crazy, wacky people actually hold them in the Spring, Fall, and even Winter. Having lived most of my life near Vernal, I happen to know that they do actually have some great activities at other times of the year as well as summer--activities like the Christmas lighting at Dinosaur Park, the Winter Festival where local performing groups give free performances at the Dinosaur Museum of Natural History, and the Ute Indian celebration in commemoration of the traditions of the Ute tribe which takes place every Spring. So why couldn't they just have made this page an "Activities" page, and put all of this stuff on it as well?
I asked my office mate to use the site in order to see how easily she found it to do the tasks that either an events planner or visitor might do. I first asked her to pretend that she were the events planner and find the dimensions and a diagram of the convention center. She hesitated over the menu links, and then clicked on "Conferences." It didn't take her a long time to figure out that this was the correct link, but she did comment that it was a little confusing and agreed with me that "Facilities" would be clearer.
I then asked her pretend she was a visitor to Vernal and to locate a place to eat Mexican food. She found this without difficulty. I then asked her to find a place to stay that had a kitchenette. She scrolled through the entries under "Lodging" looking to see if any listed a kitchenette. She quickly found that the assets of each property were in code, so she scrolled down the page and located the "Legend." She was then able to find a hotel with a kitchenette. However, I think that requiring visitors to look at a legend in order to understand what each property has to offer is a little bit irritating-it definitely violates Krug's easiness rules, and so I think is not very effective.
The design elements are, for the most part, pretty nice. I think the first page is attractive, the colors go well together and I like the photo-montage at the top of the page. The colors are pretty consistent throughout the site, and I like that as well. The pictures are well chosen and (usually) well placed. They've included link titles (or whatever those little yellow explanation boxes are called--I always forget), for both links and pictures, and I like those, they help to clarify any possible confusion.
I do have a few complaints here, though. First, the text is too close to the pictures on all the pages--they needed to have done cell padding or something. Second, on the "Attractions" page, the text is very badly laid out. All the text is left aligned, so that the text for pictures on the left of the screen crowds right up against the picture, while the text for those pictures on the right of the screen, crowds up against the left margin, and so doesn't obviously go to the picture that is huddling up against the right margin. What they should have done here is made a table with more rows and put the text in a smaller cell so that it wasn't spread clear across the page without clearly attaching to the picture it's supposed to be explaining. Furthermore, they should have centered this text with it's picture instead of leaving it top aligned. As it is, sometimes the text looks like it's describing the picture above rather than to the right.
Finally, while I think it was a good idea to make the menu links change colors to reflect where a person is in the site, I'm not sure they should have been such a strange variety of colors--one alternate color I think would have been more professional looking. Currently, the "attractions" link turns grey, which nearly disappears into the background of the blue menu bar, while the "events" link turns a bright, shockingly bold red that doesn't go with anything else on the page.
Quality & Appropriateness of Writing
The text, although certainly not stunning in its wit or sophistication, is OK. The standard cliches used by business to try to seduce consumers of course abound: "Make your next convention a memorable event" and " Holding your conference or convention in Vernal, Utah can't be beat!" to cite just a couple of examples. The exact same phrases probably occur on every other convention center page in the universe. And the scattering of exclamation points pretty standardly accompanies each one of these meaningless phrases. However, the visitor's bureau has also included a great deal of informative text, now only about the uniqueness of Vernal (especially its dinosaurs, since it's home to one of the largest dinosaur quaries in the world), but also about the convention center itself. this text is pretty straightforward and frill-less. It tells the custormer what they need to know, especially on the "Conferences" page, where measurements and explanations of the locale of the conference center are given. So for the most part, the text successful fulfills the purposes of the designers, which was to sell themselves and their convention center.
However, I wasn't sure where to put this complaint, so I'll put it here. If you're going to have a big space reserved on the home page for "Site News," then that space ought to actually have some site news. As it is, this substantial area taken out of the home page just says "Site news goes here" dozens of times.
I like the site. I think the colors are pleasant, the pictures are cool, and the explanations are thorough enough to make even a hardened events planner take a second look:). There are some pretty obvious flaws, but all of those I have mentioned could be fixed in the matter of a couple of hours. There's nothing in this site that is flawed on a deep structural level. The navigation is simple and clear, the purpose is easily recognizable, and the organization is a snap. So while it may sound like I had a lot of complaints, these are only minor things and easily fixed. Overall, I think they did very well. Vernal is a small town of less than 40,000 people, and I'm glad that their visitor's bureau is doing such a nice job of attracting visitors to the area.
By-the-by, this last picture is actually taken from a postcard. That's me and my brothers and friends rafting the Green River, summer of '96. Apparently, some photographer was out doing shoots that day, but the first we knew of it was seeing ourselves on the shelves of the local store. I'm the one in the blue life jacket in the back.