Ineffective website design of the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services of Yolo County - Essay Example

Ineffective Website Design of the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services of Yolo County Introduction This paper is aimed at analyzing the visual appeal issues regarding the website of Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services of Yolo County (SPYC). The website (1) is owned and run by a community service oriented organization, which is dedicated to the study of suicide ideation as a social problem is America.Identification of Issues The home page of the website in question gives a brief but informative description of the website and its purposes.

However, the content lacks discernable headings and subheadings. The biggest part of this problem is that there is hardly any difference between the title texts and content texts of the website. The visitor cannot understand which sentences define the title or subtitles in the page. There are no images placed suitably with respect to the body of the text, which would leave the visitor wondering about the website’s owner as a whole. This is not only a lack of visual attractiveness but also a stark usability issue.

A website designer must understand that visual aesthetics are related to usability rather than pompous presentation of the product. Websites that have good color balance, pictures and videos are more usable than “websites with unbalanced and poorly selected color schemes.”(2) Even if color schemes or quality of text are regarded as secondary issues, a modern website must be provided with useful pictures. As far as videos are concerned, community services must be based on credibility. Video links depicting the activities of the owner of the website provide increased credibility and understandability simultaneously (3).

Disregard for these factors in the design of the website in question has led to serious compromise on quality as well as usability.Solution With regard to the specific context of the website, there appears to be no significant content-related problems even after a careful scrutiny. The website has a number of links that helps the visitor to find various sorts of information to fulfill different purposes. So first of all, these basic qualities must be maintained if the website has to be redesigned as a whole.

The visual appeal can be increased manifold by selecting proper colors. Also, providing the texts with a consistent system of headings and subheadings can help a lot. The owner of the website is socially active and it wants to make people aware of the negative effects of suicide ideation. Therefore, the community activities (e.g. a counseling session) of the organization can be photographed. Next, these photographs must be embedded in the webpage so that the visitor can understand the organization’s activities more clearly.

With the help of social networking sites like Facebook, video sharing facilities can be provided to the visitors and users of the website. This will help them to interact, share their stories, and trust the credibility of the organization as whole. In case a visitor is unable to concentrate on the content due to lack of time or poor eyesight, the website appears to be problematic. By providing videos and pictures, the visitor’s attention can be drawn toward the key issues with more ease. Simple HTML tags can be used to embed pictures, while Java applets are useful for running videos side by side with the website’s textual content.

Conclusion The benefit of creating a visually appealing website is that it can attract more visitors and offer increased interactivity. With the help of pictures and videos, credibility of the organization can be increased. By providing social networking facilities with the help of the social networking sites like Facebook, the visitors can be helped to know more about the organization. The stated goal of the website owner is:“Our aim is for happier, healthier lives and a decrease in the incidence of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, family and community violence, and other destructive or desperate behaviors.”(4)By increasing interaction between the various stakeholders, the website can practically achieve this goal.

BibliographyDavis Community Network. "Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services of Yolo County." Davis Groups. Davis Community Network. Nov 2013. Accessed Feb 28, 2014. http://groups.dcn.org/spycHuizingh, Eelko K.R.E. "The content and design of web sites: an empirical study." Information & Management 37, no. 3 (2000): 123-134.Phillips, Christine, and Barbara S. Chaparro. "Visual appeal vs. usability: which one influences user perceptions of a website more?" Usability News 11, no. 2 (2009): 1-9.