Alberta+College+of+Art+&+Design

Alberta College of Art & Design [|ACAD] by Rachel Little
 * BENCHMARK ANALYSIS**



This website is for Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary that offers students studio practice in fine arts, design and new media. The information on this website caters to current students, prospective students, faculty and alumni as well as any visiting viewer who may be interested in art and design. //Information Architectu////re// - the logo is in the top left hand corner - below the logo is a picture of a building on the campus - the content is in the center of the page with events, news, academic updates and a visual slide show - navigation panel is on the left - quick access to the ongoing events panel is on the right - bar for contact, location, search and site map as well as webservice and webmail are in the top right panel - visual hierarchy: the most outstanding visual is the slide show, then the navigation panel on the left, then the four square panels on the right
 * Description**
 * Analysis**

//Visual Design// - type hierarchy: the main headers are in caps, different color and larger font than the body text - the overall color of the website remains consistent throughout the pages with the main menu in red on the left, the main body text in the center (usually gray or white) and the red and picture boxes on the right - there text is split up into smaller sections which helps keep the page clean and airy and not crowded - the pictures used along the top banner are all colorful and add more color to the already red, gray and white page

//Usability utility -// I think the overall layout is helpful by having 4 columns of text split into a main menu bar, a sub-menu bar, a main text column and additional information bar //effectiveness -// I think the website is clear and effective and straightforward to follow

//Content// The content of the website caters to various groups of people. Therefore the content has been sorted into relevant categories with sub-categories to organize the data. In addition, this makes finding information easy because it only takes a few steps/clicks to find what you're looking for.

This website is unique to the College but I think the pages look very similar and repetitive. In terms of usability, I think it is very straight forward and is easy to navigate because of the menu bars.
 * Synthesis of Findings**

http://www.acad.ab.ca/home.html
 * Works Cited**