International Christian Response

International Christian Response

Current rating: 5.4 (320 votes)

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• Added: 22 March 2005
• Designer: Bauhouse
• Submitter: Thomas

Review:

There’s a lot going on with this site’s design and I’m torn when it comes to evaluating it. On the one hand, the design is, contextually, pretty good for an organization meant to garner interest and support. The design grabs the eyes and the heavy dose of hover-state interactivity (not seen by those using MSIE) on the page piques curiosity and helps to spur interest. On the other hand, the heavy use of imagery and the broad color palette is rather busy, perhaps bordering on visual input overload.

I find it interesting that while the main content area has a typical, subdued color scheme, the sidebar elements are brought more to the fore by the excited use of color. Again, I’m not sure if this contrast helps the page design succeed or merely muddles things up, from a usability standpoint.

There are certainly some issues with the markup and validation in this site. Some problems are absolutely needless (“border” element in images??) and some more complicated (character encoding conflicts). However, the W3C tools are not at all above dishing erroneous readings and questionable interpretations.

In the end, I have to say that I personally enjoy the design and the interaction presented by this site. The design and layout enjoys a detailed touch and the use of color and the sidebar element theme distracts from the fact that the layout is yet another blog-style, 2-column scheme. I’m not a fan of the page background color, but I’m sure that this design is one that will have plenty of fans and detractors. That’s what happens when chances are taken with design choices.

Reviewed by Andy Rutledge

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