Web Design- Mikaelian

Hierarchy

I used hierarchy in my web design to provide viewers with information in an orderly manner that would slowly lead them to donating to the philanthropy. The top page that says “Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity Presents: Theta Bowl” is present on every single page, so the viewer has a constant reminder of what the event is. I also included a picture of boys playing in Theta Bowl so people instantly know what the event entails. Since the homepage is the first thing visitors will see, I decided to put a nice welcome message on the front that explains what Theta Bowl is and who participates in it. I then decided to make “About CASA” the second page so viewers can learn more about the organization and what Theta Bowl is making money for. The third page is a photo gallery, so people can see how much fun the event is. After viewers see these three pages, I am hoping that they will be inclined to sign up to participate in the philanthropy or donate to the cause, which are the third and fourth pages. The last page is a contact page, in case after viewing the rest of the website visitors would still like to know more information about Theta Bowl, Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity, or CASA in general.

Usability

I wanted to make my website really easy to use, so I decided to keep it really simple with a traditional task bar across the top of the page and one text box that would hold the information for each page. Nonprofit event websites should be simple so people can navigate easily throughout the page, so I wanted to keep the information minimal and in small paragraphs. To get to each section, users simply have to click on the link to each page and there is one page with all the information they need. There are no sublinks, etc. since that can get too confusing and viewers can get lost clicking from link to link.

Visual message/Audiences

I wanted my visual message to be that Theta Bowl is a fun event that raises a lot of money for a great cause. The audience is most likely going to be college males, since that’s the demographic that participates in Theta Bowl, but Kappa Alpha Theta alumni and family members will probably also look at the site to learn more about the Chi chapter’s philanthropy, and to donate money to the cause. Because of this I wanted to create a layout that stays true to the philanthropy that would make boys want to participate, but I also wanted it to be friend and inviting to alumni and the older audience that may be viewing the website. In order to do so, I made the layout a combination of boyish and girly by utilizing two different font styles (explained below), and including pictures of both sorority sisters and football teams that participated in past Theta Bowls. The pictures of the sorority members give viewers and idea of the type of girl in Theta at Syracuse, and hopefully evoke that the event is a fun, wholesome event. The pictures of the males should show how much fun they’re having, and how into the philanthropy the boys get. I also feathered all the photos to give off a friendly, happy vibe that made the pictures seem reminiscent of nice memories.

Typography/Color choices

The main fonts I used for my website are Antique Olive Std. and Stencil. I used Stencil for “Theta Bowl” at the top of the website and important headlines. I used this font because it is a tough-looking font that fits the football theme of the website well. I chose Antique Olive Std. because it is a simple font that has a slight girliness to it, which I think compliments the boy-ish Stencil font and makes the site to both men and women. For the navigation bar, I used Antique Olive Std. in a black font, and to show what page I was on I turned the font of that page (i.e. home, about casa, etc.) to Stencil in a larger font size and white color to make it stand out from the rest of the navigation bar. I also used Verdana for large bodies of text (the home page and about casa page). I use Antique Olive Std. in 9 pt. for captions.

The main colors I used are black, white and yellow (a replacement for gold) since those are my sorority’s colors. I also felt like they worked out well since they aren’t too girly and work well with the flag football philanthropy. I decided to make the main background white, and used a black container to hold the main text for each page. I also made the top bar black and the navigation bar yellow (R=255 G=231 B=65) so it would stand out. Most of the text is white, although I did use yellow if I wanted to make certain words stand out, and also for the donations and sign up page to contrast from the white text boxes.