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Hi Curtis,
I want to preface my comments by saying I am just trying to help and please don’t be offended; I really don’t like having to offer changes to other people’s work, particularly with the artisitc aspects as those are completely subjective, however the prof has asked us to comment, so I’ll give you my thoughts, for what they are worth…
I liked your use of PowerPoint and the way you limited yourself to a certain color palette and made interior pages look similar to the homepage via the use of repeated elements such as the pale blue text box. However, I found it distracting that the boxes and the text inside are not the exact same size on every interior page, but this is easy enough to fix. I liked your use of images and I wish that you had used more–perhaps this is a time issue and when you have more time you will incorporate more images, including images of free persons of color. I know such images are hard to come by, but as that is the name of your site, I think it would benefit immeasurably. I really hope you aren’t encountering copyright problems, as it seems like building a website is hard enough without those types of impediments. Also, I feel that the site is perhaps too text-heavy, unless you want to specify on the homepage that this site is for grad students and college and university faculty. Unless you are aiming for this specialized audience, then I think you have too much text. Not that I am underestimating the masses, just that there are certain expectations we bring to the digital realm, and visitors do not expect to encounter long blocks of text. Perhaps these blocks can be split up into smaller sections, then each carted off to its own interior page. Perhaps the text could also be in a larger font and/or a more interesting, historical-looking font. Lastly, while I admire your goal to create a logo and I think this adds unity to the site, I think that the logo needs some work–I’m sure you had only put this one up as a prototype, as I’m not sure how much time people have had to work on such small details of their mock-ups yet. Anyway, I think the logo is too small and the wavy effect seems ahistorical. I would try for a logo in which all the letters are the same size or a very similar size. I would also make the logo much bigger, more prominent, and change the color choice to something more historical-looking, perhaps shades of beige and grey that look like the pages of an old newspaper or the like. If possible, I might include a daguerrotype (or whichever technology was used back then) or at the least a silouette that inlcudes the bust portrait of one woman and one man to give a sense that this site is about real people who lived in Virginia not that long ago, not about dry historical facts–studies alwasy show that humans are drawn to photos and other images of humans, particularly faces, so to include 2 representative portraits will make history come alive to the visitor and also will visually draw the eye to your homepage. Then, you could overlay the FPC logo over the 2 portraits, or perhaps under them, and use this text-and-image combination as the logo on all the pages throughout your site. I am going to sketch out for you what I mean by this, as I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well; I will have images for you in class on Monday.
Again, these are just suggestions, and please don’t be offended by any of my comments!
Holly
Thanks for your input. I am not offended by anything you said. I tried to do the mock-up in power point. Between my limitations and the limitations of power point, I realize that it does not look very good. I certainly cannot argue about colors, because I have no feeling for that at all.
To me the real issue is the comment about the site being text heavy. My concept of the site is have a reader contemplate issues of family for free persons of color given the legal environment in Virginia in the antebellum era. Professor Cohen asked me to find more objects. I went on a search, but I have not found much. I want everyone to remember that free persons of color were the lowest rung of society of free people. Their footprint is hard to find, and when found, it is usually through the voice of whites. That is better than nothing, but I want to find people who may know stories of any kind that may give some more voice to these people who left little historical evidence of their existence other than through County Court House records.
While searching for web pages, I found a site a black individual had posted that discussed her distant ancestor who was also the father of James Madison. I see that tidbit of information as a start of a story. That is the kind of information I want on this site.
On the other hand, I have tried to conceive of demographic information about free blacks that would be a part of an interactive map that would give census data about the population of free persons of color by county. The information is interesting, but not really useful to the site. I am just trying to satisfy those who believe a web site has to be all visual. The same is true of the pictures. The portrait on the home page is the wife of the first president of Liberia. She was from Virginia. It is a nice portrait, but it does not really help the purpose of the site. Certainly, the portrait of Luther Jackson is irrelevant other than he wrote about free persons of color.
Once again, thanks for your thoughtfulness in your comments.
November 16, 2008 at 5:25 am
Hi Curtis,
I want to preface my comments by saying I am just trying to help and please don’t be offended; I really don’t like having to offer changes to other people’s work, particularly with the artisitc aspects as those are completely subjective, however the prof has asked us to comment, so I’ll give you my thoughts, for what they are worth…
I liked your use of PowerPoint and the way you limited yourself to a certain color palette and made interior pages look similar to the homepage via the use of repeated elements such as the pale blue text box. However, I found it distracting that the boxes and the text inside are not the exact same size on every interior page, but this is easy enough to fix. I liked your use of images and I wish that you had used more–perhaps this is a time issue and when you have more time you will incorporate more images, including images of free persons of color. I know such images are hard to come by, but as that is the name of your site, I think it would benefit immeasurably. I really hope you aren’t encountering copyright problems, as it seems like building a website is hard enough without those types of impediments. Also, I feel that the site is perhaps too text-heavy, unless you want to specify on the homepage that this site is for grad students and college and university faculty. Unless you are aiming for this specialized audience, then I think you have too much text. Not that I am underestimating the masses, just that there are certain expectations we bring to the digital realm, and visitors do not expect to encounter long blocks of text. Perhaps these blocks can be split up into smaller sections, then each carted off to its own interior page. Perhaps the text could also be in a larger font and/or a more interesting, historical-looking font. Lastly, while I admire your goal to create a logo and I think this adds unity to the site, I think that the logo needs some work–I’m sure you had only put this one up as a prototype, as I’m not sure how much time people have had to work on such small details of their mock-ups yet. Anyway, I think the logo is too small and the wavy effect seems ahistorical. I would try for a logo in which all the letters are the same size or a very similar size. I would also make the logo much bigger, more prominent, and change the color choice to something more historical-looking, perhaps shades of beige and grey that look like the pages of an old newspaper or the like. If possible, I might include a daguerrotype (or whichever technology was used back then) or at the least a silouette that inlcudes the bust portrait of one woman and one man to give a sense that this site is about real people who lived in Virginia not that long ago, not about dry historical facts–studies alwasy show that humans are drawn to photos and other images of humans, particularly faces, so to include 2 representative portraits will make history come alive to the visitor and also will visually draw the eye to your homepage. Then, you could overlay the FPC logo over the 2 portraits, or perhaps under them, and use this text-and-image combination as the logo on all the pages throughout your site. I am going to sketch out for you what I mean by this, as I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well; I will have images for you in class on Monday.
Again, these are just suggestions, and please don’t be offended by any of my comments!
Holly
November 16, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Holly,
Thanks for your input. I am not offended by anything you said. I tried to do the mock-up in power point. Between my limitations and the limitations of power point, I realize that it does not look very good. I certainly cannot argue about colors, because I have no feeling for that at all.
To me the real issue is the comment about the site being text heavy. My concept of the site is have a reader contemplate issues of family for free persons of color given the legal environment in Virginia in the antebellum era. Professor Cohen asked me to find more objects. I went on a search, but I have not found much. I want everyone to remember that free persons of color were the lowest rung of society of free people. Their footprint is hard to find, and when found, it is usually through the voice of whites. That is better than nothing, but I want to find people who may know stories of any kind that may give some more voice to these people who left little historical evidence of their existence other than through County Court House records.
While searching for web pages, I found a site a black individual had posted that discussed her distant ancestor who was also the father of James Madison. I see that tidbit of information as a start of a story. That is the kind of information I want on this site.
On the other hand, I have tried to conceive of demographic information about free blacks that would be a part of an interactive map that would give census data about the population of free persons of color by county. The information is interesting, but not really useful to the site. I am just trying to satisfy those who believe a web site has to be all visual. The same is true of the pictures. The portrait on the home page is the wife of the first president of Liberia. She was from Virginia. It is a nice portrait, but it does not really help the purpose of the site. Certainly, the portrait of Luther Jackson is irrelevant other than he wrote about free persons of color.
Once again, thanks for your thoughtfulness in your comments.
Curtis