Wright State University Website, 1997

This version of Wright State University's website was created and last edited in 1997. This version was designed to help outsiders, including prospective and current students, find information about WSU and connect with faculty.

The original design for this website features a left-justified menu/navigation bar that allowed users to navigate the website in accordance with their end goal. This design also appears to rely heavily on hypertext links, with general information being displayed with a strong hierarchy. 

For the time this layout existed, it presented well when it came to functionality. The aesthetics of this site do come with consequences. The page itself presents a lot of crowding when navigating between links. From a hierarchical scale, text is not necessarily organized in a way that directs the user's gaze easily. It can cause eye fatigue and overstimulation.

Despite the text structure between links, the overall brand messaging is presented very well. The use of color contrast is not harmful, and text sizing when structured over buttons does not clash or cause strain. Ideally, if these buttons were bigger, they would be more usable.

Instead of the navigation being justified to the left of the image, a standard drop menu or standard top-centered navigation section would be concise and not so overbearing.

The page itself is rather simplified, which is effective when serving the purpose of just navigating users to and from to gather desired information. The page now is fairly modernized and heavy with visuals, but in an ideal world the sweet spot for this website would be a 60-40 balance, with 60 being visual and 40 being informational.