Visual Design- School Website Review

When reviewing a school’s website, there are several things to look at and take into

consideration. According to usability.org, “Visual design focuses on the aesthetics of a site and its

related materials by strategically implementing images, colors, fonts, and other elements.  A successful

visual design does not take away from the content on the page or function.  Instead, it enhances it by

engaging users and helping to build trust and interest in the brand.” Some of the key aspects of visual

design are simplicity, consistency, color schemes, audience, structure and navigation, and resource

documentation. It is important for the site to look visually appealing while being easy to navigate and

find important information.

Today I will be reviewing the district website for the community where I live. Jennings County

School District (jcsc.org) is comprised of six elementary schools throughout the county and has a middle

school (grades seven and eight) and a high school. The site has a welcome page and many various other

pages for parents, students, and staff to use. You can navigate to each school’s specific website from the

homepage.

When opening the first page, you immediately notice a large photograph of students from the

community, along with the mission of the school district. The mission statement is located on the

photograph but is in a white box with black font. The use of white space and black text helps the viewer

to see and identify the important information. The use of white space and black font are used

throughout the district pages as well as the individual school pages. Other pages have photos at the top

of the page, and they are not as distracting as the pages that have photos on the left side of the page or

in the middle of the text.

Jennings County School’s website uses the same color scheme throughout the different pages,

including individual school pages. The district used the high school’s color scheme for all the pages.
Some of the schools in my district have individual school colors, but the middle school and high school

use the same colors. The text size and spacing create a visual hierarchy which is necessary for the visual

design of websites.

On the introductory page of the website, you can find information in various locations.

Something that really distracted me from the information in the middle of the page (a letter from the

superintendent) was the use of large black boxes with white text on the left side of the page. My eyes

were drawn to the boxes. The boxes contain past information from other school years. It didn’t seem to

fit in with the rest of the page or the flow of that page. The same style of black box with white font can

be found on the left side of all of the district pages and some school pages. They really distract from the

information being given on that page. Some of the school pages use blue boxes with the white font for

other information, and they do not distract as much from the information on the page.

Usability is a partial concern when using this website. The site provides links to other pages with

school information and each school in the district. The website contains a lot of important information,

but not all of that information can be found easily. It took me a while to find the information I was

looking for regarding school board meetings. I became frustrated with the site. I am not always the best

when it comes to technology, so I asked my daughter to open the site on her phone and find the

information I was looking for. She is a very good student and understands some technology aspects

more than I do, but even she had a very difficult time locating the information.

Overall, I think the website is a good site. It provides a lot of important information for everyone

in the community. It is visually appealing in most areas, but some information is very difficult to locate.

The frustration of searching for information overpowered the visual appeal of the page.
 Works Cited

Department of Health and Human Services. (2013, October 8). Visual design basics.

Usability.gov. Retrieved August 8, 2022, from https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/visual-

design.html