Baltimore Zoo

For my next project, we have to do something similar to the first, which is creating the homepage for three different websites, one for Baltimore - in my case, the Baltimore Zoo - the second on Carroll Community College, and the third is a website for our artwork - or in my case, possibly programming as well. My next couple blog posts are going to be looking at different school sites as well as personal portfolio like sites, but also this post, which is about the Baltimore Zoo website that is already in existence. To the right is part of the homepage for their website, and some things that I am definitely looking for is what sub pages do they have, what is on their homepage, and the basic design. As you can see from the overall design is that they used a orange, blue, gray, and red in their design, and honestly I do not think that the color scheme, design, or anything about the website indicates that it is for the Baltimore Zoo. Honestly, if the words "Baltimore Zoo" weren't in the top left corner, then I would never have guessed. Even the logo itself doesn't draw attention to itself, it is unassuming as everything else in the page.

I'm going to break the website down into specific parts to look at it more closely. First I'm going to look at the header of the page, including the navigation.

Honestly, I do not like this header AT ALL! I just don't understand the basic concept of header and logo, the point of the header and logo of the website is to bring more attention to what the website is about. The header is the first place that a person's eyes go to on a page, and when they click on a page, they want to know what the website is about by just glancing quickly, but this logo and header does not give anything away about the website. The header could be the same for any other company, and that is never a good thing.
Websites are the newest things to happen, they are expanding and becoming huge in the business world, and if a company doesn't create a good quality website that is distinctive and noticeable then it doesn't do its job, its like any other type of advertising, you are trying to get the audiences attention, but also hold it while not frustrating them with a confusing navigation and design.
The one thing that I need is the navigation, I needed to know what types of things to add to my nav to make it look for realistic. The Home, obviously, but also the Visitor Information, Animals & Conservation, Support the Zoo, and the Newsroom. Some of the information on the Newsroom I will most likely put in my home page as filler content, mostly information that will attract attention and make people notice and care.

Next I'm going to look at the basic content of the site as well as what information they put in their homepage. They have a scrolling bar in the center where the colorful image is, this switches between three different slides, one called Special, the other Events, and last ZooMobile. This is the entire content part of the homepage, I think this is way to sparse for a homepage. Though you never want a page way to crowded, having some more information would be helpful, but more than that, more color would definitely not hurt. The only color on their site is the header and the scrolling image, but the background color and every other part of the page is so sparse.
Well that's about all I have to say about this page. I am definitely in mine going to change things around a lot. I'll post something when I have a more definite idea for my website and do a comparison between mine and this one.Thanks!