Dieter Rams is a German designer who is known for making simple and useful products. He came up with 10 commandments for what he thinks makes good design. These rules can also be used when looking at websites. Good design should be easy to use, look good, and not have too much going on. For this assignment I chose to look at the New York Islanders website to see how they follow his ten commandments.
1. Innovative: The I slanders website has a lot of modern features like videos, photos, team stats, schedules, and social media. It keeps fans updated and gives them different ways to follow the team.
2. Useful: The website is very useful for Islanders fans. You can find news, game schedules, player information, tickets, and information about going to their games.
3. Aesthetic: I think the website looks good overall. It uses the Islanders’ colours, logos, pictures, and hockey graphics. It fits the team’s brand and looks professional.
4. Understandable: The website is pretty easy to understand because everything is separated into sections like news, video, schedule, stats, and team. However, there are so many things on this website that it can get a little confusing for viewers.
5. Unobtrusive: This is one area where the website could improve. There are a lot of ads, promotions, videos, and links. Sometimes it feels like there is too much fighting for your attention.
6. Honest: The website is clear about what things are. You can easily tell what is a news article, video, ticket page, or team information. It doesn’t try to trick its users.
7. Long-lasting: The news and other information change all the time but the main parts of the website stay useful. Things like the schedule, team information, and stats will always be important to fans.
8. Thorough: The website has a lot of information. It gives fans information about games, tickets, parking, transportation, players, and community events. There is pretty much something for every type of fan.
9. Environmentally Friendly: This one is a little harder to judge based off of the website. The site has lots of videos and large pictures which use more data and energy compared to a simple website. There isn’t really enough information to know how environmentally friendly the site is.
10. As Little Design As Possible: This is probably the weakest part of the Islanders website. Rams believed that less is better but the Islanders website has a lot going on. It could be easier to use if there were fewer things on the home page.
Overall, I think the Islanders website is pretty good. It looks nice and has a lot of useful information for their fans. The biggest problem is that it can feel crowded and overwhelming. According to Dieter Rams, good design should be simple and easy to use. The Islanders website does most things well but making it a little simpler would make it even better.
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