sample review

South Bend Symphony Orchestra

Dan McGlynn

A symphony for the eyes...

We all think we know a good website when we see it. But have you ever taken the time to seriously evaluate a website? I mean really take a closer look at what makes it tick and what makes it effective at whatever it is doing? Well, let's try it, shall we? And to start, we'll be looking at the website for the South Bend Symphony Orchestra

Content

The mantra of web design is always “Content is King.” The most important questions a website must answer are 1.) what message are you trying to send, and (equally importantly) 2.) whom are you trying to send it to?

For the South Bend Symphony Orchestra (SBSO), the message seems to be “LOOK AT US!” Alright, maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it isn’t that far off, for the main point is to let the people in the local community know that there is a “world-class symphony orchestra” right here in South Bend. In other words, this website is primarily a source of information: What is the South Bend Symphony Orchestra? Where do they perform? When is the next concert? How can I get tickets?

As such, the site’s content is primarily text: concert schedules, artist bios, series descriptions, FAQs, etc. However, there are a few images interspersed here and there (in the artist bios, etc), and even some links to preview music before a concert (thanks to Amazon.com). This may seem rather boring, but we should keep in mind that the audience in mind here is adults, likely those with more sophisticated tastes (i.e. a taste for classical music), the time to spend an evening at the symphony (and ideally, the means to perhaps one day become a sponsor). Maybe some embedded video or audio would be a nice addition, but then again, to borrow from an old adage, why pay to go to a concert if you can get the music for free?

Simply put, all the necessary information is there, which is, after all, the primary concern of an informational website (a second concern, obviously, is to make money...this will be discussed later on). But, as I have already pointed out, text alone can seem boring and tedious, so how can SBSO address this issue? Three words: presentation, presentation, presentation.

Aesthetics

When your main content is text, the challenge is to give some "pop" to those plain old letters, to give it some, pardon my pun, "textual healing." The clothes, after all, make the man, and in this case it's the presentation of the content that makes it stand out.

SBSO does an excellent job in this regard. When you arrive at the home page, you are met with a very sophisticated layout of images and colors. It's almost as if you're at a concert yourself: the black background lets you know that the lights are down, and your attention is immediately focused on center (or in this case, centered) stage, where large, bold text emphasizes the site's main message: "This is OUR symphony."

The images at the top of each page are a pleasant blend of bold, warm color shots and crisp black & whites. Perhaps the most subtle aspect of these header images is the fact that if you look closely, each one has a slight motion blur, conveying a sense of the life and action that accompany the music which, thanks to these sort of subtle design elements, the viewer can almost hear.

The logo fits with the sophisticated theme of the design, using a dark background to emphasize a boldly-colored image of a violin and the name of the orchestra in white text, and floats near the top-left of the page, just large enough and precisely located so as to play its part without stealing the show.

But enough of my impressions of the site's aesthetics, because as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the best way to experience the beauty of this site is to see it for yourself.

Functionality

So, we know that this site looks the part, but what's it got "under the hood", so to speak?

Primarily, the site is a source of information about SBSO, and it excels in this capacity. However, it also gives users the chance to sign up and become a member of SBSO's mailing list. The site also includes a Musicians Only area, which requires username and password authentication. (Unfortunately, I am not a musician, much less a musician in SBSO, so I cannot comment on what hidden treasures and functions might be available in this part of the website.) There are also dedicated Board Only and News sections, but these are both listed as "Coming Soon!"

The most complex feature (and probably most important from a business perspective) is the site's online Symphony Store, where users can purchase tickets to upcoming events. This is, literally and figuratively speaking, the site's "money-maker." The store section is appropriately secure, protected by username/password authentication and SSL transmission for online transactions, with an easy-to-access Privacy Policy for those who have questions. Without going through the online purchasing process step-by-step, suffice it to say that all the common eCommerce conventions (shopping cart, order confirmation, separate shipping and billing information, appropriate warnings for changes, editable user profiles, etc.) are in place. In addition, for those who aren't comfortable making online purchases, the store includes download-able coupons and order forms to make regular purchases. This is a nice touch, for it means the user is not forced to do something he or she would not otherwise want to do.

As far as reliability and markup validation is concerned, WC3's Markup Validation Service indicates that there are about 13 or so coding errors on the index page. This might sound scary, but a closer look at them shows that they are not too serious, so my guess it that the site was hand-coded (yes, people can still do that...) and that the programmer either just made a few mistakes or wasn't aware of the new movement for Web Standards. Either way, these errors are easily fixable.

There is, however, one notable glitch: while you are inside the Symphony Store, if you try to click the "Tickets and Subscriptions" link in the primary navigation area, the page will try to load inside the navigation section, causing the logo to replace the navigation items. Luckily, one can easily fix this by simply clicking on the logo to returning to the home page, but this is a problem which should be addressed, because the last thing a user wants to experience is a glitch while he or she is trying to make an online purchase.

Usability

Issues of functionality aside, SBSO's website is, in the end, pretty user-friendly, particularly in its navigation elements. Clear, consistent navigation is key to making the site approachable for the user. SBSO's page has a separate and consistent navigation section located on the left side of the page, which is always there for the user to fall back on. In addition, SBSO did a good job organizing their content in such a way as to keep the navigation sections clear and easy to follow, so most users will be able to easily find whatever it is they are searching for, even when they are not sure where to look. Also, the layered, roll-over navigation setup helps the user maintain a sense of how the site is organized.

Throughout the site, the text is sufficiently large with appropriate contrast to the background colors. The user, though, cannot control the text size apart from any such control included in the user's web browser, but this is a minor issue.

In many cases, the color scheme of the logo and heading text changes when entering a new section of the site (for example, compare the News and Season at a Glance pages), which is an excellent way to let the user know that he has entered a new section of the site.

However, the site could do a better job of letting the user know where he is with respect to the rest of the site's pages. Currently, the only indication is the sub-heading which appears near the top of the content area, but this is small and hard to notice, and sometimes the heading text does not match the navigation link text. Better methods would include the use of breadcrumbs or simply changing the style of the navigation section to let the user know when it is the "current" section. The former would involve adding a new section to each page, but the later would merely involve changing the CSS styles associated with the navigation elements in question, which would be much less labor-intensive.

However, to be fair, the categories most of the pages fall under are fairly self explanatory, and it would only require a quick glance back at the primary navigation section on the part of the user to get his or her bearings again, so such changes are perhaps not drastically needed, though they would certainly enhance the user's experience.

Wrapping it all up

When all is said and done, SBSO has a very professional, very appealing website. As we've seen, the aesthetics of the site go a long way to emphasize its content, which is important since many people judge a website primarily on its appearance. In addition, the site has all the functionality one would expect for what it is trying to do: provide information and sell tickets. But, as we have seen, there is still some room for improvement in the usability department, particularly in giving the user a better sense of where he or she was, is, and wants to be.

But, even with its usability issues, this site is in much better shape than most, and what issues it does have can easily be remedied without any drastic alterations and without affecting the design or content. So, if I had to assign SBSO a grade for their website, I would give it 3 1/2 stars out of a possible 4. Apparently, the web is alive with the sound (or, at least, the sight) of music.