Apr
2016
Digital Environment Description: Atlanta’s Official Website
On April 17th, I began observing Atlanta’s official website. I began studying the site at 10 pm and ended my observation at 11 pm. When observing this site the first thing that caught my eye was the background of the homepage. The homepage offers a night view of downtown Atlanta. The title of the homepage reads “City of Atlanta”. The first two words are in white while the word “Atlanta” is in silver. This seems to bring some type of attraction to the homepage.
The color of the texts are blue and they are easy to read on a white background of the different pages. Included on the homepage is the different tabs that informs people of business, tourists, or people who may move to Atlanta, about the city. Some of the tabs read ” Government” , “Visitors”, and “Doing Business”. Below the tabs are slideshows of community news with a small area with a message from the mayor. There is also a slide a slide of links that lead to information about the “Atlanta PD (police department” , “City council”, etc. At the bottom of the home page there is a calendar for press releases and meetings/upcoming events.
After observing the homepage, I began to navigate through the tab. The navigation for this site was easy. The tabs include sections and in these sections are links to information about the tab. For example, under the “Residents” tab regarding the household section there are links that give the researcher more information about the particular section. This website constantly displays this method rather than the page on the website being just about that tab or section like a traditional website.
The website does not include very many photos. Majority of the images are drawn out. It seems that if there were more realistic pictures especially of people interacting; the website would seem more attractive. An example of the sketched images in under the “Visitors” tab under the “Transportation” section. Once you click on either of the links attached to the images, there’s another page which includes the images and a small caption.