This is the website for the '62 Center of Theatre and Dance at Williams College (Williamstown, MA). I went to school and worked at this theatre until May 2007, and this website represents the little experience I have in editing online content.
Audience:
- Potential theatre-goers, either current students or local residents, who want to know the details of a particular performance (cost, stage, time, etc.).
- Local media organizations looking for press releases or event information.
- Prospective students interested in taking dance or theatre classes.
- Students or residents interested in volunteering at the theatre.
- Williams College alumni.
- Parents of students in past and present productions, looking for pictures or mentions of their precious darlings.
Usefulness of Content:
To the aforementioned audience of potential theatre-goers, the content on the '62 Center website is certainly useful. The entries for each event clearly list the event, the author or presenter, the dates, time, stage, and cost (if applicable). The entries also list descriptions of the event, but they are often very short and summary, as though someone just threw in a sentence so the entry wouldn't be blank. I guess a short description is better than a frustrating blank, though.
To prospective students, volunteers, and editors, the site has its hits and misses. To a prospective student, it may be hard to find the list of courses offered (more on this in part 4); once you do find them, you find you've simply been routed to the Registrar's website, information you could have found without going onto the '62 Center page in the first place. However, prospective volunteers get one contact number and email address in a clear, concise place (Staff / Volunteer Opportunities). Likewise, press releases are listed by date posted (though it might be more useful for some audiences to list press releases according to the performance date of the described event) and the article's title. They are also in an easy-to-find link (News / For the Media).
Consistency of Design:
The page is set on a background of a gray, industrial looking design (in fact reminiscent of a large, exterior door to one of the stages). Whenever you navigate to another page, the gray background and the white '62 Center logo in the top left hand corner remain, making at least the '62 Center part of the website consistent in its design. The Williamstheatre and Williams Dance pages do not have either of these images, however. While all three ('62 Center, Theatre, and Dance) share the same basic font and colorful photos of past and present performers, there is not much else that connects the three areas, design-wise.
For me, the standouts in the design are the photographs. Every time you refresh the page, or switch to a different area, the photos change, so you are left with the impression that it's a new site each time. The chosen photos are colorful, intriguing, and offer the right blend of dramatic up-close shots and busy ensemble images.
Another design element I particularly like is the "Explore" tab under the "Venue" menu, which shows six pictures of the physical space itself. Instead of blandly presenting six photos on a single page, each photo title you click on glides off to the left, revealing the selected photo. This movement not only makes the slide show more visually interesting than another format, it also mimics an opening curtain to stay in keeping with the site's content.
Ease of Navigation:
This area represents the bulk of my criticism for the '62 Center website. From the main page, there is a drop down menu bar across the top, two links along the bottom, and another three links on the left that flash the upcoming production when you roll over them. The menu bar across the top is pretty intuitive (although not all of the links drop down to show more choices), with the exception of the first choice, "Current Season." The drop down menu displays choices that break up the season events into separate categories, either Theatre, Dance, CenterSeries (a series of professional performers), and "Additional Happenings." While this would seem to make finding a particular event easier, what if you wanted to browse the entire season, regardless of event type? Alternatively, what if an event could be construed as cross-genre (for instance, a lecture on dance)? Where would you look to easily find information?
The links on the left for each type of event (Theatre, Dance, and CenterSeries) are no help either. While the roll over pop-up of the upcoming event is helpful to some (I find it distracting, myself), when you follow the link that says "See the full schedule," you do not get the '62 Center's full schedule, but rather that particular area's full schedule, as in the drop down menu above.
The only way to see the full slate of events, regardless of genre, is to follow the "Calendar" link. There, events are color-coded according to type on a monthly calendar display. You can filter to sort events by type, or view all events. There are also a couple different ways to jump quickly from month to month. In addition, a helpful pop-up appears when you roll over an event, giving concise details on time, date, price, etc. Despite the clumsiness of searching for a full schedule elsewhere from the main page, the calendar is easily navigated.
Going back to the main page, when you open the links along the bottom to the Theatre and Dance pages, the page will open in a separate window (or tab). While I did not like that at first, I now think it is actually a good idea. It makes cross-referencing events easier and does accurately convey the fact that these are separate programs living under the same umbrella of the '62 Center.
The last thing I'd like to call attention to is the separate Theatre page. Some navigation is redundant; for example, from the "Department of Theatre" page, there is a link to Faculty/Staff both above the main body of information, and in the menu to the left. Navigating to the course offerings is needlessly difficult, taking several steps to get there. In contrast to the Dance page (which, when you link to "Classes" displays a list of course titles, descriptions, and professors right away), here you must go to "Courses," before choosing the semester you'd like to see. Then you'll have to click on "Theatre Courses" (are there any other kind of this page? No.) before you get directed to the Registrar's course listing. From there, you select the course whose description you'd like to see. Once you get to the description, you'll have to take another step to see the hour it meets, which again takes you to the Registrar's entire list of class times. All in all, since the Theatre page throws it all back to the Registrar's site, a current or prospective student would be better off going to the Registrar's site directly, instead of browsing for classes through the Theatre site.
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