The objective of the White House website is to keep people updated about the activities of the executive branch of the United States government and provide a basic history of former administrations, the White House itself, and the government in general.
There are two main systems of navigation. The first is a drop-down menu system across the top of the website. This interface acts like an awning to the website and remains present no matter what page you navigate to. The site map, the second navigation system listed at the bottom of the page, also stays put. The drop-down menus are more prominent because of their position and flashier graphics. This is a very logical place for navigation and it works well. The menus are titled by category and each drop down menu lists subcategories. Clicking on the category name brings you to a page with the same title, a short descriptive blurb, and a list of the subcategories. This could be called the scenic route. That is, using the list of subcategories in the drop-down menu bypasses the category pages. Similarly, clicking on a subcategory name brings you to the information and a list of the other subcategories within that category. You can always get back the home page by clicking the White House logo at the top of the navigation menu, or by clicking an American flag within the menus, or by clicking the title of the website, “the WHITE HOUSE”, in the top left corner. Breadcrumb menus can be found at the top of each page, identifying where you are in the site’s architecture. There is also a “You are here:” breadcrumb at the bottom of each page. I found the architecture of the navigation system to be very impressive and the most useful part of the website.
One clarifying feature was left out of the site’s design. The links do not change appearance after they’ve been viewed. I’m not sure it’s necessary, given that the subjects are so well divided and confusion about what has already been viewed would not be a problem. I also believe this could be an aesthetic choice. The designer(s) may not have wanted purple (or other colored) “I’ve been clicked” links messing up the look of their site. I suppose they could have had them grey out or something, but I don’t see it as an issue.
The site is fairly large in scope, but not in depth. That is, generally, the site only goes two levels deep, with the exception of the White House 101 page, which has links that display different information within the same page, the blog, which links to individual posts, and some other briefing pages, which contain frequently updated lists of links to proclamations and executive orders. The user is completely removed by the site by clicking the "Pool Report” link in the “the Briefing Room” category. This page is empty and drops the entire navigation system, except for the logo link back to the home page.
However, it is obvious that the designers chose to include a lot of information on the subcategory pages to keep the navigation shallow and easy. The site is generally flat, but as mentioned before, some articles and blog posts are only accessible within the subcategory pages. The site is searchable via a search box but I found the results to be shoddy. You can find the main pages easily but searching for content contained within the pages didn’t seem to work well or clearly.
The structure of the site is very clear and the hierarchy of titling draws the eye in a logical path. The first thing I notice is the title of the page. The imagery is appealing but not overwhelming, and very relevant to the information surrounding it. The presidential color scheme is very fitting, consisting of blues, white, and bronze.
The typography is very readable, consistent, and aesthetically pleasing. It would be hard to improve it. Some of the text that is formatted into blog formats looks a little crowded. Titles are generally bolded and/or all-caps and in a formal serif font, Georgia, while the body text is in Lucida Grande.
I found this site to be very well-design. The layout is crisp, appealing, and functional. The architecture is simple and serves its purpose. It's hard to find much wrong with this site except for the shaky search function.
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