The following peer review is for Ricardo’s website Form the Pit Wall. I’ll be using concepts and terms in web design that I’m already familiar with and the ones that we have discussed in class during our design week.
From the Pit Wall is a website which introduces us to the recent news in Formula 1, race results, and racers’ standings.
Before getting deeper into the design I would first love to say that the images were well chosen by the author, from the opening page you can tell what the website will be about, and predict the colour scheme that he has chosen. However, from here I would suggest changing the logo of the website, as it is one of the first things your eye catches when you tap on the link. If instead of the ‘WordPress’ icon you will have something like a steering wheel or a car wheel it’ll look more convenient on the tabs and reflect on the idea of the website.
In terms of design techniques lets first look at the balance. I love the placement of the elements on the scrolling home page. There is almost no awkward white space and you can feel the easy flow between the elements, the combination of the text and images is not overly heavy. However, the place right above the footer, with the link to the ‘About me’ page seems very empty, and it’s also more centred than the ‘Standings’ page right above it. They don’t go hand in hand regarding grid structures, and there’s too much white space there. I would suggest moving the ‘About me’ part slightly to the right and maybe adding photos (or a photo) on its left side, kind of like mirroring the ‘Standings’ part and it’ll also look more symmetrical. In addition to that when I opened the “Results’ page I noticed that the body paragraphs there are centred while the headings are placed more to the left. I believe it was done in the way that the second column of the body paragraphs will start with the word “…Prix 2023” (from the headings), which is not a bad idea but when you take a step back and look at the page overall the asymmetrical use of white space on the sides of the text looks unsuitable. So maybe the alignment of the Heading could be changed and made more centred. Other than that the elements on the website are very well balanced in terms of both movement through the space and proportion.
If we take a look at the contrast, Ricardo has chosen a suitable website colour scheme, as I have mentioned above. It goes well with the images chosen and the concept of the platform. The colours are not too bright, also not dark a good combination. It may also be a fact that the website’s imagery is a huge design element here and all the photos are made in the same style with the same editing. The typeface is also a great choice, sans serif font is the one that goes perfectly here, as most of the images have a lot going on them, a simple typeface is a good option to combine it with the photos. However, the text is seeable only if it’s bold, if it’s thin like the “Stay up to date…” sentence on the ‘Race results’ on the home page then blurring the photo a little bit or maybe reducing the brightness could be an option.
In conclusion, the website’s overall design is great and goes well with the supposed theme. A few small changes that I had suggested here are white space (not everywhere, there were just a few places where it would preferably be changed), then the alignment, and relationships of all elements in the page should be more symmetrical, for the viewers to follow the ‘directions’ easily, and the text on the images. You can see them clearly only if the text is bold, as the pictures chosen are heavy on details, so maybe thickening the text or editing the background photo could be an option. Overall, the website’s use of design elements like grid structure, colour scheme and balance is great and they complement the platform’s theme. Make sure to check out the From the Pit Wall!