Website Smackdown

 

The Good: The New Jersey Legislature

    I am a huge fan of the NJ State Legislature webpage. To be fair, I am biased as I saw the once stuck-in-the-90s design turned beautifully up-to-date around the COVID pandemic. I used the criteria from Formilla's article What Makes a Good Website? The criteria are as follows: purpose, aesthetically pleasing, relevant and original content, clear site navigation, and mobile friendliness. The purpose, relevancy, and content are all in a similar alignment. The purpose of this website is for individuals to be informed and become informed on the NJ legislature's processes. This site is packed with information from finding your local legislator to a calendar of events and itinerary. There are also publications, news, and helpful how-tos on the site for those new to civic engagement. I really enjoy the aesthetic of the website as it sticks to neutral tones and has an overall consistent pallet. It is very easy to navigate from the top navbar dropdowns to the icons, and the buttons located on the page. The mobile version of the site was equally clean and well-put together. The mobile-friendly version had a similar feel and flow to the browser website without making many concessions. Overall, this site is easy to use, informative, relevant, pleasing to the eye, and has clear site navigation. I have no complaints!

           

 

 

The Bad: Ozempic Patient Website

            I used the same criteria to base my judgment on the Ozempic patient website as the NJ legislature website. To repeat the criteria are purpose, aesthetically pleasing, relevant and original content, clear site navigation, and mobile friendliness. The purpose is very straightforward, the site is built for healthcare professionals, or marketing such as commercials, to direct patients to a website with information about Ozempic. The purpose is met as the website details how to talk to your doctor about Ozempic, what Ozempic is for and what it is, its potential side effects, ways to receive approval, and how to receive financial support. Unfortunately, the site is not aesthetically pleasing to me as the main banner of the page and many of the graphics included on the site have a burning red color that causes my vision to almost vibrate as if a powerful flashlight was directed into my eyes. In addition, the webpage is fairly clunky with the sectioned-off portions difficult for my eyes to follow. The website is, generally, original and relevant. Original as the website uses trademarked and copyrighted images and colors specific to the Ozempic brand. However, many other prescription medication websites follow the same general structure, which isn’t bad but it’s not very original. The site navigation was also relatively difficult. Between the legally required pop-ups distracting the viewer, the harsh banner color, and the small text in the dropdowns, it took me a few minutes to navigate the site. In addition, buttons are scattered through the webpage, some with “jump” functions that jump the viewer to a specific part of the page. This is rather jarring at first and takes some time to adjust to. Last, the website is surprisingly mobile-friendly and responsive. The design that didn’t work on my PC browser was more effective than a phone browser. However, both on the phone and PC there is an extensive amount of information to scroll through. On the phone, it takes more than a few seconds to scroll to the bottom of the page. Overall, the clunkiness of the site, the lack of “leading the viewer” through intuitive design, and the glaring red lead me to judge this as a bad, if not poorly designed, website.

 

Why compare a legislative site to a medication site?

            I wanted to explore both sites as they are a part of my day-to-day but in different ways. As I considered the requirements for the assignment, I began to see similarities between the websites that are not immediately obvious. As far as content goes, both a legislative website and a website created for medication are informational websites governed by style guides. Both websites’ style guides include legal requirements, such as what type and how much information needs to be provided to the public. Legislative websites are governed by state statutes while prescription websites are governed by internal legal guidelines and federal law. The state legislature website provides information on the legislative process, bills and bill texts, session dates, and legislative itineraries. Prescription websites inform the patient about a prescription medication including ways to talk to your doctor, how to obtain the medication, and other forms of support. Last, while merely a personal observation, is the number of people unaware these websites exist. Every state legislature has its own website, but not many people look up bills in session or discuss the state’s legislative process until an unfavorable law is passed and put in the spotlight by the media. Prescription websites are used by doctors and healthcare professionals to direct patients to learn about a new medication and are specific to therapeutic areas or areas of treatment. Both websites inform the public through different audiences. A legislative website is important for civic engagement. A medication website is important for patients to have information about a specific medication on hand at any given time.