Navigation & Architecture
There are three primary navigations on the main page: "ride the lift", "quickstart lift" and "become a member", and a pipeline at the bottom. At first I didn't figure out the meaning of primary navigation. What does "lift" mean? Is Brill Publication a hotel, a factory or something else? When I click the "ride the lift" button, I realize it is a metaphor because the animation changes as I am going to take an elevator. The secondary navigation looks like a list of buttons showing different floors. When I click a button, the "lift" moves and take me to a "floor", which is the third level. Then I need to hover all the images(clothes, magazines or doors etc.) to find whether they can be clicked(the color of image changes when hovering) so that I can go into deeper levels. So the architecture of this site very complicated.
I think I can tell where I am when in the first three level. Although it is a little bit difficult, I can still find a hint -- a guide or a billboard saying "back to lift" -- to return to the secondary level. And when click "foyer" on the secondary navigation, I can go back to the main page. However, because the navigation system is not flat, when I am in the forth level, there is no link that takes me back to the elevator room, which is not convenient.
Content/Typography
In lift room, they use different colors to show the labels on secondary navigation. But I don’t think it is clearly enough. For example, I guess the two “now leasing” may be the most important links because they are red. Then I click one of them but only see a billboard showing some contact information. If I click the capital letter link “CLICK HERE”, I find the link is broken actually, which is frustrated. And I am confused is that the two “now leasing” links are the same. I don’t know why they put two same links there. Maybe one is enough. If I have a chance to improve it, I would like to change all labels to the same color except “coming soon”.
Grid/Structure
I can say that the first three levels are consistent because the environment is a lift with its floors. However, all the pages in forth level(and after) are independent. Some of them have totally different styles and their own navigation systems. They look like ordinary web pages(no elevator appearance) so I always confused whether I am still in Brill Publications' web site. For example, if you go to "ride the lift" --> "gift shoppe" --> click a cloth --> "MyStory.iD.au". You may get lost.
In "the issue" floor, I think the focal point is three blinking magazines in front of the desk. Because the main color of this room is gray but these covers are red and orange so they are easy to recognize. When I put my mouse on it, it gives me a hint that it is a link.
Iconography/Imagery
This site mainly uses flash and images in their first three levels. The icons are used everywhere. Any image can be a link. A dog, a close, a book, and so forth. But there is no hint along it only if you hover it. And some icons hide in secret. For instance, in floor "my story", it seems there is nothing on the table but when you slide your mouse on it, a cell phone appears suddenly and you know oh it is the contact information link. So it requires people carefully enough to find all the clickable icons. It took me some time to get used to them, longer than I spend on other websites.
Another thing is they use animation to do voice introduction but not text. For example, the televition in lift room and gift shoppe page. I like the way they express the idea but the disadvantage is if the computer is in mute mode by default, the user will not hear anything.
Color Palette
Take lift room as an example. They use four colors: brown, black, red and silver to mimic the environment inside a lift. I like the colors they choose because they are smooth and realistic. The navigation system is silver so it can pop out. (But I don't like the music much. Especially, when I writing this evaluation, I hear this music millions of times and I really get bored of it. :S )
Site Focus
I think the purpose of this site is to sell products and do advertisement. The only thing I am confused is that why they create such a complicated scenario which actually doesn't improve the functionality of this site. I need to wait a long time before I get to the core parts, which are usually after the forth levels. I believe some people will give up before they find those pages. Whenever I go back to lift room, it always takes me to the first floor so I need to start over if I want to go to another floor. Also, my way to browse subpages is to click links from top to bottom if the navigation bar is vertical, so when I in lift room, I click "roof garden" first. However, that is the least important part of this site-there is only an image there for decoration, and cost longest time to get there.
I think the most useful part of this site is to bring people fresh air. The designer has a courage to try something different. But since websites are for people all over the world, they need to follow some trends, or most people's habit to make them easier to browse. If I am the designer, I would like to make this site much simpler, maybe delete the scenario part.
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