http://www.ccps.k12.fl.us/schools/LBHS/
Navigation
The entire page is made by Flash. There is an intro page, after click it, the primary navigation appears on the left side, including "activities", "our staff", "guidance", "library" and "community". "activities" includes news and events. "our stuff" includes the introduction of teachers. "guidance" refers to programs and academic information. "library" shows schedule and events about library media center. "community" links to alumni website, school advisory council, parent association and so on. I like the scientific looking design of this Flash page. The primary navigation and its content are connected by a metal stick. When I roll over a link, its color turns from blue to orange. After I click it, its content is refreshed on the billboard. But after I go into this page, its link changes to blue again, so it is a little difficult for me to find where I am. So I would like to keep the link orange when I am in this page to make the architecture more clear.
When browsing the primary navigation I am always in the same page (home page). But when I click a link in the content one the right side, for example, "Charlotte Country Public School Official Calendar" in "activities" page, it opens a new window, I need to close it to come back to home page. I would like it opens in the homepage itself, just replace content area and has an arrow pointing back to the previous page. But I think since the home page it made by Flash, it might be difficult to implement this function.
Architecture/Grid/Structure
The architecture of this site is somewhat deep. Even if the home page only has a primary navigation, the content of every link has many sub-links to non-flash page. I think if the site has a simple structure, it is better to use Flash but if it does not, such like a school, shopping site etc, it would be better to build an ordinary html site. Although a Flash site can generate some creative appearance, it is hard to keep it consistency on every page if this site has deep structure.
Take "activates" page as an example, the first thing I notice is the picture of student sport team. Because it is in the center and it is the only picture in the content area. Also, it contains many bright colors and represents "activities" pretty well.
Content/Typography
I think the hierarchy of the typography is apparent. They use strong weight to highlight headlines. And the labels of navigations are also clear. I can find the information I want by looking up the labels.
Iconography/Imagery
There are photos on every page. For example, when looking at teachers' photos on "our staff". I think the number of pictures is okay but I would like them to be smaller because they take lots of spaces, which make the font size small and a little hard to read. I think there are also several other ways to solve this problem, such as make the words less and make the billboard bigger.
Color Palette
On "guidance" page, there are five colors: blue for entire background and headlines, white for text background, black for text color, yellow for primary navigation and green for highlighting important information. I think these colors are quite different from each other, which can tell different kinds of information easily.
Site Focus
The objective of this site is to do advertisement of Lemon Bay high school. The most useful feature I think is "community" part. It provides a platform of communication to bring alumni, parents and other people related to this school together. Generally speaking I like this website, although the flash technology causes some confusion when switch among different pages, the overall style is creative and fantastic.
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