For this monthly review, I chose the website for the Pushpa Project to analyze. This website caught my eye with its complex yet pleasing layering of textures and images. From the very first panel, a strong sense of design is evident. This design also enables the site to convey a lot with a relatively small amount of text. The first panel conveys the title, slogan, location of focus, and that the organization has something to do with little girls with only a couple images and lines of text. As you scroll down the page, a good mix of small and large images, textures, and solid color backgrounds keeps the overall design from seeming too busy. Color-wise, the design stays pretty muted without being boring. I theme of soft reddish pinks and yellows carries through the whole page with grey and white being used for body text to ensure readability. Any background images that appear directly below text are edited to be easy to read on top of. The series of headings and subheadings makes it easy to get a good idea of the problem simply from scanning.

In order to handle navigating a one page site, this example accommodates users who scroll through the content as well as those who want navigation to click on. There is a nav on the left that is anchored to the window so that is stays in place despite scrolling. This nav can be clicked on to move through the site but the section appearing on the screen is always represented by having its corresponding button highlighted. This keeps those scrolling freely through the site from loosing track of which section they’re on.

I think the site does an excellent job of accomplishing its goals. It strikes a good balance between emotionally striking images, attractive textures and color schemes, and informative text. It walks the user through the content in a logical manner while being very easy to navigate. Furthermore, the site makes use of several media to convey its message. From the very top of the site, striking images are used to convey the sadness of the subject matter. Next there is a media player sampling the music offered as a reward for donating, and finally a collection of videos that can be displayed in a lightbox are offered to further explain the issue. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a strong call to action is present in the piece. The donation price is displayed in a visible yet not distracting box anchored to the lower left of the screen that is supplemented by a large button on the site itself that is placed midway through the page, only seen once the user has been informed of the cause. Beyond this monetary call to action, there are also calls to action to simply spread the word. This is evidenced by the social media icons that are also anchored to the window so they are always visible without being distracting.