We at OFB take the
State Fair very very seriously. We went this past week as a group to enjoy the sun and fun.
Ann Bui, our Brand Strategist, is a regular visitor of the State Fair’s website. She even used it to print off the list of fried heart attacks, I mean fried foods we're going to all try. She even highlighted them.
(Shhhhh. Act like I didn’t tell you.) So, I decided to check out the website for myself.
The site has been well planned out to consider its broad audience. The site is bright, but the colors blend together so well that it doesn’t distract. The colors don’t really target a specific audience either. They are playful while staying professional and informative. The vignettes to the right have been created in this softer web 2.0 feeling to keep the site modern for the more web savvy crowd, while sticking out enough for anyone to find the most common areas of the site easier.
The homepage has a green carousel that slides through pictures. This is a quick interactive piece that shows the user that the Fair DOES have something for everyone. Plus the movement is a great way to communicate with a user.
Even though the site is easy to use and super clean, there are areas that naturally I will pick at. Since the site is very informative and has a lot of information, the Calendar of Events feels like an afterthought. There is SO much going on at the Fair, which I feel that they could have made it more visual. They do have a good sorting function where you can find certain events by categories. Also they have a function where you can make your own schedule. I just wish they would have made the calendar more interactive. For example; they could have made the calendar full sized. When you rolled over that day, they events all popped up. Or maybe they had a full sized calendar with that same sorting function. So if you wanted to see all the shows, you could see them actually on the calendar rather than a list. It is just easier, in my opinion to see were the actual day falls in a week than seeing it in a list.
Another annoyance, the site has a few places that when you click on a link, it opens in a new tab. However, when you click on Livestock’s Competition, it goes to a different site on that same page rather than opening up a link. I know that the average user really doesn’t like to have a tab or a new window open, but if a site is going to do it one way, it should be consistent and do it the same way throughout the site.
Ok, I really could go all day nitpicking this site to pieces, but I am not. But I will leave you with this. If you do visit the site, there is one thing any user should not miss. You can’t visit the site without hearing Big Tex Speak.