Hard Working Devils

             

       Websites provide a wide variety of functions and services to its users and visitors. The Sun Devil Fitness Website is no different. This website includes information for the fitness centers located on all four of ASU’s campus, the largest of which is located on the Tempe campus. This centralized website for all of ASU’s fitness needs provides answers for many questions users may have about the facilities. The website provides information about hours of operation as well as descriptions for the available programs and memberships that are offered. The descriptions do a great job providing overviews of the variety of different features that are offered at the facilities but fall short when it comes to interactive options.  The Sun Devil Fitness website is well organized both structurally and aesthetically in a way that is inviting to users, although it lacks interactive options to sign up for the majority of programs and memberships.

          A website’s organization is essential to easy user interaction.  The Sun Devil Fitness website is structured in a way that is easy to use and provides the viewer with a well-organized layout. The website is broken down categorically by main subjects. A few of these subjects are “Programs”, “Facilities”, and “Memberships.”  The subjects are all relatively self –explanatory and have drop-down menus for items that fit into these categories. The website continues to break down into more specific areas using this type of category and sub category system. These drop-down menus are especially helpful. They show you all the sub categories, which users can then choose to click on a subcategory straight from the home page. Alternatively the user can end up in the same spot by clicking the category first and then the subcategory. By providing multiple options for its navigation the user can choose what is easiest for them. The website is very large to accommodate all the necessary functions and information. If the viewers ever become lost there is always a top bar with all the main categories and a home button. The home button always being present prevents frustration by users who might click the wrong button or get lost. The importance of keeping the user happy and calm will result in people returning to the website later on. The Sun Devil Fitness Website provides a large amount of information to a large audience so structural organization is essential to keep all the information easy to access.

          The visual appeal and aesthetic aspects of the Sun Devil Fitness Website are well laid out and provide flavor to the website that does not take away from the website’s informational purpose to a certain extent.  The color choice for the titles and subtitles is appropriate and aids in bringing out the headlines. The maroon and gold colors used are the colors of ASU and thus fit well with the website. The font is simple and not distracting in any way, making reading and perusing the site not a strain on the eyes. The title of the pages is larger than the rest of the font and colored gold, while the subtitles are slightly smaller than the titles and colored maroon. The size and color distinction of the two add to the organization and fluency of the individual pages. Aside from the large photos flashing by at the top of the page on a constant slide show, the website is kept relatively simple and to the point. Depending on what section of the website you are in the picture on the slide show change. I find the pictures allow viewers to physically see what they are reading bout without cluttering the page with disruptive breaks in the texts. This of course all depends on personal preference; some might prefer not to have a large picture at the top of all the pages, which is understandable. The gray borders on both sides of the website stick with the simple purposeful aesthetics which I find make reading easier. The thick plain borders allow the reader to stay focused on the center of the page where the text is located and do not offered any bright or distracting colors or graphics. All in all, the entire website has a clean cut appearance which provides the site with character without making the graphics and embellishments the center piece.

          I found the website suffers in the areas of both content and interactive features. That is not to say it lacks them completely there are a few programs that you can sign up for online and there plenty of directions for signing up in person at the different facilities. With so much of people live revolving around the internet online sign up s make it that much easier for a one stop shop. Utilizing online signups to the full extent can have such a positive impact form a business perspective as well as keeping satisfied users. It is much easier to click a few buttons to sign up for a membership or class than actually taking time to show up in person. ASU is fully capable of making they site interactive they have done it on other sites they run and operate.  I think one of the reasons ASU has not moved to make its fitness website more interactive is lack of incentive.  The majority of people who utilize their facilities are student who have free access from paying tuition. What ASU has not realized are the members who are not student or who are looking for extra class aside from basic membership. These are the people who will be looking to sign up for classes and programs and ASU is not making it easy. I am unclear as to the full intended purpose of the website. For the most part I come across excellent as an information source but falls grossly short when it comes to actually interacting with the website. This might not have been the web designers intent but they have included a few online sign ups so it confuse there true intentions.

          The actual content of the website is very helpful, up to date, and reliable. From what I can tell this is the main purpose of the website and the Sun Devil Fitness website does a great job of this. As a frequent user of the Tempe facility I can say from first-hand experience this is by far the best thing they do with their website. The majority of the time spent on this website I am checking the days and hours they are open. Not once have I found this to be unreliable. They update the site for all the holidays and vacation days, which have special hours. Not only do they keep the specials hours updated, they post the semester’s regular hours of operation which are in an easy to find location. The right side of the home page is dedication to hours of operations for all four facilities and is one of the first things you see when you enter the site. Regardless of how well the site is structure it can be frustrating looking for the hour of operation under different tabs and ASU has done a good job of avoiding this. I think ASU was able to hit the nail spot on by providing  his feature. For me this is what makes the site, they saw what was important and got it right.  

The Sun Devil Fitness website is a great informational tool for finding out about different class and programs that can be taken. The sight lack many of the interactive options and does not quite fully utilize its potential, however it is able to make up for it with its other well thought out layout, simple yet appealing graphic design, and content rich pages. Depending on what the viewer is looking for they can be extremely satisfied or sorely disappointed it all depends. The information provided by the site and the format in which it is provided is extremely user friendly and straight to the point. If the user came looking to save some time through an online sign up for classes or programs they will most likely leave frustrated and dismayed. To make up for this the site does provide easy access to information regarding in person sign ups. I found that currently the lack of online sign-up and interactive options does not hinder the site too much. This may become a larger problem down the road as more a more things move online sites are relied more on for these types of things. To keep up with the modern age the ASU will eventually have to update and provide users these options to stay relevant. As far as how long down the road this will be it is hard to say. What is surprising is ASU usually prides itself in being leaders of innovation and yet these features are something that is relatively common on websites. In the meantime the site has done a fine job of providing useful information to visitors.