Critique of the Week

I think it's only fair to state up front that I'm a big fan of the rock band Counting Crows. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, I can sum them up as follows: a talented group of musicians who play and sing moody and mystical songs of anguish, self-pity, confusion, and honesty led by an actress-dating singer with fake dreadlocks. Hmm.

I'd also like to state up front how refreshing it is to look at sites and point out the positive qualities rather than the negative--my function at WebPagesThatSuck.com.

I rarely resort to superlatives, but the splash page is about as good a representation of the subject matter as you're likely to find on the Web. Using one of MTV's classic cliches of the blurred video, you get two microphones in what's obviously a recording studio. Although the mikes are up front, the piano and lamp in the background have acquired an interesting emphasis. Note the shadows on the floor--moody and mystical, much like the image the band tries to present--and then, of course, I need to mention that the black and white colors used here are the theme colors for the site. No one would confuse the Crows' site with the Beastie Boys or Hanson--both of which also use black as a major motif. All you have to do is look at the front page and you can tell what kind of music you're getting.

In <blatant plug> my book Web Pages That Suck </blatant plug> (co-authored with Michael Willis) one of the most important points I make is "the top has gotta pop or people aren't going to stop." The most important information of your navigational system has to be in the top screen or people will get frustrated and leave your site. The designer of the Crows' home page put both the navigational system and the most important info in the top screen (I'm using 800x600 pixels as my default screen resolution. While there's a case to be made for 640x480, this is a fan site and 800x600 is acceptable.) And what's the most important information? Their latest album ("Across a Wire") and the online store. That's right, the store. One of the most common errors Web designers make is to forget that designing a commercial Web site is about money.

The navigation is straightforward, consistent, and logical. The site looks good on both Windows and Macintosh systems using both the major browsers. I also liked the consistent use of colors and the way the artwork was presented. The way the images are laid out on the page is creative yet simple and elegant. I'm a total sucker for an elegantly designed page, and this one certainly qualifies.

I don't like that the file size of images on the Crows' site tend to be on the high side. Of course, this is a "band site," so they can get away with 80K images since music fans generally don't mind waiting. I also don't like the use of scanned pages from magazines. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm personally a little squeamish about the full-page scans from the October 21, 1996 issue of Time magazine and other publications. I don't see any permission notices, and I'm willing to bet the "Fair Use" clause of the Copyright Act doesn't cover putting up the originals on your site. Maybe it's covered under the "We're Rock Stars, and We Do What We Want" clause <grin>. Since this is an "official" band site, you may not always be able to find out the information you want to know--like why the original drummer really left the group. That's where fan sites come in, but that's another topic for another day.

The Counting Crows site is a good example of how to design a band site. The designers understand the band's music and mythos and have captured it in Web format. I don't get to say this very often--"this site doesn't suck."

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