Banner Rant

Have you ever encountered a design that makes you completely rethink the way we interact with our information? Well, this banner was that design for me. I had quickly skimmed the highlighted words, but didn’t think it was important enough to prevent me from using the navigation bar, which is covered up, so closed the banner almost immediately. Why? Why would I do this? Our primary goal was to find how the organization was supporting their mentorships during COVID-19, so why did I close the only mention of that support without reading it?  Well, here is why:

• Color: the color of the banner follows the style guide, making it blend in with the rest of the site.  
  - The banner does not stand out from other calls to donate across the site.
  - The highlighted green words do not look like links, so nobody clicked them.
• Text:
  - The message is too long and is not easily skimmed. Users will only read the highlighted green text to get a feel for what the message says.
  - None of the text or highlighted words relate to anything regarding shelter-in-place, quarantine, or COVID-19. The only reason we know this is related is because of “connecting Bigs and Littles virtually.”
  - The highlighted words make users think it’s another ad to donate.
• Inconvenient location: It covers up the main navigation when open, preventing users from seeing their menu options.
• Once you hit X, it’s gone: there is no way to get the banner to reappear on the page once you exit. You must either refresh the page or go to another to see it again.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk