Evaluation of the Constellation Seven spiritual website's design

¶ … Poor Website -- Informal Memo

Purpose / Opening Statement

It is difficult to know how many new websites are being put up every day but clearly the numbers are enormous. Meanwhile, the purpose of this paper is to locate a spiritually-related website that needs changes; also, the purpose is to evaluate it. Hence, in advance it should be clear that when looking for a spiritually-related website on the Internet, a user wants a site that clearly spells out what it offers, is user-friendly as far as links and has an obvious informative purpose with credibility. In that regard, the website called "Constellation Seven" is among the most cluttered, confusing, prosaic and artistically disastrous to be found on the Web. This paper discusses this terrible website and suggests how it could be made better and more usable.

Research Method

By going into Google and typing in "the worst websites" or "websites that suck" lists comes up with several categories of bad websites in need of serious review and reorganization.

Current Problems with the "Constellation Seven" Website

This site is located on the World Wide Web at www.constellation7.org. The home page is crammed with information that the user doesn't need to know and the wallpaper is absolutely hideous, with strange little globules everywhere. "To view this sight as intended allow plugins & Java applets to run," the user is told. The sight "uses frames install Firefox to scroll Samsung webframes" is written in one line with no breaks. Clearly this is an amateurish, hackneyed, pathetic example of a website. And although the home page is ugly, cluttered, hard to use and a very annoying sound comes on when a person launches the site (which sounds like a commercial jetliner taking off in one's living room) the home page does offer a list of religious links on the left side ("Salvation," "Creation," "Prophecy" and several other topics).

A person can very quickly learn the theological perspective of the organization (or persons: They are antagonistic towards science. It is legal and ethical to take a position that is essentially based on religious dogma, but a certain degree of credibility is necessary. According to this site, evolution is "…a ridiculous notion"; and if a user takes the time to watch the videos "…you will see that the site decimates evolution theory." If "…you think the earth is millions of years old and mankind evolved from monkeys…YOU ARE UTTERLY WRONG!" It screams. If those that put this website up had a bit more class and grace, they would have avoided making their presentation sound like that of a crackpot that has gone off the deep end of reality. The site is angry, disorganized and frankly offensive to anyone other than those that believe in the narrow, adolescent ideas put forward.

Scrolling down further the user comes to a page called "Constellation Seven Revelation Ministries For Christ," but on the same page in an awkward box the message is: "Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java." A couple pages below that page is a very confusing box that apparently is an advertisement. "Zebra Industries (Orogenesis Nova) LTD." The visitor who is curious about what this box represents might guess that it is just another religious message, but there are two phone numbers and an address in Hong Kong. The image of a zebra is presented with a Christian cross overlaid; below is a passage from 1 Peter 2:24: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (Constellation, p. 10).

It is doubtful that Peter actually was referring to zebras in that passage, and this contributes to the sense that this site is based on a twisted theology that only a small percent of Christians would truly relate to.

Recommendations - Conclusion

The first thing the webmaster needs to do is start over fresh. The homepage should have links to important other pages, not an endless stream of cartoon images, and not music playing that is frankly weird and inappropriate, and ads jammed into boxes that also have Biblical quotes. If the point of the site is to convince visitors that the religious views and values presented are to be taken seriously, then the silly animations, the bizarre music and booming voices that blare out nonsensical messages have to be removed and be replaced by functional, well-displayed pages with believable narrative. There is no harm in expressing a view that is out of the mainstream of science and religion, but when opinions are pedestrian and even silly, no one is going to take the narrative seriously -- especially when the site is basically ugly. When building a believable, user-friendly site, one must avoid including annoying flashing lights, spinning images, and macabre, scary music.