Grassroots Website: Save the Plastic Bag

http://savetheplasticbag.com/ReadContent461.aspx

An example of a Grassroots website is Save The Plastic Bag.com. A Grassroots website is a site that provides links and information on a certain topic. It would most closely resemble a blog. This website compares paper, plastic, and reusable bags. There are many stories and articles about different subtopics relating to different bagging materials and issues. Along the side are many links to articles about the different types of bags and issues associated with them.

The logo for the Save The Plastic Bag.com is interesting and understandable. However, the type is rather generic and the spaces between the words may make it difficult for some people to find the site because they may want to add the spaces into the address when they type it in if they are not familiar with internet protocol. The page is centered in the browser window, which is nice because then it doesn't matter what size your browser window comes up, the page won't look awkward. The banner picture reinforces w

hat the site is about. The first article that you see is "The People Have Spoken! 53% Say No to Bag Tax." This gets the viewers attention very quickly and intrigues them to see what other kind of support and facts are on this site. Throughout the site there are links to news articles and information graphics like polls, which help reinforce the website's position. Pictures and comics are featured on the main page: graphics that will help reinforce the points being made.

Each article on the main page has a thick black box around it. This helps separate the posts, but it also overwhelms the page. The large list of links on the left is also likely to overwhelm the viewer because it looks as if it should be a sort of main navigation bar, but few of the article titles are indicative or explanative of what the article is actually about. If you look closely, you will notice that the list of links box does not match up with the search box on the left side. If you look at the bottom, there i

s a small blue box to "finish" the link box. However, this blue box is moved in from the left side of the page a bit to match up with the links box and there is a bit of space between the links box and the blue box at the bottom. This same thing needs to then happen with the top blue box. There is also a massive section for a search bar above the links under the logo on the left side. The search bar itself is not a monstrosity, but the huge blue box around it makes it look like it is. Additionally, there is a "Home" link at the top of that

blue box and there is also a "Home" link right below the blue box. Either one of these is needed, but not both within such a small area. Upon further exploration, the text at the top of the blue box (that contains the search feature) shows the viewer where he is within the site. However, it is repetitive a large majority of the time, and is thus not needed. The list of links do have rollover colors, which is nice, and it is the dark blue-gray that the site uses. Though, as I analyzed this, I realized that the blue-grays are not all the same. For example, the logo is much more blue than the search box.

If you click on an article, let's say "Litigation," you see a picture and an article. Some text is highlighted in red, which makes it almost painful to read because the text is bold already. There are many links within this article. Each links to an online PDF. After scrolling to the bottom of the page, there is a helpful "Back to top" link. However, this "Back to top" link is only featured on some of the article pages, which makes it lack consistency.

Overall, Save The Plastic Bag.com has a blog-like feel to it with much more useful information than your typical blog. There are lots of articles with insightful information and many useful links as well. While the site is in need of some helpful redesign, it is very informative.