Website Evaluation and Comparison: Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava

In this post I will be comparing the websites of Zaha Hadid  and Forster Norman. I will be looking at the design, layout, colour palette, typography and also technical aspects such as navigation, ease of use, presentation of galleries and how easy it is to use and understand the artist.

Zaha Hadid

I will begin with Zaha Hadid website.

This is the Home Page of" Zaha Hadid Architects" website. Here, the homepage is consisted of sliding pictures which can scroll up to down and left to right. On the page , the artist name is on the top of the homepage "sans serif" font but the copyright and navigation bar is not visible here.  Moreover, the whole homepage is covered with other pages such as "about us", "contact us" and news". On the homepage , they have used few of their works as sliding background images. Apart from that , there is a search bar to search other categories such as architecture, interior design, design, masterplans, awards, people and videos etc. Moreover, in the right hand of the homepage, there is a page which consists their featured project. Specially, in the middle of the homepage, there is a hide panel which can hide other pages. With the hide panel, there are "Randomize  Panels" and  "Enter button" which took me  to few of their famous works. Here, with the Randomize panel, you can shuffle the order of the pages. This is the view after clicking the "Randomize Panel". However, the organization of the pages and the homepage is clear and easy to access to other pages.

On the homepage, after clicking the name of "Zaha Hadid" who is the founder, it took me to another page which has a detailed paragraph about Zaha Hadid . In the middle of the page, there is a big picture of Zaha Hadid which is clear and visible to the audience. In the left hand of the page , it showcases about her , her history and her work. Apart from that on the right hand side of the page , some of her works are mentioned and showcased here. Not only that but also, on the top , there are "Search Archieve" and " studio" buttons which I can select one from them.

When I click the "About Us" page ,it did not take me to another page which consisted a detailed paragraph. Instead of that, in the bottom of " About Us" page ,there is a text " More" which increases the size of "about us" page and it contained a detailed paragraph about them which is clear and simple. Apart from the detailed paragraph , a simple video which contained their work has uploaded here.  Here, I could increase the sound level, size level when I watch the video. This is the view of About us page.

After that, when I click the "News" page , it took me to another page which contains UpToDate news with clear and simple detailed paragraph. When I click one of the News , it showcases a small page which describes the detailed News. Here, the background is in dark theme while the text are in white colour with clear simple letters. Moreover, with the detailed News, it conveys a visible image according to the news and also there are "Search Archieve" and "Studio" buttons which were visible on the top of the page. This is the view of the "News" page.

Apart from the above mentioned pages, there is a "Contact Us" page and when I click the page, it took me to another page same as "News" page. Here, it showcases a map which shows the locations of the relevant offices. Apart from that, on the right side of the page, it shows their address and  telephone numbers while on the bottom of the right side , it shows a submission form. This is the view of the "Contact Us" page. Here, the page showcases simple yet clear details which the audience can approach them easily.

Moreover, there is another page which is " Zaha Hadid Design ". Here, there is a sliding  image which contained ,"shop", "works" and "studio. When you click them it takes you to another page with detailed pages. Here, the background image is vey simple and calm. At the bottom of the page, the social media icons are visible and the links work too. Moreover, at the bottom policies, contact us and orders and supports tabs are contained. When you click the works tab it takes you to some works and when you click the studio it takes you to further pages such as "Zaha Hadid",  "About Us" and "Maha Kutay" and "Woody Yao" who are current architects in the firm. But specially, the copyright bar is visible here.

However, the Website of "Zaha Hadid" is very clear ,simple with detailed pages which allow us to understand every details. All the audience can easily access and contact them with social media links as they work well. Moreover, it covers all the necessary details with simple and short details.

Santiago Calatrava

My second research is about Santiago Calatrava. Here, the homepage is filled with a background image which is one of his famous work. In the middle of the top of the homepage, the name of the website is mentioned with their logo. In the left side of the top of the website , few tags were visible ,they were home, careers, news and selection which took me to other pages. Apart from that, on the middle of the top , there were other pages which took me to other pages. They were Projects, Art , Biography, Awards, Exhibition and publications. Moreover, on right side the social media icons were put here to contact and also search bar also put here. However, the text was clear , simple and short and they were in "sans serif "font . At the bottom there was the copyright tag which shows that it is up to date. 

Then I clicked on the "project "which took me to another page. In this page all the projects are mentioned according to a order with their years. Here, all projects are mentioned from 1985 to up to date. Moreover, in this page there were few tags which showcases the details and their locations. In spite of that , their works have categorised according to buildings, bridges, masterplans and selected works. Here, all the details are clear with their images. This is the view of project page .

After that, I clicked on "Art "page and it took me to another page which contained all of their art work. Most of them are ceramics, sculptures and drawings and also in the top there were few tags to categories the art work  which were ceramics, sculptures and drawings . 

In the biography section , it was contained with their works and the years. They were clearly , simply and orderly mentioned. 

 Later, I clicked on Awards section , it took me to another page which contained the details of their awards and their relevant work. This was the view of this page.

Later, I again went to the Exhibition section, it was also contained with the relevant details about Exhibitions .

After that, I clicked on the last section which was the Publications. It was also contained the relevant details about the publication and their country.

Then , I clicked on the News page and it took me to another page . It was consisted with all the details about their News up to date. Here, for the topic sentences , the red colour was used while for the description the white colour was used. 

Later, in the selection page , it took me to another page which was filled with a video with their works . Here, the video was clear and the quality was good and also the music was good. And also on the top the same tags that were used in previous pages such as details and locations were placed here.

At the end, I went to the contact page and there were contact details such as address and website address. It was short and simple but there were not many methods to contact them.

The Website of Santiago Calatrava was clear , short and simple. The main theme colours were red for headings white for text.

Comparison

Here, the two websites that I have checked are quiet different from each other. In the Zaha Hadid website , the main colour theme was black and white , and the homepage was a little bit complicated than the Santiago Calatrava's website. Even though Hadid's website is a little bit complicated it has organized all the other pages with clear and detailed facts with relevant images. In this website, they have added  more details in the Zaha Hadid page , About Us and News pages that other pages. But , in Santiago's website , all the details were simple ,clear and short and also the main colour theme red and white. In this website, they have did a good job with organizing with pages . However, it was easy for the audience  to access to both of the websites as they were clear , short and detailed.