Having so enjoyed reviewing Genentech’s website, I thought I’d investigate the home page of another major West Coast biotech – Amgen.
In the first few seconds, things looked encouraging. Nice graphic background, some use of Flash overlays, a simple and appealing blue and white theme. But then it started – Linkapalooza.
The navigational elements were suddenly sprinkled all over the page like a virtual snowstorm of links. The multitude of small-font links was overwhelming – links above, links below, links right, left, and middle.
Going into the sub-menus, it was much the same story. The graphics are actually quite pleasant, and the use of white space is reasonable – certainly I have seen poorer graphical designs – but rolling over the middle graphic/menu bar brings up an annoying blue strip with more menu elements.
The site is evidently designed to make sure that you can somehow find anything and everything from just about anywhere, but that means that you end up, to carry on the winter analogy, with almost whiteout conditions in the blizzard of links.
As is typical in these “information overload” designs, there are some nice elements, but the site does not create a flow, does not tell an overarching story, and does not naturally draw the reader in. I will say one thing, however – the pipeline at least appears to be pretty impressive!
Prior website reviews: