Mark Twain’s “The Art of Inhumation”
I recently took the opportunity to review an advocacy website pertaining to the infamous Mark Twain and one of his many revered works entitled “The Art of Inhumation”. It was a welcomed opportunity as I have always enjoyed Twain’s writings and, although this particular work was largely unfamiliar to me, I was excited to explore this site to learn more. All of this build up of excitement turned to disappointment early on, however, as I found the site (http://essays.quotidiana.org/twain/art_of_inhumation/ ) less than desirable from a visual and graphical viewpoint.

When I first took a look at this Twain site, I was immediately disturbed by the bad bordering that affected the look of the home page. The photo of Twain in the upper left corner of the page was nice, but it was probably the only feature that came across as acceptable to me during this initial first impression moment. The entire right side of the page shows a complete misuse of white space and leaves the page quite out of balance. The white space that is demonstrated on this site is not quite how one should utilize this element of design within a web page. Many times an experienced professional web designer will skew the balance of a page by placing the heavier weight on one side of a page but counter it by placing two or three smaller scale designs on the opposite side of the same page. This is definitely not one of those occasions as the balance is not even close to being equaled out. The entire page is counterproductive to several very important design elements in web page creation. The consistency of the page is questionable, the sequence is not smoothly conveyed, and the overall proportion of the site is just not there. Because of these design errors the webpage’s entire center of gravity is thrown off, and it leaves the reader with little more than a pronounced leftward lean and a slightly sore neck.

The text on the site is acceptable, but only on the authors much favored left side of the page. The contrasting right side, again, leaves much to be desired. The font on thi...

/twain/art_of_inhumation/ /twain/art_of_inhumation/) abund accept across actual addit address advertis advocaci affect ahead almost also although alway amount anoth anyon appear area art attempt author away awkward background bad balanc bash beat beaten best bit border bore bright build came caus center choic choos chosen classic close color column combin come complet confess confin consist contain contrast contribut convey corner could counter counterproduct coverag creat creation creativ credibl critic currenc current date deal decent definit demonstr design desir detract difficult direct disappoint disturb dizzi document earli earth easili element enjoy entir entitl equal error essay essays.quotidiana.org essays.quotidiana.org/twain/art_of_inhumation/ essays.quotidiana.org/twain/art_of_inhumation/) even exampl excit experienc explor eyesight failur far favor featur feel field first flyer font fordham form found go good graphic graviti gray ground hate heavier histori hold home howev hue illeg immedi import impress inconsist increas infam ingredi inhum initi inject input intent intern issu keep knowledg lack laid larg layout lead lean learn least leav left leftward less level like literari littl liven look main maintain major make mani margin mark materi messi midway misus moment monoton much must neck need neglect new nice note noth occas one opinion opportun opposit overal page particular perfect person pertain photo place plan point poor posit possibl present print probabl problem profession pronounc proport question quit read reader real recent redon refurbish remark repress restless result rever review right ruin rust salvag scale seem sequenc sever show showcas side site situat skew slight small smaller smooth sore space speak style subject substanti symposium tad take text thereof thorough three throughout thrown time tone took total turn twain two typefac unbalanc understand unfamiliar univers up-to-d upon upper util varieti viewer viewpoint visual vivid voic web webpag websit weight welcom well white wide within work would write written wrong