1) The business objective is pretty clear and very succinct: "Thoughts on how to resolve disputes and get your deal done". It's clearly visible on the top of the homepage and the text color is contrasted well against the black so your eye is immediately pulled towards it.
2) This website is similar to the CNN site we looked at in that it uses a quite structure. There are no solid borders and no text is enclosed. Different shades of color are used to highlight columns, but all the links are free standing without borders of any kind. It's neat and orderly and makes it easy to navigate the webpage without confusion.
3) The large image is not found in the lower right, rather it is centered on the webpage. I think this is effective, however, because it makes the center column the theme of the site, and indeed this is where most of the pertinent information is found.
4) The layout of the webpage is in a three column format, much like a newspaper. However, the text is in different sizes and colors so your eye jumps to different parts of the home page and I kind of noticed things in a criss-cross pattern, as opposed to a direct angle.
5) I think this site fails here, at least it did for me. I'm not sure how the designers could have changed things to provide a higher level of affordance, but I had a hard time figuring out what the page was all about upon first glance. I had to read the quotes, text in the upper left, and browse the central article before I fully understood the purpose of this website.
6) They do well with this one. The majority of the home page's background is white. The upper background is black with a bottom blue border. When you load the webpage two thirds of the background is white with the upper one third being black with that blue border. Then there are different shades of black for the links in the top right, and different shades of blue being used to emphasize text boxes and blog titles. I think there is a lot of contrast at their main point of interest.
7) This is a good looking site, and very simple and easy to navigate. I like the color choice, including the different hues, the text, and the layout.
