I think the huge shoulder straps are designed to spread/even out the weight, so that they'll avoid digging in your shoulders. There are a lot of compartments in this, as well as a mini front compartment for miscellaneous things like a stray pencil that you need to grab often. The back compartment, for some reason, has two zips for the same area and both zippers are a little hard to navigate. It is working very well for me so far and looks as it appears here, although I might call it a little darker than in the picture. I'm looking at it right now and I can't tell if it's my lighting or the actual bag.