Tim Hortons and Seattle’s Best are two widely known coffee chains. Tim Hortons is spread throughout Canada and the US whereas Seattle’s Best is a company based out of Seattle, WA and sold around the country.
When one visits the Tim Hortons site, the first step is to choose whether or not the user is a French or English speaking Canadian, or an English speaking American. These options are clearly placed a little below the center of the page next to a large coffee cup that is an attention grabbing graphic. After the option is chosen, there is a strange menu page that pops up, with the option of being closed. However, if the pop-up is not closed, the user is subjected to an unorganized and confusing mess that is meant to be scrolled through. After the actual site is found, there is a much more organized and aesthetically appealing website than the previously mentioned pop-up TH’s menu. An advertisement or Tim Horton’s products is placed almost in the center near the top of the page and has the most visual hierarchy. Next to it are buttons that viewers can click on and see what new products TH has to offer. The top of the page has smaller buttons that can help one easily navigate the site to find information on the company and its products. The Tim Hortons main website is balanced with the use of similar square shapes of various sizes, with an emphasis on promoting new products. The process of getting to the actual website took less than three clicks, however when users want to find information on products it may be easy to get lost due to the pop-up menu.
Seattle’s Best has a website built around a very large image placed in the center of the page. The viewer is drawn to the image that showcases an exciting opportunity to win a trip to Hawaii. The layout of the page shows the navigation buttons placed around the image so viewers can easily find them. Each button has a drop down menu of subcategories that are nested within the main categories. Seattle’s Best puts an emphasis mainly on the trip to Hawaii, but also on new products and information about caffeine levels in their coffee. It is easy to see general information about the chain and the products being sold.
Overall, the Seattle’s Best website has a much more user-friendly website than Tim Hortons. This is due to the overall layout that is easy to navigate, and the use of imagery that helps visual hierarchy play a role in grabbing the user’s attention to important information on the website. Also, since Tim Hortons used a confusing pop-up menu after the language selection page, it makes it harder for users to get to the information the site was intended for in the first place.