ARTM2210 Intro to Web Design
Just another Intro to… siteArchive for Monthly Review: Fall 2013
Rip Curl- Surfing is Everything
Amy Shubilla
I am reviewing the site Rip Curl- Surfing is Everything. It is a surfing site that introduces the viewer to the five surfers on this surfing team. The site is different when scrolling, but it fits in with the cool surfer feel and also helps to showcase each of the surfers. The page scrolls down, but not in a smooth straight down way, the page seems to scroll its self-up for each team member. By scrolling this way the page is separated by the intro video, pictures, and photos of the surfer’s board shorts. The photo of each member’s board shorts also has a link you can click on to go and buy a pair if you want.
The background varies between different surfing pictures, a plain white for the photo pages, and a fun paint splatter background for the board short pages. Most of the site is easy to scroll through except for when a surfer has three rows of photos. When they have three rows of photos the third row get cuts off making it hard to get the page to focus on that third row, when all the page wants to do is shift to the next surfer. This could be a problem with just smaller screens and maybe a bigger computer screen wouldn’t have this problem.
The design for this page does work for the content it contains. The page gives off a laid back surfer vibe, exactly what it is supposed to do. I am drawn in by each surfer’s main photo, then captivated by viewing their other photos in each individual gallery. I stayed on this page a long time just viewing photos, watching videos, and clicking on their links. The page put me into a calm state of mind and just relaxed me. To check out the page yourself go to: http://www.ripcurl.com.au/content/microsites/surfingiseverything/#Home.
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Landiin by Jonathan Zelechowski
I am doing my mouthy review topic on the single page website Landiin. visually the sites use of color and texture is not very pleasing, i feel like it uses the same colors such as brown and black and grey through every different option you click on and i feel it doesn’t have anything that stands out.
the texture of the page is very good the way the options are placed and the design on them is very good as well, so in a way it takes away from the boring color choices of the page. I also thought that that they were placed in very easy positions for the person to get to very easy.
The page scrolls up and down so the user can see all of the content and what options are available to get to. The design elements that make it easy to scan the pictures of the products it shows at the top and the features of the website that it list’s.
I feel that the site is well but they could improve on the color and the design of were things are placed but overall it is not bad.
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Monthly Review 2: Analysis of freuds.com
I do not know what drew me to freuds.com, the site for a British video company that apparently makes TV commercials. I am glad I found it, though, as it gave me an opportunity to think about what I have learned so far about web design.
In terms of color and texture, the site is very basic. Its color scheme is greyscale, especially on its close-up sections. There is some color on the main page; when I rolled over the different sections, a colored title and icon popped up for each one. However, the lack of color made the site a little bland for my tastes. As for texture, I saw little else than squares and rectangles. The background has no pattern, and the most texture I saw was within logos.
It was simple to navigate site. On the main page, I saw that I needed to click on the sections to zoom in to them. It was also clear that I could use the arrow keys to move around the site and the Escape key to return to the main page. However, two sections baffled me as to what was clickable and what was not. I did not realize that the pictures on the Our Directors section were clickable when I first encountered the site. I was left guessing what the pictures were and who the people were; none of them were even labeled with names. In addition, I thought the logos in Our Clients looked more like buttons than the pictures did! Even after I got used to it, I still felt confused by these two sections.
Overall, I think this site is adequately designed, albeit not spectacular. As stated above, the site is very simple and easy to navigate. In the sections with text, the title is easily distinguishable from the main text. The pictures also complement the text in their respective sections, giving the site a more complete feel. However, there are several things that could use improvement. First, the greyscale color scheme and lack of texture make the site visually boring. Also, the designers need to make it clear that the profile pictures lead to profiles. It is a problem when clickable objects look unclickable and vice versa. freuds.com is a good enough site to be usable, but there are several aspects that need improvement.
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Hot Topic: Monthly Review Fall 2013
Using one of my favorite stores, I went to Hot Topic’s website (www.hottopic.com). The site has been reinvented and changes around on almost a monthly basis. For someone not used to the changing formats, this can get confusing or even frustrating. However, the site changes are generally simple, such as new bands being added, different sales being advertised, new products available to purchase, etc. The site keeps its same basic format of links at the top of the page (‘Sign In’, ‘HT+1’, ‘Email’, ‘Social’, ‘Stores’, and of course ‘My Bag’). Below that is the criteria for searching. You can search by girls or guys and by new items, tees, jeans, shoes, accessories, band tees, pop culture, sales, and Blackheart products. Also about half-way down the page is another set of links, although smaller, displaying popular brands at the current time, whether they be bands, TV shows, movies, or games. The homepage has different sales (in-store and online) split up on the page which I think helps keep them separate so customers don’t get them confused with one another. Also on the homepage is a ‘Girls Most Wanted’ and ‘Guys Most Wanted’ section which shows the most wanted items for each gender based on what has already been purchased by others recently.
In the smaller list of popular brands, I clicked on the ‘Tripp’ link, which took me to a page only showcasing Tripp items, such as pants and vests. There are only 11 items on the page, but when you get more items, you have the option to sort them different ways and refine the search by price or size. Any sales for the items are listed in red under the item. One of the items that catches my eye is The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Tripp Jace Vest. Clicking on the image brings you to another page that gives you different images of the vest to look at, as well as gives you a little information about the item, its availability, size option, and the ‘Add to Bag’ button as well as other options such as adding it to a wishlist. Below that is a few items that you may also want to look at and buy. After picking a size you can add it to your cart where you’re given the option to continue shopping or checkout. On the checkout page you have the item(s) you added to your cart and a box to enter a promo code. It gives you the total for your order and asks you to sign in if you’re already a member or gives you the option to checkout as a guest if you don’t have one.
The color scheme of the website works. Most of the text is white on a black background, while sales information or other important info is red. The site is pretty straight forward with the way it has items listed and pictured on the pages. It has a very grid-like feel to it, which I believe would definitely help the users. Most of the text and images are big enough to read or see, but not all. For example, the line of popular brands where I found ‘Tripp’ located are all rather small. Mousing over the images tells you what they are if you can’t quite tell just by looking at them, which makes up for them being small. However, it does make the users think a little. The use of color isn’t overpowering, seeing as only three colors are used (excluding colors for the merchandise), and that keeps everything consistent and not confusing. Overall, I think it’s a pretty easy and self-explanatory shopping experience and seems to be easy enough for most users to use it and figure out where they need to go.
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Monthly Review
Reading the first chapter of “Don’t Make Me Think” addressed many of my own concerns about web
design. Doing some shopping on my favorite writing utensil/stationary site Jetpens made me appreciate
the things they did right as well as wrong, which will hopefully reflect on my own projects.
Loading the site to browse the fountain pens revealed it had recently undergone a redesign, as it was
much less cluttered and opened. The very top of the page contains links for logging in and accessing
your account, and your wish lists. Below that, the site’s logo in on the top left for easy navigation back
to the homepage, followed by a large search bar. A new feature to the right of that is the cart button. It
shows how many items are in your cart, as well as how much they are worth. Directly below this are
the broadest categories for those looking to browse. They include “Pens”, “Pencils”, “Cases and Bags”.
Below that lay a grid of icons leading to more specific product lines, like fountain pens or drafting
pencils. Clicking on “Fountain Pens”, I am taken to the product results page. The first thing that comes
up are the most popular fountain pens on the whole site. The column to the left of the results contains
different ways to refine your search by nearly any variable you can think of, such as pen type, ink type,
nib type, costs, grip materials, and so on. Wanting to go with a classic look, I click on the “Black” color
for pens and am returned with their most popular black pens. I should also note that search results can
be ordered by price, product name, and average customer review. A Lamy Safari catches my eye, so
I click it. The individual product pages are to my eyes very cleanly laid out. Most products include
several pictures of the product, user reviews, and links to related products, as well as links taking
you to the same product in different colors and styles, as well as recommended refills. Another novel
feature that I liked was that every item has a count of exactly how many the store has in stock. Liking
what I see, I click on Add to Cart, which updates my Cart icon in the top right.
Overall I feel like the site has a very clean and open layout. Spreading out the items by categories is
good for people who know exactly what they’re looking for, as well as people just looking to window
shop. If you are in the market for a fine writing utensil, I would recommend starting the search at
Jetpens.
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Zappos: Monthly Review Fall 2013
The Zappos website is just a clothing website. Clothes can be anything from regular shirts and pants to athletic wear, formal wear, and accessories. To show all of these different types of clothing the site has a tab for each option. There is a clothing tab, whether you want to shop for clothes that tab will give all of their clothing options. If you want to look for shoes there is a tab for that and will show all their different types of shoes. Accessories will show the little details that can be added for a certain look. The website is not hard to navigate through for people to shop, if someone has a specific piece of clothing to look for, that person will have no problem finding it.
For the navigation or design of the website is pretty simple. The site has a log in tab at the right side, for their regular customers, and a register tab right beside it for any new customers that want to join. Then to the left side is a search box for the customer who wants to quickly find a specific piece of clothing. A quarter of the way down is a whole row of tabs. The tabs say shoes, clothing, bags and handbags, at home, beauty, accessories, shop by, women’s, men’s, kid’s. A customer looking at the site can see what their options are for shopping. right below and in the middle of all the tabs is a slideshow of pictures of what the store offers. The slideshow can give the customer a quick look at what they can find on the site. Then to the left hand side people can see more specifically what options they have for clothing, shoes, etc. For example, the shoes tab as off to the left women’s shoes, men’s shoes, boy/girl shoes, shoe sales and new arrivals.
With the navigation being easy to look around at, it helps having the color scheme be simple as well. The main two colors that are used is blue and gray. If the website choose more colors and bright then the look would throw off the customer and make the navigation be more confusing. It would be confusing because the customer would have lots to look at and not know where to start at. Therefore a simple two color scheme works by putting the main topics in one color and more specific topics in another color. That will give an easy way for customers to shop and not have them confused.
Overall the website is simple to look at and not crazy looking. Customers can relax while shopping online and find what they want. The placement of where the tabs are straight forward and easy to find. It’s nice to have a slideshow for each tab to have showing the customers what different options they have. Also it is nice to have at the end of the page a review of the clothing or accessories they have to show the customer what is trending and popular in today’s society. Therefore people who like to shop can easily navigate through the site to find what kind of look they want to have.
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Dave Conrad Monthly Review #1
www.PacSun.com
PacSun’s online store seems pretty overwhelming to me when I first began browsing, but everything is labeled in a way that I can easily find what I’m looking for by whatever terms I want. At the very top of the page, the site lists their promotions and how to take advantage of them. Right underneath the promotional banner is a drop box which allows the customer to shop by men’s or women’s brands, and then to right of the drop box is a search bar in case you know what brand of clothing you’re looking for. As you begin to type in the brand you’re looking for a list of suggestions appear to ease the process. Underneath that is a variety of labels to search for clothing by categories such as gender, shoes, jeans, brand, or what’s on sale.
The ease of access that this site offers makes the entire shopping experience very easy and retains the vibe of the actual store by varying every background based on brand while overall keeping in style with the store. The online store manages to achieve consistency regardless of where you navigate in the site without being boring or repetitive. The design is easy to navigate with and the effects don’t take long to load. Everything runs smoothly and is very visually appealing.
When you go to purchase an item, the process is very straight forward an requires no explaining. You can customize the article of clothing based on the availability of the item as well as select the size without searching for it. Everything throughout the site can be found very easily. If you want to end your search for one thing and go one to look for something else there are many multiple ways to do it, making this site, in my opinion, very good for online shopping and browsing. Based on the product you are looking at, you will be given suggestions of other products that are of similar brand/styles to continue the ease of browsing.
Although I was a big fan on the design and color scheme of the site, I feel that some computer screens wont be able to pick up some of the light grey words that are listed under the tabs that are more than likely the most used part of online browsing. The fonts are all incredibly small, but taking into mind that young people are a high majority of customers, I think its a safe decision if it is to retain the style of the store. I would expect the designer to be able to come up with an easier to read font choice that still went with the vibe of the store, but overall I think in this case it might be acceptable. The main problem I think they’d run into is if an older person is trying to purchase a gift for someone, they could potentially have difficulty reading the small font which would in turn wouldn’t make the site very navigable.
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Monthly Review 1: half.com
For this month’s website review I decided to take a short shopping trip at half.com, a shopping site that is a division of the popular shopping site Ebay. My boyfriend, Matthew, helped out by picking one of his engineering books for class, and told me the title, edition, and last name of the author of the book. I also did not see the book at all so I had no idea what the book itself looked like.
Since I was literally going into this shopping trip blind, the first thing that came to my mind when I came to half.com was to use the conveniently placed search bar at the top of the page. I was a woman on a mission, and did not even bother to scroll down past the Featured Books section of the homepage. After putting in the title and the author’s last name into the search bar, several results came up. They all looked to be the correct book, but I was not able to tell from the search what edition they were.
Matthew had pointed out to me, “why not just put the edition in the search bar?” But, in my mind, since I got a number of supposedly correct results; I could just click on one, check the edition, and then either go back to try again or continue on my merry way. Luckily, the first result I chose turned out to be the edition needed, so I proceeded to add the book to my cart via the obvious green “add to cart” button next to the price I wanted.
At the shopping cart page, I found the layout to be quite clean and well put together. The items and checkout each had their own box, so it was very easy to tell what was in my cart and where I was to go when I was finished shopping. I decided I was done, so I proceeded to checkout. At this point, the site required I sign in, so Matthew put in his email since I did not have an account set up. Next came shipping information, and I was actually surprised that Matthew’s previous shipping address had been saved from the last time he ordered books, especially since we were not accessing this from his computer. He mentioned that the site probably links addresses to accounts so that was it would be more convenient for shoppers. Honestly, I think it works quite well.
At this point I stopped the shopping adventure; neither Matthew nor I were interested in putting our credit card numbers to simulate buying a book he already owned. Overall, I would say that was a fairly smooth shopping experience. The layout of the site was very straightforward for the browsing I wanted to do, especially the bright green buttons that lead me to the cart and checkout. However, there was one tiny problem I had with the cart. I decided that I wanted to remove the book from the cart. Finding the cart from the homepage was easy enough; the link sat right with the tabs with a cart icon next to it. But when I went back to the cart, I actually took me a few seconds to find the “remove from cart” link. Turns out it was directly underneath the book information, and in the same font and color as the book information. The removal did give an obvious green confirmation box above the list of items, so perhaps that somewhat makes up for the bit of searching I did for trying to clear my cart.
I have used half.com in the past to find books I’ve needed while attending school, and I probably will continue using it. But hopefully not too soon because; dang, books are freaking expensive.
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Dominic Flamini, Section A, First Monthly Review (9/3/2013)
As our textbook says, a well-designed webpage is very user-friendly, not making a user think or guess. Being uncertain about where links go or if something can frustrate the user, and such frustration tends to leave discourage visitors from returning. I believe this is especially important for a shopping site, such as Amazon.com, which, when I looked at it for this assignment, did not make me think that much.
To start, I did not have to think hard to find some items I was interested in. I noticed three different ways I could find these items. First, as soon as I logged in, I saw several recommendations based off an item I had previously purchased, and I chose one, a preorder for Iron Man 3. Second, thanks to Amazon’s breadcrumbing, I found a graphic novel I had previously viewed, The Truth is Out There. Finally, I entered “backscratcher” in the search bar, and the search bar offered suggestions as I typed, from details to departments I wanted to search. Going to their pages did not make me think too much either; both their pictures and titles were links to their respective pages. Finally, the “Add to Cart” button for two of the items was easy to find, thanks to its color, and was clearly a button. The only thinking I had to do was, “Do I really want this item?” Probably because it is not yet available, the preorder’s “Add to Cart” button was a little more subtle, both in color and size, but it was clear enough that I did not need to think. Finally, when I went to my Shopping Cart, I noticed that there was one important button which required a small bit of thinking: the “Delete” link for removing items from the Cart. It did not pop out like the “Proceed to Checkout” did on the right of the page. It was small and not immediately noticeable, but it was clearly a link when I looked at it. In my opinion, making us think like this discourages deleting items from the Cart unless the person really does not want a certain item anymore. Ultimately, Amazon is a well-designed site, as it was easy to navigate and to add items to the Cart, and it only made me think once.
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Chelsea White Monthly Review XXI
For a website about fashion I believe that Forever21 uses the simpler the better approach. The first thing you see is a simple rotating screen for their latest items. When looking for the search bar it was a little difficult to find it because it blended with the plain white background. The only indicator was the black “Go” box. The font is easy but there are a lot of tabs that seem to lead to the same items.
When I went to actually search anything it is helpful in that a simple term will bring up multiple options. For example if I were looking for “heels”, it brings up the items with the key word heels but also items with that any type of heel. The search bar also works where if you start a word or even phrase it will finish it for you. I felt like it is a better browsing website than if you were looking for a specific item. They have different “in” style that are under multiple tabs, which is very confusing.
The bad thing about the searches is that they can not be duplicated. What I mean is if you find an item on one of the regular pages its not easy to find if you were to search it up later. The website itself is kept as easy as possible, laid out simply visually. When checking out and adding things to my “bag” it was very easy. They have clear options for sizes and colors. You can view and change items in the “bag” at anytime while searching the site. There are also many options for payments.
The website has some things it can improve on and other things that work well for anyone looking.
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Nike Monthly Review #1- Stefany Gale
For the first monthly review, I chose to look in detail and study the Nike website. After reading the first two chapters of “Don’t Make Me Think”, I learned about what consumers tend to like and not like when searching through a website. Overall, the Nike website is a great example of a well put together eCommerce site with a few minor issues.
Right as I opened the Nike homepage, I felt bombarded with information. While I understand Nike’s approach to pleasing it’s customers by attempting to “organize” information, it’s too much all at once. There is a top menu bar for consumers to make their search easier, while there is also a side menu bar to do the same job, but in a more specific way. I myself found it confusing because I was not sure which menu bar to use. Should I use the more specific menu or should I go to the less specific menu? The top menu is categorized by “Men, Women, Kids, Sport, Nike Sportswear, NikeiD and Jordan” with drop down menus with multiple categories to choose from. The side menu bar is categorized by “Category (sport, clothing,gear), Sport, Featured, and Collections” with drop down boxes too. There are multiple ways of getting to just one product, but it’s confusing to get there.
When I searched for a product I felt I would buy (training shoes), I decided to use the top menu bar to expand my search. After clicking on the “Training” section under “Women’s Shoes” I was again, bombarded with information. On my left, the menu bar showed me the same information that I had searched for to find my shoes. They broke it down again by “Gender, Category, Sport, Type, and What it’s Best For”. It seemed redundant and was unnecessary information.
A good design attribute for the site however is the “lack” of words. The book points out that consumers tend to read very little on websites and “skim” most information. The Nike website had very little word, but had more pictures. They used larger font to gain consumers attention though. The less words, the happier the consumer.
When I chose which shoe I wanted in my cart, the color options and size options were very easier to view and change. To choose a different color, there was no drop box so that made it very simple for me to view and choose which color I liked. To choose my size, there was a drop box, but it also was easy enough to choose. There was no scrolling to find my size in a thin, one columned drop box because all of the options fit in the larger, wider drop box so I could see all of my options. While this may be a minuscule detail, as a consumer, I noticed a much easier difference.
The Nike site as a whole is easier to read and understand. A few minor issues may be confusing at first glance, but it got better as I moved along the site and added a product to my shopping cart.
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Amy Shubilla Newegg monthly review
When first viewing the website Newegg I am hit with their daily deals automatically making me want to view those products instead of the ones I intended to view. After going through the daily deals that they have, it is time for me to look for what came for in the first place. Besides seeing the deals in the middle of the screen me eyes are drawn to the search bar at the top of the page and the category bar on the left side of the page. Since I am just looking for a Canon camera but don’t know yet what specific Canon camera I want yet, I am just going to click on the camera button on the category bar. From there I can choose the type I want by using the narrow results selections on the left side of the page to select a Canon camera. I can narrow the results down more too if I want.
After finding the specific Canon camera I want I just select the “add to cart” button and am taken to another page with my item. This is where I can figure out my shipping cost and if I have any promo codes this is the page I would apply them. After all of that is taken care of I would then move onto the buying process.
Newegg does just what the book Don’t Make Me Think said it should, it captured my attention right away and had me clicking on their deals without even thinking about why I was even there. The site also made it super easy for me to navigate through the site not making me think till I got to my specific camera.
Amy Shubilla
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Kristen Kudla Monthly Review urbanOG.com 9/3
In the day and age of our generation, we live on the internet. From Social networking to education, the average person spends 13 hours a week on the internet and spend about an hour of that shopping. With this statistic, web creators use this to help create and navigate their online shopping websites, but just how easy are they to use?
For this assignment, I visited urbanOG.com to shop for a pair of military style boots. When I typed into the browser the website, the home page popped up with all it’s pictures and tags. At the top of the page, there are several tags labeled for each category the website sells varying from shoes to costume. When I scrolled over the show tag, a drop down section appeared showing all the different categories of shoes. After clicking on the section that I wanted to search for the boots for, it sent me straight to the shoes I wanted. Now this wasn’t the only way to search for shes on this site.
After navigating my way to the desired section I wanted, I asked myself if there was an easier way. I decided to go back to the home page and look for the search engine for the site. after spending a few minutes looking over the home page, I finally found it and typed in what I was looking for. I originally typed in “military boots” but the search came up blank so instead I typed in military and the boots I was looking for showed up. Once I found them, you had two choices, either click the quick view bottom, which popped up when you scrolled over the shoe, or to click on the picture itself. Either way, after clicking on it, adding it to the shopping cart was the same for both. This was easy to do after selecting the color and size that was desired. Once added to the cart, a notification popped up telling you that it was added to the cart. After words you could either continue shopping or check out.
Using the search bar to navigate through the site was a lot easier to, but trying to find it was a challenge in itself. When designing this website, the creators did a poor job locating the search bar and the style they created it in. Also, when looking for the shoes the pages were marked and clearly seen for how many pages of shoes they had, but once you got to the bottom of the page when you though you were done, another section would pop up instead of a new page, and the page numbers would stay the same. This design element was interesting and a great use of space but as a shopper, it can get annoying thinking that you only have so many pages but instead there are several sections within each page. The designer should have just made each page full, without reloading multiple times, so navigation and understanding of the page could be more useful to the shopper.
The use of the shopping cart was interesting and innovative. When you adding something into your shopping cart, a note would pop up telling you and showing you what you added and this was something I had never seen before. The drop down areas for the tags was also a great use of space. Having the sections underneath and popping up when you scrolled over them instead of clicking them was nice because you never had to change what page you were on if you wanted to see what other categories and sections they had.
Overall, the website was easy to use and very inventive in it’s use of space. The search bar and the sections in each page became an annoyance and could be improved on, but overall the website was easy to use and very inventive in it’s use of space. The layout and use of pictures of products we also nice additives to help make the website not only aesthetically appealing but easy to navigate.
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Newegg by Nick Currey
Newegg.com strongly resembles most other online shopping sites, It’s got a centered search bar, left aligned navigation and a home page full of deals. This page full of deals is a bit too cluttered in my opinion, and could use a little bit of a trim, but this doesn’t effect the search function or it’s easily found location.
Upon entering the site I was immediately able to find the search function (which allows voice search as well), enter my query and get put on a page full of dozens of products. A lot of these were variations on the product that I wanted, different brands, different specifications. While it’s useful to see the whole spectrum of a product that you’re looking for, Newegg understands that computer parts are incredibly varied and allows you to refine your search by Brand, Price point, and even certain specifications. These search refinements are on the left, where navigation usually is, and are separated by category and change to fit your search more accurately (Video cards show video card search terms, etc). After a bit of tinkering, finding the product you want isn’t quite so hard. It’s also possible to change the sorting by Price point or rating which is good for people researching their purchase first.
After I found my product, adding it to my cart was simple. A bright orange button is clearly present that says “Add to cart”.
Overall Newegg is fairly well designed, and seems to make the best of a complex inventory by allowing the user to filter through items as needed while still having a relatively simple interface.
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Ethan Petyo Review # 1
For My first website review i chose to take a look at Nike.com. As soon as you get on to the Nike website everything looks very well organized and everything is very easy to find. Within a few seconds of being on the Nike website i was able to spot the shopping cart and member log-in in the top right corner , as well as a search bar and listings of categories across the top of the page that makes it quite easy to filter to the items your looking for. Its organized from gender to age , as well as individual sports. That way if your looking for equipment or gear for a specific sport age or gender , your are able to find those items easily. When checking out the toolbar i had typed in “shoes” it then brought up a very organized list of shoes. Each category had been separated individually between Men’s shoes, women’s shoes , children’s , etc. I like this because when I had typed shoes in the search bar thats exactly what had come up; only shoes and nothing else. Under each individual item it lists its name , below that what type of shoe it is (mens , women) and at the bottom the price. In my opinion this is a very organized and crisp layout for the products. You know exactly what your getting and how much it is before putting it into the shopping cart. You can also fine tune your search even more with the option of looking into categories that narrow your search down to your price range , styles , old or new. If you wanted to find a men’s pair of soccer cleats you would simply click or place your curser over the “Mens” section at the top , find the shoes category , and then click soccer. Then you have in front of you there entire collection of mens soccer cleats. Nothing more or less , just exactly what your searching for.
One thing i did notice about the Nike website is that when clicking on anything on the website like “learn more” , “Shop Now” , or “search entire collection” you seem to always wind up at the same destination.
On the other hand the Shopping cart seems to work very smoothly. When you find a product you like , and click add to cart you get the option of Size , and quantity.Once you chose those options it lists your price in bright orange so its visible and a orange icon appears on your shopping cart in the top right corner showing how many items you have in there. When you click on the shopping cart you can see exactly what you ordered , how many , and the grand total price. I like this because Nike really seems to make it right out in the open that knowing how much your spending is important and i feel thats a good gesture to its customers.
Overall I would say that initially looking at the site , it may seem clustered , and i do think that they could probably get away with having less and making the page a little more simplified. In the end the website works well. It makes it very easy to shop and find exactly what your looking for in very little time.
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Apple by Jonathan Zelechowski
The site I chose was Apple. the site is very excellent visually and it does not take a very long time to find what you are looking for. The item that I searched for was the iPhone 4. When I first got one to the Apple website I was pretty familiar with it so I know were to go to search for the item. The search bar on the website is located in the top right of the webpage so it is really easy to find and type things in. Another reason why it is easy to find is because it is by the different tabs for the mac and iPod, ipad etc. so you don’t have to think about were it would be or try to search for it. Having the search box in that position makes it very easy to type in the item and find it quick.
When I typed in the IPhone 4 it came up with a lot of different options of phone to choose from. This was very easy because it gave options for just that type of phone and not every type of IPhone. So far the process was very easy to find because the option for the IPhone was at the at the top of the page, so I was able to click on it and it brought my right to the IPhone 4 page. once I got to that page the shopping cart tab was at the top right corner which made it easy to put it in my shopping cart.
All Together once you get on the website it does not make you think to much because the options are easy to find and to search for items. The process of buying different items on the site is very easy to use. it is a very easy site to use for anyone who has very little experience with computers or websites. Because it is so easy it does not take a lot of planning to use this website.
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Monthly Review 1
www.justfab.com
JustFab is a membership shopping website that sells clothes, jewelry, bags, and shoes. I personally have a membership to this site and have been using the site for several months. I find the layout of the site to be very user friendly and it does take long to find what you are looking for and need. I would not recommend using the site’s search bar, even though it’s conveniently located at the top right of the homepage. With the site’s search bar you have to be very specific in the item you’re looking for, you need to know the item’s exact name that is listed on the website. If you search a more broad term like “boots” or “flats” it will come up with no results. It is better just to use the site’s navigation to find what you are looking for. What I have found while using this site for a while is that when using the navigation to look through the products not every product in a certain category is listed. I find this kind of annoying because you can’t see all of what types of items they are selling. For example, not all of the boots found on the entire site are listed under the boot category. Items that are part of the special collections featured on the site are not listed with the rest. If you went to buy a pair of boots under the boot category but went further through the website or after you already purchased them you found something under the collections you liked better could be a tad frustrating given all the boots for sale are not under the main “boots” category. I have had this problem when buying from this site. Overall I would say this site is all right at finding what you want but it could be better. I feel it is inconvenient if you are always finding products you like better after you have already made your purchase. I always have to throughly look through every place there could possibly be more products for sale, they could improve the site and list everything together so you could see everything without have to go to several other places all over the site.
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Monthly Review: B&H Photo
Whenever I visit the B&H website, I feel welcomed more and more each time. I use this site frequently to purchase camera supplies, software, and any type of accessories any technology person could dream of.
When the page first loads, your eyes are automatically drawn to the bold green bar towards the top of the screen which is home to the search bar, the ‘shop’ tab (which is already selected), and a few other less important tabs. Depending on what you are looking for, you can select a variety of categories with icons, for example: Computers, Darkroom, Photography, Lighting & Studio and more fun stuff. In addition to the icon bar, there are more pictures and categories below to make finding what you are looking for more accessible.
I decided to search for a Canon 70-200mm lens using the search bar, and the correct lenses came up, including ones with different apertures incase I wanted to buy one with a certain aperture. I decided to take a step back to the home page and click on the Photography icon and see which way was easier. After clicking of the Photography icon, it brings up many subcategories so you can plunge into whatever section you wish. From there I clicked on ‘Lenses’ then the next page came up with over 1,500 items to sort through! Luckily, down the left hand side is a ‘Narrow Results’ bar which allows you to select the brand, category, price and a ‘search within results’ bar to make the user feel less overwhelmed and to help find what is the right purchase for them. In my opinion, using the search bar from the home page was much more efficient to what I was looking for, but if the user isn’t sure what they want, then utilizing the icon tabs on the home page would be their best bet.
Overall, I feel that B&H offers a very stress-free and enjoyable online shopping experience. I never felt frustrated or useless, except when I remembered how much lenses cost, but that won’t keep me away for long. In conclusion, B&H makes it almost too easy to browse all of the cool photo and video supplies and accessories that it will start to burn a hole in your pocket with just a few clicks.
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Monthly Review 1
Amazon is one of the biggest sites to hit the internet since it started in 1994. Not only could business’s sell there products for the bare minimum, they also can see what the competition is making and selling at the click of a mouse. Amazon has a very easy interface to work with making the user less stressed and more open to search for more items, which is what we need in a website.
The index page has the latest deals or the hottest items scattered through-out the page making the hottest purchases easy to access. Scroll down a little and you have products being viewed at that very moment or popular items from a certain company, When i searched the page the popular vendor was Verizon wireless and the product was the newest smartphone from them. Look more closely at the index page and you see that there are more ways to get to things than you know what to do with them. The search bar is placed on the center at the top so it has more room to look at what they are shopping for. At the left of the search bar is the word all, upon clicking the work a drop down box appears to help you specify your search and help you get to your product faster. So enter in whatever you wanna search and we can see what pops up. I entered in Google Chromebook and instantly all of the Chromebooks the sell pop up, then on the side you can limit your search by brand, screen size, even price. A bar appears right above the pictures of the products and they are different related searches that can be searched. I had gotten computer accessories and anything that has to do with computers.
Amazon is what we strive for in an internet age, a place were we all can come together and order stuff for a cheaper price, but with cheapness comes a price you do have to wait for your order to come in and pay for shipping. But amazon does show promise in the fact that it does need some work done to it. For such a simple website idea, the front page does seem a little crowded in the fact that as soon as you turn on the index page you are cluttered with items that you wont need or ever look at, but i do see the idea behind it. the book had a great statement on page 29 “If your audience is going to act like your designing billboards, then design great billboards.” Amazon has truly done that they have simplified the search for items and put it on one website.
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