ARTM2210 Intro to Web Design
Just another Intro to… siteArchive for spring 14
Monthly review #2: Single page website
I chose to analyze Jan Losert’s page, Enthusiastic UI & Interaction Design. The page was set up pretty nicely. The website has a dark grey background with white and light brown type. The combination of these colors give the website a visually pleasing look. It also makes the design look very professional and clean cut. The usage of type in the design is well thought out. The designer used bold text as well as normal text with different colors. Not only does the designer use bold type they use all caps. by doing this the design grabs the attention of the viewer and creates an emphasis on the important parts. The text and illustrations are centered in the middle of the page making it easy to read. The page scrolls down which makes the composition flow smoothly down.
This composition is very simple and clear Which is what the designer wanted. My only issue with the design is that the website uses the words enthusiastic and interaction but there really isn’t a feel or anything having to do with enthusiasm or interaction. But overall, it’s a good design.
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Monthly Review 2
Zachery Calloway
http://akce.kia.com/cz/ is a website to showcase the anniversary model of the Kia Venga and the Kia Rio. The web sight starts on a single page with a bright red background. The cars have a 3D element to them that comes out with the details of the shadows. The sight asks you to select a model of car. When the mouse rolls over the cars to select them the lights of the vehicles turn on. I then selected the Kia Rio. The sight loaded very smoothly and fast. Although the webpage is in Czech, they included images of a mouse with the scroll wheel highlighted, as well as, arrows for the directional arrows on the keyboard. I realized that I was able to scroll through the website. This was not as smooth as I was expecting. When I hold the down arrow it seems to play a movie with facts listed. The site didn’t have a smooth transition with it at all. It was more like a stop motion animation website. I still continued down the sight to learn more about the car.
Then I came across this code in the middle of the page. This just frustrated me. If you are a well known company like Kia you would think that there would be a little testing done to the web sight prior to launching the web sight.
Overall the web sight has a nice use of colors, textures and a good design. They have a unique way of moving from section to section. I would like the movement to be a little faster and smoother. As well as fix the code that shows up on the website. I think that the sights design is well done and allows the user to learn about the two vehicles.
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Monthly Review 2: One Page Site
For the second monthly review we were told to analyze a “one page website” from the enormous list at onepagelove.com. Honestly, it took me a while to finally decide on a site. I browsed through several sites but none of them really appealed to me at the time. Eventually I came across a page that listed onepagelove.com’s top twenty websites of 2013. Thinking that this was a promising lead, I skimmed through the list and soon came across the website of a Mr. Robby Leonardi (rleonardi.com/interactive-resume).
The first thing that caught my eye about this site was actually the screenshot onepagelove.com provided of the website. The vibrant colors and the overall cartoony video game feel really drew me in. Plus, I noticed that it was an “interactive resume”. Without any hesitation I began my investigation.
When I’m taken to Mr. Leonardi’s website, a loading scroll appears with an indeterminate amount of loading progress waiting to fill. I had no idea how long this would take, it could take one second or it could take a minute probably depending on the level of interactivity of the site. Luckily, my laptop is not entirely a piece of crap, so it loaded in about ten seconds or so.
Once the page loads, I’m presented with a tiny superhero character falling onto the screen (which now looks like the initial screenshot), and the instructions to scroll up and down, or use the up and down arrow keys to navigate. I decide to use the arrow keys and the little character moves across the brightly colored video game themed screen. I notice immediately that when make the character walk a very short distance, about “two steps”, he lags a bit. Yet whenever I hold in the key, the lag still appears but then the character speeds up considerably to a point where it’s almost too fast. (Once I’m done going through the site once I end up going through it once more to try the scroll wheel. It works much better than the arrow keys in my opinion.)
As the superhero moves across the screen, information images pop up in the background in the form of “levels” like how a video game is set up. This images show various things about Mr. Leonardi’s experience in design programs, his previous design related work, and the awards he has earned over the years. It’s interesting to note that sometimes the images get too cramped if you happen to have a smaller screen like my laptop does.
It is also somewhat strange to me that although you only seem to hold down (or scroll down); you appear to move in several directions at different points of the site. When you begin you move to the right of the screen. Once you pass through level one to level two, you “jump down” into an underwater lever, then “jump back up” when you reach level three, and even continue your path upwards in a hot air balloon for level four.
At the end of your journey is where you can contact Mr. Leonardi; whether it’s through the contact box he has on his website, or by clicking on the links to Facebook or Twitter that he has linked in the right-hand corner of the page. Also a note: this contact area is the only clickable area on the site.
My overall opinion of the site: it was actually really cool. I kept wondering exactly how Mr. Leonardi pulled off what he did (I suppose experience does that), and then being extremely jealous that I cannot accomplish that quality work yet. All the colors are solid (no textures) and extremely vibrant, yet none seem to stand out more than the others.
As I’ve mentioned before; there is an obvious video games theme going on with this site. But I am curious why exactly he chose to go in that direction with this theme for his site. No where does it really mention anything regarding video games, so I wish that maybe he would’ve at least put why he designed the site like this. Maybe he was just in the mood for video games, who knows.
Again, my only other “problem” with the site is the navigation. Don’t get me wrong; the navigation is very easy, just up an down. But the fact that the page moves in different directions instead of up and down makes me a little uneasy for some reason.
In the end I’m glad that I chose to take a look at this site. It’s crazy how it works, and it’s really cool to look at. I’d give it an 8.5/10 on the “super awesome website scale” that I just made up.
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Monthly Review #2 – Madison Kozlowski
The single page website I chose to analyze was, http://projectfms.co.uk/project/blood/, a site focused on blood donation. Overall, I think the site was well-done and accomplished what it was meant to – provide viewers with facts about donating blood and encourage people to donate.
The overall feel of the website is very simple. There is definitely minimalistic qualities as you scroll down the page. The site used a Split-Complementary color scheme with the base color as dark red, making the other two colors mustard and teal. The colors went along with the simplicity as they are subtle and not ‘in your face’. I also found it interesting that the webpage did not use the primary color red a lot. Being that it is a site promoting donating blood, one would think red would be more prominent. In Chapter 2, the color red resembles adrenaline, and causes excitement and is dramatic. Now that I understand red in these terms, donating blood probably doesn’t get people’s adrenaline rushing. However, the color green is described as symbolizing freshness and hope. These two terms would better associate with donating blood and saving lives.
The background color was extremely plain throughout the website, but there were subtle background color changes as you scrolled down the page to a different section. I think this effect gave the page organization. It was clear when you were moving on from one section to the next. The background colors alternated from white to light gray. The change was not dramatic but it was noticeable and I think it was an asset to the site and its navigation. The navigation was easy as you just scrolled downward to view more information. For the most part, other than the clickables, the navigation was provided to the user. There was a navigation bar at the top labeling the different sections of the page, as well as a footer where you can share the page on Facebook or Twitter, links to their sources, as well as the names of the developers.
The clickables throughout the site are very obvious. Some things were underlined, which is a clear indication that you can click on it, other things provoked the pointer to change shape, and other buttons that moved when you rolled over them. I think that all three of these techniques were appropriate for the clickables otherwise I would not have known that they were links.
The layout of the information was straightforward and easy to follow. The information itself was easy to understand and was not above a fourth grade level. There was a clear visual hierarchy from the top of the site to the bottom, as well as in each section. The first page you see is an eye-catching graphic that portrays the ideas of the site with words and the color scheme. Each component of the site contained simplistic graphics that showed proportion and relativity to the other images. I think the site would have been more complete if at the bottom of the page there was a similar graphic as to the top with a person donating blood or saving lives.
All in the all, I thought the site was well done for the purpose it was attempting to fulfill. The composition was uncomplicated and had nice flow. I cannot say, however, that the page had a huge impact on my opinion of donating blood. I do believe that donating blood is an excellent thing to do, but it did not provoke many emotions making me feel that I want to donate my blood as soon as possible.
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Monthly Review 2- Fuss
I have chosen to use the website maidstonedrivinglessons.com to review and critique. This one page site appealed to me for a critique due to its similarities to the one page site I am designing. The maidstone driving lesson site or, as it is named on the page itself, the Ladybird School of Motoring, is a one pager that revolves around the movement of a car. As my social cause is the dangers of texting and driving, I explored the functionality of this site.
The strength of this site is its strong use of color and texture. Interesting and somewhat vibrant colors are used, yet they still seem realistic the purpose of creating a car driving down a road. The city background with multiple vibrant colors is a little bit funky, but still comes off aesthetically pleasing. The white text, overtop the dark grey speech bubble, is also quite effective. The shadowing used throughout the entire site design is effective and adds to its overall aesthetic appeal. I found the texture of the Ladybird School of Motoring to be just as well done as its color. The texture of the grass, road, and sidewalk all work well. My favorite use of texture on this page is that of the background buildings. The small size of the windows on said buildings creates a pleasing grey texture.
Navigating through maidstonedrivinglessons.com is kind of a nightmare. When arriving on the site, there is no direction or clue as to how to navigate through the sites content. One can assume that the red car is going to drive down the road, taking the user to other pieces of content on the page. But, how does the user navigate said car? I for one, thought scrolling from left to right would be the solution. That was not the case. Eventually after some clicking around I found (in small text on the upper right corner of the page, nowhere near the main content) the navigation system. One must click on a word such as “Home” or “About Me” and off the car goes to that destination with a speech bubble and further information on that topic. On top of being hard to find, these navigation words are not always functional, and even when they are, they are difficult to click. Also, the little red car is ahead of the point you click to take it to, it speeds off in reverse, looking quite unrealistic. All of these negative points add up to a mess of a navigational system.
There are a few design elements that make this site easy to scan, read, and understand. The use of the red car is the obvious element. Following the car through the navigation makes it easy and clear to see that the main focus will on it. Another design element that I found useful was the use of speech bubbles. The dark bubbles with the white text really contrast the rest of the page and make it easy to focus directly on them.
As a designer, I really want to state that this site is well done, as it is nice to look at. Unfortunately, due to a very poor navigational system, I must say that this site is poorly done. There are too many issues in trying to navigate through this sites content. For a simple one page site like this, I want simple, easy, fun navigation. Contrary to the initial appeal, this page is not simple, easy, or fun at all.
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Monthly Review #2
Brandi Calhoun
Intro to Web Design
Monthly Review 2
http://www.forkedriverbrewing.com/
The single page site I chose to review is for Forked River Brewing Company. They use a kind of navy blue, white, and gold color scheme throughout the page, which creates great contrast for easy reading and viewing. The background when you first enter the page is a photograph of two beers, one of which you can see the condensation and head on the beer just like it is right in front of you ready to be sipped. The company is outlined and introduced. To view the rest of the page, you scroll down. Also, across the top of the website is each individual section of the single page website for easy access to “The Beer,” “Our Story,” “The Brewers,” etc. From the beginning on, the background switches to white, then navy blue, and then white with skinny, subtle light blue diagonal lines, and then yellow-gold, and back to white. These color changes catch your attention when scrolling, and help you realize that you have come across a new section of the single page website. The logo, name of the company, and navy blue headline stay put at the top of the page as you scroll and so do the titles for easy access to different sections and the Facebook and Twitter links. The web designer chose easy-to-read fonts and made the headers clear. Also, at the end of the website is a map showing exactly where the brewery is located and gives the reader all contact information and hours very clearly.
I think this single page site is very successful. It is both attractive and convenient. It is also interactive with the viewer – when scrolling down a beer glass slowly empties every time you scroll down a little more; and fills up when you scroll up. The website is clean looking, but yet stylish too. The colors, textures, and images all fit well together with the beer company theme – very bold and strong. The only problem with the design of this website, as with many others though, is that some content is cut off on either side if you are not using a big screen, which hinders the interactive parts and some of the images. Other than that, you can clearly tell the website is for a beer company, no doubt about it, and can navigate it very easily.
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Monthly Review 2
For this monthly review, I chose the website for the Pushpa Project to analyze. This website caught my eye with its complex yet pleasing layering of textures and images. From the very first panel, a strong sense of design is evident. This design also enables the site to convey a lot with a relatively small amount of text. The first panel conveys the title, slogan, location of focus, and that the organization has something to do with little girls with only a couple images and lines of text. As you scroll down the page, a good mix of small and large images, textures, and solid color backgrounds keeps the overall design from seeming too busy. Color-wise, the design stays pretty muted without being boring. I theme of soft reddish pinks and yellows carries through the whole page with grey and white being used for body text to ensure readability. Any background images that appear directly below text are edited to be easy to read on top of. The series of headings and subheadings makes it easy to get a good idea of the problem simply from scanning.
In order to handle navigating a one page site, this example accommodates users who scroll through the content as well as those who want navigation to click on. There is a nav on the left that is anchored to the window so that is stays in place despite scrolling. This nav can be clicked on to move through the site but the section appearing on the screen is always represented by having its corresponding button highlighted. This keeps those scrolling freely through the site from loosing track of which section they’re on.
I think the site does an excellent job of accomplishing its goals. It strikes a good balance between emotionally striking images, attractive textures and color schemes, and informative text. It walks the user through the content in a logical manner while being very easy to navigate. Furthermore, the site makes use of several media to convey its message. From the very top of the site, striking images are used to convey the sadness of the subject matter. Next there is a media player sampling the music offered as a reward for donating, and finally a collection of videos that can be displayed in a lightbox are offered to further explain the issue. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a strong call to action is present in the piece. The donation price is displayed in a visible yet not distracting box anchored to the lower left of the screen that is supplemented by a large button on the site itself that is placed midway through the page, only seen once the user has been informed of the cause. Beyond this monetary call to action, there are also calls to action to simply spread the word. This is evidenced by the social media icons that are also anchored to the window so they are always visible without being distracting.
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Monthly Review 2
Chelsey Wassel
Intro to Web Design
Monthly Review 2
2/27/14
For my monthly review I chose the website photoshopetiquette.com I chose this page for multiple reasons. First, my roommate and I were discussing that we need to use photoshop more often to make sure we refresh our brains and make sure we know how everything works. Second, photoshop is obviously related to Graphic Design majors so it is something we are familiar with and know about. The design of this cite is very simple. It is also very easy to navigate through and find information. The whole page scrolls down. The rule of thirds was used effectively in the website because all of the information is formatted in the middle, and there is equal negative space on either side. Therefore, the site is very balanced. Repetition is used a great amount throughout the page, as well. There is unity throughout the whole page even though the site is split into different sections as the page scrolls down. Along with each of the titles is an image. These images are simple vector images that help you recognize what the topic is on that page. At the top of the page is each of the heading and topics that are on the pages as you scroll. As you scroll onto that page they turn different colors which tells you what idea you are on. You can also click on them and they bring you directly to that page.Each section titles are in bold font, which makes it stand out from subtitles. For example, the font is the same typeface throughout, but the sizes of the subheadings are smaller than the headings. This shows visual hierarchy between the different sizes of font. Each title is a specific color and all of these colors are the same tint. This helps make all of the colors flow together well. The background color starts off blue with a white typeface for the title. Blue is a calming and relaxing color. The white gives the title and dominance because it stands out so much from the background. However, the background then changes to two different shapes of gray. It goes from light, dark then back to light and so on. This helps break up the individual pages and topic points. Having a neutral background doesn’t take away from the information that is important on the page, it isn’t distracting. As the background changes color so does the text. The colors change into triadic color schemes. The changed colors makes each section their own. This cite has a lot of helpful points and is very informational. There is not a lot of long boring copy. It is easy to read and there is a basic typeface. The design is simple but sometimes less is best.
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Monthly Review #1: Nikeid
I chose to go on Nikeid and shop for a pair of running shoes. The website is very involved and complex from the beginning. As a shopper, you have to choose your language and then what country you are in before you actually go to the store itself. When you are in the store, the website is set up to help you find what you need. To the left hand side of the page, there are several tabs for the different genders, the categories (shoes or gear), the sport you are looking for, the featured products, and the clearance items. Along with those tabs, there are tabs along the top with all of the genders, the sports, customizing, sportswear, and Jordan’s. There also is a search bar on the top right hand side so that customers can specifically search their items if they know what they want instead of just browsing. Everything is clearly laid out on the webpage so that customers can easily find what they are looking for.
When I clicked on the women’s category, automatically the webpage was set up to show the most featured items right in the center. The shoes that I wanted were in the featured section. I was able to click on them and go to the specific web page for the Roche Runs. From here, Nikeid gives me the option to keep the shoe that I clicked on or the option to fully customize my shoes to my pleasure. These options are clearly made to stand out on the page. The size option is a white tab, the customize option is a black tab, and the buy now option is a bright orange tab.
Throughout my process of buying a pair or shoes off of Nikeid, I felt as though I could find everything I wanted and needed right away without any problems. This website is meant for everyone but main directed towards athletes and that is really apparent. It is very easy to follow this website and buy the products you want to buy.
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Monthly Review-1-Fuss
I have chosen to use the Puma website to review and critique. As a well known shoe and athletic-ware company, it would be expected that they would have a very user friendly and accessible site. One would expect this, but the only way to be certain that the site can be easily used for shopping is to use it and find out.
The first impression of www.puma.com is overall positive. The site is quite aesthetically pleasing right off the bat. The image of the colorful shoes is of high quality and catches the eye right away. Directly upon arriving at the site, the two options: “World of Puma” and “Start Shopping” are seen, big and bold near the middle of the page. I found this direct route to shopping very effective at first. A menu then pops up, with options to link to sites for many different countries around the world. This accessibility is great for their international market, though from my aspect I would have liked a direct link to shopping when I selected the “Start Shopping” option.
Once arriving to shop.puma.com, it is apparent that the sports that are in season, and the deals the company has going on at the time, are the priorities of the website. Almost the whole page is devoted to a rotating banner, showing off specific products. Above this, seeming much more secondary is a bar of selectable categories of products that Puma offers including: Men, Women, Kids, Collections, and Sale. Upon running my mouse over any of these options, a menu appears showing every type of product they have in this categorie. I found this menu much more effective than the last, as it narrows down much the scope of what product is being looked for, as apposed to having to visit another page before doing so.
Selecting any option will take you to the desired type of product, ex. men’s running shoes. The page allows you to order the list of products by the categories of: featured, newest arrivals, best sellers, rating, name, price (high), and price (low). These categories are helpful to help the user get to the product they are looking for quicker. The products are shown off with a medium sized photo, three products wide scrolling down the page. To add an item to your “Shopping Bag,” one must click on one of the pictures of the products, which will take you to a page with all the product information, and a button stating “Add to Bag.”
The site is overall easy to use and can be quickly navigated. To make the site even more successful, it would be nice to have an “Add to Bag” button directly next to each image of the products, so one would not have to navigate to a new page every time they wished to add a product to their bag. Other than that, I found Puma’s site to be a success.
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Amazon.com
For this monthly review I’ve decided to take a look at a classic shopping website. This is a website most have heard of, and probably where many turn to when they want and/or need to order something online. This website supposedly has a fantastically easy layout to navigate, and its overall appearance is nothing to scoff at. Steve Krug, web consultant and author of the book Don’t Make Me Think, continually praises this site throughout his book and even uses it as comparisons to “worse off” websites. I actually have not visited this website recently, so this will be a good test to see if the site deserves my love as well.
This website is none other than Amazon.com.
Before I even begin clicking on every available link that I can get ahold of, I take a quick scan of the homepage to see what’s going on. The homepage seems pretty clean overall. Every section of the page is labeled and separated from the rest well enough that I don’t assume that it’s all one jumbled pile of items that Amazon is featuring for the day. My search bar is conveniently at the top of the screen, next to the logo, along with the user login, the cart, etc. Overall, it’s not really an overbearing homepage.
The item I’m looking for is an extension cord for a usb cable. Let’s see how well the search goes, considering I’m not the savviest at finding the hardware section in most stores.
The moment I type “usb” into the search bar, tons of “results” flow out from underneath. To my surprise, after scanning through the new list that just popped up, I find the keywords I’m looking for; usb extension cable. When I click on those words in the list (I’m assuming I can click on that), my search loads a new page as if I typed the whole phrase in the bar and hit enter. On this new page the items appear under the search bar (the phrase I just searched also appears under the search bar along with other related searches), and there is also a new column on the left side of the page. This column contains various lists that, when you click on them, narrow down the original search to only show what items you checked from those lists. I decide to sort them by consumer rating (and then by price, which apparently was also above the items.
When I decide what cable I like I click on its link, and I’m taken to that item’s page. Just for fun I decide to go back a page and then click on the picture of the item to see what happens. The picture also takes me to the item’s page, which I think is pretty neat. On this new page, the item’s picture and general information are most prominent on the screen. The price is listed directly under the name of the item, and under the price I actually find that the wire I chose comes in different lengths. Then, while casually scrolling around the screen, my mouse moves across the picture of the item. I’m actually surprised (but not surprised because, hey, it’s Amazon) that there’s suddenly an enlarged image of the item that pops up on the page.
When I decide that this is the item I want, I look to the right side of the page where the “add to cart” button is located. I take note of how the button is suitably large for the section it’s in, how the button is colored differently than any of the other buttons, and how there’s even a little cart icon on the button. No mistaking that this is the button I’m looking for. I also casually take note that: above the button there is a dropdown list for how many items I want to buy, and below there is an “add to wish list” button.
I decide I want one cable and then add my item to the cart. I’m then taken to a new page where my added item is displayed at the top of the screen in its own little section. Within this section I can “edit my cart” or “proceed to checkout”. I suddenly decide I hate this cable and I do not want to buy it, so I click on the “edit my cart” button. At the shopping cart page, my one item is displayed along with my subtotal underneath it. Under the details of the item are the options “delete” or “save for later”. I’m not really sure what save for later means and how it works, but I don’t really care. I want to delete my item. So I click on the link and the item vanishes from my cart (without even changing pages). In its place there is a confirmation that my item was removed, and a link back to that item.
All in all, I would say that this hypothetical online shopping experience was probably one of the least painful I’ve had in a while. Had I not deliberately taken my time to notice all the details I was going through for my process, I could have done this in about five minutes or less (instead of an hour and a bit since I wrote while I went through the site). Amazon.com is a very user friendly website, in my opinion, for several reasons Mr. Krug mentions in his book. I only needed to scan through certain items on the pages before I found what I want, and even when I barely typed my query in the search bar the website did the thinking for me. The layout was also pretty clean so it was easy to tell the differences between the sections of the page. No wonder Amazon.com had so many praises from Mr. Krug, especially since the site has probably changed quite a bit since 2005. 10/10 would hypothetically shop again.
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Chelsey Wassel- Monthly Review 1
Chelsey Wassel
Bi-Weekly Review 1
Intro to Web Design
1/23/14
Nike
I chose Nike for my bi-weekly review. Nike is a corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and selling of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. They sell mostly sports related items and workout attire for men, women and children.
The color scheme of white and grey with black text and search bars is pleasing. Their logo is mainly black and white so I understand why they went with that scheme. Whenever I put my curser above one of the drop down menus like “men” for example, the text turns orange. They did this to show clearly what your curser is over and what tab you are about to click on. It’s a subtle way to add color to the webpage.
Across the top is multiple drop down menus. The first one is a Nike symbol. If I want to go back to their homepage I simply click the logo. The rest of the menu bars include men, women, kids, sports, nike sportswear and Jordan. They show me all aspects of what different groups they have to offer. There is also a search bar right next to the menu bar. If I can’t what you are looking for I can search it. I don’t even need to pick which department I want to search in the drop down box if I don’t want to. When I choose a department like women, everything imaginable comes up under categories. If I am looking for sports bras in the women’s department, it is very simple to find under tops. I can click on a specific type of top or I can look at them all. I have many options for broad and specific items. It doesn’t take me very long to find what I am looking for. Everything I am looking for is in an obvious location. The departments go into categories and then specific items like pants or hoodies.
If I scroll through the homepage they have an area called “get the latest from Nike” and it has four pictures with descriptions on new offers. I can also click on those to bring me to the page about that new offer and item. Below that there is an area where I can follow or like Nike or even a specific Nike department like Nike Soccer. It brings me to the Nike Twitter or Facebook page. This is a great way to keep up with what Nike has to offer through social media. If I was to scroll down to the bottom of the the website it gives me options to get help, order or register with Nike. If I have any questions it can easily be answered there.
Overall the website is very usable to all users. There is no question on where a topic would be. The departments and categories are easily displayed and navigable. I never once thought “where is this or where can I find that.” I can navigate through the site without any confession and find projects simply.
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Rachael Bald Bi-Weekly 1
Rachael Bald
Intro to Web Design
Professor Ames
1/23/2014
Bi-Weekly Review
I chose the web site JustFab, this website has many different things that are available to buy. They are most known for their shoes, which are very nice in quality and cheaper to buy. Going to their site they have multiple tabs that go to the different products that you wish to view. Looking at the products they are very organized and detailed to the product that you wish to look at. Going under the shoes tab, there are multiple different types of shoes by categories.
Going under the boots section, I chose a heeled boot to put it into the shopping tab. To be able to purchase this product first you have to sign into the website. You have to join their website, after making an account. With making the account you get a special deal with the company for being a first time user. They let you have two pairs of shoes for $39.95, this brings people to buy two pairs instead of one. After putting the items into the shopping cart they ask if you would like to shop more or if you are finished shopping. If you are finished shopping then click the finished button and this then leads you to the payment info. Going along with the reading This site makes it semi difficult for people to instantly purchase their products.
Which the reading says is a good thing because people should not be able to just put their product into the shopping cart and boom done. This site shows that they have safety things that make you go through all the steps in order to be able to purchase the product they want. This site also keeps it clean so people who are not very aquatinted with the internet they have an easy time looking for their products. This site does not have words that could be confusing to consumers. The colors are basic because their products are more colorful. This keeps the eye feeling comfortable and not seeing so many colors that they can not process which color is important. This website makes it very easy to buy the product that you are looking for.
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Monthly Review 1
http://shop.nhl.com/
I chose shop.nhl.com for my review. It is the Nation Hockey Leagues main apparel and merchandise website. The color scheme of the website is mainly basic and black and white as to not favor a particular team color. They give you options to shop buy jerseys, hats, etc, right at the top so it is easy to find is you are looking for something in particular. I selected a jersey off the front page that took me to another page with the jersey enlarged and the first thing that caught my eye was a big blue button that said “ADD TO CART”. This basically tells me that they don’t want you to think too much and click the nice big pretty button. After you click add to cart it directs you to another page where the “continue shopping” or “secure checkout” buttons are similar to the “add to cart” button. Overall I believe that the website basically bolds and highlights the main buttons to get in buy your merchandise and get out.
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Monthly Review 1 – Superherostuff.com
I hate crowds and long days of traveling from store to store searching endlessly for something, especially during the holidays. Online shopping has become my primary way of purchasing items for myself or for gifts. Also, because I would consider myself a nerd, it makes it easier to find apparel and other items of my favorite pop-culture subjects.
One of my favorite places is superherostuff.com. It has apparel and merchandise for superheroes, star wars, and other sci-fi or pop culture franchises. I never gave much thought to the layout of the site before reading a bit of “Don’t Make Me Think.” My initial thought of the site is that it’s a mixed bag.
I can see how initially it might be overwhelming with the colors and images of all the superheroes at the top. However, the site does a good job of categorizing based on merchandise type or franchise. If you are a shopper looking for a gift, the categorization makes it easy to browse based on merchandise type, or if you are looking for someone’s favorite hero, looking at all the merchandise with that hero on it. The most confusing aspect might be whether or not you understand that the images of the superheroes at the top actually link to all the merchandise with that particular hero. Once you click on a hero, you come to a page that lists all the merchandise types, or you can scroll to see the most popular items or all the merchandise. On this page is also navigation on the left that allows you to categorize based on merchandise type, and a drop down to choose other heroes.
At the top of all the pages is a search bar that does a really good job helping a user understand that merchandise is categorized by type or franchise. As soon as you type the first letter, it begins trying to figure out what you are looking for. It drops down a menu matching your search that shows product categories, hero or villain, popular searches that match, and products that match your search. As you type more letters, it refines its results. The other nice thing is the thumbnails in the search menu drop down. If it’s a character you’re searching for, it shows a thumbnail that you can click on. It also shows thumbnails of products that may match your search, that you can click to navigate to the appropriate page.
Ultimately, when you get past how busy the home page looks, the links and categories help you narrow your search in any way you need to find the product you may be looking for.
-Chris Mielo
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Review Target (Donna Muschar)
The website I have chosen is Target for review. Target is a department and grocery store that is in competition with stores such as Kmart and Walmart. Target usually puts a theme for their sale of the week on the homepage, this weeks is a sale on furniture. They also include a section on the right of the page for additional featured sales.
Color scheme is white and red. Target tries to base their brand identity on fast fun and friendly service along with being community and family oriented.
Search features include a search bar and categories of product. After mousing over a category, a small sub category menu pops up to further narrow your search. A coupons section and popular items section is shown on the bottom of the homepage too. After selecting Active Wear for women a sale Selection is shown along with a scroll bar below for popular picks in the active wear section. The Active wear sale banner allows users to view active wear from mens and kids too, in case the user would want to search under those categories for others in their family.
Many of the pages use the tactic of displaying sales as what you would see first under any category. Upon selecting a product multiple views are available with the product then price, then size and color choices showing up. Has a clear hierarchy for the eye to follow. A free promotion “Buy 50$ get free shipping” appears next to the “add to cart” button. The button itself is in pink, not really sure why it strays away from the color scheme.
After an item is added a screen comes up that clearly shows what you have bought, cost and color. It allows you to continue shopping, explore popular items or proceed to checkout. After you push the check out it takes you to another screen that allows you to do more shopping or check by where to ship it then continue the checking out. The top of the screen throughout the check out process offers a phone number and a option to view FAQ about checking out. The next screen allows users to sign in (unless you did already on the homepage.) Then from their you continue to checkout in a sequential manner.
I like Targets website and the store, everything is defined clearly and allows users to navigate easily through several options. There is no confusion as to where you need to go to view products.
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Monthly Review 1
Where would the world be if there wasn’t online shopping? It allows even the shut ins to get what they want/need. I chose Kpoptown.com as my monthly review this time. Its an online store for merchandise of different Korean bands.
When you open the main homepage, your brain is overloaded by bright colors. The majority of the page is a bright pink and white, but as you scroll down changes and add some bright blue. There is so much information on the screen that it takes so long to process it all. There’s no real organization at all. There’s different categories to shop by in a pink bar across the top. Cd, collectible, by artist, jewelry, accessory, cosmetics, brand, fashion, lenses, wigs, and food. There is no real organization to the categories as well. The homepage is so long that half of it won’t even be seen. It is not simple in any way. Half way down there is a discount code and there is another one all the way at the bottom. I suppose its like a reward for reading the whole page, but its really not useful. Mid-top of the page is a set of pictures, but they scroll by so quickly, that you don’t really have a chance to look at it That was just the homepage.
So I recently went to a U-Kiss concert and I decided to look for a U-Kiss light stick. I clicked on the search bar, since I wasn’t even gonna mess with searching through the categories, but sadly it turned up no results. The annoying the was that it didn’t even offer suggestions to something similar. Feeling slightly less enthusiastic, I searched for just light stick, just to see what options were available. The results pulled up several pictures of different light stick options. They all had their prices listed underneath their picture which was a nice feature. I chose the Super Junior light stick because that is a group I am familiar with.
When you click on it and open the item info page, it shows you information about it, the discount that was applied, the different members you could choose from, and pictures of the item from different angles. On the left hand side, there is a side bar that lists different items for different artists, not similar at all to the item I was viewing. I added the product to the cart which flew the picture to where the cart was located which made it easier to find on the page.
At check out, there was once again to much information on the page. In bright red letters, the site advises you to make sure what you are ordering is not a pre-ordering item and to choose USD for payment since this site caters to many different countries. The cart itself shows the light stick that I’m pretending to buy, that it is available, the number I’m buying, and the total price of that item, plus the shipping cost. It then gives you the option to include any coupons and vouchers, including the ones on the homepage most people probably didn’t see. It also shows items other customers bought as a last ditch attempt to get you to buy more. It then asks you to make an account, put in the delivery and billing addresses, asks you again to make sure it is not a pre-order and that the currency is in USD, choosing the delivery options, and payment methods. And that is all on one page. It scrolls and scrolls. The page shouldn’t be that long. All of that would have been much easier on the eyes if it had been over several pages. It then takes you to where you can pay by pay pal.
My assessment of the site? It is way to complicated for the computer illiterate. Since I have had experience with the shopping on the site, I was able to navigate it pretty easily. However, someone who has no experience in the subject matter whatsoever would have a terrible time trying to buy something. I think the only reason this store is still running is because it is the only one I’ve come across that sells the products.
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Monthly Review #1 – Sean Gavin
I did my research on DicksSportingGoods.com, They are a very, very popular website with a lot of options for you to pick from. After I did the reading in the book I realized that nearly everything they said was exactly right about how most people view and search through websites. The book talked about how most people don’t really read anything on websites and kind of just skim through the pages looking for exactly what they want unless they are browsing around. Also how a lot of people can become confused on the website pages because they are unsure about the options that are in front of them, therefore leading them to get frustrated and go check out another site. I was interested in finding and purchasing some new football gloves for wide receivers, Cutters to be exact. When I first clicked onto the website it was very organized even with various options everywhere on the page. At the top, right in front of your eyes they have a bar going across with every category and item that they offer. If you move your mouse over top of the category or click on it, it will open up with many more simplfied categories in which you can pick from. Although the categories have many more subcategories, you can still easily process what you are looking at because it is very organized. Also on the main page, they have all the discounts and specials blown up so you literally can not miss them. At the very, very top they have a search bar where you can search anything that you are interested in or are curious at looking at. I searched football gloves into the search bar and instantly every brand of football gloves showed up for me to choose from. On the side it again listed all the brands for me to pick from, which was where I saw the Cutters Gloves. The website gave me the options to zoom in and out on the gloves and also gave me different angles to view the gloves at. I could also pick what size and color that I wanted to get or view. On the side of the gloves they gave you a brief and quick write up about the gloves and a rating bar. After all that I then simply added the gloves to my cart and continued to purchase. No thought process or second guessing went through my mind when doing all of this. You then go to “Proceed To Checkout” to continue your order where it then leads you to another page where you can add all your information, delivery options, payment methods, review and submit, and then order confirmation. Overall I think that DicksSportingGoods.com is a great, well put together, and organized website for people to easily access. Even if you have never used a computer before you could easily figure out Dick’s Sporting Goods website. I have been on many, many websites before, some that are good and some that are completely terrible and very confusing. There really wasn’t one thing that I could complain about with the website and I am a big fan of it.
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Monthly Review #1: Newegg
I decided to take a look at newegg.com for my monthly review. While I didn’t have too much trouble finding an item that satisfied my needs, I definitely think the usability could make some marked improvements but following the principles summarized in pg 10-29 of Dont Make Me Think!
For my item, i decided to look into buying a graphics card for a gaming PC. A few of my requirements were that it had to be Intel based, power some where in the middle to upper range, and at least 2GB of dedicated memory. Upon going to the newegg.com home page I was surprised at how many navigation elements were present and couldn’t help but feel that much of it could be consolidated or reorganized. Shopping is mainly governed by one tiered nav bar on the left side of the page. It lists categories with menus that fan out to make more specialized choices. These fanned out menus, in turn, have their own headers. This section in itself isn’t too difficult to use when you realize the shear quantity of product categories Newegg offers. That being said, I think some improvements could be made. For example, the fanned menus have a set height and display choices one after another in vertical columns with each new category heading being displayed directly after the last item in the previous category. These means that category headings are displayed randomly inside the menu as opposed to at the top of each column where they might be easier to recognize. Also, some of the fanned menus seem to use bold blue headings with gray subheadings and some seem to use just the bold blue or the gray. This leads to more confusion in regards to navigation hierarchy. Beyond this main bar, there are several more navigation blocks on the home page. There is a small horizontal one centered at the top that seems to be vaguely purposed towards user tasks. It lists “My Account” and “My Newegg” which do seem related if not rather redundant. Latest Email Deals and Gift Cards are also lumped into this bar. At the very top of the page is the shopping card and “login/register” links. I think this link’s existence conflicts with the last bar I talked about. Clicking “Login” takes you to the same exact page as clicking “My Account” does when you aren’t logged in. Why include both of these links when they are likely to confuse the users’ eyes?
Since I didn’t have a specific product in mind for my search, I decided to use the left nav bar to find a suitable item. Under Computer Hardware, and then under the Computer Components subheading I saw “Video Cards and Video Devices.” This seemed like the logical place for graphics/video cards so I clicked there and, sure enough, was brought to the right page. On this new page my eye immediately went to the left because that was were the previous navigation had been. Although the new menu had different styling, it was what I needed. I looked past the bitcoin mining promotion and featured products on the page itself and clicked “Desktop Graphic Cards” on the left nav. Finally now on the left side of the screen I had a huge list of options for narrowing down my search. The very first one being the name of GPU itself. I ran into a moment of hesitation here because all of the ones listed before clicking the expand button were Radeon (AMD) whereas I wasted GeForce (Intel). Because I couldn’t see any GeForce before clicking the expand, it made me wonder for a second where the Intel GPU’s were listed. There was, however, a Chipet Manufacturer option lower down that allowed me to select NVIDIA (Intel) to narrow down my search without selecting a specific GPU. From there it was easy to specify the kind of card I was looking for. I used the option on the left nav to select an Intel Card with 2GB of memory for $200-$300. I settled one an MSI card after reading reviews and clicked add to cart.
The shopping cart experience was much more straightforward. After going through to view my cart, I noticed that it automatically added the free game I got with my card which I thought was a nice touch. From there it was simply a matter of adding my billing and shipping information, entering any promotional/coupon codes, and clicking confirm.
All in all, I think Newegg’s site will be usable enough for most people but suffers from bloating due to just how many products it offers. The navigation has the right elements, they just need to be organized further with more emphasis placed on where users’ eyes tend to go and how people look at navigation. I think even with their volume of products, the amount of top level navigation on the homepage could be greatly decreased.
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Monthly Review #1
Brandi Calhoun
JustFab.com
Of course when you are a commuter student and have multiple breaks in between your classes, with no dorm room or apartment to go back to, and you are just plain tired of school work, you always end up online shopping to pass the time. Well, that’s the case for me at least. I spend a lot of my time on my MacBook on campus, and it’s using Adobe software, social networking, or online shopping.
Recently, I’ve seen advertisements on Facebook for “JustFab.com.” As I’m scrolling through my news feed, this advertisement just keeps popping up and taunting me. It was telling me that all shoe styles (boots, flats, heels, wedges, sandals) were only $39.95 and always free shipping. It also informed me that you receive 20% off your first item. So obviously I clicked.
I really wanted a pair of chestnut colored boots with gold embellishments. I found where it listed the shoes, which was a bit confusing because it was under the drop down menu “Top Sellers,” along with “Handbags,” “Jewelry,” and “Denim.” Once I found the shoe department though, there were options of which type of shoes I was looking for, so automatically I clicked “Boots.” Once I clicked “Boots,” it gave me even more options on what type of boot I was looking for (like flat, ankle, knee-high, combat, wide calf). I was moreover looking for flat boots. I started scrolling down through the boots and what do you know? I found the perfect pair that I had imagined in my mind.
The thumbnails of each boot were very clear and when you roll your mouse over the image, the image changes to the boot being worn, which is extremely nice because you can see how high the boot goes on your leg, etc. I clicked on the “Buy now” button and I was easily able to view different angles of the boot, different colors, and reviews of the boot. I picked my size and clicked “Add to Bag.” A little pop up menu came up telling me that the item was waiting for me in my shopping cart. All I had to do was click the “X” in the corner and I could go right back to shopping, instead of some websites, where they leave you off in your cart so you cannot easily go right back to where you were shopping.
BUT, instead of shopping more, I went right to my cart and went through their easy payment process. I got 20% off my perfect pair of boots and also free shipping. They arrived in just under a week and fit perfectly (they do offer free exchanges also, just in case). I’d say it was a steal; quick and easy also.
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Monthly Review #1 – Madison Kozlowski
The website I chose to review was Etsy.com. I have never ordered anything from this site but I have heard of multiple people that have. Etsy is a page that allows crafters and people with specialty skills to sell their products on this site and grow their business. Because of the immense number of creative members there is a very unique and wide range of products sold on the site, including but not limited to, specialty gifts, food, art, furniture, men, women and children’s apparel, and wedding accessories.
The site was extremely simple to use and straight-forward. The first thing I saw when I opened the page was the search bar in the center at the top of the page asking me, “What are you looking for?”. Directly under that was a bar of product options/departments to help make the users selection easier. I clicked on jewelry and the site once again helped me make a decision while browsing. The jewelry section was broken down once more into different categories in alphabetical order. Sections of jewelry like Body, Bracelets, Brooches, Earrings ect. were displayed. After choosing your style, it was very easy to browse the products for many reasons. Each pair of earrings had a decent sized picture, accompanied by the username of the seller, and the price. You can also refine your search by limiting the products to vintage, homemade or all, as well as choose a price range and a location of where the items are made. I found it interesting to type Pittsburgh and see what products came up. I proceeded to put an item in the cart and was pleasantly surprised to see a comment section in the shopping cart where you can write a note to the seller with any additional information or special requests. This feature made my purchase feel personal and I felt like they seller, as well as the entire Etsy business, appreciated my purchase.
Overall I was very surprised at the usability of this website. It is not nearly as popular as other retail sites like Amazon, Overstock and Eastbay. Even my Grandfather, who has never used a computer in his entire life, would be able to successfully navigate this website and make a purchase. I never felt confused or overwhelmed while browsing the site. All of Etsy’s trigger words were straight-forward and the homepage was easily navigable. Chapters 1 and 2 were very enlightening as to why this website may be set up the way it is. The textbook highlighted that users love to skim web pages. I noticed that there was no section describing the website or any paragraphs at all. Nothing on the website was more than a few sentences long, which is ideal for all users who skim. The text also spoke about ‘optimal choices’ and how most humans don’t make the best choice on a page due to the Back button. Etsy provided many choices on the home page that were clear-cut and if I had a product I was looking for, I believe it would have been uncomplicated to find, without having to use the back button.
I cannot think of any criticism to the site other than it was rather bland with hardly any color. However, this may be being used as a technique to make the site easier to use and have a less overwhelming feel. I may feel this way because I am used to navigating ecommerce sites that I wouldn’t be bothered by more colors. Either way, Etsy surprised me by its overall navigability and simplicity.
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Monthly Review : Aliexpress
I’m all about being cheap when shopping online, always trying to keep in within my budget. So when I discovered Aliexpress, I knew I hit the mother load. It’s a wonderful site that lets you buy almost anything, aside from perishable food, you can purchase hair products, wedding dresses, car accessories, almost anything you can think of, they might have. Best part about this site, is that most items come with free shipping, and who doesn’t love free shipping. Of course only if you have the patience to wait about thirty days, since it’s shipped directly from china.
The site itself is clean and very organized, which is probably what attracted me to it in the first place. It allows the user to browse through endless categories and merchandise, the site makes it easier if you want it in a certain size and or color(s) which I think makes shopping an even more enjoyable process, or if your just looking for a specific item or something in that general area. Everything is easy to navigate through, and very direct. You’ll have to set up an account if you want to buy things, but it’s free so no worries. When you search for things, you have the option of making it into a list view or a grid view, it’s up to the buyer to decide which view would enhance their shopping experience, and a girl like me like to have her options open.
Usually once your item of desire has arrived, you have the option of leaving a star rating and a comment, if you choose not to that is fine as well. The rating is what helps the item to be recognize, sort of the positive and negatives feedback that usually helps buyers decide if they wish to buy it or not, or the buyer could use the rating to judge the quality of the seller.
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