ARTM2210 Intro to Web Design
Just another Intro to… siteArchive for Spring 2013 b
Blog Post #2: One Page Love Review
For my “One Page Love” monthly review, I chose to analyze a one page wedding website from http://nobodybabybutyouand.me/. Though I am not typically a fan of wedding websites (I’ve always viewed them as a little pointless), this one stood out to me. It was tasteful, simple, and cute, with the personality of the couple reflected from every possible angle, from color to texture.
The color palette of the website is somewhat limited. The main color is an off white canvas color, with lots of yellow and black thrown into the mix to add a little dimension and contrast. Yellow is a very visible and energizing color that often symbolizes happiness. Because of its attention drawing qualities, yellow was the first color that I noticed when I opened the web page, and is used in the majority of heading information in one way or another. For example, the initial heading of the web page is “Sarah Butsch + Sean Collins Are Getting Married.” Though there is not any yellow incorporated into the initial heading, two yellow arrows draw the viewer’s eye towards the black text heading, with sub headings sitting along each arrow. Yellow is also used to highlight the second heading of the webpage in the “We’re Getting Married” section. There is also a small yellow heart between an animation of Sarah and Sean that draws the viewer’s eye towards the couple, confirming that the site is, indeed, all about Sarah and Sean. Yellow is also used as a background color, seemingly painted on the canvas as a watercolor (most of the paintings are hearts, with the occasional tree thrown in.
Black is also used throughout the website, mostly in text and in a heading that appears as the viewer scrolls down through the site. Black symbolizes strength and elegance (and seems to “go” well with the off white canvas background and bright yellow accents).
The final color used in Sarah and Sean’s website is an off white grayish beige color (I’m not sure how else to describe it). Because white symbolizes cleanliness, perfection, and purity, one could concur that off white symbolizes slight uncleanliness, imperfection, and impurity (just a guess). This could inadvertently be pointing to the fact that no couple is perfect. Every couple has their ups and downs, their imperfections and their uncleanly corners. But what truly matters is their happiness together (symbolized by the color yellow) and the strength that they find in each other (symbolized by the color black).
Another important element used in this one page site is texture. There are so many awesome textures happening on this one page. The first texture I noticed as the canvas like texture background of the page. This texture could symbolize a multitude of things, such as: the couple’s artistic nature or the idea of the couple’s relationship being a masterpiece that is still being “painted” (so to speak). Thought I do not know if these of these ideas are true, they are very relevant possibilities.
The second texture I noticed in this web page is the watercolor texture that seems to be “painted” on the canvas. Everything on the page has a very artsy, corky feel, including the use of watercolors. There are two main items depicted with the watercolors: hearts and trees. One small tree towards the middle, one large tree at the bottom, and a multitude of hearts in between. There is also a large blot of yellow watercolor texture used to group the photos and accommodations sections of the website, which does not really make any sense. The photos and accommodations sections do not seem to be related in any way, so I’m not sure why the designer chose to group them. Maybe they connect in the mind of the bride and groom or in the mind of the designer.. but in my mind, I definitely do not see the connection.
As a whole, the canvas texture unites the website while the watercolor texture breaks it up into various sections (except for the photos and accommodation sections). Both the use of color and texture work together to create different sections and headers that have unity.
As far as site content and navigation is concerned, the site is very easy to navigate and content was fairly easy to find. There is a header at the top of the page that remains at the top of the page as the viewer scrolls down the site, with categories that correspond to those seen on the site, including our story, the wedding, photos, accommodations, register, and RSVP. My favorite part about this site is the fact that friends and family who were invited to the wedding can RSVP on the website. How cool is that! What a unique and orderly way to get people to respond to a wedding information. The RSVP portion asks for the guest’s name, email, number of guests, names of guests, with a section for a private message to the bride and groom. All in all, I was able to navigate this site without much thought and now have an understanding of who the couple is.
This one page website’s use of color, texture, content, and navigation all work together to create a very aesthetically appealing site that gives the viewer an idea of the couple’s personality and tastes without overloading on information. As a whole, I would deem it very successful not only in style, but also in navigation.
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biweekly review 2:one page overveiw everylastdrop.co.uk
Water is an invaluable resource and everylastdrop .co.uk illustrates how much we waste in litres albeit. The site is full of color and at first glance is lacking in color.
The pastel color seem to be through out and give some very detailed illustrations.
We follow a red headed brit through his day as we scroll. As we go panel from panel the background and our friend the brit fall flawlessly into place. It is quite magical to see it happen. We constantly see how much water is wasted on everyday activities such cooking food taking baths and showers. It gets it message across very well. I feel like I should be doing something about the problem.
However I do find some problems in the site. I feel the pastels water down the message. I fell like the site could have you darker colors and ccould have come across a lot stronger. I feel the colors are just to bright for such a serious message.
This is not the only thing that I fid wrong with. I find myself asking the question does detail replace texture. The answer for me is no. The detail does not look like you can feel it with your hand a key characteristic of texture. The site could be little more interactive and give more facts but other those little gripes I find myself satisfied by the site.
This is very interesting site. It important message gets across well through the text. The scrolling and transition between the pieces of information are practically seem but tend to be slow in some part leaving me to feel a bit awkward.
The colors are a little t o bright for the message and there is a lot of texture missing from the site, which is apparently replaced by fine detail.
In retrospect, the site does what it needs to even with the few flaws it has. The message is something that should be heeded and I feel like the what makes the site should reflect the message in spades. This site just does not do it.
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Eichenlaub Monthly Review # 2
I chose everylastdrop.co.uk for my web site . This site talks about how much water a person uses each day in the United Nations. I chose this site because I liked the graphics that were used to make it as well as the use of colors. This site took a lot of work to put together and took great skill to get it to transition the way it does.
Navigation of the site is preatty easy as the site helps to show witch way to move and how far you have to move. Having to scrolly down is also a big help as it helps to display the information and point that the site tries to get across. The site also makes great use of transitions of the pictures on the site and how they move from one topic to another. I also liked how the bottom of the site is organized and displays information about more info on the site as well as a quick link back to the top.
I noticed a theme to the color that is used for this site. I noticed that I used the same combination of color scheme throught the site. The site seams to use an analogous scheme as the colors seam ajacent to one another and you can tell the difference between the colors. The site also uses the use of colors that are close to comparison as when we see lighter shades of blue, green or even pink. This site seams to use this color style for the purpose of displaying texture and the design of shapes that are in the site. The similar colors in a way are prehaps used to show tints on glass, the shadow that is cast by the sun, or the outline for certain shapes. What I find most amazing about the color of the site is that the color seems to change to another color right before our eyes and with little jumps. It makes the transitions seem less real and less fake.
The texture and shapes that are used in this site are pretty standard, but are important to point out. I like how many objects share the same kind of shape but can still be told apart. I also like how it uses a combination of geometric and freeform shapes in unity and displays the picture. The depth and volume of the site is however maybe a little too flat. All of the images that we see on the site appear to be flat and we can’t seem to tell the difference with the space between objects. I do like the way that we see a man going through his daily routine. The rythm and flow he goes through is very straight forward and doesn’t skip a beat or get off track. Minimal texture use seems to work well for the site but I think that maybe just a little might be good at bring out more detail of things so we understand them more.
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Monthly Review 2 – http://everylastdrop.co.uk/
For my second monthly review, I chose the one-page interactive site http://everylastdrop.co.uk/. The first thing that drew me to the site was the graphics. They are cartoony, playful, colorful and easy to understand. The layout is simple where you can either scroll yourself or click on the arrow in the bottom-right hand of the page; I chose to scroll myself. I like that when you scroll, you can see the images slide into place and they reverse if you scroll upwards on the page. It is easy to understand and each “scene” has a different message relating to the concept of “Every Last Drop.” Little side notes pop up and give short facts about the concept and there is a short video at the end. The little blurbs of information are enough to keep the user interested, without being too lengthy that the user goes to another page. To add to the layout, the colors of the graphics are playful and not too distracting and keep you interested to keep scrolling to the bottom; and everything has its own place.
Texture is used often on “Every Last Drop.” There are lines making up all sorts of different patterns from shower curtains to the lines on the road. The graphics are colorful, aesthetically pleasing, and mainly consisting of basic shapes. The color palette is also very pleasing and basic, consisting mainly of pinks, blues, yellows, and purples. Blues are among the most popular color on the site, which adds an intelligent, calming feel to the web page. It also is associated with water, which adds to the site’s message about conserving water.
The overall message of this single-page-site is effective through the use of color, line, and content. The graphics illustrate a clear understanding of what the site is about and it communicates well with the user. The scroll is easy to use (and find for that matter) and it navigates smoothly to the end. Lines create a subtle, yet noticeable texture and the use of basic shapes I think add to the site’s list of benefits in regards to making it easy for the user to understand what is being illustrated. The content is also easy to follow and easy to scan until the user reaches the bottom of the page where the video will play. Overall, I enjoyed the “Every Last Drop” interactive site and would visit it again.
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Bi-monthly review 2 : single-page site
I chose to evaluate the Italian website for the movie Warm Bodies. (http://www.warmbodies.it/)
The site’s color scheme consists of mostly red background and elements, with black and white accents (primarily the text and some paint smears and painted-stencil style hearts), which also shows up in the photo elements. The clothes the characters are wearing stick with a red, grey, and dull brown scheme – the only major violations of that here are the male lead’s blue jeans (though they are dull enough to not be noticeably outside the scheme), the female lead’s blonde hair (also blends in well), and the daisies being presented in the photo at the end of the page. The primarily red scheme suits the movie excellently, as red elicits thoughts and feelings of both passion and love [Principles, ch.2], relevant as this is a romantic-comedy type of movie, and the adrenaline of a horror/action setting[Principles, ch.2], particularly the zombie outbreak setting of the movie. I also like how the yellow daisies stand out from the color scheme, as yellow is associated with both happiness and energy/activity [Principles, ch.2] – the happy/lively feeling this gives off is a great way to contrast the romantic-comedy story against the hoards of undead that surround it.
The background has a hard texture to define – it seems kind of paper-y in my opinion, with the folds you can see on it in some places. Then, there are a lot of paint effects in red and white – mostly some basic smears of paint with text and images set on them. I really enjoyed the painted-stencil style hearts with the pain drips as a fairly direct but still stylishly subtle, non-overpowering indication of the love theme. The movie title is large and centered at the top, which has a nice feel because the large image of the male lead is also centered right below it, so it flows down well. The other text and elements are placed on the page in relation to this central image of the lead and mostly alternate from being on one side of him to the other, with the exception of the Gallery, which is centered right over his legs. Again, this creates a good smooth flow. After using Google Translate on the non-title text (so, not Galleria, Il Cast, Il Film, or others that were clearly sections or content terms), I found that “l’amore prende vita” translates to “love comes to life” and “l’eternitá éun attimo” translates to “forever and a moment” – I love the use of these little phrases in the page, because they are so relevant to the zombie love story theme. The font choice also goes along with the painted-stencil theme. I appreciate that choice, because it has a good kind of grunge-y feeling that fits well with the zombie outbreak setting. Speaking of zombies, one particular lineup of zombies is used, each time with a red color effect, 5 times throughout the page – the header background, the full lineup pictured on the background behind the male lead’s legs, and the three backgrounds of the cast name cards in the bottom section. I really feel it would have been better to only use the image behind the lead’s legs, because the positioning kind of gives this manufactured perspective that makes it seem like maybe the lead has stepped out of line of the other, mindless zombies, emerged from the pack, and regained his mind and individuality (a primary plot in the movie), a perspective and implied meaning that is helped by the other zombies’ red coloration, causing them to blend in to the background, as opposed to the lead’s full coloration, which makes him stand out very much. I’m not really a fan of the image’s use in the header and name card backgrounds – it kind of feels like overdoing the use of one image, and I think the designers could have found alternatives that were at least as good if not better. Even just using more paint smears for the name cards would have worked fine. Below the lead’s feet, there is a thick red line which creates a new, distinct section of the page for the photo of the leads together, another heart, a repetition of “l’eternitá éun attimo,” and the cast name cards. I enjoy that they created a new section at the bottom that has a full scene feeling to it, showing the two leads together in a semi-romantic position for the first time on the page. The cast section could have been offset from the main image of the male lead, in my opinion, to kind of go along with all the other informational sections. But, even if they would have fit up there with the other content, that would cause the need to fill that side of the lower section with something else, because I definitely like the current positioning of the leads and the heart, and it would feel unbalanced with the other side totally blank.
I have a few comments from a single-page site standpoint. I like that there is a stationary (in that it stays with you as you scroll, on the top, side, and bottom of your browser window) header, sidebar of social media options, and footer. If a visitor doesn’t feel like scrolling through the page, the header has links to jump to each section of the page. I must say, other than the cursor change upon hovering, it is a little difficult to tell which text throughout the page is a link and which is just text, but that is also affected by the fact that the page is in Italian, in which I am not fluent. Also, the text elements – some of them, at least, move independently from th images as you scroll. So, if you watch the text when you scroll, you will see it move up or down in relation tot he image. I found it easiest to see this with the title and the text, “dai produttori di Twilight” moving in relation to the male lead’s head. It doesn’t necessarily bother me, but it is noticeable. I also noticed that if the browser window width is changed, most of the elements will shift over appropriately, but at a certain point in shrinking the window width, the far sides will be cut off and and can’t be revealed again through side-scrolling. It is a flaw that would probably not be noticed by many, but come to my attention while trying to fit the webpage and the Word document I’m typing in side-by-side on my screen. As mentioned before, I like the way they chose to lay out the page and the way it all flows nicely along with and around the central image.
The site has some technical flaws – small and barely noticeable – but ultimately I enjoy it for its design. The colors and textures (red, white, black, grunge-y paint), as well as the content choices (hearts, daisies, male lead seeming to step out of the zombie crowd) capture the themes and feel of the movie excellently, and the single-page design works beautifully.
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eBay
For the monthly review, I chose to review eBay. Yes, it is not quite like Amazon but it has the same concept; search for what you want, bid/buy, and receive eBay has grown to be very user friendly from when I first remember coming across it. The way that there are categories right on the main page is an enormous plus on eBay’s part because if you came to the site to just look for something there are many categories and sub-categories within those main categories to find something specific EASILY. The way bread crumbing works on the site also is a plus because you can easily find your way back to categories that you were previously at.
The search bar itself is such a helpful tool. The way you start to type something in and suggestions pop up to help assist you in what you’re searching for is very user friendly. It even shows what categories the items are in. That can also lead to items that can interest you even if you weren’t looking for then. Also not to mention on the main page you have a bunch of additional things that add to the brilliance of the website like daily deals and browse history and suggestions which makes it much easier on a customer to find something they previously were looking to purchase or look at.
When looking to purchase an item, everything is once again, very user friendly. Once you find the item page you would like to buy or bid on there is a large blue button to catch your attention from the rest of the page. It is not overwhelmingly large, it is just right. Once you would like to buy something it takes you to the payment process which takes you step by step to make it easy as possible. I love eBay, there is not much difficulty to it at all and anybody can go on it and figure it out if they have never been on it before.
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Monthly Review: Eastbay.com
I don’t really shop online too much except for some obscure items I may need. Really I’ve only ever bought anything from Amazon.com. I don’t want to review Amazon.com. So I decided, I could use a new pair of shoes. Why don’t I hit up an old grade school standby Eastbay.com? Since I was a kid “Eastbay” catalogues were always at school. A new issue would come out and that’s all kids wanted to read about, the new shoes and exclusives that would be available.
I’ve been using computers probably since I could talk. So immediately upon the page loading, I see no real issues. That being said, I’ve become numb to the incredible amount of ‘wrongs’ a web designer can bring to a site. So I have to take in the site objectively.
Now, upon loading the page (In a new perspective) the site is not much to look at. A bunch of information is crammed in at the top, a 1-800 number, a help button along with my account and recently viewed tabs. Interestingly enough there is a live chat option available too. Directly underneath these tabs are more tabs. And under those tabs are…you guessed it, more tabs. But at least these tabs have cool sub-menus. The third sets of menu tabs (white text on grey) are actually very helpful towards the navigation of the site. From here the user will be able to navigate to the brand they want, the sport they want or the type of clothing they want. There’s a sliding menu/banner with featured items that the user can click also slightly helpful. Overall the main page looks like a hamburger with the meat lettuce tomato and condiments surrounding the buns. Up top are a cluster of buttons and a flashing sliding menu. In the middle are various picture links to best selling apparel or just localized items. At the bottom are another smorgasbord of buttons and links to click, all in small black type that I don’t even care to read. I’m looking for shoes, why are you making me read things?
The search bar is at the top of the page. I’m looking for “Jordan Retro 9’s.” One of the many styles of Jordan brand shoes, if I were looking to buy a pair I’d buy this type. A quick entry and search leads to a simple layout of results, a mix of clothes and shoes. On the left is an extremely helpful menu; the user can filter their search with an abundance of options, from sport, color, price, gender, age, product type and rating (from other site users). This is probably the smartest feature of Eastbay.com. After filtering my search results I came to find that they currently don’t even offer the shoes I’m looking for besides for infants and toddlers.
I don’t really want to say Eastbay has a bad website. They have sufficient information available, but the means in which it is presented are a little confusing. The layout is far from interesting. And on top of that they don’t even have the product I wanted.
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Monthly Review: ThinkGeek.com
For my first monthly review I decided to look at ThinkGeek.com. When I first visited the site, I thought that everything was fairly easy to find and to navigate through. I personally appreciated the visuals the site provided since most of the eCommerce sites are usually pretty dull and boring to look at. For me personally, that makes a site more difficult to navigate through because I get bored with it. Everything has a place on ThinkGeek.com. The name of the site is easy to see in the upper left-hand corner, the “hot items” are in the middle of the page where it scrolls through so the viewer can see them easily, the “shop-by-depatment” links run down the left hand side of the webpage and the search bar is located at the top. Because most other sites are set up like this it was easy to look through the site’s items and to search.
The navigation was also fairly simple. The accumulation of the links you click on show up in a bar above your current search which shows where you have been on the site (Home > Interests > Big Bang Theory >). I think this is a great feature for any site because if I want to go back a step or two it will tell me exactly where I was and direct me to the page I want to go. I had to think very little when using the site. I didn’t have to wonder if something was clickable or un-clickable; I could find where to look for things either in the search bar or among the categories along the left side; it wasn’t too busy that I wasn’t sure what I was looking at; I was able to move things to my cart easily; and there wasn’t a lot of text which made it easy to read and more engaging.
When adding items to my shopping cart it was very self explanatory. Some sites have you go though so many hoops just to complete an order. ThinkGeek.com was straightforward: once you add an item to your cart it takes you to the “purchase” screen where you can either enter your shipping address and credit card number, or you can continue shopping. If you continue to shop, the shopping cart remains in the upper right-hand corner and it tells you how many items that are in your cart and what your current bill is. It’s easy to get caught up in online shopping so I personally like this feature so I don’t go too overboard.
When looking at and navigating the site, it makes me realize how much work goes into making such a functional site. Just creating a home page, with plain text only was time consuming, and it makes you realize how much work and time goes into popular websites like ThinkGeek.com. If a website is not user-friendly or too confusing to look at, users will usually refer to another site that is better organized and can easily help them find what they want.
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Monthly Review: American Eagle Outfitters (ae.com)
For my e-commerence site review, I chose to do AE.COM which is American Eagle Outfitters website because one I love to shop there and two there headquarters are downtown in the Southside. Upon visiting the website the first thing I noticed was the color scheme and visual aspects of the website. There website uses whites mostly, but there are hints of yellow and navy blue throughout it too. At the top of the website there are 3 tabs that can take you to each of their stores one for american eagle, aerie and the aeo factory. To the right of that is sign in if you have an account, ae rewards, my favorites, and my bag which holds the items you put in it. Below that is the american eagle logo and below that are tabs for Men, Women, Footwear, College+Pro and Clearance. The rest of the site has photos where there are links to there new arrivals in mens and women’s clothes, footwear and so on.
Placing items in your bag is easy on ae.com. So i added a pair of jeans to my bag and after you hit add to bag and it adds the item to your bag you go to the box that pops up at the bottom of your screen and shows you all the items, lets you remove them easily, enter codes/discounts. It tells you the exact price you will pay including shipping and tax and has a tab to go to checkout. To close this tab all you have to do is hit the down arrow in the corner and it disappears to the bottom and you can continue shopping and click on it whenever you want to checkout or edit something in your bag.
I think american eagle does a great job in designing their website so things are easy to find and navigate. One thing I love about their website is that the checkout process isn’t a hassle but very easy to do and because of that I have ordered a lot more of their website instead of always going to the store and hoping they will have what I want. I like that the website isn’t overbearing in their color scheme it is pleasing to the eye and simple, which helps in making it easier to use. So overall I say that american eagle’s website is easy to use and makes it easy for me to buy and get what I want.
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Monthy Review: Musicians Friend
Musicians Friend is a website I use when I need new equipment for my guitars, or when I need accessories for miscellaneous things. It is fairly easy to use, and I am always able to locate the items that I need. On the home screen I knew exactly where to go, as there is a link for guitars right at the top. I could then narrow my search when scrolling over the “guitar” link. There are sub categories where you can choose electric, acoustic, and other things to narrow what you are looking for.
When I clicked on guitars, it gave me a list of 20 guitars to choose from, and options to view more. Another easy feature is the links on the left side that help you narrow your search down to a specific guitar/item.
The search bar on the site is also very easy to use. All you have to do is type in exactly what you want, and it gives you a page of all the things your search matches. From there all you have to do is find the item you want, then click on it. After that, there is a very obvious button beside the picture of the item that says “ADD TO CART”. I found there wasn’t much thinking involved besides choosing the item that want.
Musicians Friend is a very easy site to navigate, and a good place to get music equipment fast and without much thinking.
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Monthly Review : Amazon.com
I choose to review Amazon.com, a website I have bought so much from without ever realizing how easy it was to do. For me, the first thing I see when you get to the site is the large search bar, waiting for me to type anything in it. Recently, I have bought a microphone, and without knowing much about them I just typed microphone into the search bar and it gave me hundreds of results. Even before I got the results, the predictive text feature already gave me several new search ideas. Anyways, on the results page, I think that everything is displayed neatly and very well organized. Everything has a picture, title, and a description, which makes the site very user friendly and easy to navigate. A lot of the text doesn’t look like it can be clicked, but just from using it I know that it is. For example, many people don’t look at the rating that items get, or even the sellers profile, they just look at the description and base their decision on that. When customers finally do make their choice, its pretty clear what to do. Click the big “Add to Cart” button the designer is tempting you to click. Overall, I think this site does a good job to attract and keep customers due to the clean, usable, professional feel of everything they have to offer.
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Monthly Review: Amazon
When i first visited Amazon it was very visually appealing and easy to make the viewer see things they might be looking for. The search bar is really easy to use and you do not need to use and keywords to find a item like in the example of the book. The search bar makes it easy to narrow down you search options by using the down tool menu. The color of amazon was nice and was not to flashy, and everything on the homepage was legible and easy to read. I like how i put in a few words like Role playing in the Video game section search and it brought up many games that are considered role playing and taking out any games that were not. I love how they have on the side menu other consoles that also may have role playing games if you can not find it in the section your in. Also the number of role playing games are beside each console so you know how many you will be seeing when you click on that link.
When i put in a ISBN number for my Adobe illustrator book it did an amazing job taking me to the book and i didn’t have any trouble finding the book. Also Amazon does a great job insuring to tell you what the best sell prices are for the items, or what people are selling the book for a good price. I like how Amazon makes the website easy to use and the keywords are not hard to use as long as you might know what category the item will be in, but i still believe this website has little frustration on people.
Overall the sight is one of those sights that does not take much to learn about. About anyone could use this sight and not blame the website of themselves for not being easy to use. There were no times when i used this site that it took me more then a millisecond to think. Everything on the site was accessible and so easy and Convenient to use. I will always use a site that takes minimal thinking over any website that makes me stress over it!!
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Monthly Review 1: Amazon.com
Being a Media Arts student requires you to have different editing softwares of your choice. My choice has always been Vegas Movie Studio. Recently I decided to upgrade my software and decided to buy it through Amazon to see if it was cheaper. To start off, any of these sites are fairly easy to use. It has a common search bar and if you want to find a certain product in a certain category, it has that function too. All of these websites have the main search bar with a category option to expand the search.
Amazon made it real easy for me as well, and required not much thought process. As long as you know what you are looking for, the site is easy enough to use. As far as buying the product, Amazon gives you a step by step process of entering in your shipping info, selecting a credit card to use, and making the final purchase. It even has a confirmation step to confirm what you are ordering is correct.
After making the purchase Amazon sends you an email to the email address you have entered in, allowing you to review your purchase once more and cancel any orders you may have not wanted.
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monthly reveiw 1:Thiswhyimbroke.com Vs Amazon by luke susko
Thisiswhyimbroke.com vs Amazon by Luke Susko
Thisiswhyimbroke.com is site that features items that appeals to my demographic.
However does it make it easy to find something you are looking for.
Upon first entering the site you will see featured products flash across the screen
Some image and a search box on the left hand side. The first thing I found myself asking
Is why isn’t it at the top of the page it would be easier to find. It is also hard to tell if you can click on the categories at the top of page until you hover over them. Let’s try to search for something. Well I noticed there is no drop down box to separate the categories. When I clicked on one of the categories, the search completely disappears.
There is no clear way back to the main page where I was before other than the back button.
So now lets try actually searching for something. Let say I searching for a wallet.
This is an actual improvement. It shows me option to buy and actually has the search option to search still. However it seems that the site is more a link website for other sites that sell the actual products.
Despite that oversight, let’s compare this site to one that actually sells things professionally. Lets go with amazon.com. There are clear and concise differences between the two. First and foremost the search box allows the separation of categories.
I going to search for the same thing and use that drop box item and select clothing and accessories. I find this difference staggering, Amazon allows you to limit you results even further down by different things like company, and even price, even better there is a clear way back to page before.
When it comes down to it Amazon is better site for finding a general variety of items, wile thiswhyimbroke.com is for finding more unique items that may not be features on sites like Amazon. In the end Amazon makes it easier to find what you are looking for and make you think a lot less the Thiswhyimbroke.com
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Monthly Review #1: Overstock.com
For my review of an e-commerce site, I decided to choose a website that I was not particularly familiar with. Thus, I chose Overstock.com (also called “The O”) to review.
Upon first visiting the site, all visual elements were very pleasing to the eye. The homepage of Overstock consists of mainly neutral colors with pops of color (mainly red) on the Overstock logo, the “search” button (adjacent to the logo), and in two locations mentioning free shipping on orders over $50. Yellow is also thrown into the mix, designating that a sale was in progress (placed over neutral colored photos).
I was easily able to find what I was looking for – the search bar, right next to the Overstock logo. I proceeded to type in my product (a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L lens) and pressed the bright red “search” button. The site indicated that there were 121 results for my search and laid them all out for me on a single page. The particular lens I was looking for was the first item on the list, followed by a 70-200 f/4 L. By scrolling over the picture of each item, I was able to find a blue “quick view” button that allowed me to see more details about the product, informing me about the price, quantity, and details of the product. There was also a green “add to cart” button. Obvious enough. However, I noticed there was another button that popped up when my mouse hovered over the picture of the lens… a plus sign. This was my first “don’t make me think” moment since being on the site. Unsure of what it was, I clicked it, and to my surprise the item I had my mouse hovered over was added to a “saved items” list… but not to my cart. A useful tool, but it definitely made me think. The button is not very obvious or informative to first time users.
After using the search bar, I decided to try out the navigation bar – which is fairly large. There are nine overarching categories for products, from “women” to “bedding and bath” to “worldstock,” all of which had extensive subcategories within them. It felt a little overwhelming at first, but because the labeling was so detailed I was able to easily navigate and find what I was looking for in a few short clicks (the search bar was still faster).
Overall, Overstock.com’s layout is very self-explanatory. Almost everything is clearly labeled (no odd names for the search/career button or for different options in the navigation bar). My only problem was the mysterious plus sign – helpful if you know what it’s supposed to do, but somewhat confusing if you don’t. This website definitely achieved the goal described in Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make me Think” of being effortless and easy to navigate for the average to unfamiliar web user.
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Monthly Review #1 – Fab.com
I chose to review Fab.com. It is primarily a home and apparel shopping site. At a first glance, the categories listed along the second navigation bar at the top are pretty basic but could definitely be improved and may present challenges for people unfamiliar with some of the lingo. They’d definitely require plenty of people to think. For example the Vintage and Young@Heart categories – “vintage” is largely a matter of opinion and it’s hard to know whether it’s the right place to look for what you want or not, and upon the first time visiting the website, there is no way I would know what Young@Heart is supposed to be or refer to and whether it is a section I want to be in. The dropdown display being triggered by hovering over the categories helps with that problem – which presents itself somewhat with even Furniture, Home, Pets, and Gifts & Gadgets – by showing the subcategories. But, even many of the subcategories take a bit of thought – like “Foodie” and “Tabletop” under Kitchen, “Pendant” under Lighting, and “Makes You Smile” under Gifts & Gadgets.
The first navigation bar at the top is originally made up of 7 buttons (as the Fab and a section that mentions free shipping on orders above $75 are not obviously buttons, but turned out to be), a search bar, and a login button. I like the use of the New and Sale buttons to help visitors find the newest products and the current deals. I’m personally not a fan of the live feed feature, the third button. It keeps track, second by second, of what other users are buying, liking, and sharing, but mostly just because it seems extraneous and you don’t really get what it is until you click the button. The same applies to the Calendar and Smile buttons – the Smile button turned out to just take me to a sort of informational page about Fab, which included a bunch of blog posts and was kind of oversized and overwhelming to me, but it did have a sectional navigation bar at the top that helped.
The search bar is a bit of a special case – when selected, it changes the other buttons of the top navigation bar into buttons to search by Price, Color, and Category. I like that to search by color they have swatches of the colors rather than just words, but my positive comments about searching end with that. The price ranges are huge, starting with $1-49.99, but widening as the prices increase ($50-99.99, $100-199.99, $200-499.99, $500-999.99, then $1000+) – this is somewhat understandable, because the prices on this website go very very high on some items, and if the ranges were made smaller the list of price ranges would be significantly longer, but it’s a negative feature to me. It is also a negative that these buttons can’t seem to be used in combination, but that is helped by the ability to narrow by color and sort by price in the product display area. The real issue I find is with the search bar itself – as far as I can tell, it will not allow you to simply carry out a keyword search – it displays a short list of suggested results as you type and you can only choose from those. So, if you don’t have a specific name of a product or category in mind, the search is wholly unhelpful – nearly useless.
The homepage is laid out nicely, with a “Featured Today” section at the top with left and right arrows to cycle through them. Under that is a continually scrolling row of popular products (based on like, shares, and buys), then a little lower a collection of New Arrivals, then the same for Ending Soon. Like the Smile page I mentioned before, this one is long, oversized, and overwhelming, but this time does not have the helpful navigation links at the top.
A couple technical notes: When the browser window size is adjusted, an issue arises with the navigation bars – the side-to-side scroll bar only applies to the product area of the page, so the content on either side of the navigation bars is cut off and there’s no way to get to it without re-expanding the window. Also, product browsing (scrolling down through products) operates on an automatic “show more” system rather than a page-by-page systems – when you scroll to the bottom of the shown products, the next products load underneath, pretty much making the page longer and longer. I am not a fan of this system in the first place – I prefer page by page – and it is flawed on this website. If scrolling by dragging the scroll bar, you’ll jump down several rows of products when it loads more and have to scroll back up to browse from where you left off – this can be avoided by using the down arrow key or down arrow button on the scroll bar, but it is a frustrating flaw to a user who likes the bar-dragging method.
The “show more” system, along with the large display size of the products (probably at least 4x bigger than product displays on most other shopping websites I’ve been on), which means the list takes up more space, makes scrolling through products a long and tedious process and also makes scrolling back up through to find something that caught your eye previously not worth the effort.
Now, finally, I come to the actual process of putting a product I’ve found (in any of the frustrating ways possible) in the shopping cart. Upon hovering over a product I like, a Buy It button appears. I click it and am told I need to log in to buy. Well, that’s a little bothersome, but many shopping websites make you create an account anymore. I’ll just log in with Facebook – that’s nice and easy. Aw, but it took me back to the top of the page – now I have to scroll back down to find the product. Ah, there it is. Okay, so, click the Buy Now button and there it is in the shopping cart – great. Click on the cart button and it takes me to the page – shows me what I’m getting, quantities and prices, estimated arrival periods, all very good. Click on checkout, and it’s all pretty basic – credit card or Paypal, billing address, shipping address, all the usuals.
There were technical issues, frustrating navigational flaws, and stylistic choices (the large product displays) that are ultimately a hindrance to the user. This is a site that you can run into walls navigating, but it does a good job of promoting certain products – best sellers, new arrivals, etc. And I will say that, as annoying as it is to try to find things, it’s very simple to buy them, other than having to log in to an account.
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Eichenlaub Monthly Review #1
For this review, I decided to look at the Zappos Web site. Immediatly I looked for things that I could buy and place in my shopping cart. When I saw the site I admit I was a little curious at how it worked and which buttons took me to the places I wanted to go. When I focused at looking for the things I was interested in, I was able to sucessfully locate and add an object to my shopping cart. I had to do a little thinking, mainly because I don’t use these sitesvery often, but the site was able to show me what items were actual buttons, what items led to the categories I was interested in, and how easy it was to place my oder for shoes. Overall I didn’t need to think too much and I was able to do what I needed without having to retrace my steps.
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