The two coffee company webpages I viewed were Starbucks Coffee and Dunkin Donuts. Starbucks Coffee company designed a webpage with many elements that help guide the viewer through the site. The first aspect I was drawn to was the large image near the upper left hand of the page, taking up approximately 1/4 of the page. This large image is an ad for a food promotion that contains images of breakfast sandwiches and breakfast wraps, as well as the promotional price. The designer probably made this ad large in size so that it is the first thing viewers will see, showing use of emphasis. Navigating through the site was easy with the large header options such as coffee types, food choices, starbucks coffee cards, merchandize etc. If you were to place the mouse over each header another window opens up showing more content and options to choose from. The site also contained a search bar which allows the viewer to narrow their options. The balance of the site was well designed with the headers, promotional ads, and footers that inform you more about the site.

The second site I viewed was Dunkin Donuts. The Dunkin Donuts site was similar in design to the Starbucks webpage. Again we see the logo in top left corner, followed by numerous headers in bold typeface to portray emphasis. The headers included menus, coffee types, online shopping and gift ideas. The site also had a large promotional ad for lattes and iced coffees. The webpage also showed a certain sense of balance and unity, a bit more than Starbucks. Every aspect of the Dunkin Donut’s webpage seemed more grid-like.

The two webpages were so similar that neither one was better than the other in guiding the user. They were almost essentially the same site with a change of color scheme. If I had to choose which was a better navigational design I would choose Dunkin Donuts. The layout of the page was much easier to look at in the grid fashion. When I viewed the Starbuck’s page my eyes were moving too many places at once. This may have been done on purpose by the designer so that viewers look at everything on the page, but in my opinion it was a bit more distracting than helpful.