Category: ARTM2210 Intro to Web

For the second review, I chose the single page website Letterboxd from onepagelove.com. Letterboxd is the social network for film lovers and the page that I had visited was a yea-rend wrap-up for 2015.

As discussed in the textbook, the usual setup for a website is that the logo will be in the top left corner as Letterboxd had. To the right, there was a three line icon which usually means there is a list that can help navigate the site. Although Letterboxd was a single page website that scrolls up and down, the drop down list took me down to whatever movie was discussed further down on the website instead of leaving the page altogether or scrolling through everything. The fact that the website had a list made it easier to use. To the left of the list icon was the year 2015 with a tiny arrow icon next to it. If clicked, the arrow allowed you to choose the year you wanted to look at all the way back to 2012.

As I started to scroll down the website, it began with the highest rated movies. Instead of just showing a picture from the movie, the website seemed to have blocked section off where first there was a clip of the movie being shown, but as I hit the down arrow, a quote and picture of the poster from the movie were shown with a solid non conflicting colored background. If the website was just composed of the movie clip, it would be harder to read and figure out the information or what the actual movie poster looked like.

The next section is comprised of Highest Rated films in several different categories. The problem with these sections is that the image in the background that seems to be from the film, is a bit distracting, it makes the movie seem more interesting than having just the title listed, but if the image was a little smaller or off to the side, it may be easier to read the information listed.

When it comes to the text on the website, there are several different sizes and fonts included, but the majority of the fonts are white in color and very similar to each other.  The simple color of the font makes it easier to read against the solid color backgrounds and the movie images. If the titles behind the movies were back, they would not be readable or noticeable to any viewer. The paragraphs are small and not overwhelming with information like some websites include, with many of the blocks only containing a one sentence quote.

The website is altogether designed well. It combines the idea of having simplistic aspects when it comes to the solid color blocks and almost all white text, but also keeps it interesting with the images and clips from the movies. The navigation is simple enough to get through without a hassle or difficulty in finding certain categories on the website and the layout is easily understood.

For my website review, I chose the site change-the-world.unltd.org.uk.  This site shows how “social entrepreneurship can unleash the potential of young people”. With their audience being young people i believe that the site did a great job in the color and texture selection.  The theme of the site is space with earth being in the middle of the first page making it seem the most important.  it changes half way through to be like you are coming down from outer space all the way into a house.  all of the colors used in my opinion are good in contrast to the different blue backgrounds that you go through on your way down.  The are meteors and other planets and even the sun that you come across on your way through the space part of the site.  Also, in the earth part of the site, you come across blimps, clouds, and even the house.  All of these things are made to be cartoon like which would intrigue younger kids, but it is also not too kidish that a teenager would be turner off from it.  As a single page site, it uses a top navigation that can take you through the different aspects of the site.  However, this top navigation is not visible when you first get to the site.  The user has to know to scroll down through the site to be able for the navigation to pop up.   There is however an arrow that is pretty prominent on the screen that tells you that you have to scroll down.  In my opinion, I would have the top navigation panel shown at all times so that the user is not confused by it not being there in the beginning.  Also, some of the pictures are shown in these little circles that don’t really fit with the rest of the design, in my opinion.  Some of the pictures are shown in planet or meteor looking shapes, but then the others are just in circles.  I think that they should change them all the one or the other, but having both doesn’t make much sense to me.  In my opinion, the site is pretty easy to navigate besides not having the top navigation shown ate the beginning.  The site has a lot of content, but it is all divided up in small sections that makes it not as intimidating to users to have to read a lot all at once.  Also, the site has so many visuals that relate to the content that they kind of help you through the reading.  They also help to break up the reading as well without adding too much of a distraction to the reader.  Lastly,  I believe that this site, with a few minor adjustments, is a very well thought out and interesting design.  I believe that it is able to keep the attention of a younger reader for a decent length of time due to the spacing out of the text and incorporation of the pictures in amongst them.  Also, I think that since the site is made for younger people and trying to get them involved, it is okay if it doesn’t reach out to adults as much as it does kids.  All in all, this site is a well designed sight with many good features and an interesting layout.

 

I decided to review the site www.onebustapp.com, which is promoting a dice game for the iPhone called OneBust.

First, I tested it out when I had two windows of the browser snapped to either side of my screen in OS El Capitan. It showed the game’s logo up top and centered with a “notify me” bar and an image panel that has 3 views. Step 1 states to Roll the die. Step 2 says Lock-In Points with a larger details paragraph explaining what they mean. Step 3 says Win the Daily Championship. At the bottom of the page are links to their respective Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Second, I tested the site out without the browser windows being snapped and just floating on top of each other. The site for OneBust starts out with the logo, “notify me” bar, and two simplistic illustrations of the iPhone with the app being active. As you scroll down the page, the larger of the two iPhones gradually slides to the right over top of the other illustration. Step 1 appears as Roll the die and the iPhone screen fades into the first image of the app that the user would see. Step 1 slides up the page and Step 2 slides into place below the logo, which seems to be stationary and floating above the rest of the content on the web page. Step 2 slides up the page and Step 3 slides into place below the logo with a bold vermilion background showcasing the feature of Win the Daily Championship. This step includes a new image in the iPhone illustration showcasing the screen the user would encounter.

For the color scheme, it is a bold vermilion, white, teal-mint green, a soft beige, and the text seems to be in two shades of grey. This group of colors makes it feel simple, clean, and relaxing with a few bold accents to keep the eyes engaged in the “super-simple-frustratingly-fun” game. The texture is flat, crisp, and smooth.

Navigation is different for how you have the site opened. In the first step I explored the site, I had to click the navigational bubbles to get from step to step. It was a bit slow, but I believe that is due to the wifi connection I had. In the second step of my review, there was a bit of a loading lag for the site to recognize how far I had scrolled, but once it caught up, the navigation was a simple vertical scrolling motion.

I feel the elements of the webpage made it simple and easy to maneuver for any web user. There was little interactive elements, which I feel assisted them greatly in the simplistic message the developers wanted to get across for their app. The page flowed smoothly with plenty of space for each step to showcase in the browser window one at a time.

Personally, I feel the design is executed in a well-developed manner. I like the simplistic style and relaxing color scheme. This seems like an app I would look further into on the app store after seeing it in the app store or online. The illustration is clean and the layout flows with each step and fitting right below the floating logo. I like how the iPhone screen changes for each step or featured element. This is a strong one page website.

I also feel that if the artwork was made to look more 3-Dimensional, the app would not have been showcased as effectively. Even if the color scheme had more pastel colors or consisted of primary colors, the content would not have been as soothing to the eye or as  mature.

–Katie Carlton

The single page website I chose to review was called How To Design A Delightful Experience. This website has a simple structure scrolling down the page to each part of the website. The purpose of this web site was to explain how to make a simple design through the three layers of pleasure, flow, and meaning. This website has a few animated designs such as the top of the page having a hand pointing down bouncing up and down. Again, something simple to express the point of this website. There is also a menu button by a hamburger looking design on the top left as you scroll down. When you click on it, it gives you shortcut tabs to the different layers.

What really stands out about this website is the use of color. Each layer has a different color. Pleasure is green because that section seems to be the more important information needed to be known. When I see green, I think of nature and exploring, which makes sense for an attention grabbing color for a web site because you are exploring it. The color white is used throughout the site as well, for the most part in the sections where examples for each layer are shared. Flow has the color pink because pink has an energetic positive feel and the point of flow in design is for being in the zone. It takes motivation to be in the zone and pink is the perfect color to represent that. Blue was the color for meaning because blue has been said to have a calming feel to it and as well as intelligence. As of this point, the designer wants the viewer to feel more intelligent from what they have learned viewing this site. Finally, the bottom of the page has orange because it is an energetic color, and the goal for this web site is to make users learn more about simple design and excited to enhance their knowledge on their own.

This website is a simple design and simple to navigate. The simple downward scroll and the little animated hands express the idea of “simple” for the design. Also, the menu button leading to the shortcut tabs are also useful. Nothing too special with texture, but the use of color is meant to give the feeling for the viewer. I feel that this website is useful for someone who is just starting out in design and want a simple tutorial. This website gives a great philosophy for design through its bread and butter of color. It’s not the most complex looking sight, but it’s a good simple website for educational purposes in my opinion.

For my second website review, I chose a site by FRAMES, which is a site that houses many different stories. The one I found as my example and subject of review is an excellent single page site for the story “July’s June”

This site makes use of all of it’s space on the page and is navigated by scrolling down right through the story. Something that really caught my eye was the use of textures throughout the site. Many of the background images mend together seamlessly and at times are two images fused together (ex. The first background image behind the title page, where the darkness of the lake water developes into a man’s face at the bottom. This frames the story in a way, because towards the end of the story, there is a woman’s face the mends into a picture of a tree.). Also, all of the images have a depth to them, leading the eye farther into the page (as good example of this is the image of the cabin, ghosts of trees left behind it).

Another use of texture that I found particularly interesting was the handwritten letters throughout the story. These parts stray away from the regular embedded text of the story and in a way give a little bit of nostalgia. Towards the bottom of the page, there is an added wooden frame and leaves flowing into the next section of the story.

This site uses a lot of warm colors (like orange and light purple) as well as cold colors (green and blue) which take cues from the story itself.

When you’re finished with the story, there is a slight pause in the site where the last of the graphics are, and then below there is a small set of credits to those who made the site, and where to contact them. They also made it very easy to navigate back to the top of the page to read again, or to go back to their archives to read something else.

Overall, I think this is an excellent way to make a single page site. Using all of the space that is given is a good way to immerse someone in a story, and having graphics that flow into each other keep the reader focused on the story and make it a pleasant experience for those that visit. The ease of navigating to and from the site make it a prime example in single page design.

Site Review #2

http://arielbeninca.com/

            The site that stood out to me the most on onepagelove.com was http://arielbeninca.com/, which is the personal website of a graphic and web design student named Ariel Beninca. This website appeals to me because of its minimalistic qualities and how clean it is. When you first arrive to the site, your screen is filled with a black and white image with black text. There is no color and everything is very smooth. When you hover over the image, which is of Ariel, she moves around a little. You move through this site by scrolling down, and as you do so, you come across some color.

            As you scroll down the page you see various examples of her work. These are all in color, but she still keeps the modern, clean aesthetic. There is no texture anywhere except in the images. Just as with the picture of herself at the top, each of these wiggles around a little when you hover over them. When you click on one, a box slides down from the top of the screen with some information about the project. Everything is very simple and easy to read, and there is an “x” at the top to close it. You close it and are right where you left off.

            There are other various graphics on the site, such as a few background images, that also do that moving thing when you hover over them.

            There are many design elements that make this site easy to understand and navigate. The sleek design and simple buttons are the main contributor, but it also helps that there is no extra “junk” to clutter the space and be distracting.

            You can scroll through the site from beginning to end without clicking anything. But you are also given the option of clicking a button at the very top of the page that creates a drop down menu of each section you can visit.  As mentioned in “Don’t Make Me Think”, Ariel created a very clear hierarchy and separated the elements appropriately so that it’s easy to understand.

            I think this site’s design is very well done and effective.  I find it very attractive and its simple layout could be used by virtually anyone. There is nothing that requires thought and it is pleasing to look at. Ariel gets her point across as well as proving that she has a definitive style and is excellent at what she does.

 

 

The single page website I chose to review was The Art Of Texture. This page only scrolls up and down and each image you scroll over automatically scrolls down and shows the title of each piece. The background that stays consistent all the way down the page is an off white with a speckled texture that made me think that my screen was dirty as I scrolled. I really did not care for this because it seemed dirty to me but it really was an interesting touch because it caught my attention and made me take a closer look. The over all color is really dedicated to the art work displayed on the site and those really stay in focus and the background color doesn’t take away from the art on the page. There are links through out the page but for most of them you have to scroll over an image for the link title to pop up. They use a light green for most of their tabs that pop ups and I really liked it because it wasn’t in your face but it gave enough contrast that caught my attention and it was easy to read. Over all this page was done well and has a lot of interesting images on it but if you do not scroll over the images you would not know they connect to anywhere else. Also the first down arrow only takes you a little bit so really I feel its unnecessary.

After exploring The Principles of Beautiful Web Design and Don’t Make Me Think, I was able to further analyze the web site http://change-the-world.unltd.org.uk/.  Live to Change the World is the title of this single page website.  Throughout the website, Live to Change the World takes you on a journey through their past, what they know now, how they are implementing their idea, the social impact of their idea, and what is to come in the future.  In this one page website, the colors are bold.  This site has a space theme at the beginning, then takes you down to the sky, and then eventually to street level.  It is easy to navigate this site as it allows you to scroll up and down throughout your experience.  If there is a specific section you wish to view, a menu bar pops up at the very top of the site allowing you to be one click away from the information you wish to find.  The use of the large bold headers, the font colors that stand out against the background, the graphics and even the charts help me, the user, to understand and differentiate information that the site is trying to present.  I like how the blank circles turn over into photographs when you scroll through the site.  This feature helps catch your eye and draw attention to what they are intending to show you.  I also like how the line and pie graphs pop up as you scroll down past them.  This forces you to stop and read how the information is distributed.  In my opinion, Live to Change the World is a successful one-page website that is easy for users to navigate and the bright colors and detailed textures draw you in and keep your attention throughout the entire site.

For my first website review, I decided on one of the biggest shopping sites in the world, Amazon.com. I shop on Amazon frequently because I am currently an Amazon Prime member. Who can beat free 2-day shipping and 20% off newly released video games? Upon first glance, Amazon’s site seems clean and organized. The header is pretty straight forward with the search bar, login, cart, etc. But what I really like about the header is that, under the Amazon logo, there is the spot that has “Shop by Department”. Once one moves their cursor over, all of the different departments appear below. Then once one moves to a specific department, the list then expands to give the buyer a more in-depth look at the department. I believe that this is much better than listing every single department on the header. This gives space for the other selections such as “Today’s Deals” and “Shopping History” making the header less congested for a shopping site that sells so many different things. The organization also continues down the homepage with things such as “Related to Items You’ve Viewed,” “More Items to Consider,” and the most interesting, “Inspired by Your Browsing History.” After a customer searches throughout the site, Amazon will calculate and generate more items that are similar to items that he or she recently looked at. I truly wonder what that algorithm is! Another nice feature is once one makes an Amazon account, one can use “1-Click Ordering” after placing an item in his or her cart. With this feature, Amazon will do all of the work with sending information such as one’s address and payment. So after one click, it has been purchased and being processed for shipment. Overall, Amazon makes shopping simple, easy, and quick for customers to get what they want.

Next is the color scheme. Amazon’s works very well though out the site. They really utilize the complementary colors of blue and orange with white and black accents. It is stylish, modern, and eye catching. Even the advertisements follow a similar fashion.

Furthermore, I believe that Amazon is truly a great shopping site that caters to everyone. I have always had a pleasant experience with Amazon and I feel that their website goes above and beyond for their customers.

www.champssports.com

Champs Sports is a store that sells athletic attire. The main colors that are on the website are black and white. These are good colors to use due to the different colors from the clothes and shoes that they sell. The website uses a slideshow to show what type of shoe brands they sell such as: Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, etc. As you scroll down they show shoes that are still available to purchase in a black background and white lettering that show what kind of shoe it is.  At the bottom of the page Champs displays how the customer can stay connected to them, through social networks like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Champs also makes it easier for the customer to checkout faster and get exclusive deals. I know from experience because when I order shoes on line it makes it much easier to have your information saved. Their search request is very clear for a customer. It is common to see the company’s logo in the left hand corner and then again at the bottom. The font that is used for the website is a bold san-serif font. If the word is bold and big it is clear that it might be some help to a customer. Due to it being a shopping cite the “shopping cart” icon is in the top right hand corner in a light brown color. In conclusion Champs Sports does a good job to stay consistent and promote their products for customers.

By just reading the first chapter of  “Don’t Make Me Think”, my knowledge of the

different elements that mostly all eCommerce sites use has already grown

tremendously.

For my first site review, I decided to actually do some shopping for myself. I needed

a new pair of shoes, so I used one of the most popular sites to do so, which is

Eastbay. Eastbay primarily sells shoes, but is also a redistributor of clothes.

On first glance of the homepage, everything is setup very clean and modern. They

stick to a nice dark grey, almost black navigation with white text and off white

background with black text for their color scheme, and those colors remain the same

the whole way through even in the checkout process. This is a very simple color

scheme, something I would expect out of a stock template for like a Squaresapce or

Shopify sort of deal, but nonetheless it is effective because of how simple it is to the

eye.

Now onto the navigation, which is the biggest issue I have with the site. At first

glance, the navigation bar looks great. It’s split into three categories, Shop, Releases,

and Community. Now what happens next is initially I tried to just hover over top of

the Shop category, expecting that it would activate some sort of drop-down menu,

but it didn’t. This was very confusing to me, and I thought maybe the page didn’t

load properly. It wasn’t until I actually clicked on the Shop category that the drop-

down navigation appeared, and when it did, it was very cluttered. They lay out

everything right in the navigation down to specific sub categories as specific as

“Wrestling Shoes”. I guess in some ways this is a good thing because right from the

home page you are able to find exactly what you want, and even shop by your shoe

size, but it just seems like too much in a navigation for me.

Let me explain a little further. So the main navigation bar is a horizontal one right at

the top with the Shop category in it, and when you click Shop it brings down not one

but two more horizontal navigations. The first one that comes down has nine

options to click on, from Men, Women, and all the way to Sale, and Team. Depending

on which one you click, it changes the second dropped down navigation with the in

depth parts. It’s just way too much for me right off the bat I think.

So, I know roughly what kind of shoes I want, which are Nike Roshe’s. So from the

first drop down I click on “Brands”, and from there the second drop down has logos

for each of the brands.  I am able to locate the Nike swoosh very easily and go off the

homepage and into the actual process. This then goes to a huge list of Nike items,

15,627 of them to be exact. However, it does come with a vertical navigation bar to

refine your search some more, which is always a nice feature. So I limit mine to

Shoes, for Men, Shoes, Size 13.0, and Red color. From there I am still having trouble

finding them, and it’s not until the 7th row of shoes on the search in their site until I

find the type of pair I’m interested in. This was a big let down for me. I then realize

that there is a search bar in the top right corner, and I could’ve just typed in Nike

Roshe, but I didn’t figure that out until after all of these clicks and wasted time.

Once I’m finally on the specific product page, it is very easy to add to cart, which sort

of redeems the site a bit. It already remembered the size I wanted from the vertical

drop down earlier and already selected it for me. The add to cart button is in black

and gold and is very hard to miss. Once clicked, another navigation drops down

automatically from the main navigation bar, this time showing the product I just

added and asking on a big button if I would like to review cart or checkout. This

navigation was actually very nice and avoided an extra step for me, because I am

just ordering shoes and that’s it, probably like most people are on the site. So having

the ability to get to the checkout fast is a plus. I choose to pay with PayPal, an option

that redirects me to login and approve it on PayPal’s site, which is very simple to do

as well. From there all I need to do is verify my billing info and then hit the Place

Order button at the bottom.

So even though it got confusing at the beginning a little and their navigation of the

site is massive, overall I think the other positives make this an above average site to

me. Looking back on it, it’s kind of hard to do anything differently, because Eastbay’s

inventory is so massive that by default it also takes a massive navigation to

accomplish, and rather jumping from page to page refining that search they are able

to limit it to the homepage.

Becoming the ‘broke college student’ in life is like a right of passage. It is a cliché that we all are a part of, at some point, whether we’d like to admit it or not. As college students we are inclined to find the cheapest price on the market for any book, movie, or latest app. Like second nature, we gravitate towards Amazon.com. Amazon is the largest internet-based retailer in the United States. Amazon.com offers a wide variety of products including books, movies, phone cases, toiletries, beauty products, groceries, pet products and more at prices that college students can afford. Because so many people visit this site it is so important that Amazon.com is easy for users to navigate. As I searched for the movie Interstellar in the search box at the top of the page, Amazon provided a drop-down menu to choose what category I was interested in searching; I chose Movies & TV. This action was extremely easy for me to navigate. After all of my options appeared on the screen, I noticed a filter feature on the left-hand side where I was able to choose options such as the format preferred, the release date, and genre of movie. This section was optional to use if wanting to narrow the search. When I decided what movie to choose, I was directed toward a page where I was easily able to add the product to my cart. Also on this same screen, I was given suggestions of movies similar to Interstellar that I may enjoy. Although a virtually seamless web design, Amazon could improve on their site in a couple different ways. It is nice to have suggested items when you visit the site, but what if amazon provided alerts? Become notified when your new favorite book has reached the site, that way you can be the first to know and order as soon as possible. Another easy fix would be the sign out button. It is not that easy to find, after a few seconds of hunting around the user becomes frustrated. It should be a simple step that you don’t need to think about, perhaps locate the sign out option at the top right of your page like most sites, and not in a drop-down menu. After reading Don’t Make Me Think and The Principles of Beautiful Web Design I quickly realized that Amazon.com was a user friendly site that was easy to navigate for people who know what they’re looking for. The logo was at the top of the homepage and at the top of every page increasing Amazon’s brand recognition. The search bar and drop down menus were located at the top of the page leaving most of the space on the webpage to content; content is king. If you make an account for this site, you can view your current account and are also able to view your shopping history, make a wish list of items you may want in the future, and save and compare prices of items with the cost of what Amazon offers. Now that I am educated and know what makes up a good website, I will continue to use Amazon.com because it was quick and easy to narrow my search and find exactly what I was looking for.

–American Eagle Outfitters www.ae.com

I frequently look at American Eagle Outfitter’s website for deals on their rather overpriced clothing.  I am a bargain shopper especially during the holidays. Depending on the platform I access their site, the usability varies in level of difficulty. When I first access the site, they always have the most recent news plastered in bold blocks of information on their homepage like “New Arrivals”, “Sales”, or their “brands.”  Currently, each block of information is self explanatory. For example, if I want to shop their “Save up to 60% on Clearance” special right now, I can click “Shop Women”, “Shop Men”, or “Shop Aerie.” They are the 3 most common choices their customers make without thinking.  They have a header of 6 options ranging from “Women” to “Clearance” at the top. If I want to go to the cheapest clothing, I know to immediately click on the “Clearance” link since it simply states where it will take me.  However, they appear just as text, not as button. I believe it is through conditioning of multiple websites using this kind of technique that online shoppers know that text explaining “women”, “men”, “clearance”, etc. will take us to the specified location without necessarily having to have a “button” appearance.  One feature I have always liked about American Eagle’s website is how they always have a photograph of the product that makes it obvious about what the product is, how to wear it or use it, and that you can click the image to look at more information or buy the product.  It does not require a lot of thought. It’s so easy even my older relatives know how to maneuver the site when they are shopping for their nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.  As for the format of the site, the most important information is in larger sections that take up the majority of the site’s visual space.  Product names and prices are significantly smaller than the corresponding photograph because American Eagle deems the visual of the product is more important than the name of it, but the price follows by being larger than the product name.  Their pages are easy to scan with a helpful “Back to Top” feature since their pages tend to scroll on for what seems like forever in the internet world.  The most important information is easy to scan through quickly and the more detailed information is on single product pages where you see the image, product name, price, size information, and availability. Unnecessary information is never immediately displayed when viewing their products.  The user must work further into the site mapping to see more detailed information.  If I am in a hurry, I scroll quickly looking at contrasting colors that will cause me to pause and look at an item I may like.  It is easy to go back to a previous page without having to start back at the top again.  (This is not the case in their app on the iPad or iPhone.) Overall, I think their main webpage is easy to use, but their apps are much more difficult to maneuver and have significant bugs.  The website usually loads quickly and is not flashy so it is easy for the eye to flow through the information and not become over stimulated. Important information is bold, large, and easy to find. Hovering over bits of information all over the site makes submenus appear.  The site is layered, but the layers do not need to be accessed in order to work through the website to achieve the ultimate goal of making a purchase.

–Katie Carlton

Overstock.com

 

For the first review, I chose to visit the website Overstock.com. Overstock initially focuses on selling returned and surplus merchandise on the online website. I have used Overstock to buy small miscellaneous items from time to time but have not used it or visited it in a while. A short while after launching I knew that Overstock.com attempted to simplify the website name to O.co but by doing this, several users were confused and struggled to get used to the change showing that simplifying something does not always make it better as stated in the reading. While scrolling down the home page, the images that are actual links to sales and categories are a positive addition to letting a user know what the website has to offer instead of just listing the sales in a categorical and somewhat boring order.

Next, the color scheme of the website is clean and easy to read with white as the background, red accents and black text. At the top center of the screen is the search bar, with the tabs listing the several categories for the many items just below. One thing to notice is that the tabs are not alphabetically listed on the website but that did not seem to be a problem. One thing that I would change about the website is some of the sizes of some of the text or categories on the pages. Although it is a nice font and simple, a large amount of the text is the same size or relatively close to each other, making it a little harder to find what I am looking for immediately.

I used the search bar to find the item that I was looking for on Overstock. The search results popped up with ways to narrow the search by price, size or even brand. I quickly found the item I was looking for and clicked on the image depicted. I was then directed to the item description which included a drop down list with the full word for the sizes, the quantity as well as the colors I could order the item in. The shopping cart button was in the top right corner and was small but like most of the other shopping cart icons on a website. After clicking it, the checkout button, differs from the rest of the site’s color scheme being that it is green instead of the theme of red, white and black.

For my review, I will be looking at the positive and negative aspects of a site. The site that I chose to do my review on is Walmart. Upon first going onto the site, I see that it is a pretty clean and minimalistic site.  There isn’t a lot of clutter or things to get you distracted along the sides.  There are advertisements that have a click scroll at the top of the page under the menu bar.  These ads  show things that they think are popular like healthy foods,  hygienic products, and popular holiday products.  For right now,  they have Valentines day gifts on there.   Under this they have the sponsored links and then links to every department.  I am going to see how well their check out is compared to other sites that we talked about in class that had a good checkout system like Amazon.  I chose to look at clothing to see the color and style options they might have.  Once I got into the clothing,  sidebar menus popped up that showed me categories of clothing, sizes, and price ranges.  Also, something surprising came up.  At the top of the sidebar, there is an option already for delivery.  This included whether to send to store or house.  After you choose ad to cart, it sends you to a page to make sure your item is correct while also showing you things customers also bought.  Once you go through that step, you can’t go any further without making an account.  Even though you can’t go any further,  I can already tell that this is similar to Amazon in many ways.  Like Amazon,  the goal of Walmart’s site is to sell their products.  Walmart also differs from Amazon because Walmart has stores that customers can go to and buy the products too so their site has to reflect that aspect of their store.  Walmart is, like Amazon,  a matrix structure because in the book it says that a matrix is a structure that can get to any point from any point.  I think that this site is very user friendly and is even friendly to elderly people too because Mostly all of the writing is big and in colors that are very easy and appealing to the eyes.  All in all, I think that Walmart has a very good site that is user friendly and has many good features.