Category: Site Review

Many people go online shopping as a means of getting the things they need anymore. It’s quick, easy and convenient. Usually, when you go onto a website to buy things, they have many sales, deals, and coupons readily available. Personally, I’m typically drawn to any kind of sale that is presented to me on the website, whether I need the item or not (one of my biggest flaws).

Growing up before “Amazon”, we used to order a lot of useless items on “ebay”. Ebay is a website, much like “Amazon”, but not as widely used anymore. When you first go onto the website you see a large self-advertisement box that shows what deals they have going on. Under that, they have an “NBA” section, which I’m assuming is for “March Madness” which is rapidly approaching. Under that is a coupon for 20% off, and then a section on things that are trending on ebay, daily deals, and many other categories to help you navigate the website.

On top of the self-advertisement box, there are tabs and a search bar, which are fairly small compared to all of the website’s self-advertisement. I went on looking for a lavalier microphone for my filmwork. After you push the enter button to take you to find your item, the page shifts around to give you your results. Under the search bar now are options to find the item within your price range, which I like, considering I’m a college film major and don’t have a lot of money to spend on my equipment just yet. One the side of the results, they have filters, so you can find a specific brand, connectivity, type, form factor, and connectors – all of which are only specific to my search.

Being someone who is more equipped to knowing what I’m looking for, this is a very useful and handy tool. Everything is laid out simply and easy to navigate, and the aesthetic is good for keeping things simple, and not swaying to any specific gender or persons. They include pops of their logos color in their small category boxes, that are seen throughout the website homepage. On the bottom of their website, on all pages, you can find all of the information that you would ever need for the website; their social media, email,number, and various other information.

All together, it is a well put together, and reliable website. Everything is laid out in plain sight, and easy to navigate. I’ve used the website a lot in my life to buy simple things from toys, to clothes, to CDs and DVDs, to film equipment. I’ve never had any problems with finding anything I’ve needed, and have definitely spent way too much money on this website.

Having looked through the various single page websites, the one that caught my eye and interested me the most was “2018 in Music”. What got my attention to the website was actually it’s simplicity. The site’s main purpose is to display and show off the albums that made 2018 a great year for music.

When you enter the site, the first thing you will see in big, bold font is the title of the website “2018 in Music”. Written in black text with a plain white background it’s not much to look at. From there, the only way to scroll through to from let to right. To which it is simply looking at the albums and listening to a simple track provided. It’s the attention to each popular album individually that makes this website stand out. Not how many visual bells and whistles there is to see as you scroll though. The main purpose of this website is to display the music and album covers that have been made for each album and that’s it.

Once you find an album that you like or seems interesting to you, you can click on it and the page will shift to a new display. This new display will show only that album, along with a quote, a short description, and provide a video clip of one song from the album, now with the webpage moving from top to bottom. That’s pretty much all there is to the website, simple and clean. The only thing else is at the end of the webpage where you can find the authors credits and link to their personal page.

So as I’ve stated, what I like and what makes this single web page work, is its simplicity. The purpose of it and reason why it was created was to show of some of the popular albums there were in 2018. I can see if this was about almost any other topic, there would need to be a serious overhaul in design and visual interaction. However, because this is about music and the album art that accompanies it, I feel that the simplicity helps to bring the viewers focus to each individual piece. Similar to art in an art gallery, this website is a simple white background in which multiple different albums with their artwork is spread across. Any little color, shape, or intricate effect would take the attention away from that and the website would lose its intended purpose.

With this perspective in mind, there are a few changes or addition I would make to the website, mostly when you select an album to view. Once an album is selected there is only the before mentioned details that are shown. With only one album being seen, that could be when more of a design aspect comes into play. Shapes, colors, patterns, and other visuals effects could work with the album cover to turn each display into its own “piece”. Perhaps the background could change color to compliment the color(s) in the album.  Another thing could be that various shapes in different patterns could appears that could go along with the style of music. If the genre is something like heavy metal or rap then the shapes could be more geometric and hard. If it’s like jazz or funk then there could be freeform and smooth shapes. One other minor issue I had with the site was its horizontal scrolling. Not a major problem by any means, but I noticed that the scroll wheel on a mouse is much less response when horizontal scrolling versus vertical scrolling. There’s not much I can think of to improve it except to make the page scroll vertically, thought having the page move horizontally is something that makes it unique. Though there is a scroll bar provided to solve any issue (but what fun is that?)

Overall, I think “2018 in Music” is a great single page website. Maybe not super creative by any means, but it does do a great job in letting the albums speak for themselves. Of course it could use a few design elements here and there and perhaps a slightly better way to scroll though. However,  if this website is an example of one thing, it goes to show that sometimes a simple design can work just as well, if not better, than something so complex.

My first review of a website is on shoedazzle.com. The first thing I noticed about shodazzle.com is that you cannot just look through their inventory, you either have to log in or become a new member. The buttons for logging on are in two places, at the top of the page and under a promotional offer of 50% off. To become a new member I noticed it that it doesn’t just flat out say “sign up”, instead it says “get started”, which could confuse many. Next, it takes you to a quiz and asks questions like “which shoe is most you?”, etc.. I didn’t notice until half way through the quiz that there is a “skip quiz” button all the way at the top. During the last part of the quiz, the site asks your age range, foot size, clothing size, and zip code. It doesn’t actually ask you to sign up until after you’ve answered all the questions. After signing up, the site is pretty easy to navigate and even gives you shoe styles based on the questions you answered. In my opinion, I think the site is easy to navigate, it doesn’t make me think too much and it’s effortless. It only made me think when the questions came up and asked which styles I liked better. I think the quiz worked with the site because it does recommend styles to you. The improvements I would make would be to make the “skip quiz” button more noticeable because sometimes people don’t want to answer all these questions at first. It could turn viewers away from the site. I would also maybe add a “sign up” button next to the log in button at the top of the page because some people can get confused by the “get started” button. The design principles and elements work as well. It really emphasizes having 50% off and obviously they’re trying to promote that.  In conclusion, everything is pretty much organized and easy to navigate.

Amazon has become a one stop shopping website with lots of options and endless amounts of shopping times. The design made it easy for me to find Jozocy 3D Cloud Lamp Sign Night Light, Children’s Bedroom Home Decorate LED Wall Lamp Décor. Amazon sorts everything by categories and when you type into the search bar it brings up options within the first two letters you type in it. Amazon however is driving malls out of business because it is very easy and convenient to shop plus it delivers right to your home so you don’t have to leave your house. The site makes me think like 10% because I think about what I need to buy and look at what other things they have on the site. I would improve Amazon Prime with looking for new videos because it doesn’t come up when you try and access it. Also, they need to show more of what memberships can see different shows. The site uses different ways to connect their products and be able to see other products that people didn’t even think about buying. They also have different categories for gift cards and rewards. They just added a whole food section with subcategories that has food that isn’t available in stores and maybe cheaper than in stores. They have some items that can have free shipping plus organic foods to offer their customers.    

After having read Don’t Make Me Think and gaining a better understanding of how eCommerce go about designing their websites. A specific site I chose to examine was Barnes & Noble. This was my choice because, while their stores are made to be simple and easy to find what you’re looking for, I wanted to see just how much of a challenge it would be to find a book when there isn’t the limitation that a store would have.

For an item like a book, there are many different ways to search for what you are looking for. Two main topics people might search under is typically by genre or by its author. The book I was looking for “Down and out in the Magic Kingdom” is a Science Fiction book by the author Cory Doctorow. From the Homepage, it is very simple to start a search for what you’re looking for. Barnes & Noble provides a long header of subjects that shoppers might be looking for. The first one is simply called “Books” and hovering over it will show a drop down menu with a ludicrous number of options to choose from. The two main subjects mentioned earlier to search from are typically genre or author, and the website does provide a detailed list when choosing from either one of the two. However, if someone is to choose genre, they are then taken to a page which shows only a small list of what’s new and popular, and if what they are looking for is not there, they then must play a kind of guessing game to describe the exact book based on various lists of search specifications along the side of the screen. I know for myself that I personally don’t want to take the time to try and describe whatever it is I’m looking for, especially if it is something that is new to me, and also having to hope that the system can successfully find it.

What I found to be an easier way is to search by author, obviously, assuming you know who the author is. When searching by author, you are shown a small list of current popular authors which is followed by an extensive list of authors in alphabetical order by last name. Once you find the author you’re looking for, you’re then taken to a page that shows all the books they’ve written and that the store has. From there is was easy to find the book I was looking for, and once you’ve successfully found whatever it is you’re looking for, you can click on a big blue button reading “Add to cart” and finish or continue shopping.

However, while I believe with some time anyone could find what they’re looking for, there are some changes I would make to create a simpler experience. One thing I would do is to simplify the key details to search from. What I mean by that is how whenever you click on what you want to search by, be it genre, author, or anything else, if what you’re looking for isn’t there then you have to begin this unnecessary guessing game with descriptors that seem to broad to even seem helpful. By providing simple key details to describe various novels instead of by price, formats, and vague and oddly specific subject would help to narrow the search for the exact book. Another change I would make would be to the homepage. The first thing people are made to see is the large display banner that advertises the latest and most popular books, toy, etc. available. While the key topics to search from are almost hidden between that and the top of the page. I would think to create big display icons for each topic and present them in place of the banner. This would help customers start their search faster and hopefully minimise the amount of time trying to find a product. Keeping things simple and understandable is important especially when looking for something specific like a certain book.          

Overall, I feel the Barnes & Noble has a pretty decent website, but only if you know exactly what you’re looking for. If your trying to go based on the suggested search options then you might have a harder time finding whatever it is, not impossible, but certainly not easy. Some options are easier than others, like searching by author, while some, like searching by genre, make me want to try my hand again at the dewey decimal system at my local library. While there is clearly room for improvement, Barnes & Noble has a good foundation, and with a little tweaking can become everyone’s first stop when shopping for a novel.

Jenna Hall

Review 1

2/12/19

PetSmart

I chose PetSmart to review for my large Ecommerce site. I used their search bar to find the kind of cat food my cat eats and the image popped right up. In order to add the item to your cart, you need to click the image and then select the quantity and various other options before you can click add cart. It is a lot of steps to actually be able to add an item to your cart. I would usually say that the item wasn’t worth buying, because I am lazy by nature. However, the site is so well organized that I do not mind the extra steps to be able to add the item to the cart. This just makes sure I have less to select when I go to checkout. The page is not crowded with unnecessary information either. It just shows my product and there are various drop-down menus should I choose to look at reviews and or the products description. I also like how you can choose to add the item to your favorites. I honestly cannot think of something I do not like about this site. Maybe they should include more cut-out photographs than block photographs.

The website I decided to review is ThinkGeek.com. I had never heard of this website and decided to check it out after looking at the assignment description. When I first clicked on the link to the website and it appeared, I got a little anxious. Since I had never visited this website before I did not know what to expect and was taken back by all the information at one time. After a few seconds, I was able to easily navigate the website. I quickly noticed that they had a Marvel section to the website that I immediately was drawn to. The website has an interesting but easy to understand lay out. It uses pretty basic colors, but also has a nice pop of lime green to it which helps make certain parts like the logo, stick out. Everything on the website is actually pretty easily navigable. Upon clicking on the Marvel tap all the Marvel products provided by this website appeared. On the left-hand side were categories to help lower your search based on what you might be looking for like clothing or accessories. I think features like this make a website more helpful. Upon clicking on categories and titles you can help make your search easier. Also in the top center, there is a search bar that can further make your search process easier and faster. On the website, the only red wording I saw was the sale part. In the upper right corner the words “ON SALE” were in red font to help it stick out. Also, while scrolling through the Marvel merchandise anything that was on sale, the sale price was in red and the % you save was in red as well. The original prices were in a light gray font color. One suggestion I have for the ThinkGeek website is to make the homepage a little less crowded. I felt overwhelmed after first clicking on the website which almost made me leave the website immediately, because I thought I was not going to be able to figure out the website. Overall, I think the website, once being a little familiar with it, is easy to navigate, is pleasing to the eye, and nicely set up.

I chose the site Neiman Marcus to review.  This is a very expensive and luxurious shopping page adorned with thousands of beautiful items, including designer clothing, handbags, shoes, and much more. I personally love purchasing skincare from here, and always check out the newest moisturizers, serums, and cleansers from time to time. When arriving to the homepage, I am greeted with copious amounts of photos, all of beautiful people wearing beautiful things.  The black and white aesthetic creates a minimal atmosphere, very much contrasting the pricey items. Expensive haute couture pieces descend down the screen. After clicking the beauty tab, I am somehow shown the most expensive items first, obviously done intentionally. I decided to place the extravagant La Prairie Cellular Cream Platinum Rare, which costs $1,245.00 into my cart.  The site successfully made me want to purchase this product by using convincing language, and telling me how my life will be changed after using the cream.  The site is organized and well put together, but a flaw I experienced is that it is almost too hard to navigate and find products. There are countless items and it can be hard to find the exact one you were looking for, and so many tabs under each other.  In the reading, it shows the difference between a thinking and non-thinking site, and I feel that Neiman Marcus is a non-thinking website.  It does not make me confused or question anything, and I know exactly what I am clicking on.  In the book, it also mentions how much of a hurry we are all in, and it definitely shows you the product in a straight-forward manner, and nothing is in the way or distracting in the slighest. Overall, the luxury website Neiman Marcus has done a lovely job at showcasing top designer items and making the consumer feel the need to have it. I personally recommend shopping on the site, and would gladly spend my day browsing through the navigable pages anytime. 

The first thing I noticed when I was directed to rue21’s website is a huge advertisement that filled almost the whole page besides the heading, categories, and search box. Valentines day is just around the corner. It is prime time for a retail company such as rue21 to come out with exclusive deals so their clients will buy more around this holiday. As I scrolled down the page to view their buttons, each one was a white outlined rectangle with white text inside. When I moved my mouse over the box, it became a solid white rectangle with black text overtop. This feature was simple and to the point. I did not have to question if my mouse was clicking on another item. When you moved your mouse over the items in the bar menu, they changed to an orange color and displayed an underline to show the subcategories underneath. This feature is also helpful because I know I am clicking on a certain button.

The color palette was black, white, and orange. When I clicked on the Blouses & Shirts button, the only parts that were orange were “Girls, Blouses & Shirts, and Featured.” This was indicating the process of how I got there. This was helpful to know the process of how to get there or how to go back if I would like to search for something different. The layout of their products were clean and simple. They bolded certain words to give emphasis towards what is important and spaced out the content so it is not too clustered. There was not a lot of words which helped me focus on the product. In the book, Don’t Make Me Think, it talked about how when people view a site, they do not read line by line but skim to achieve their desired goal. If I wanted more information about the product, I was able to click on the picture of the product to lead me to more information. On the picture, it had a rectangle that said, “Quick View” which meant a box would pop up instead of redirecting you to a new page. The color did not change when I hovered my mouse over the button so I was confused if I was going to be clicking it or not. The “Quick view” gave me the name, price, color, size, and quantity. If I needed more information, I could click on the button that said “View Full Product Information” which would lead me to a new page. The font was easy to read and every question I had about the product relating to myself was answered by the options listed (size, color, quantity, etc.). 

After I added the item to my cart, a box appeared in the top right corner of the page telling me what I just added and leading my eye to an icon of a grocery bag with a number “1” on it. This indicated an item was added to my cart and notified me where to purchase my item when I am completed shopping. The box also had two buttons which said, “continue shopping” or “view bag. ” This directed me where I wanted to go. 

Overall, the rue21 website does a great job in not make the buyer think of how to get to their product. Their layout is simple yet effective. I believe they were smart in limiting their color palette because it could make it more confusing if too many colors are represented. The slight change in color or shape with the buttons helped decipher what button I was clicking on. Lastly, they limited the amount of text on each page to make it easier to navigate. 

Madisyn Kovach

Intro to Web Design

ARTM2210

Review #1

2/12/19

The website that I chose to look at was Amazon.  There are a lot of things that work on the website.  For example, there are a good amount of different tabs that are organized on the top of the home page. In the left corner there is a tab that you can open to see what different categories Amazon has to offer.  The second thing that works on amazon is the recently searched list under the search bar. Say you are so satisfied with one of the products bought from Amazon but you forget what the brand was or what tab you searched through to find that product.  You just go into your recently purchased tab and find all the product that you purchased. The final thing that is good about Amazon is once you search something you can look to the left side and go further into detail with your search. For example, say you are searching movies.  You can search movies in the search bar and when getting to that page, on the left side will show the prices you would like to spend, what type of format you would like to purchase, and the types of genres that are sold. So checking all of those recommendations can help you finally find a movie that you are really interested in buying. When looking on the website, there was not anything that I noticed that did not work.  The only thing that I would make an improvement on is combining the tabs that offer your current search history and your current purchases. That is to give one less tab on the homepage and make it a little more simple.

I chose to review Ebay’s website. The homepage is very busy and filled with tons of options. Every possible category was listed- from clothing, to home decor, to electronics. These tabs were easy and placed at the top of the page at your eyes level. I decided to click on the “Home & Garden” tab to see how organized the next page would be. Once again, the items were broken down into groups. They also included pictures to make it even easier to find something specific. I clicked on the “Major Appliances” tab which brought me to another organized page. Here, there were more photos of items like refrigerators, washing machines, and microwaves. Even after clicking on a certain item, there were more options to filter the search. If I was interested in buying a microwave, I could have narrowed it down to brand, color, condition, price, and even expected delivery time.

Even though the homepage is packed with a lot of information, it doesn’t require much time to find what you are looking for. The first thing they advertise is their deals. This takes up the largest portion of the page. When you start to scroll down, you can view trending items and more daily deals. Most people who go on the website are looking for a specific item and wouldn’t be looking for trending items which is why they are located at the bottom of the page. However, the option is still there and easy to look through. All of these options include large, colorful photos of items. Pictures make a person’s thought process even shorter. When people open up a magazine or website they look at pictures first. Advertising products with pictures allows people to spot and recognize exactly what they are looking for without reading anything. However, Ebay also has the option to find an item just by reading and clicking tabs. At the top of the homepage, there is a grey bar which has a drop down menu once you hover over a word. Instead of clicking on photos, I could have found the microwave just by hovering over “Home & Garden” and then reading until I read “Major Appliances”.

Overall, Ebay’s website is filled with tons of options, photos, and colors. Even after you find what you are looking for, you can get even more specific. By using tabs located to the left of the items, you can filter the search. I decided to test how quickly I could find a specific item starting on the homepage. I wanted to find a pair of black sneakers. From the homepage, I clicked on “Fashion” and then “Women’s Shoes”. From there I was able to find a photo of sneakers and then filter the color search to black. All of this was done in under 15 seconds. The organization helps users find their way around the website without any confusion.

The fusion restaurant that our group created is called “That’s a Wrap!”.  It is a burrito based fast food style restaurant that has a wide variety of different wraps.  The competition that I chose to compare to “That’s a Wrap!” is Moe’s Mexican grill.  Moe’s website has an overall great layout.  The main page is covered with videos, gifs and clickable links.  The site uses a font that is consistent with the whole site.  Also, the grid works well with the site.  It makes it easy to navigate.  The only adjustment I would make to the layout is the Moe’s logo.  It looks somewhat pixelated.  Moe’s website picked great colors to represent their company.  The colors they use are white, red, yellow, green, and purple.  These limited colors help the website look cohesive.  The texture is displayed in the nutrition section of their website.  Moe’s has photos of all the ingredients that go into their food.  This allows the viewers to see the texture of each product that they are serving.  Overall the navigation is decent throughout Moe’s website.  All the information that is needed is on the main/home page.  My only complaint is when you are navigating through the main banner.  Each section in the banner menu, catering, nutrition, rocking rewards, find a Moe’s all go to links inside the page.  When you click the link franchising it takes you to a whole new website.  I think this can be confusing if someone is trying to navigate through the website and accidentally clicks on this link.  One way the That’s a Wrap website will stand out compared to the Moe’s website is the simplify.  Our website only has four pages.  I think Moe’s has a lot of unneeded information on their pages.  The average customer wants to see the menu and where they can purchase.

For your final review choose a website that could be considered competition for your fusion restaurant. Discuss the website’s use of the following three elements: layout, color, texture and navigation. Then critique their effectiveness at guiding the user through the content. Lastly, compare this site to your final project’s design, and suggest how your website will stand out.

For this final review, I chose the website http://humblepotato.com. The website Humble Potato is a neighborhood eatery, where they serve their interpretation of comfort food with a Japanese flavor twist. They are influenced by urban arts and cultural diversity. Their restaurant is located in Culver City and Westchester. Their website is very casual and gives the audience a very relaxed feel. The website is also very clean, when you first click on the website, you are greeted with a slideshow of their food, drinks, and various areas of the restaurant. Right under the slideshow, you see their mission statement. Below that, they have a tile of images of their menu. When you click on the image, a new tab opens and takes you to their Instagram page. Their homepage layout is very simple and balanced. The layout of their website is very similar to our website because we also tried to use our images to tell the story and the text to be there as an assistance. I wish that they would have used a different typeface for their mission statement because everything is so casual and relaxed. With that being said, because their typeface is not consistent, it is hard to guide a user through their content because everything look like a separate identity.

Comparing our Mashed Restaurant with Humble Potato, I feel as though our website is a little more consistent with our typeface. We have a more consistent with color theme as well unlike Humble Potato, they have a lot of strong reds and yellows from their food; however, they chose to use the color blue as their menu. The blue is a good color to choose but I think that, they could have used a color from their food to use for their branding. Their typefaces are not consistent because one their first page they used a sans serif typeface and then on their other pages they used a more slab serif typeface. It feels as though each page is supposed to be part of a different website, it does not feel unified. They also focused on using their logo as their site ID like we did. As you click on each page of the website, they used a dark gray to show that you are currently on the website but it is a little hard to see because it is not much different from the black. On our website, we chose to use a different color so that you can see which page you are on easier. Regarding aesthetics, our websites are pretty similar, we are both going for a more casual and relaxed feel to it and they are definitely going to be a big competition. I think our website would stand out more because our typeface is consistent and our colors coordinate with one another. In addition, our layout is easier to navigate through and our navigation bar is easier to distinguish than theirs.

Trevor Young

Ames

4/18/2018

Review 4

 

I reviewed http://southsidebbqcompany.com a local food truck and brick and mortar restaurant located in Pittsburgh Pa. The South Side BBQ Company focuses on Barbeque food.

My initial thoughts on the website is that it appears rather amateur. Certain aspects of the layout and design feel very outdated. As I loaded up the site I had immediate memories of the way the web looked in the mid 2000’s. My first gripe would be the obnoxious fire jpg used as the background. Yes, I understand they are a BBQ truck and therefore use flame to cook their food. However the background picture is obnoxious and cheap looking. A quick fix would be to lower the opacity on the background in an attempt to make the page look less harsh.

In regards to the layout of the site I find it to be pretty average, some thing work well here and some are just confusing. There are multipole pages that all serve their function well. An About page with pictures an info. A calendar page that lists where the truck will be and included a link to the location on google maps which is nice. All the information is here but it’s formatting is strange at time. The “Menu page is just a list of the food items written in text in centered font. This is jarring and the text is the same size and style as the majority of the rest of the pages text. Another clear example of poor layout is the home page, where a large portion of the top third of the screen is blank. The company name and email address are typed in the top left corner but much too small in size.  To the right of this is the address and phone number of the restaurant and truck in smallish type. Then three jpgs take up a chunk of the screen. Two QR codes for mobile apps and a company logo. While the QR codes and mobile apps are nice to have, placing them at the top of the page seems to be a mistake in my eyes.

The color scheme is unified throughout, sort of a rustic red and dullish yellow. And while I personally don’t enjoy these colors all the texts and attributes are viewable. The color is lacking in some areas as the page begins to feel more like a sea of white. Perhaps the strongest section of the site is where color is used most adequately and that is the calendar page. Where the red on yellow text is readable and looks complimentary. There is unfourtnetly little to no use of texture on the site. The companies logo uses this nice rustic texture that feels very vintage and fits the theme of homecooked BBQ but the rest of the site is very flat in it’s design. There is one nice drop shadow, again on the calandar page, that works well but the majority of the site seem to be lacking in this area.

While aesthetically the site in below average the navigation is adequate. The nav bar is not much of a bar as it is floating words in space, but they all link correctly to the correct page. The site is easily navigable where it be in it’s calendar phase of it’s contact us page where the user is given a forum to fill out.

In comparison to our website (TheBastardChild.com) I feel that are site will be much more modern in it’s design. Our site features a more up to date color palate as well as amore contemporary look and feel.

Overall the site is lacking in a lot of areas but it is serviceable. It can be rather ugly to be frank and at times can be difficult to use but overall It is very much a “local webpage” in it’s feel. This is a page about local food after all and it feels like they are not interested in the “polish” that may come from a more professional design.