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.