Apple most likely had quite a few goals when planning the strategy of their website. One of which would be to develop branding. Apple wants to have it’s own “look.” Another goal would be to sell product. This ultimately leads to the user’s needs. When a user purchases their first Macbook, clearly they would have needs. The user would need information on the product, a shopping cart, and it all must be easy to navigate. Apple’s website does fulfill all of these needs by having a shopping cart system and a simplistic design.
Facebook’s wall is a main feature of the site. It relies heavily on user created content, but the site gives the user the tools he/she needs to create that content. There is a text box for posting written messages and a place to upload pictures and videos. When you are not a user, Facebook shows you the signup page. This page shows a number of text boxes that the user can fill out in order to make a profile. Everything that is filled out is a requirement. Emails and phone numbers are needed to identify a user, passwords are necessary to keep the user’s information safe, and a date of birth ensures that the user is of appropriate age.
The hierarchical structure consists of a tree-like structure where one node can lead to multiple nodes and each of those nodes can lead to even more nodes. Huffington Post’s website is an example of this because different paths open up based on which page you visit. There is also the matrix structure. This structure allows a user to move through two or more dimensions. Amazon uses this structure when the user seems to be searching for something somewhat specific. Another structure is the organic structure. This structure is not consistent. Every user could have a different experience and follow a different path. Wikipedia is a good example of this. Finally, the sequential structure is the simplest of the four. Here, the user moves from node to node in a predetermined order. There is no way of going from the first to the last without going through every other step. When purchasing from a site like Amazon, this structure comes into play.
A lot of The Huffington Post’s homepage is content. There is navigation in the sense that that content is linked to a page with more information about said content. There are also places on the site used for searching for more specific content. Google on the other hand is all navigation until you start searching or clicking on google’s apps. Wikipedia and Etsy are kind of the same way. The user doesn’t find much content until they start using these sites to find what they are looking for.
Landor seems to use large text to direct the user’s eyes to content that it thinks is the most important. Pictures and bright colors also come into play.