- The goal of Apple’s website is to be a hub for all things related to their products. It’s a great resource for a potential customer that wants to gather information on products, a current customer interested in the latest information on their products, and also offers support to current customers having an issue with an Apple product. A customer who has just purchased their first MacBook will have all of their needs met on this website. The navigational bar is very clear and at the top of the page. This customer would find the most use out of the Support page, as the Mac page is aimed at potential customers interested in learning more about the product. From their, the customer can enter in any questions they have about their new MacBook. If they need more help than the support page and support communities can provide, the website also has the option to chat with a representative either online or on the phone. Overall, the website is very helpful to any type of customer!
- Functional specifications are typically typed up in one big document that details what the programmers want to be included on their site. Facebook, for example, has a search bar to look up friends/pages/events, drop down bars showing your notifications/friend requests/private messages, a home button, a left navigational bar with shortcuts to your popular pages, a place for you to update your status, the wall itself which shows your friend’s and liked page’s posts, a sidebar for easy access to messaging, and details on a page if you have one. The programmers wanted to make sure that you had easy access to everything you wanted to do while on Facebook. This allows people to quickly find what they want, making the experience more enjoyable and making the user have a more positive outlook toward the site.
- The four architectural approaches to information structure are hierarchical, matrix, organic, and sequential. The easiest example of a hierarchical structure is software. Software uses a parent/child relationship that is found in the hierarchical structure. The matrix structure can be found in websites like Amazon or some clothing store like H&M that allows you to browse by color, size, or price. Organic structures, which don’t follow any consistent patterns, are good for some educational and entertainment sites which allow users to have a free-form exploration but make it difficult for them to reliably find their way back. Lastly, sequential structures are the most popular offline. This structure is similar to how we view books, articles, and audio and can be found in online articles, or anything on a smaller scale.
- The majority of the Huffington Post, Etsy, Google, and Wikipedia pages are navigation. News sites like the Huffington Post are relying on you clicking on their articles, that’s how they make their money and that’s the point of their business, to provide information. So they list a bunch of links to all of their articles, hoping one will catch your eye and you’ll click on it. Marketplaces like Etsy are heavy in navigation because they want you to click on a product and purchase it. Informational and search engine sites also have a lot of navigation because they want all of the information you want to be just a click away so you’ll like them and keep coming back.
- Landor has a beautifully executed, rectangular, and asymmetrical design. The limited color use allows the user to focus on what’s important, and the color also guides your eyes to where the designers want to lead you. Having their navigation tucked behind a hamburger menu also keeps the viewer’s eyes on the information they want them to know and they can decide later what they’d like to do with it. The clean cut, rectangular design makes the site clear in its intentions and doesn’t distract from the message.
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