1. The goals of Apple’s website is to sell the most high-tech technology to those consumers who visit the sight, keep consumers up to date on the newest Apple technology and help consumers solve any problems they are having with their bought products. Apple’s website also addresses user needs for a MacBook by providing the specifications of MacBooks and include “Design films,” or a video on the MacBook’s “home page” to explain the various purposes of each specification that are unique to MacBooks. And, to answer user needs when something goes wrong with the MacBook, consumers can look up solutions to their problems on Apple’s site.
2. The functional specifications of Facebook’s wall are:Setup a website that allows users to see posts by their friends and by the groups, people, and other pages that the user has liked.The system will allow the user to close certain ads thatThe system will allow the user to check their notifications about what their friends are doing, or , messages sent to the user, and pending friend requests, both that the user has made to another user, or another user to the former user.
3. Hierarchical – YoutubeMatrix – WikipediaOrganic – FacebookSequintial – Surveys
4. The Huffington Post is approximately 70% navigation not just because it has a search bar, but because it is also littered with links, and about 30% content.Google, being a search engine, is 90% navigation and only 10% content (as the search results are not its own content).Wikipedia is approximately split between navigation and content, 40%-60%, respectively. Wikipedia is mostly an online encyclopedia site with a large amount of content, and the content can have links that will take the user to another page.Etsy is much like the Huffington Post, approximately 60% navigation and 40% content. Etsy’s sites is trying to sell its merchandise to visitors, so it would make sense to try to to get the visitors to look around before they focus on specific content.
5. Landor tries to get the user to focus on Landor’s objective, building “the worlds most agile brands…” by including a stunning picture, in this case, an image of some sort of circular object made up of irregular, quadrilateral fans, with a yellow hue over them, to cause contrast with the white text that states Landor’s objective.
Review 1
I chose to review the website RocketJump which is a production company I’ve been following for a while. Their simple layout of a montage at the top of all their work followed by a second section of their current shows is nice and lets the viewer see all they have to offer on one page.
The adding of a news reel, specified for them, is also nice so that we can keep up to date with their projects without going to external sites. The only problem I have is with the title card where it says what they do TV, podcasts, livestreams and behind the scenes. These look like the buttons to navigate the website however these are actually located at the very top. The colors of red and grey are also tacky but that’s the company logos so I can’t say much there.
They also clearly present every button, even those at the very top because they are always the top of your screen as you scroll. There are no drop down menus either which can easily get annoying for some. Then they replaced the about section for a who are we which I see as more personal.
-Charles Stockhausen
Questions
1.The goals of Apple’s website is to sell not only products but their brand as well. With their variety of products they offer information from purchasing to post purchase and offer assistance even after product purchase. For a user who has just purchased their first MacBook, the website offers images, video clips, and informative blurbs as well as a help feature and contact to assist with any possible questions.
2. The functional specifications of Facebook’s wall include content related information which depend upon the creation of your own page/settings. It selects only information, photos, etcetera to share with you based on your selected friends list and pages you have previously liked. On your wall specifically Facebook projects all of your own updates and posts but only with those you have friended. If you are not on Facebook however, in order to signup you must be a certain age, provide a valid email, name, and location that you are associated with. From here you can create and customize how you view others and how others can view you.
3. The four architectural approaches to information structure include the matrix, sequential, hierarchical,and organic.
An example of the hierarchical approach is the jcpenny website. Basically any clothing/department store USUALLY follows this format.
An example of a matrix approach is zappos. While this website accommodates for many different products, you can still narrow your selection (especially with shoes) by color, size, style, etc.
An example of a sequential approach would be Tumblr, for the sole purpose that one post follows the other from the time which they were originally posted or shared. It flows one after another.
An example of an organic approach would be Amazon since there are a large variety of options so you can navigate from one product to a completely opposite one without backtracking and still a clear path of navigation.
4.For Huffington Post index page is 100% completely navigation. Content is 25%. For Google the index is 100% navigation with 100%navigation on the search page and 0% content. As for Wikipedia, the homepage is 95%navigation and 5%content. Easy has an index with 100% navigation and for searching content is about 70%.
5. landor.com guides the reader’s eyes and focuses their attention through a well thought out balance of color and type. Bold type and vibrant colors tell where to look instantly while softer tones and more subtile text guide your eye throughout the page after.
Reading Questions
- Apple’s website is extremely simple. It is laid out so that new and old users can easily navigate to whatever they need. Apple has it set up so that you can find the Mac that is best suited for you, and from there, they have a ‘support’ tab to answer other questions. The tab shows commonly asked questions, and also lets you search for any other questions you might have.
- Facebook uses content inventory to know what to show you on your wall. It acquires a list of your friends, and updates your wall based on that list. If Facebook didn’t keep that inventory, it wouldn’t know what to post to your wall, because it doesn’t have any of your personal data. To sign-up for Facebook, you must list your first and last name, your email, and a few interests. From there, it has your content to go though, and can find ads and people for you to be friends with.
- Organic, sequential, hierarchical, and matrix are four architectural approaches to information structure. Forever21.com is an example of a hierarchical website; it has base categories, which are split down into more specific categories when scrolled over. Amazon.com is mostly used as an organic website; one thing is searched for, and many options are pulled from many places, without much consistency. Wikipedia operates as a matrix website; it leads you to other, pretty random, places after finding the one page you originally searched for. Instagram is a sequential website; it shows you posts in order of the time they were posted.
- The Huffington Post home page is 100% navigation, but its article page is about 25% content, and 75% navigation. Google’s homepage and search page are both 100% navigation. Wikipedia’s home page is 97% navigation and 3% content (if you could the name, small description, and image), and its search page is split about 50/50, with links shown all throughout the given article. EST’s homepage is 100% navigation, even though it shows you things you may like, they are all links; once you click on a pace, it splits about 50/50 between navigation and content.
- Landor.com clearly focuses on color and type. I was very surprised when I opened the page, and saw that it was mainly yellow with white type. As I scrolled through, I noticed all the headlines and text before the images. They used a huge san serif font, and even though it was white on a yellow background, it was super easy to read. The website had a very innovative look to it.
Reading Response 1- Tristan Coyle
What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (pp. 41-56)
The goals of the apple website are to show off their products and to display what there products are about. It shows the sleekness and style that their products embody. It’s goal is to direct people to purchasing their products and them come back for support if needed. It displays their different line of products and grabs your attention. Once you purchase something, there website switches up from a guided process to a more open place to find what you need to fix or troubleshoot your new purchase. The support part of the sight lets you have more reign to search for what you need help with.
What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (pp. 72-75)
There is a search bar at the top of the page with a navigation hub where you can check notifications and other features. On the actual page there is the status box to post in. There are several shortcuts on the left of the feed. On the right of the feed there is birthdays, trending, language choice, and finally there is messenger all the way on the right.
What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (pp. 94-106)
The four different approaches are hierarchical, organic, sequential, and matrix. An example of a hierarchical would be apple’s main site. It starts at one place and then branches off into others and gives you more specific options to choose from. An organic site would be wikipedia or superbad.com. It has no real set sequence and the path can change differently every time. A sequential website would be checkouts on sites where you can purchase something such as Amazon. It leads you directly to putting in the information and processing the order. Finally, a matrix site would be ThinkGeek or Amazon not including the checkout.
What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (pp. 116-134)
Huffington Post is roughly 80% content and 20% navigation. The main navigation is at a bar at the nav bar at the top of the page with scrolling content below. The content is interactive though and you can click on the stories to go to your desired page. Google’s homepage is roughly 90% navigation and 10% content, because the content displayed when you search something is only a portion. There is instead navigation to go to the site. Wikipedia is pretty close to google’s homepage with the ratio. It is roughly 80% navigation. When you search something, the navigation goes down to 20% with a navigation bar on the right side and content everywhere else. The content can be interacted with and keywords can navigate to different pages. Etsy’s homepage is roughly 30% content and 70% navigation. It has a nav bar and a search bar, but provides some content as you scroll down. It has a mix of information and different navigation buttons to shop for what you want.
How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (pp. 144-155 )
They use different design principles to really guide the experience. They use hierarchy and dominance to show each item in importance. It starts out with their welcome blurb very large catching your eye to read it. They also use color to take notice from the background and focus it on the welcome blurb. Then, as you scroll down the color changes and the products become what is important to see. After the presentation of the dental products, it opens up to scrolling through different projects and such. It operates in such a way as that you have to scroll through each item to keep going, and this causes you to look through them one at a time. They continue to use color to emphasize things and it goes on as well.
Torchia Review 1
The website I chose to review was allelectronics.com. Overall the website is moderately easy to use, but could benefit from a few adjustments.
Searching for a product without knowing exactly what you want on this site is very overwhelming. You must know a keyword or else you have to scroll through a very long and intense alphabetical list of descriptive names of electronics to find what you want. When you finally do get to the shopping cart. It is organized and easy to navigate, but they throw all the information you need to fill out all at once, which again is slightly overwhelming.
The design principles on the site seem fitting for what the products are. It’s very blue and gray with hints of orange, which seem to work for an electronics site. There’s some wording in the top corner in dark red, which does not seem to fit well. And the logo, while gets the message across of technology, has a bright shadow which is a bit uneasy on the eyes. The font is very basic and fits in well. With a few tweaks, the site look could be very successful.
In conclusion, the site is functional overall, but could use a few alterations to make it more user friendly and inviting. However, for a site based around electronics, it surely gets its point across.
Review #1
Brittany Mayer
RMU Sentry Media VS. USA Today Review
For my review, I decided to look up two news sites. They are RMU Sentry Media and USA Today. I am comparing them because I am part of RMU Sentry Media, and would like to look at different news sites to see how our’s compares. From there, we could either improve it, or keep on the right track.
A news site has to be designed in a way that it would be easy for reader’s to get to the section they desire to read. USA Today does this. They have all the news, entertainment, sports, and other sections listed at the top with tabs that are easy to see. As you go down, you can see the top stories and the important information that happened this week. The issue with this site would be the amount of pictures. The farther down you go, the messier it gets. There is less white space and the reader misses the content.
RMU Sentry media has a lot of white space. It also has the easy to access tabs. It’s pictures and graphics are nice and spaced apart. The problem I would have would be, that when you get deeper into the site, you find old hyperlinks that might not work anymore. Also, there is a lack of design. It is very repetitive, and lacks a lot of color that would make a site like USA Today get more views.
Both sites do a good job of getting the information to their readers in an easy way. However, while USA Today lacks in organization, they make up for it in design. The opposite could be said for the Sentry. The Sentry is nicely organized; however, it lacks color and design that could get it more views. Both sites are equally good at their jobs, and get a lot of views from their selected audiences.
review #1 gifts.com
After reading the first page of “Don’t Make Me Think”, I learned that most of the eCommerce websites are designed in the way that it should be self-evident, obvious and self-explanatory. People using the website should be able to get it- able to know what it is and how to use it. My recent experience about this came from gifts.com, when I bought a product from their website.
The home page of the website is beautifully laid-out. It shows very nice gifts presents which can attract the attention of the user in a few minutes. Even if someone is not willing to buy something, he would get attracted towards it and will end up buying it. On the top left corner, they have their website logo and on the top right, they have account registration, blog and cart.
Across the top of the website is the main menu, subdivided into various different categories including Valentine’s Day, birthday, occasion, recipient, category, red envelope, and personality. These categories are further divided into the occasion that you need to gift for and the gender to whom you want to give the gift. It is also include the gifts according to the age of a person. Depending upon what the user is looking for, he can easily find it from the top shopping section of the website. Underneath the main menu, they have different kinds of gifts arranged in a symmetrical way.
I was looking a gift for my brother’s birthday and eventually I found an oversize beer cup which can be personalized as you want. I didn’t order the first time when I found it, and the next time when I wanted to order I just typed the name in the search bar on top right of the website. It was very quick and easy to find it again and order it. Once I added the item in the cart, it asked me to proceed to checkout or continue shopping. When I proceeded to checkout a coupon code popped up on the screen for the promotion of their products, and helped me saving couple bucks for my order. Checkout is also very quick and secure.
I think the search keyword works the best for the website. A user can find the product that he is looking for very easily. Also, the different gifts presented as a gallery of beautiful gifts attracts people to buy their products which works the best for a website. I guess site make me think of buying more and more products from their website as they are pretty cool. I don’t think if I would like to make any change in the site. I like how it is designed and programmed with all the main buttons in the front that are subdivided into small different categories. Each category is divided in a way that it makes a user’s search easy and help him find exact what he is looking for.
The design principle and elements works very well in this website. The white background color is suitable for this site because it helps the gifts to reflect their own color and design to get more attention of the users. The alignment of gifts are also perfect. They all are aligned in 4 different columns with same gap in between. Proximity is also good in between the gifts with not too much space in between. Different colors from the gifts reflects differently all over the site on the white background.
Review 1
I decided to review colourpop.com, a website that sells various types of online makeup products. I visit the website quite frequently because of the company’s reliability and product quality. The site is aesthetically pleasing and reflects the style and mood of the products they sell. It also visually captures and targets their primary customer market. Upon viewing the website and examining it in a much more thorough and complex level, though, I find there to much more to both love and hate about the website.
As mentioned previously, the website is visually pleasing. The homepage shows several tabs with drop-down windows that allow the viewer to browse through their products more specifically. They show each physical product and give it a brief description. They even go as far as showing swatches of their different types of makeup on different skin tones so people can get an idea of what it would look like on their faces. The website also has an easy checkout process which makes shopping very efficient. They also recommend other products someone might like to buy based upon what they put in their cart. Overall, the website was a solid functionality.
One of the biggest flaws the site has, though, is its cursor. The cursor on this website comes up as stars instead of the average arrow. The stars are rather distracting and they make it hard to see when you are physically capable of clicking on something or not. Also, the pictures they show may not necessarily accurately represent the true color of the product, which may make customers disappointed in the long run.
Overall, the website does everything it’s supposed to do and effectively functions the way a makeup website should.
Ecommerce Usability Target Website
I chose to review Target for their usability when checking out an item. When opening the Target website, there is a clean layout using largely photos with minimal type to describe the products they are advertising. The home screen displays the current sale along with new merchandise that just came to the store. They break up the site easily, giving the user options such as: “categories, deals, search, my account, and cart.” Since these are most likely the most used functions on an ecommerce website, it prevents the user from having to think much about what they are doing. I chose to search for a “Sony a5000” camera simply using the search bar and easily clicked on the item to read about it. I then easily clicked the “add to cart” button as it was the only large red button on the screen, drawing the user’s attention to it. When clicking “add to cart,” a menu popped up, notifying the user there was an item added to the cart along with other suggested purchases that are similar to the item placed within the cart. The whole process, without having to think took roughly three minutes. Even when I go back and simply search “Sony,” allowing a larger amount of items to come up as results, it is extremely simple to scroll through the page and find the item I am looking for. This is due to the fact that they have a very simple website and the only details that draw your attention is the photo of the item and the large red “add to cart” button because they are both displayed on an empty white background. Target leaves multiple options for drop down menus in order to specify the search but they don’t overwhelm the user because of the slim type used as well as their small size on the side of the screen. They also give the option to collapse the drop down menus in order to make them more compact creating less distractions. Within the shopping cart itself, they continue with the theme of using large red buttons to guide the user’s next action. In this instance the button states, “I’m ready to check out.” Their constant use of red and white, with black for type, stays consistent with their logo as well as makes it simple to find items the user wants on the Target website.
Homework
- Give information about products and options to purchase their products. Apple shows that they are an ecosystem with their website. There is troubleshooting through the website. A lot of problems are simple solutions that can be answered through the site. Apple let’s its users conduct “user testing” by leaving reviews of their products.
- Content Inventory
- Hierarchical- Apple, Matrix- clothing website, Organic- Wikipedia, Sequential- check out on Amazon
- Huffington Post- 95% content, 5% navigation, Google- 100% navigation, Wikipedia- 100%, Etsy- 75% navigation, 25% content
- Having a contrasting color with white writing makes the text pop.
Review 1
As a person that plays a lot of video games, and often does so with friends, I often need to find a way to host a game so everyone else can play while I am in class or just away from my computer. I find that leaving my computer on to run a game server is an option, but it can stop me from performing other tasks. For a game like Modded Minecraft, Nodecraft is the best choice when it comes to server hosting. Nodecraft.com is a website dedicated to letting people have their own server for gaming, without using their own computer. This means that the server will stay up and running 24/7 because it is not your own computer.
Starting off I went in knowing that I wanted a server that could run the SkyFactory 3 modpack. From the homepage there was no search bar and a menu with six buttons. Of those 6 buttons my mind went straight to pressing “Pricing”. I came to this deduction before looking at the other 5 buttons labeled “Home” (which was already highlighted), “Community”, “Blog”, “Support”, and “About Us”. After clicking “Pricing” it took me to a screen with six different plans and from past knowledge I knew I needed at least 3GB of RAM to run a server playing SkyFactory 3. I clicked the “Order” button on this new page under the plans and was amazed by what came up:
After revisiting the website for this assignment, I noticed something rather unique to Nodecraft that sets them aside from the competitors. When I click on “Order” for a server it doesn’t just show me the plans like other websites, but it also shows me the game types someone can run on each plan. This is unique to this website and highly useful to consumers. As I was using their function for checking the game types I noticed that it was titled “Customize Your Order”. This option had a slider that showed the game types and also changed the plan for you. This slider brings up a good point from the readings; “Faced with any sort of technology, very few people take the time to read instructions” (Krug 26). I believe that in this one instance that falsifies this statement. When someone is put into this situation they are faced with an option once more. Do you want to make sure this works for your game? If yes, then use this nifty slider. It’s an option that also may change the plan and the way the user is thinking.
So I put the plan into the cart and it took me directly to the cart. The most difficult part of buying this plan is the fact that you must have an account to use it. The most thinking I have had to do on this website has become the making of an account, and even that is easy.
The website was easy to use and made me think twice. The only thing that really needed to be changed was the cart. I was directly linked to the cart the first time I put an order into it. When I backed out of the cart to the homepage I didn’t see the cart anywhere. After looking everywhere I clicked on the “Pricing” tab again and then saw the cart. It would have been so much easier to use if the cart was also on the homepage.
Krug, Steve. Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.
Berkeley, Calif: New Riders Pub., 2006. Print.
Week One Questions
1.) The main purpose of Apple’s website is to promote, advertise, and sell their products. Not only that but they want to sell the ecosystem that comes with their products. If you get the new iPhone, then you need to get the wireless headphones to go with it, and maybe a MacBook to sync all of your information with. The website remains simplistic and informative with large pictures and as little wording as possible (Unless of course, you enter the ‘help’ or ‘learn more’ sections). This clear and concise look promotes ease of use and great user experience.
2.) Facebook’s wall is fairly simple to navigate with the main focus on what the user wants to see. Facebooks ads are all based on what you are liking within the domain. Not only is the first option on the feed to post about one’s personal opinions at the time, but there are quick links to your favorite pages displayed on the left side. In addition, the feed only shows posts from your friends. Facebook is a more personalized experience. If you have yet to join facebook, when you reach the homepage, there is a green button, which is standing out against the typical blue color scheme, to create an account. The set-up structure is very simple, sequential, and direct.
3.) Sequential: such as an online test or a book, Hierarchal: Corporate images like Apple, Organic: Wikipedia or educational sites, Matrix: Amazon, News
4.) Huffington: Navigation=30 Content= 70, Google: Navigation=10 Content=90, Wikipedia: Navigation=15 Content=85, Etsy: Navigation=30 Content=70
5.) They use emphasis of color and cleanliness of design to focus largely on their designs and works as a whole.
Website Review #1 – Nike.com
The website that I chose for my website review is Nike.com. Nike has always been a very popular brand and over the years have updated their website many times to keep up with standards and continue to be creative. If you are looking for a specific product it is relatively easy to find. You can first use the search bar which is easily visible in the top right hand corner of Nike’s website. If you know the exact name of the product it will take you right to what you are looking for which is awesome for quick shopping. However if you only know some of the products name or the kind of product it will give you the most logical choices from their website. As far as the actual layout of the website it is very clean and simple which makes it easy for shopping and it does not feel crowded and makes there be less thinking involved while buying. You get to focus on the product you are looking for or find something cool if you are just browsing. They have a nice and simple task bar at the top for quick navigating and then a little further down they have some of their featured products in large tiles with a detailed picture of the product to show what it looks like for the customer. Overall Nike has a very nice, clean, and simple website that allows shopping to be easy and fun for customers.
Review #1 Forever21
I work in-store at Forever21, so I don’t do much online shopping there. I was super curious to see if it was easy to search for an item and find it quickly, because that is often very difficult to do in-store. Instructions said to search for something I was interested in, so I chose high-waisted jeans. Instead of going to women, bottoms, then trying to figure out if they were listed under jeans or denim, I went to the search bar, and started typing in ‘high,’ and a drop-down showed up with multiple search possibilities. That made it extremely easy to find what I was looking for. Then, different prices and styles were listed with pictures. I chose one, added it to my bag, which was then displayed instantly. Then, it took me to the log-in, I logged in (using my previously saved information), then it showed me the jeans, my total, and a big red-orange ‘checkout’ button. However, I clicked on ‘checkout’ a few times, and it never took me to the checkout page. Up until this point, the site has been extremely easy to use, but now I want to completely give up on my order. It’s aggravating not being able to go to the payment page and actually buy the product. No matter how easy it was up until this point, I could very easily go find another website to purchase the jeans from. According to the reading, the user is supposed to think as little as possible, and the website should strive to be better than the competitors. However, I became extremely confused when I arrived at the cart, and was unable to check out. As the user, I completely abandoned the thought of going through with the purchase. And my mind went to thinking about a different online store I could go to for the same item. The poor functionality at the very end cost Forever21 the sale.