Ames' syllabi

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.

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.

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.

For this specific review, I chose to look at the Puma website when buying shoes for running. I chose a pair at random and selected to add them to the cart. Being someone who has a slight history of work with web design and the amount of different things it takes to create a website feature like this, it really is wild for me personally to think about this. The first thing that happened when I added the item to the cart was a new window opening, prompting me to sign up for the Puma website and subscribe to their newsletter. Although to some this may be annoying, in the long run it can be a very smart tactic, considering there’s probably a lot of people who follow through with the instructions rather than skipping the process. That pop-up in itself probably takes a great deal of coding to be able to perfect. The next window showed my cart, which is something that really made me think. This website along with most websites have the feature of a virtual cart, which carries specifically chosen items from page to page, keeping them in line and ultimately allowing you to eventually check out. It begins to give me a bit of a headache when I think about all that goes into this.

The cart feature definitely makes it easier for people to find and buy things they’re interested in, and probably prompts users to be able to buy more items easier and faster. I felt as though the site could be navigated rather smoothly, and was also very pleasing in it’s look and layout.

Ulta has a visually pleasing website at first glance. The colors work well and tie in to the brand as a whole, coming from an Advertising point of view. The search bar is front and center with an easy-to-decipher navigation bar on the lefthand side. The categories make it easy to break down what you’re looking for into smaller subsections. Also, when looking at the homepage it has the sales pictured in a slideshow type of way in the very center of the page. There is a popup at the bottom of the homepage (it follows and stays at the bottom even when you scroll down the page) that gives you the option to sign up for emails and future sales. The homepage is very scannable.

I used the search bar to look for the Tarte Shape Tape Concealer and placed it in my cart. The process was easy and thoughtless. The links were made obvious and once I added the item to the cart there was an option to go to checkout or to continue shopping and this was made clear with the buttons shown on the screen. There were suggested  products based on my purchase interest that made it easy to browse similar products.

Going back to the homepage, if I didn’t use the search bar it would take a few extra clicks to find the exact product that I was looking for. However, I would still successfully make it there in a fairly short amount of time with minimal thinking and question. If I was searching for concealer in general, it would be easy to find all products that fall under that category and then compare all products to find the best match for me. If I wanted to shop for products in term of brand, that would be just as easy with the “Shop by Brand” link at the top of the navigation bar on the lefthand side.

There was not a moment that I questioned where I should click or what to search for or which link would be the most efficient one to click to take me where I wanted to go. Navigation through this website seemed natural and “thoughtless”. Users with little online experience would be able to successfully navigate their way around the site to find the products they’re looking for and checkout with little to no frustration. According to Steve Krug in his book, Don’t Make Me Think, it is important for users to not question where they need to go within a site; everything should be easy and scannable. When scanning Ulta’s website, I can easily find my desired destination thanks to their good use of layout and links.

The website I chose to review is Musician’s friend. The first element I saw when I opened the homepage was everything was an organized in a fashion that is accessible t0 everyone. I then used the search bar to look up a guitar, when I found the guitar I wanted, I then advanced to the page for that guitar and added it to my cart. When I clicked to add to cart, a pop up of a warranty option came up and it gave you four options to choose from and then you proceeded to your cart. I like that you are given the option to see what the warranty would cost. If you are pricing out your product and want to see what options you can add so that you see how much money it would cost you in the end. When you are finally in your cart you get a couple more options, you can either review your order and warranty or proceed to checkout. Another thing that is on the page is the option to add things to your order that are related to your item. If you choose the option of adding another item you will restart the process from the point of where you added the guitar to your cart. I find it is very easy to navigate through the site. I believe that from the beginning of the process through the check out does not make you think. It is easy to use the search bar and the pull door category to find any type of product that you are looking for even if you are not a musician. This process made me relieve that some sites are a lot harder to use now that I’ve come to realize how easy this website was to use.

I will never forget the first time I shopped online, I thought “Wow, this great, simple way to feed the shopping addiction I have.” Initially, I hesitated jumping on the online shopping bandwagon, thinking the process would easily frustrate me. I worried about misleading products and having to deal with various return policies. However, I was wrong; online shopping has made shopping so much easier at the click of a button. However, I was let down recently when I went to make a purchase at Fabletics.com.

Fabletics.com features an athletic apparel line for women created by Kate Hudson and JustFab Inc. I thought “Look at Kate Hudson, she’s fabulous. I want to be fabulous.” This is when I decided to venture to the website. My first impression of the site was that it was fairly easy to navigate, with simple fonts and a nice little drop down arrow where it says “shop”. The site makes it obvious where to click on things, the prices stand out, and the merchandise is presented well. I had the perfect outfit selected and was eager to checkout. As I went to purchase I noticed it did not take me to my shopping cart, and a quiz popped up. The first wave of frustration came over me as I discovered I had to complete the quiz to purchase. The quiz is made to customize your shopping experience. I thought this was a nice feature and would make my shopping experience more efficient in the future.

What I did not realize is that to shop on Fabletics.com you must sign up to be billed every month for merchandise, and must skip each month by a certain date if you do not wish to purchase that month.  I found it irritating that I would have to go through the lengthy process of a quiz and remember to cancel subscriptions to make a single purchase. This I did not like; I feel that this complicated the entire checkout. When reading Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug something emphasized throughout the first couple of chapters is that the website user is always in a hurry. This is a very true fact, and imagine trying to explain how this site works to your grandma, I doubt she would remember to cancel that subscription or take the time to take a quiz every time she shops. I won’t be expecting any gifts from Fabletics.com from grandma any time soon, because the site complicates one-time purchases.

A sad ending to the story, as much as I loved the athletic wear on Fabletics.com I never purchased anything, because I find the checkout process to be a headache. It would be wise for Fabletics.com to allow guest checkouts that do not require any kind of subscription or extra steps to checkout. I would purchase merchandise from them frequently if they simplified the checkout process.

Taco Bell VS. Taco ‘bout Sushi:

Taco Bell, a somewhat well known and arguably acclaimed chain of restaurants, is likely the biggest competition an up and coming Taco Sushi/Sushi Taco shop can face. While “Taco ‘bout Sushi” has a clear advantage of offering two delicious types of food in one easy to acquire package, “Taco Bell” has the advantage of being a multi-million chain restaurant with decades of experience and customer loyalty under their belt offering products at a third the of our prices. Needless to say, as the future go to Taco place, Taco Bell is our greatest adversary.

Examining their website is an adventure into bright colors and pictures of food. While one might associate mexican food with more earthy tones and dark greens, Taco bell makes the interesting choice going with a palette of rich purple and dark blacks. This is an odd choice, purple isn’t a color associated with fast food or mexican, nor have the advantage the color red has of stimulating hunger. While not exactly intuitive for a mexican restaurant it would stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the humble “Taco ‘bout Sushi” website. We go with a more traditional color scheme, featuring shades of brown and off whites, combining taco shell orange with salmon-ish pink. It’s not over stimulating and while has a more varied palette feels more welcoming. Taco Bell’s purple feels empowered, bold,  and loud. This feels extreme for a mexican restaurant, or in our case, the humble sushi taco. Perhaps the in-your-face feeling is appealing to some, but doesn’t feel suited for the style of restaurant.

Taco Bell made an interesting decision when building the layout of the site. While many similar websites, including “Taco ‘bout Sushi”, choose to place a navigation bar at the top of the page, roughly eye level for any visitors, Taco Bell instead places their navigation bar on the left hand side. This features a few options, including Food, an online menu/opportunity to order food; Locations, a simple search for taco bells in your area; The Feed, a Taco Bell News page; Live Mas; a page about Taco Bell’s charitable actions; and a “More” tab.  Opening “More” pulls out a tab from the side. The tab includes links to a news page, carreer opportunities, Nutrition facts, an online apparel store, a contact page, and their “About” page for the company. Despite being organized, it’s more cluttered. It feels like there’s always more to see, which while is good incentive for a customer to search the entire site is also nigh overwhelming. The color scheme is fitting for the design, to say the least. There is navigation bar at the top of the screen, but given how small the text is and the options available it’s clear the side bar is the main attraction. It allows a search of the menu, a “log in” option, and an easy search for a restaurant near you. “Taco ‘bout Sushi” is a simpler, humbler layout. A logo in one corner and basic location information in the other, all other aspects of the site can be navigated to via our navigation bar at the top of the page. It’s a constant part of the page, making it easy to get anywhere from anywhere on the site. It’s simple and clean, thoroughly intuitive, and most of all all about putting the customer first.

At first glance navigating the Taco Bell website seems fairly intuitive. Everything is correctly labeled, but the labels aren’t quite obvious, in particular “The Feed” and “Live Mas”. The feed, while revealed to be a pun if explored, could be any number of things for a mexican restaurant. It makes sense, but most hungry customers won’t care enough to check. Live Mas, the latest taco bell slogan, means “live more”. While it’s debatable if you’re truly living without sushi in your tacos, the problem lies more in the use of spanish. Mas, a simple word, still isn’t part of the American vocalbularly. It, like the rest of the website, is more about encouraging further exploration of the site rather than the simple “A to B” route that would best serve the customer. That being said, it at least succeeds at its purpose. The true confusion comes, however, with clicking the “food” tab. It presents large pictures of food, with the interesting design choice of scrolling down unveiling a new layer/section of the menu. It’s a very intriguing “animation”, but seems unnecessarily complicated and serves little more than to throw the visitor off.

On paper Taco Bell’s website clearly trumps the “Taco ‘bout sushi”. It’s bold, makes creative design choices, and has obvious brand recognition on its side. Where our website really shines though is the idea of “deafening silence”. The simplicity of the design and muted colors make it more visually appealing. It’s not overbearing and is a good representation of the product sold. Our site is one that a grandma could  use with confidence. Taco Bell, while the gateway to delicious tacos, over complicates what could be a simple process.