Author: Brandon

Our fusion restaurant, The Pasta Project, would face competition form such companies like Olive Garden. We will have similar menu items and will be targeting the same customer base. The Olive Garden web site, http://www.olivegarden.com/home, is extremely well built and offers a lot of insight for our own site. The site uses the elements of layout, color, texture, and navigation to its advantage. For starters the layout of the web page is easy to follow. When a visitor enters a web page they don’t ready the page logically, their eyes bounce all over the place and information is discovered in an unorganized way. Even so, the Olive Garden web page is simply designed and uses a lot of stunning graphics. The layout makes it easy for the viewer to find information without putting too much effort into reading.

Another elements that helps with the pages layout is its navigation. If a page is organized well and easy to navigate than the page suddenly feels like a seamless experience for the user. The Olive Garden web page keeps the navigation bar on the same part of the screen for every move and scroll. The background is also static. Both of these elements give the user an anchor while browsing the page. At no point should the viewer feel lost, as there is always a reference point that doesn’t move or change in appearance. The navigation bar itself is effective due to its simplicity and options to select. Rather than add a lot of different buttons for the user to click on the Olive Garden web page keeps things simple and only presents the topics that really matter. This is something that The Pasta Project should aim for: simple and easy to understand navigation.

In some cases color and texture and be critiqued together as they are responsible for the aesthetic feel of a web page. Olive Garden’s web site used both elements to create a visually stunning experience. The entire web site has a color scheme that it sticks too. The colors are soft beige, dark red, bright mint green, and subtle browns. These colors combine to create a feeling of warmth, compassion, and fresh ingredients. The colors play nicely together and invite the user to keep looking and find out more. The texture has a similar effect. Olive Garden’s web page uses very soft textures compared to some other sites. Watermarks of their logo appear in different sizes throughout the web page. These subtle designs help to give the graphical elements more character as well as give the page a little more depth. Many pages that feel very flat are the cause of a lack of texture. The Pasta Project will try and do the same in creating effective textures and color schemes to make the page easier look at for the viewer.

The Olive Garden’s web page is visually stunning, and pleasingly simple to use. However, the site is not perfect. Because the company is a franchise that is owned by a larger company the web page is built to encompass Olive Garden restaurants all over the nation. The Pasts Project will focus on making the page more personable for the user. Seeing a menu is great, but it is also nice to get the feeling that the restaurant actually wants you, as a customer, to come in and have a good time. With Olive Garden, the customers are simply numbers in a spreadsheet that keep profits in the green. The Pasta Project site will focus more on the individual and present the user with as much friendly, and welcoming information as possible. We want our site to say “come on in, we’re happy to have you.”

 

In the book  “Don’t Make Me Think” Steve Krug discusses the principles of web page navigation really nicely.  He goes on to compare the process of navigating a web page to navigating through a store. While browsing any number of web sites I’ve never stopped and realized how similar the two processes are. When shopping the consumer uses signs to find the right department, isle, and product. A well constructed web page operates in much the same way. I recently reviewed and compared two sites: bravofranco.com and no9park.com. These two web pages are very nicely designed as they are both easy to use. I personally liked the no9park.com site more than bravofranco.com for a number of reasons.

Firstly when entering a web page it is key for the homepage to snag the user and keep them from leaving. If the homepage suffers in functionality or ease-of-use the user will quickly hit the back button. Bravofranco.com’s homepage lacked in its visual appearance due to the poor photos that are right in the middle of the homepage. The site has three large, tacky, and poorly light photos that give the user a sense of the restaurants informality and a lack of self respect. Other than having poor photo elements, the site is nicely balanced and all pages are brought together nicely. The pages are all properly tagged and framed to avoid user confusion. The pages emphasis on the page also left a lot to be desired. I didn’t get a good sense of where the homepage was trying to direct me. Should I check out the menu, or click on the directions button?

No9park.com is my favorite site because of how simple it is for me to navigate through the sites pages. The navigation bar on the right side gives me a firm idea of where I am located within the site. The web page also has a very nice visual element, the photos and graphic design is sleek and professional. Photos of the food looks elegant and intriguing, making the user want more eye candy. Information about the restaurant is well organized and easy to access. The site has complete unity as the side navigation bar locks all the pages together. This site simply has a very nice and easy to use layout. The reason I feel that no9park.com is nicer than bravofranco.com is due to how little thinking I had to do while using the site. It felt like an effortless experience to me, which will bring me back to the site.

While I was navigating my way through onepagelove.com I came across a fun and visually stunning site, easyrocketstudio.com. When I landed on the page I was immediately impressed by the animation and design  of the page. I was able to quickly pick up the information that was being presented, and within a matter of about three seconds I knew exactly what easyrocketstudio.com was all about. The main reason I did not return to onepagelove.com was because this information I was getting from easyrocketstudio.com was easy. I was able to gently scroll down the page and read the information while appreciating the art that accompanied it.

Easyrocketstutio.com is a site that sells e-sport services to any online sports, gaming, or betting companies, which means that the site is meant to target a specific niche. While the site is visually stunning, it is far from perfect. The site has quite a few grammatical errors. It has two language options, English and Russian, and the primary language is Russian. It’s most likely that these grammatical errors are translation errors. The only major coding issue can be found at the bottom of the page where some text is lost behind an image, an easy fix once the problem is identified.

One of the strongest elements of this web page is its use of artwork and visually interesting elements to guide the eye to different information.  “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug states that websites need to have elements of visual hierarchy in order to organize information for the viewer (2014). The use of the graphic elements in easyrocketstutio.com help to establish a strong pattern of hierarchy that separates the general information from the details.

The separation of detailed information is another strong point of this web page. Krug mentioned that it is key for sites to refine information and make things as minimal as possible. The goal is for the user to get as much information as possible with little to no effort. This is accomplished by keeping information clear and concise, something easyrocketstutio.com executed very well.

One element that many one page sites fail to include is a navigation section that allows the user to travel to different areas of the page without endless scrolling. The sites that do have navigation tend to be less graphical and artistic and more structured. I thought that easyrocketstutio.com did a great job at keeping the navigation bar easy to find and simple to use without taking away from the stunning artwork of the page.

 

Easyrocketstutio.com is an engaging single page web site that utilizes many of the important elements of effective website construction. The most important areas it capitalizes on would be its effective use of graphic elements combined with concise information that is easy for the viewer to read. The web developers of easyrocketstutio.com did a good job at building a site that people won’t want to click away from, which after all, is the ultimate goal of commercial websites.