My hope with this website is that the target audience has immediate recognition of what this site offers, and why it is set up in such an aesthetically unappealing manner. When I first opened the page something in my brain must have shut down momentarily, because I found myself staring blankly at the page for at least 15 seconds with no recognition of what I was looking at. The title is not very catchy or descriptive, and is white font, on grey font numbers, on horizontally scrolling off white numbers. The reason for the binary sequenced numbers is beyond me, and I hope it is somehow related to the On-Camera Spot/Partial Metering web page title.
Admittedly, I have a very limited knowledge of photography, but I'm fairly certain that even amateur and professionals would be hard pressed to discover in the first minute what the site's purpose is. It is only when I look through the 10 item menu, I notice that there is a place to order what seems to be a book.
Get Up to Speed... states that the information architecture should be shallow, but this is kiddie pool shallow with too many options. It seems to me that instead of having so many items, they could have included a few menu items in one group, such as The Back Cover, Sample Page, Reviews, and Appendix. Additionally, when you click on a menu item, the navigation bar changes format for different pages. This site also broke the lecture rule of not making the user scroll for information, which is necessary for almost each page, with the home page being one of the longest.
http://www.roverp6cars.com/
I'll begin by saying that I LOVE the cars in the pictures on this site, and when you first enter the page you know exactly that they are selling some specialty car parts. However, my praise for this site abruptly ends there. Far too many colors are used, and if this weren't an assignment, I would have exited after 10 seconds of looking at the cool European cars. The vertical menu seems harmless at first glance, as they list Home, Parts Webstore, About Us...but then you scroll down to find 30+ options to click on. The icing on the cake is found at the bottom of the page (when scrolling down, don't let yourself get distracted from information overload) where you find the enticing advice which directs the reader to "...check back regularly because we are always adding more".
The rules that this site broke are too many to list, but most importantly for me were the extreme depth of content, no ease of use, and no rhyme or reason for the proximity of all the items.
On a side note, the Derbyshire Weekend Run looks like it would be a good opportunity to take in the scenery of the English countryside.
http://apple.com
Before opening this page, I feel that I was predisposed to to enjoy this site more than your average site. Despite not being a mac user, they definitely know what they are doing, creating an information architecture that is intuitive and easy to use. They list their major products and services at the top of the page, with the Apple logo at the left to promote brand recognition. Depth of content is excellent as you navigate the menu items you are not overwhelmed with choices. I also appreciate that the format stays uniform in each of the pages you visit, making navigation that much nicer.
Really, the page that I am least happy with, is the iTunes page. If possible, they might offer a "back to top" link, since you have to do quite a bit of scrolling. Another option, although I don't know how difficult this feature would be, is to have the menu scroll along with you, so you can continue to navigate to other pages from any location on the current page.
Overall, this is one of the best pages I have visited, although not enough to convert me to become an Apple user.
http://www.toyota.com
Toyota has done a good job with contrasting images with the background and choosing easy to read font type, size, and colors. The 3-4 column view found in the "Select Vehicle" and "Shopping Tools" drop-down is easy to use and visually pleasing. I also appreciate that they list the same options found in the drop-down at the bottom of the page, so a wide variety of tech savvy users can access it. This may also help with those not as tech savvy who are using from a mobile device such as tablet or smartphone. I have personally seen users have trouble when using these devices for any sort of drop-down menu options.
The main page scrolls through four vehicles, which I assume are top sellers, or at least what the company would like to draw your attention to, so I give them a top grade on implementing a good marketing hierarchy. The site also has a feature under the displayed vehicles, which allows you to view Cars & Minivans, Trucks, Crossover & SUV's, Hybrids & EV's. From any of these options, there is an "X" in the upper right corner of the display which brings you back to the Featured vehicles.
Not much to criticize this page on, and I would definitely use it if I were in the market for a new car.
Okay, I'm going to say it...you're post was enjoyable and thorough. Yep, there it is, too bad I won't be required to comment on yours every week, but I'll make sure to come back and read them all anyway.
ReplyDeleteI picked two very similar sites as my likes, for essentially the same reasons. I drive a Ford, so maybe I would have favored the site regardless. However, the Apple, Toyota and Ford sites were so similar in initial appearance that I wouldn't have been surprised if you told me they all have the same web developer.
As for the dislikes...well, I didn't phrase it as well as you. I like how you focused in on the 10 second rule. If you don't have my attention, or I don't know what you have to offer me in 10 seconds, I'm moving on. I found a similar fault with link overload on the hotel page, it was the last straw.
I completely agree, Taylor, in regards to the information overload on some of the websites you chose. I picked a similar one and thought, too, that the information on their page could have been better organized instead of "putting it all there." Definitely a turn off when you're trying to get/look for the information you need immediately Hopefully, someone will bring some of these things to their attention to provide a means for more profitable readers, in additional to visits on the site.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that came to my mind with Toyota was the colors too! They really made website "pop" and they did a good job of making it look appealing, while drawing visitors on their site to featured promotions/products.
FINALLY! (I'm just excited not yelling). besides having Apple and Toyota like myself and the rest of the group, I agree on how good, awesome, well organized, crisp layout and design both these websites have...I have a mac and I own a Toyota but Ford was right there with both of these websites. I completely agree with you on the roverp6cars website. Way too busy, too much information not enough identifying information like a logo, important button such as social media used and contact link is way at the bottom after like ten scroll down on the mouse wheel. To be a little more honest I really didn't know what the website was about and you mentioned that it's about fixing up cars I kind of though about that including the selling/buying of car parts but I honestly wasn't too sure about what type of businesses they were promoting. Despite the 10 second rule, I kept scrolling don thinking something would appear but it never did. Roverp6cars def needs to work on their website and think what and how they want to present themselves and their business to the rest of the online community.
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