Most of the websites nowadays are more organized than they were in the past. However, website content still varies greatly.
The City Tech website is well organized and great for new users visiting the site and existing users. The most important aspects of website such as the FAQ for new users is easily accessible. Additionally, the links at the top of the page is great for anyone that might be confused where to go if whether they are new students, parents or staff. One area that can be improved are the pages that the City Tech website links too. For example, the financial aid website does not fit well with the layout of the main page and other web pages.
The openlab website looks colorful because of the white background. Every profile stands out. The bad thing about the site some courses are private and it requires a user to log in. The website has a wide range of FAQ’s. There is no difference between the mobile and desktop versions of the website. The fonts are too hard to read and they are very small. It’s easy to access links and to get around the website itself.
The Writing Studies Tree website is a well organized website, but the content is quite questionable. Firstly, to point of some good features of the website; the color choice is easy for the eyes and the drop down menu is great for ease of access for the core feature of the website.Moving on towards some of the areas that need work, the content in the home page introduction is not user-friendly at all. The choice of words are quite overwhelming for an average user when trying to understand the agenda of the website. Secondly, the full network is extremely complex and disorganized. An average user would not spend the time to shuffle through all the names of the schools and the
The mobile version of the website accurately replicates the desktop version of the website. The drop down menu works and to our surprise the full network.
One interesting website that we encountered was leoneck.ch/eh/, which is a hotel in Switzerland. This website goes to extremes with its over the top pop outs, graphic textures and animations. One of the most outstanding aspects of the website is the cursor where the regular cursor is replaced with a cow head. In terms of user accessibility such as clarity and navigation, it does a terrible job with all of it’s distractions with the choice of aesthetics. The The website also lack essential features that are prevalent amongst most websites such as a basic in site search bar and about page. When we attempted to load the website on our mobile devices, the background image is not made to fit with the resolution of your phone. Aside from the interest choice of aesthetics, the website does provide some neat features such as a virtual 360 tour of its hotel rooms and its lobby.
Another website we chose was h&m’s website. The website catches the users eye with its promotions and sales. It’s easy to get around the site. The merchandise they are selling are separated by gender and age which narrow down what the user is trying to find. The links all have drop down menus. When a user tries to view a clothing, they have pictures with detailed version of the merchandise. The website also provides a FAQ. The mobile version of the website is different than the desktop. Their mobile version is smaller and is easier to read.
The last website we chose is reddit.com. This website for a new user is very confusing and hard to understand anything. The website looks like it was made by a 5 year old. The website doesn’t come with drop downs but it has categories to organize different topics. The layout of the site is all over the place and hard to read. The fonts are too small. The site comes with a FAQ. The mobile version is the same. Overall the site itself is hard to get around for the first time users.
After reviewing all these sites, they all have their good and bad features. All these websites serve different purposes and as a result appeal to different audiences. Some users might agree with some of the design choices while other users might not.
Citations:
http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/index.aspx
http://www.writingstudiestree.org/
