What makes a good website?
Introduction
In my opinion what makes a good web page? I have been on the net for the last, can’t really believe it, coming to ten years now. From the conception to now, I have been a regular surfer on the web, visiting thousands of pages a month, mostly in search of some thing or another. Most searches have lead to even more searches but some times I come up tops. Having been used to the all text sites of the beginning, and seeing the first implementations of more graphic based sites, there was a three-year lapse where I rarely got to surfing and missed a whole evolution in web page. When I returned in full to surfing, I discovered the face of the internet have started to change. Buttons with pictures, navigation systems, some that even worked, all and all better thought out sites that where pleasing to look at and better to work with. This was probably due to the introduction of java script and more complex versions of html. Before then what made a sight good or bad, for me, was more based on contents. As this change came to be my expectations of sites changed as well. When, at first, we where happy to have hyperlinked, underlined blue text, now we expect to have a good, easy to use, constant navigation system. Where bad resolution bitmaps where the norm, now we want smooth animated graphics. The way we use the internet have changed with the advances in technology, so changing our expectations and creating a whole new set of problems for anyone, from the big spenders to backroom designers, how to get our attention and how to keep us coming back.
First impressions:
The first thing that I look for in a web site is definitely something to draw my attention. I am not picky, but it normally comes in the style of some sort of graphic. Will it be the company logo, background image, or even just the colour used in the background, any of them can make me take a second look and so giving the designer a chance to get me into the rest of the site.
The newer sites these days come with splash pages, advertising to you what you can expect on the inside, but like all advertising can become its own undoing by either chasing you away in the first place or misrepresenting what you are going to find there.
In order to drive tourism, Virginia Beach uses a marketing strategy that depends on directing tourists to their website in the hopes that once they reached this site, they can easily navigate it and be informed. As mentioned in the case study, these website are tailored to specific market segments, like sports enthusiasts, singles, or family units, so that only information that would appeal to them is displayed on the site. (Spiller, 2012,
In a second attempt to further expand the company horizons, an e-commerce site was created. This site is interesting because its main focus is not the clothing but the “lifestyle”. Upon entering the Abercrombie and Fitch website, the first thing the consumer sees is a half naked man, sprawled on the ground, eating a plate full of fruit. It is just to be inferred that he is wearing Abercrombie and Fitch clothing. This just shows how the image of Abercrombie is much more important than the clothing itself. The site itself is bright and summery. The attitude is carefree, active and sexy. Maneuvering ones way around this website is relatively easy. The links include Lifestyle, A&F TV, A&F Quarterly (the magazine/catalogue), Company, and Shop A&F. Other links include, music, movies, downloads, postcards, photos, and “hot” sites. The website seems to be almost completely focused on drawing the consumer into the lifestyle of Abercrombie and Fitch. The information the company gives is very limited. For example, throughout the entire website, there is not one mention of a company mission statement, yet there is a plethora of information about the company’s financial standings.
Web sites are just like magazines, newspapers, brochures, menus, or even directions on how to make nitroglycerin from house-hold goods, in that they all have to be put together in such a manner that whoever is reading or browsing over it will be able to clearly distinguish this from that. In this sense, a critique of any particular web site will have justification, while carefully considering also that this is an altogether new medium of information exchange. Now, all of this talk of togetherness is actually a general reference to basic design principles, such as color coordination, if color is used, text size, font choice/ style, art integration, accessibility, and just plain and simple design of the page. For example, it wouldn't be all that appealing to the eyeball if a page being viewed had all the text jumbled up in a corner, so small your eyes were bleeding by the time you figured out that it wasn't even worth the trouble. Darn. It's important to rememeber, especially these days, that what you read is as important as how it looks. Have you ever tried reading an interview in a Raygun magazine? Kinda hard, right? Design totally for its own sake is nice, as art that is, and admittedly it looks cool. However, it's two in the morning and you're standing in line at the corner 7-11 trying to pay for your 40 ounce bottle of Kool-Aid, and you happen to see that your favorite MTV Pearl Crap-clone band is on the cover of this hip magazine and you go to read it, but you can't. It's not because to you failed elementary school three times in two years, but because the maestro in charge decided to get fancy with it and thought it'd be cool if he hid the text under a black box or likewise photograph. I like to loo...
One such example is the colors displayed on the homepage which are used to draw attention to key pictures of children in need and words such as, “Please Donate!” The different colored tabs help the user to navigate easier on the website by clearly showing what each new page contains in bright easy to follow letters. The different sections are clear and lead exactly where you would expect them to. On the home page Facebook contact and donation information are displayed so they can easily be found. On many pages besides the front, children in desperate need of help are shown causing empathetic feelings in the reader.
a smile -- plus a different style can bring out the beauty in them. You
The design adopted in the development of a website is a major factor that determines if the website meets its mandate or not. The design of a website is what attracts users to the site and even keeps them for prolonged periods of time on the website. This report gives a critique of The Times online website. This site can be categorized as an informative site. The mandate of this site is to provide information to users on a broad category of topics. These include sports, general news, community events, entertainment, classifieds among other categories of information. The critique presented in this report focuses on a number of aspects of website design. These aspects include searchability, navigation, design, interactivity and the content on the website. The findings are as discussed in the sections that follow.
On the main page there are several links, some on the left side, and some going down the bottom of the page. These links can be related to the subtitles of newspapers which lead you to the inside story. Being that the website is easily viewed and understandable, rotten dot com is a very well designed website. All the links show what topics can be viewed.
Picking the best market audience is very important to online dating sites. Sites such as eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com market to the 35 and up group where Match.com tends to focus on the younger, Myspace generation of daters. These audiences play a very important part when analyzing marketing techniques because each audience appeals to a different form of marketing. An older generation does not look for as flashy or trendy of a page design where a younger generation may be bored without the coolest tricks. Chemistry.com has stepped out of the box with new ideas that really appeal to the youth. They have developed a "First Date Planning" module that will help newly met daters plan the first date. Even though it takes a simple approach of meeting at a coffee shop or local café, it breaks the ice for both parties. After the first date, the subscriber has the option to go in and input feedback and details about the date. This data is a reference only for the subscriber and is used to determine what the subscriber really is looking for in a partner. After filling out the personal notes, it allows the subscriber to send a message back to the person to let them know if her or she would like to continue dating or not.
There are five different criteria that should always be met when it comes to evaluating a website. These criteria’s include accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage (“Criteria Used in Evaluating Web Resources”, 2014). Accuracy is deciphering who is hosting the website, if the website has stated the purpose and audience, and if the information on the site is reliable. A good way to check if the information can be trusted is to compare the facts found on the website with other information and facts found from other internet or print sources. Authority is verifying that the author of the website is real, because if the author is real then the information can usually be trusted as well (“Criteria Used in Evaluating Web Resources”, 2014). To check the authority of a site, the page should be examined for information about the author, note if anyone else has contributed to the website, check for contact information, and see if the author has created other websites with factual information. It is a good sign if there is contact information for the author, because it means someone is taking credit for the information on the page (“Criteria Used in Evaluating Web Resources”, 2014). If someone is taking credit, there is a better chance that the information can be trusted because the author would not want a bad reputation and to be held accountable for sharing false information. The objectivity of a website is deciding if the website is trying to sway the reader’s opinion, and if it is biased. If the advertisements on the site are being supplied by the author of the site, then there is a good chance the page is biased. There should be no bias or opinion located on a site that is supposed to supply factual information (“Criter...
On the top of the main page is an easy home button access which by when you click it once it take you straight to home. This make it much easier for the customers and they don’t want to waste their time trying to find a way to get home. On main page there is a colour full square box where you can compare different deals with their
Next is in terms of the design and aesthetics. Layout that being used for this website is a plain white which easier people to read the text that is in black, in contrast and suitable for the concept of showroom online. The font is also suits which is not too big and not too small to be read by people. To highlight the main subject or the main product, the font is being bold to alert customers that they choose the right one. There is no audio available for this website or even a video. But somehow, as it was a home furnishing website, most of the pictures being used by the website is in JPEG format to deliver a clear view of the products to customers.
The design of the Web site is very bright and appealing to the eye. Its layout is inviting and easy to navigate. Its design is consistent through all pages. There are many graphics including, photographs, illustrations, and animated buttons and GIFs. These graphics are placed in an orderly fashion and do not create a cluttered appearance. The site has its own search engine which assists in navigating throughout the site.
Now that we are living in an ever changing world, technology is viewed as the most resourceful tool in keeping up with the pace. Without the use of technology, communication would be limited to using mail for delivery and encyclopedias for research. Although technology has improved the way we communicate and find information for research, the information is not always valid. Unfortunately, for those of us who use the internet for shopping, research, or reading articles of personal interest the information is not treated the same as a your magazine or book. While such literature is reviewed by an editorial staff, internet literature or information can be published by anyone. In order to reap the full benefit of having the use of technology for any purpose, there are five basic criteria’s one must keep in mind as an evaluating tool for deciding whether or not the particular website is a reliable source for information.
TS: Creating a website, which is a very easy task nowadays because of technology, follows these four simple steps: registering a domain name, creating a web page, finding a web host, and uploading files to your web hoster.
Description: If you own a business, you must have a website for it. Read the blog to know the importance of having a website for your business.