Website evaluation assignment
Good website:
http://www.ikea.com.my is one of the website that I have found as a good website.
Contents
The website is about the information of the products before making a purchase in IKEA store.
IKEA Malaysia does not have online shopping features. All the content intended appear in the
website. All the content appropriate for the all users without focus to the certain gender only
means women and man purchase the home furnishing product. Not only that, the contain support
the website goals which more on customer do the survey to their favorites products before
purchasing the product. The website is more convenient with My Shopping List which can help
the customer to plan their purchases before visit the IKEA store. Besides that, the customer also
can download the IKEA catalogue and IKEA Home Planner software to view the product better.
It is easy to memorize, pronounce and spell the domain name www.ikea.com.my because
the company is already established franchise of home furnishing company in the world. For
Malaysian, they have to write .my at the end of host name to view the IKEA store in Malaysia.
The page title “Product Search”, “New”, “ About IKEA”, “Store Service”, “How to shop in the
store”, “Map to IKEA store”, “Jobs”, “FAQ”, and Contact us” is clearly showing the website
about home furnishing business. IKEA catalogue shows that the products is real world content.
Using the IKEA catalogue the customer could zoom in the product itself. Not only that, the
catalogue provides the complete range of the products match to the customer needed for example
complete set of red living room, complete set of kid bedroom and others.
Information architecture
All the content in the website are place and grouping in correct order. In Product Search
page all products will appear but categorize under each main product. For example, sub products
for lighting consist of lightings, lamps, integrated light range and light sources and accessories.
Not only that, the information of the products is well organized, clear and complete. The
customer could read the caption under the product itself that consist of price, designer, material,
care instructions and item measurements or dimensions. Besides, all the content labels used to
present the information architecture on the Web site are short, sweet and communicative to the
user.
Navigation Design
Apart from informative, IKEA website is interactive website. For example, user that
views on How to shop at the IKEA store page could explore and page clicking by the button.
Besides, the user could turn back to the page that they want to view back by clicking the page
button according to page number. As a home furnishing website, most of the picture used JPEG
format. The background is simple and suitable for the concept of showroom online. A part from
that, the navigation is consistent through the site. The user able to know where they, where they
have been and where they will go in the website.
Screen Design
The screen design appropriate for the content and the user and fully support the navigation
design. Not only that, the screen design is consistent throughout the website. The user do not
confused to browse the website. IKEA website provides the interactivity screen design to the
user. The IKEA webpage page works with all commonly used browsers, on PC and Mac
platforms. For optimal viewing, Netscape Navigator 4.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0 are
recommended and screen resolution of at least 600x480 pixels. Moveover, the user needed the
Macromedia Flash 4 plug-in to view certain content. The color palette is fully supported by the
users’ systems. The screen design are printable and the user able to print out their shopping list.
Bad website
http://www.warrencountykustoms.com/ is one of the bad website that I have found.
Content
All intended content did not clear appear in the website and not appropriate to the user. The
purpose of the website is not clear as the picture of the band is shown in the front page. Besides,
this website also look messy with the unwanted animations such as hand animation and mentol
animation that distracting the user. The domain name of the website is confusing the user as the
text appears on the website is OHIO AUTO KOLOR. The page titles did not helpful at all in
identifying the content of the website. Not only that, the text written in the website is
confusing the user. Spelling of the words “Kustoms” and “Kolor” did not make sense to the
English user. A part from that, the supplemental content did not secure their client’s protection
as the picture shown has been capture without the disclaimer. The page title so “Page”, “Page 2”,
“Page 3”, “Page 4”, “Page 5”, “Page 6”, and “Page 7” do not indicate of anything to the website.
The text also set in all capital letters and more difficult to read. Besides, the pictures file sizes are
big and long scrolling pages make it more difficult to read. The graphic images of “WARREN
COUNTY KUSTOMS” with the fire transparent graphic make this website look sloppy and
unprofessional. Moreover, “under construction” sign in “Page 7” is annoying and waste visitor’s
time and patience.
Information architecture
Some of the content did not place where is suppose to be in the website. All the information is
not well organized and most of the information given is not detail. The user could not find the
important information as the website shows more on the pictures of the cars. The information in
each page is less information and not informative to the first visitor at all. Moreover, due to the
overlapping pictures, the website looks boring and dull. The information in the first pages will
confuse the visitor and not relevant as it only appear on name, years and car type. If the visitor
do not use with the words, they could not get any information from the website.
Navigation Design
This website is a long scroll pages requires lots of scrolling are unmanageable for online user. A
part from that, the link in the website is not systematic and not consistent to the user. The user
will confuse with the link and the information given is not relevant. For example, in “ Page 5”,
the visitor can view new picture of auto show however the auto show is not been held yet. The
website did not provides side wide context that user can easily know where they are, where they
have been and where they can go.
Screen design
The screen design is too crowded with unnecessary pictures and distractive animations. Not only
that, the background of the website is dark with car picture that make the website uncomfortable
to the visitor. Even though the text is clear, the background makes the page glaring overall.
Besides, the effect of the dark black background is over dramatic and “heavy metal”. It is in
appropriate especially for a small business. Moreover, the website also does not support the
navigation design and it is inconsistent. The screen design also center everything on the page
makes the content difficult to read.