The first website I visited was Penny Juice (http://www.pennyjuice.com). This site is very plain and pretty unclear on what it's even about. There are no tabs to click on and everything is in one spot, making it look a little bland and defiantly hard to navigate for the viewers. Another site I found full of problems was the Spot Metering one (http://spotmetering.com). This site is also kind of confusing and there is kind of a lot jumping out at you. The page is not very aesthetically desirable, with it's odd font, font colors, photos and background. The whole page just seems very out of date and hard to search through.
These websites could both try to upgrade to a more modern look by changing fonts, photos, colors, etc. The Penny Juice one for sure needs to be more clear and include labeled tabs to navigate the site. These sites need to improve these things in order to have a more austhetically pleasing site and draw in more viewers. If they do change theses things I believe it would help people understand what they are showing/selling, which would only help.
One website that does everything correctly is Apples site (http://www.apple.com). They keep it very up to date, include many good looking photos and it is very easy to find your way around the site. All the tabs at the top are clearly labeled and it makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. Another strong website is Toyota's (http://www.toyota.com). They have avery modern style and everything is all up to date. They make it easy to find the car your looking for by having the "select vehicle" tab and it's a breeze to find whatever you may need.
I would say design and aesthetics are two of the most important parts of having a website. When the site looks good it will draw you in more, causing you to search around. Making your branding look satisfying is also very important and personally it impacts me the most when it looks superb and easy to follow.
Toyota was the first website I looked at and I looked at it as a serious potential customer since we are in the market for a new vehicle. After seeing some of the other websites such as Spotmetering, the Rover Parts website and Pennyjuice, yes Toyota's website is clean, modern and user friendly. As someone who does not expect to see websites like spotmetering,etc., and as a potential customer, I was a little disappointed in Toyota's site for my ease of use. Largely this is because I looked at their site on my mobile device first and the shifting car models at the top of the page was not what I wanted to see, this was not a problem on the laptop screen and on the laptop I could easily see the car selection menu I had initially hoped to see immediately on my phone. Since I am not much interested in car shopping and want to get in and out and just find out if they have anything I might be interested in in my budget parameters, the second issue I had with Toyota's website was that I could not find pricing information without clicking on each individual car model. I understand that some people may enjoy looking through the car model options but I would like a budget limiting search option so that I only get to see those car models that are in my range. I realize that Toyota gets me to stay on their site longer with their current arrangement but as a buyer I want to find out what my options are quickly so that I can move onto the next brand and compile a list of my overall options.
ReplyDeleteShawn,
ReplyDeleteI agree that designs and aesthetics are critical to connecting an already strong brand to the website presence. Penny juice was pretty bad, I wonder if that was even a real business. When you compare it to Apple it really makes clear what the top and bottom of the spectrum look like.
Hi Shawn,
ReplyDeleteSpot-metering and Penny Juice were pretty terrible designs and layouts. I agree with what you pointed out about how you were disappointed with the website navigation from your cell phone. This is a very important aspect to designing a website for business that can be easily over looked. Designing a webpage that is both desktop/laptop friendly as well as cellphone and tablet friendly. Today companies must have it designed to function well on all devices.
It was interesting to read about pennywise.com! I couldn't even get to the site because of my flash player, I definitely thought that they should have used a different method so no one had the problem I did! I agree with you about Toyota's pricing. I have this problem with a few websites, sometimes I just want to see the price and not have to look through things and possibly see things I like that are out of my price range! It is always nice when they have a price range button!
ReplyDeleteI also did pennyjuice as an example and agree with your assessment. The emphasis was how their product was cheap and qualified for certain governmental programs. I felt this cheapened and institutionalized their juice, when in reality the fact that it is 100% juice should have been more prominent.
ReplyDeleteI also did pennyjuice as an example and agree with your assessment. The emphasis was how their product was cheap and qualified for certain governmental programs. I felt this cheapened and institutionalized their juice, when in reality the fact that it is 100% juice should have been more prominent.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that apple's site is just amazing. It is one of my favorite websites. I think the design is just beautiful and so clean. It's also one of the easiest websites to navigate through and provides a ton of information.
ReplyDelete