* What is the purpose of the site? -selling goods or services?
* Is it good at fufilling its purpose?
I spent some time looking on the Dell website. This is a site that sells computers for personal use at home, to small businesses and also to large companies. These are only available online or over the telephone, so it is essential that the site is easy to use. I think Dell is easy to browse through, and order. You are given a lot of information about their products which can help you make up your mind about purchasing a computer or not.
* Easy to navigate around
* Not too cluttered, well organised and nice to look at- simple.
* If it is a large site, a search facility is essential
* Products easy to find
For example, ebuyer.co.uk has four possibe ways of finding a product. It may be listed on the homepage if it is on special offer. If it is not, you can either select a heading from the tabs along the top of the page or use the navigation bar down the side to find the product under more specific headings. If this isn't enough, the website also has a search tool so you can enter a keyword and find the results immediately. This is probably the quickest way of finding something if you specifically know what you want. The other headings are best used for just browsing.
http://www.fixedearth.com/ is a terribly designed website. There is no consistent font or layout, the homepage is extremely long and the navigation bar is at the bottom of this page. The text is in different fonts, colours, sizes, formats, and some of it is highlighted, which is unnecessary. There is one picture on this page, which is placed in between two large chunks of text which causes the page to be even longer.
(picture to come)
* Clear categories of what services/products are being sold
* If it isn't clear what the website is selling, then it is failing its objectives and badly designed.
On Argos' homepage there are listings of what is sold, as well as tabs across the top of main headings, similar to ebuyer.co.uk. Additionally, argos has an A-Z index. This is shown below:
[picture to be inserted]
http://www.redbloodclub.net/ is a terrible website. You cannot tell what the website is for, and the background is enough to give anybody an epileptic fit. You have to scroll sideways which is annoying, and the website seems to have absolutely no purpose.
* A disadvantage of an online shop is that you cannot look at an item the way you would a physical product. To overcome this, a website should include pictures of different angles, and use multimedia to allow you to zoom in etc.
Hottopic.com allows you to interactively look at a product. When you click on a product, a pop-up window appears. You can look at the product at all angles and zoom in wherever you want.
* The transaction itself has to be effective and safe. (A transaction is an interaction between the company and shopper.) An example of a transaction would be selecting an item to see if it is in stock; as you are interacting with the company's database, or signing up to the website so that you can place an order.
* Text boxes, drop-down menus etc to make it simple to imput data.
* The website should allow the customer to track an order, see if an item is in stock and edit your customer details.
Apple allow you to track your order. It lets you know when it is being dispatched from the building, when it should be on it's way, and allows you to get in contact if your product hasn't arrived when the website says it should have.
* Using overt methods of collecting information from the customer (where the customer knows that they are giving their information, for example imputing their home address).
* Using covert methods of collecting information e.g. IP Address (the customer is not aware this is collected).
* Using cookies which will remember how many times that person has been on the website, and will recognise a certain customer.
Looking at StatCounter.com allowed me to see the data collected from visitors on a website. They can collect information like which pages are most popular on your website. You can install an invisible counter which would track how many visitors you had without disrupting the design of your page. However, if you wish the counter to be visible, that is an option too. You can select certain viewers and 'zoom in' on them, using their IP address to see where they were looking at your website from. This is useful to see how global your company is. You can also track which pages a user was on when they closed the window - this is useful to see which pages put people off etc.
* Good advertising: So people know that it exists (banner adverts on websites, tv/radio/newspaper
* Website is not too slow - otherwise people will leave, and it is unlikely that they will return.
* The website should be kept up to date; with prices, images etc
* Should be easy to use and understand, and the visually impaired should find it easy to use.
The Dell website has a feature at the bottom of the page to change the text size. This is found increasingly on website.
This website is not easy to use or understand, and the animations and moving background are certainly not suitable not suitable for the visually impaired, it is a confusing website. http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/
* A good website should support their customers in many ways. It should have a call centre and if there are physical shops, you should be able to go there for advice and help too.
* Terms and conditions: How to return goods, how safe your bank details are with this site etc. These statements can be too long and difficult to read, but it is important that they are there.
Headings:
The purpose of the site and how successfully it meets this objective
How it is structured
The goods and/or services it offers
The product information provided
Types of transactions that can be made
The methods used to capture customer information
The techniques used to engage, retain and entice customers
The sites usability and accessibility
The customer 'experience' offered
Conditions of purchase
Bibliography:
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