Bad Website Design - Xerox

www.realbusiness.com

XEROX
Its hard to even find out what Xerox actually is when you enter the site. After searching for the "Overview" tab on the complicated horizontal navigation bar, I did manage to find it was a business process and document management company.

The choices are then to go to a department - either using the home screen links or the navigation bar. We consequently have to wait for it to load, which is a bit frustrating, and then get taken up to a virtual floor. At this point we are shown no information, but a group of people in an office and a video of a man which is automatically played. It is impossible to shut this guy up and we have then to click on different people to find out information. Even once we have done this, the information is vague and confusing - and it asks us to download a PDF. 

It has been ages since we entered the site and we still haven't managed to find out any useful information really, and if we have, its been a difficult journey.

What also makes things a bit more difficult, is the information shown at the bottom of the screen. We are forced statistics and numbers, which really do not mean anything to us at this point, considering we haven't really understood what the website is about. If we then did want to contact the business, because we are so baffled about what to do on this website, we are then taken to a completely different Xerox site. This is not very consistent.

Overall the use of Flash and other video software in this site could be considered impressive, and you can see where they have tried to engage the user by using something completely different. However the site actually just angers the user with the fact that any useful information isn't accessible. The videos of employees speaking are highly annoying - we want to scan text for useful information, not have to listen and wait. Finally the numbers and figures at the bottom just add to confusion and really are the icing on the cake. 

 This site may be innovative and clever in design, but for all the time, money and effort spent on this site, it is likely the user will be finding a different business processor - or whatever the business does.

Website Redesign Examples

http://www.netmagazine.com/features/net-awards-2011-top-10-redesigns

IMPORTANCE OF TARGET USER

.Net Magazine has an article on the Top Ten best website redesigns in 2011. One website redesign that stood out was the redesign of the CBBC website - conducted by the BBC itself. 

The focus was really on the target user's for the redesign as they wanted ages 6-12 of both genders to be able to engage in the aspects of the channel that mattered to each user the most. This would be a hard task, as each age and gender of user would probably have a different idea of what is engaging as a website.

Obviously there was a lot of background research into browsing habits of these users and it was found that most rely on Google to search - meaning accessibility was also vital to the site being successful. It was also found that users of this age do not like change throughout a website and that it was neccessary for smaller, gradual changes from each page. 

The design principle adopted was to have aspirational visuals and then a simple and straightforward interaction and navigation, allowing all users to find what they are looking for.
It seems after testing, that the new site was constructed well for most of their target market. The tests suggested that it was "equally exciting to a six-year-old girl as an 11-year-old boy" - which is considered a great achievement. 

BEFORE REDESIGN

AFTER REDESIGN

I think this redesign shows the importance of researching and focusing on your target market as well as the content on the actual site. Obviously both need to be taken into consideration to create a decent site, but if either is lacking then the site will be very unsuccessful.

Bad Website Example - Melbourn Village Fete Website

Obviously being a local, charitable organisation from my village, the website will probably not look that great. However there could be a fair few improvements to make it respectable and there is the option of making it into a more engaging website.

The basics of a website are there, with it clearly laid out - navigation on left hand side and information on the right. However the information is stretched across the rest of the site, making it a bit difficult to read. It also gives the impression that the site looks a bit bare and bleak - with a couple of lines of information. Obviously the user shouldnt be overloaded, however it does just look like the website has been knocked up in ten minutes and the information unthoughout.

The main thing that stands out is the visual aesthetics of the site. The colours chosen are pretty bad on their own, let alone together - yellow and blue! The white background gives the appearance that the website is bare and perhaps unfinished, which does not give a good impression from the users perspective. The boxes and blocks used for colour and navigation, gives the website a clunky feel, making it not too user friendly. 

I do not feel that this really aims to satisfy the target audiences needs. For a potential visitor of the fete, it does not grab their attention or engage at all on the page. It does display the correct information to give an idea of what the site is about, however due to the uninspiring way it is shown, it goes unnoticed. 

The gallery could be considered a good addition for a simple site, and it is presented fairly nicely. However the pictures take time to load on a slide show, meaning that the size of the files are too large to be processed quickly on the website. This could definitely be improved. 

The navigation of the site is fairly good and it is easy to find your way about quickly - I would say it is the best part of the website. However on the gallery slideshow it was hard to go back to the thumbnail pictures straight from there, which meant it too longer to go back through using the left navigation buttons.

POSITIVES
Navigation simple and self explanatory
Information accessible

NEGATIVES
Colour scheme and typography
Large JPEG's and files
Bulky and in your face
Could look unfinished
Hard to read some info - long lines of it
Not eye catching for the right reasons

http://www.melbournfete.co.uk/

United Visual Artists - LIGHT

UVA are an art and design company based in London who produce work using moving image, digital installation, sculpture, live performance and architecture. The team come from a variety of backgrounds, allowing for a lot of diversity to be crossed over in their work.

As you'd expect from the name of the company, the work produced is usually very visual for people visiting the work. I noticed that there was fair amount of projects that experimented with light which I really found interesting.

VOLUME

VOLUME was one I came across and really enjoyed the idea of the whole piece of work. The UVA had created a field of 48 luminous columns which responded to movement. This meant that each visitor could create a unique and different experience as they weaved in and out of different columns. The columns also emitted music to add to the path created, which I thought gave the work another dimension to it, as it was not just experimenting with sight, but also sound, for the visitors.

http://www.uva.co.uk/work/volume#/10

ORIGIN was another piece of work that involved sculpture and light together, which in my opinion, looked outstanding in the middle of New York City. The idea of the piece was a response meant to explore our societies acceptance of a technocratic life form. The fierce changes in LED lighting, that zips around the 3D cube, was created to both disrupt and reflect the city of New York. I like the idea that it's there for visitors to explore and reflect on their own opinions, as each experience will be different for each visitor who enters inside it.

http://www.uva.co.uk/work/origin-3#/0

ORIGIN

SPEED OF LIGHT

 SPEED OF LIGHT was comissioned by Virgin Media to celebrate 10 years of Internet broadband. This piece of work, which was done in London in 2010, is based on an idea that speed is light and light is data. The fast, colourful lasers that create sculptures and shapes throughout the building are an obvious representation of the internet data that has been growing for some years. I find this a very impressive project that would excite and entertain if I were a visitor, and it feel it is a great celebration of how far the Internet and broadband has come.

http://www.uva.co.uk/work/speed-of-light#/0

RHCP

The RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS stage design was also made by the UVA, which I was not aware of until now. I saw the band on stage with this design and I felt that the visuals were outstanding and complemented the music on stage. The constant movement of the octagonal video screen, that splits and swivels round made the set more exciting than other gigs I have been to.

http://www.uva.co.uk/work/rhcp#/0  

I really like the experimentation of light within the UVA's work. I feel that the way they try to make everyone's experience unique in all of these pieces of work is what makes them stand out from other companies. I am a lover of music and lighting at gigs/festivals, so I really did enjoy watching some of the videos on the links that involved the two.

Good Website Example - Billabong

I looked across many skate and extreme sports brands websites as I noticed that they usually are very slick and well organised, but also boast a nice range of photos throughout their sites. Most of the sites (Billabong, Vans, Element and Quiksilver) all have different continental sites, therefore I have focused on Billabong's Europe site.
The page to choose your continent is very nicely arranged with photos of men and women either in Billabong clothing or doing sports associated with the brand. These photos are very vibrant and ordered well to create a collage that is visually impressive.

The Mens site is again well laid out and easy to use. There is a slide show showing different items of clothing that they are selling, with the photos of the models being pictured in backdrops associated with extreme sports. I suppose it can be related to the "This Is Scunthorpe" website (see previous blog), as it has three columns, however these are short columns, that are aligned well with each other. Each bit of content in them are easily distinguishable and some eye catching, however none overwhelm the others. The blog entry feed to the right is not lost among the photos and links - anyone wanting to read the blogs would easily be able to find it. 

I think it could be said that the tabs and links when hovering over the clothing tab is a bit much, however due to their wide portfolio of clothing, it would be hard to make this smaller. The font chosen is simple and readable, which helps users find the items of clothing they want efficiently. 
I think the main reason I find this a great website, is the fact that it is consistent throughout each page. The background and width are kept the same on each different page, which doesn't make the website too confusing, despite the amount of information that is available. The colours used are never too bright but usually pastel or black and white, which visually gives a nice aesthetic. You could say that the site is a bit slow to load, however due to the amount of photos and information on the site, I don't feel its a real headache to wait a second or so for the page. 

I'm not sure what it is about the Billabong site, or other sites such as Quiksilver, but they always seem to have a fresh, modern feel to them that I warm too. The visuals are usually great and consistency always there, which makes users like me comfortable to explore the site.

http://www.billabong.com/
http://www.billabong.com/eu/
http://global.quiksilver.com/

Bad Website Example - This Is Scunthorpe

http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk
This is a website for the weekly newspaper of Scunthorpe. You can see the idea they had when creating the site, they wanted to colour co-ordinate each area of news. Unfortunately, the site has turned into a confusing, jumbled mess which eventually begins to annoy you. The fact that the site lags when scrolling is immediately noticeable and it is utterly impossible to read news from the three column's on the homepage. To make matters worse, it seems there is a never ending amount of advertisments throughout the site - usually sitting in awkward places. Some adverts include videos which just start without no warning, which are then impossible to find to mute. 

All in all, this site is laden with junk throughout. It seems that there has been to much thought about navigation that is has become to confusing. There are links for everything - for example the "Restaurants" tab has 8 links to different types of restaurant which all lead to a long confusing list of these new restaurants. The colour idea needs to be simplified, and the home screen set out in a much better fashion - the three huge columns don't work. The lack of user friendliness is surely losing the site a lot of visitors who will be completely off put by this poor design.

HTML, CSS and Java - Basic Research

HTML

• HTML stand for Hyper Text Markup Language. 
• It defines the structure and layout of a web page using a variety of tags and attributes.
• HTML Tags describes the content of the document/webpage
• These tags are surrounded by angled brackets - <example>
• These tags come in pairs, one for starting the tag and the other for closing.
• The closing one is exactly the same as the opening one, but with a forward slash - </example>
• The current version of HTML being use at the moment is HTML5

CSS

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets .
CSS is used to style webpages that are written in HTML.
These styles include fonts, spacing and colour for example.

Advantages of CSS 

• Easy to change styles whenever needed.
• The HTML page is a lot smaller, meaning a smaller file size for the webpage.
• Layout of the site will be completely consistent.

Disadvantages

• CSS is not always compatible with all browsers. 

Java 
Java is a programming language that is used for applications on the web.
It powers games, allows you to view images and chat over the internet.
IT SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH JAVASCRIPT.



 

Last Stag - Jagermiester

http://hi-res.net/work/jaegermeister-last-stag-standing.html

By High Res