Week 3 Part A: Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

I have looked over some options of websites that have a poor design and I choose two of them that had many faults to me. I will use terms learned from the lecture  (CRAPHTED) to describe issues that I found.

Poorly designed websites:

 - Gates N Fences (http://gatesnfences.com/)

This website has a lot of problems that I could identify for any customer and visitor that are doing some research.

Fist of all, the information is too condensed and everywhere in the page. Everything doesn’t have to go on the first page. We can use the the “depth of content” concept. They also have 60 + links for options of services on the left side, and many other links for other options as well. I think it have too many links, even if you have a large range of services/ products, having so many options for the customer to click on is not effective. The e-reader won’t read all of this content and probably will feel overwhelmed. 

Second, we can use the the “Ease of Use” concept you see text all over the page and as a E- Reader, I think it is very disorganized. They don’t have their logo.

Third, the typography is also hard on the eyes.. They have too many fonts and different colors that should help the client to find links, but it actually made it more polluted. Specially because the size of the font varies and sometimes it doesn’t even fit on the boxes, making it even harder to read. 

I don’t think they thought about the user in terms of trying to make it easy for them to navigate. Their goal probably was to provide the whole information about their company and the services they provide, but they didn’t have to write everything down. 

Some of the ideas that they could work on to improve the website and make it more suitable for e-readers is work on the design, of course, such as typography, alignment of texts and photos, create a logo, but specially work on their content. They can reduce the amount of text they have and work on social media to do this job, or leave just the important and relevant information on the website and let the customer find them by phone, yelp, or social media. I think if they were able to invest in the website looking more clean, and having a social media to do the job of posting their past work. Pick less colors and less fonts and make it easy to navigate. 

 - MGBD parts and Services (http://www.roverp6cars.com/)

This website brings the same issues than the first in some level, too much information in the first page, bunch of different fonts and sizes.

The first error that I find is Hierarchy related since the website has so many images and so many content all transposed. It is hard to find what is really relevant. Their Facebook webpage has the link in the middle of the page, in front of some pictures of cars. You don’t know where the content starts and where it ends, or what the pictures are talking about, specially those one with texts all over.

This also can be related to Contrast since the content is spread around and with so much information, there is anything that should be popping as the most important/ attractive information. Everything has the same emphasis, I mean, some content seems more important but since they are all over you cannot identify. 

It also brings the same problems that the first one in terms of Ease of use. It is overweighing to look at it and to try to find what do you need.

What they could do to improve is be more specific on their content and make more jump pages to tell about what they want to say in the first one. Have their logo in the head of the page, a list of services and links on the left (they already do, but they could group some information together to reduce), or they could use their social media more, like the first website as well. If they want to use photos, they can have the information about them very close to make the proximity clear and one font only for the titles and one for the content, with less colors as well. With a clean and clear design and communication on the website, is is much easier for the customer to buy and navigate finding what he wants.

Websites with a good design:

- National Parks (https://www.nps.gov/index.htm)

I really enjoyed the layout of the National Parks website. They did a lot of things that can be considered as right. They have their logo right left side. There is a menu bar with the jump links, and the search option as well. All photos has alignment with the texts and they have the hierarchy concept, which shows what stand out in the page, meaning what is important for the customer to know or what the main messages they want to give. For example, in the top of the first page they have the COVID uptakes on red, contrasting with the picture behind, which shows the importance of the announcement. They also have a box with the content related of “Black History Month”, which appears to be relevant and seems a highlight of the page. They also don’t have a lot of content in the first page, which makes it easy to read and a clean webpage. They add their social media in the bottom as well, usually that’s where I find the links in most websites, so I think it was a smart decision.

As a E-reader, I feel that this website was created thinking about the customer/client since it is enjoyable to navigate and ease to find the information you are looking for.

- Headhunter Hairstyling (https://www.headhunterhairstyling.com/)

This is another website that I found very well designed. I personally loved the choice of the colors. I think the yellow and light grey give a feeling of comfort while I was scrolling. 

They did a lot of right things, most of them the same as I said about the website above. But they were good with the alignment and contrast. They left the number and the option to see the services right in the middle, which is the fist thing your eyes look when you open the page. They also have the tool of the bar with jump links to make it easier to find the info you want, the social media in the bottom and their logo on the top left, and the logo stays there if you click in the other links, which I is very good. Instead of polluting the first page with a bunch of pictures, they have a specific part for that, the gallery. The proximity was something very well developed on the page since the keep the texts close to the pictures they are referring to.

I loved as a customer that they provided the prices on the pricing part. I like when services can provide that ahead in their website, that way you don’t need to call to ask and you can already make up your mind if you want the service or not. 

My final thoughts after this research is that the design of the website of the company is something  very important for their success. It’s usually one of the first thing that people look for when they are trying to find a service. I didn’t read pretty much anything from the first two webpages I looked. Since they had so much information, I felt overwhelmed and I didn’t put any efforts to look for their services. In the other hand, for the two websites I looked as thought they were good, I already know some information about them, because they were very easy to navigate. Having less information sometimes is the best choice. It is a good way to attract the customer attention to what is really important for the business, or for the customer to know.