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Post by golbeck on Jan 23, 2013 0:43:48 GMT -5
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Post by Mary Sanphilipo-Ward on Feb 15, 2013 15:49:52 GMT -5
www.dropbox.comDropbox's website is a brilliantly simple design which walks you through the entire setup. It is visually pleasing and easy to see what is completed and how to move on for each step of the setup. As the user interacts with the site, it continues to be intuitive using both simple icons and terms to guide you along. In the Get Started area, they use the strike thru to show what is complete as well as a check & the work complete, so you never lose your place. They also include pop alerts when you mouse over a link so you have extra information just in case. Even the initial tutorial is set up as a book with tabs to click the pages back & forth. It is simple to use for sharing information or pictures with friends. You can set your phone to automatically download your pictures to Dropbox & have instant backup. All functions are very easy to set up. You even gain more free space for using the features you want anyway. Save 500MB of pictures and they give you 500MB more so you won't run out of space. Speed - Because the site is so stream-lined in its design, speed is not an issue. The site loads quickly and cleanly. The user is able to identify what is needed and progress quickly. Efficiency - Again, limited dialog and graphics means less chance of confusion about maneuvering the site. Learnability - The site has redundant tactics for making sure users know what they are doing. Yet you don't feel as if they are talking down to you. User Preference - There are plenty of cloud programs out there but because of the ease of design and free features, Dropbox has a high user preference. Memorability - They have the ultimate method to make them memorable. They give away more space for free for just using their product. And they give you free space for referring folks so if anyone is interested I would be pleased to share my link. db.tt/aWPVN7yEnjoy!
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Post by andreab on Feb 17, 2013 12:53:04 GMT -5
www.jamilin.com/Description of why you think it is very good or very bad. This is a truly awful site. The irony of it is that this is supposed to be about Fung Shui. One of the first principles of Fung Shui is to clear cutter (think zen). They should start with this site. It’s a mess. Speed – This is one of the more intuitive aspects of usability, measuring how quickly users can accomplish their task. Unless your task is to be confused, there is not much speed on this site. For being all about Fung Shui, I found it to be about as non-calming and un zen like as possible. Beyond the clutter, the floating boxes on some pages were annoying. Each page is very, very long and wordy. In the end, every link to some free advice is really a tease to sell you on a consolation or product. Efficiency – Related to speed, efficiency is a gauge of how many errors the user makes while completing tasks The site is as confusing to use as a maze. Just the home page is crazy, with a rotating banner, two layers of menus – one of which drops down into the information on the page and the other opens new tabs for every click, so you are trying to go back using the back button when you need to simply close the tab. Additionally there were links to things that were not even remotely Fung Shui related – like face massages and skin cream. Learnability – Learnability describes how easily a user learns to effectively interact with the interface. I don’t think there is any interacting effectively. This site bombards you visually. There is no intuitive-ness built into it. It is mostly text based and unless you were familiar with their use of the terms, you will spend time surfing the site to find anything. Memorability – Memorability is a measure of how easily users remember how to use the interface I would think that if you actually wanted to use this site, you might remember where to go, but more than likely you would bookmark that page. User Preference – Even with all of these other measures, it is important to consider what users like on a page I can’t see anyone using this page because they liked it. If Fung Shui is your “thing” than perhaps you would put up with the site to get the information or products you wanted, but other than that, I would avoid it. I found this site through an online article - “Web Pages that Suck” found www.webpagesthatsuck.com/worst-websites-of-2012.html
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leann
New Member
Posts: 17
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Post by leann on Feb 17, 2013 21:07:31 GMT -5
www.supereagletravel.com/Welcome to my headache. Super Eagle Travel is the site for a group of travel agents. I use this company regularly for work, but I typically avoid the website. This is clearly an issue of user preference, if I, as a frequent user, am admitting that I do not want to use the site. When entering the page, the user is overwhelmed with colors, graphics, and several different areas of navigation. It is difficult to decide which area you should focus your attention on first. The content in the main section of the home page is overloaded, with many lines of information without much distinction between them. Moreover, as additional information is added, older information is often not removed. The reason why one would be visiting this site would be to request an itinerary for a trip. This main function of the site can be found along the left under "Request Price Quote," which is not simple to find. Alternatively, one could visit the "Contact Us" link to get directly in touch with the agents, but this link is small and in a difficult to read font. After visiting "Request Price Quote," you will be brought to a web form with a list of questions about yourself and your trip. None of these questions asks where you are flying out of or to, or the dates of your travel - what one would argue are important elements. The biggest issues probably are those in relation to memorability and efficiency. Since the pages are not organized in a simple hierarchy and information is often added to existing pages without deleting old information, it is difficult to remember where certain information was once seen. The navigation links are often vague, such as "Travel Vacations" - since this is a travel site, I would expect all pages to be related to travel, so what does this one in particular do for me? This decreases efficiency as one often has to click through several pages before finding one that is relevant to them. The page also includes links to a host of traveler resources. Although these could be seen as helpful, they again are vague and do not necessarily indicate whether you will be brought to an external site. Overall the site is difficult to use for the express purpose of contacting a travel agent and overwhelms the user with information and colors.
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leann
New Member
Posts: 17
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Post by leann on Feb 17, 2013 21:21:58 GMT -5
In addition to what Andrea has said regarding the feng shui page, I think there are some serious issues concerning the link and menu usage. When visiting this page, it was not at all clear to me what should be considered a link or a menu. Although the links are in the standard blue, they are not underlined, and it is sometimes difficult to determine the color difference on the varying backgrounds that the pages use. The pop-down menus (below the banner, starting with "Jami Lin's Musings", etc.) were a surprise - I had no indication that these were links or menus until my cursor happened to scroll over one and a menu appeared. The menus themselves are confusing, as each item is in plain white text and as I hover over them, I am given a text cursor instead of a hand cursor or standard arrow cursor. There is no way to tell that I should click on them, and even once I do whether I will be brought to an external page (which some of the links do, such as Exclusive Products - My Etsy Store). |
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Post by jenntreadway on Feb 17, 2013 22:57:16 GMT -5
jahc.org/In my opinion, the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council website should be included in the Hall of SHAME. Although the website include some positive elements or, at least, well intentioned elements, the overall organization, design, and usability of the website receive poor marks. Below, I have included my comments on the speed, efficiency, learnability, memorability, and user preference. Speed: Although a navigation menu is included on the left-hand side of the page, the menu options are length/wordy and poorly spaced requiring the reader to thoroughly read each option before learning more about events, volunteer opportunities, and scholarships. Additionally, users often have to click through multiple pages before finding exactly what they need (examples included in efficiency). Efficiency: To purchase tickets to most arts/culture events in Juneau, patrons must visit this website. To purchase tickets, users are presented with multiple options. Users can click on the BUY TICKETS button, select Buy Tickets to Everything from the navigation menu, or select Concerts and Event from the navigation menu. If users select the first option, they are redirected straight to the ticket purchasing interface. In users select the Buy Tickets to Everything, they must then click on another button after being redirected. Additionally, at no point can the user actually purchase tickets to all events at one time. With the final option, users can at least read about each event before purchasing tickets, but must click several additional buttons to purchase tickets. Finally, past events from the current season are not removed from the website, so users must scroll through multiple events and event descriptions to find the event in which they are interested in attending. When trying to determine the date of an event, the user is presented with two different event calendars on the home page. One of the calendars includes all arts/cultural events hosted by the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. The second calendar include these events in additional to other community events. To save the user time, these calendars should be clearly labeled: Events at the JACK and Community Events. Learnability: In my opinion, the website is not intuitive. However, if the user is willing to read the lengthy navigation options, users should be able to eventually navigate themselves to the right page. Memorability: As this website is primarily used for purchasing tickets to events or finding community events to attend, users should eventually be able to memorize how to complete these tasks with repeated use. User Preference: Although this website is confusing, this website is the only option for purchasing tickets to local events online. Therefore, users will continue to return to this page of time. Additionally, the community calendars provides a quick snapshot of community events, allowing users to visit one website for information instead of visiting multiple websites.
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Post by s2teennovelist on Feb 18, 2013 4:24:44 GMT -5
www.fanfiction.net/My Home away from home. I have used this site consistently since I was thirteen and though it IS a fan site it is one of the most well organized, well-developed and perfectly run sites and communities I have ever seen. This site caters to a HUGE audience, basically anyone who has a anime/manga series, book series, TV show or anything they like can use this site and find fan made stories about them and meet people. This website is catered to meeting the Preference of the User, I've seen several writing sites and groups for original and fanficion based work, including LiveJournal, A03, Deviantart and many others and everyone I talked to agree this site is their favorite and the best for writing, posting and commenting on stories and this site included several smaller branches to cater to specific needs of users such as www.fictionpress.com/ for original work. As a usability evaluation goes, this site passed all of my tests with flying colors: Speed: the links perform beautifully and take you directly where they need to go, everything is labeled and lists are easy to navigate for it is very easy to find what you're specifically looking for. Searches can also be changed based on title, author's name date published (both newest to oldest and oldest to newest) and the simple search offers three simple ways to search and all the speeds perform quickly and easily. The only issue with speed I found was if a file didn't exist it took the system longer to find it, not because it slowed down, but because it checked ALL its holdings BEFORE saying there was no file, as has happened to me when several stories I searched for were deleted. Efficiency: in continuation to the above statement the site is a brilliantly organized system that breaks down literally everything until the sun into a category, from there, you can find the specific title you're looking for in alphabetical order, and once you find it you have an entire database of interesting stories. The Efficiency does not stop there, however. The site is also easy to join. I joined in college cause I believed it would be complex or require certain information I didn't want to add, on the contrary the site was simple and joining was easy. The only case where mistakes may be made is when you first set up your homepage, which will be explained next. Learnability: This is a cite where if you can read or know how to use Google you can basically use this site no problem, and all the features are super easy to use. For example, say you're looking for a Naruto Fanfic title Red River (totally random example) and you type it into the search under the feature story and you get hits from the entire site: using the search feature you can break the search down to Anime/Manga: Naruto and offers other features to narrow down the search. The basic site is very easy to learn and Remember. The only case where learnability may be a problem is when you first begin using your profile, before you can post or use anything, the site requests that you read the directions (and their rules of regulation) and sign that you understand them. The Publishing stories feature is tricky to grasp at first because first you have to save your document as a single doc in the Document Manager feature: I made this mistake when I want to post a single chapter but had all the chapters in while file and the doc was saved as that single file and included all that had been currently types. Thus i had to copy the chapter i wanted to upload and paste it in a new file. Then in Doc manager you learn to edit the chapter how you like. Once its done however, THEN you go to the Publish Feature and chose either Manage story (to post an additional chapter to a current story, or New Story to post something new entirely. Thus being a site member gets a little complicated. Memorability: Despite the Member use being a bit complicate FanFiction provides easy to follow instructions and like many things, the best way to remember is by doing. With this site it is very easy to remember how to use the features and once you've done them once, it is simply remembering to do them again, and once you've performed them once the complex feature is conquered. Overall, I have to say this site has some of the best usability I've ever and above all it caters to is target audience above all else.
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Post by s2teennovelist on Feb 18, 2013 4:34:55 GMT -5
You were not kidding about the bombardment of graphics and images on this site, Leann.
I took once look at this site and it is definitely Shame Material. The first things that comes to mind when I see these giant, red, underlines links Advertising "Click Here" for the flyer or two book a trip several things scream in my mind:
The first is: VIRUS alert: "click here" being a classic example
The second is that this CANNOT be a legit site because it looks so ametuerish
And third, these big numbers and "click here" promises in the middle of the page make it sound more like a game show or that you've one a prize rather than a legit, sophisticated travel site, action the first thing that comes to mind is "This is a scam" or "its a virus DON'T CLICK ON IT"
Bringing from our lecture about popular stereotype and idioms visual affordance and constraints I say this site's home page alone violates all four.
Its far too busy with these "promotional links" that, especially in this generation, people have been warned against in fear of their systems being hacked, their identity stolen or their systems getting a virus through some form of fake advertisement. That's what this site screams to me, and because of that popular stereotype I automatically assume this site is a joke based on its Visual limitations and affordance. I take once look at it and nothing makes sense and I don't even want to bother to try because my mind is telling me its a face site and not worth it.
The only though one thinks of when they see this: Hit the back button.
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Post by Mary Sanphilipo-Ward on Feb 18, 2013 18:31:07 GMT -5
Many of the sites that have been sighted as Hall of Shame entries look as if they were designed using "build-a-site" site. These promise that you will be able to build a site in 3 steps with no experience necessary. Those statements alone should tell you that this is not the correct way to design your website especially if you wish to appear professional.
The Hall of Fame sites all appear to be simple and uncluttered. People are learning that the more the better is not always a good idea. The comparison of Yahoo and Google shows this better than anything I could say. Yahoo used to be the go-to site but their redesign has even lost my vote and I was a long-time proponent of Yahoo's design.
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Post by andreab on Feb 18, 2013 20:15:49 GMT -5
jahc.org/In my opinion, the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council website should be included in the Hall of SHAME. This is a truly awful site. I thought that perhaps I had stumbled onto the "backside" of an intranet. Appearance aside, the list of classes on the right is overwhelming. Placing the news and events that low on the page almost assures that no one will ever see it. After searching the site, I began to wonder if this is really not a blog disguised as a website? The Google calendar did not work - the list is fine, but when I clicked on the Google button, there were no events in the calendar. Opps. Good candidate for the Hall of Shame! |
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Post by justinthomas on Feb 19, 2013 7:43:21 GMT -5
Thomas, Justin: art.yale.edu/I'm pretty sure that Yale University's School of Art attempted (although, they are still actively updating it all the time--it's a Wiki, apparently!) to make their website into something of a sly dadaist joke art project--but honestly, that is being too gratuitous and giving them too much credit. Regardless, I feel as though I can say that the site is supposed to intentionally look and navigate in as terrible a manner as possible and to be as aesthetically unpleasing as possible (seriously: there is just no other way)--but of course, if you make a bad website, whether you intentionally meant to make it bad or not, it's still a bad website. This one belongs in the Hall of Shame for how it tries its hardest to hurt your eyes, alone. Speed: At first glance, the website might look as though someone threw everything at the screen in a completely haphazard manner, but upon closer inspection, it seems as though it is supposed to be as intentionally cluttered and confusing as possible. While one can generally navigate to where they might want to go with the navigation links located on the left of the screen (which at the time of this writing, currently consists of black text on a greyish-white background, so it is actually more legible than most of the other content on the website), a user's speed will surely be greatly derailed when they do navigate to any one of the pages from the navigation links and actually try to make sense of the information they find there. But to give a very easy example of a user's speed being impeded, say, for example, they wanted the address to Yale's School of Art? Well, the orange text containing said information is illegible on every page because of the arrayment of backgrounds it is paired with (if you want to actually be able to read the college's address without having to highlight the text with your mouse, then you're going to need to go click on the Visiting navigation link and go to that part of the website). Efficiency: With the website's (intentional) assault on the eyes, I have a hard time imagining a general user's efficiency not being compromised--that is to say, it just seems bound to happen that a user's efficiency will be compromised, by design. As mentioned before, the navigation links on the left are actually the most efficient and straight-forward aspect--but with the site being as terrible on the eyes as it is, I would believe that it is bound to happen that a user will make plenty of errors while trying to complete simple tasks (namely, trying to find the information they desire about the school). Learnability: I really can't imagine that the people who made the site and have edited it and continue to edit it (remember, it's technically a Wiki) want you to learn how to effectively interact with the website's interface. It is possible that this might be a weeding out process to deter would be applicants who are not blindly dedicated to the idea of attending Yale University's School of Art. Memorability: Even if one were to memorize the madness that is Yale University's School of Art's website, since it is a Wiki (and therefore it is updating all the time), it is quite possible that things could only become more convoluted during later visits (sure, the site could actually become more user-friendly during later visits--but it's a difficult scenario to imagine). User Preference: I'm pretty sure the only people who would find the website preferable in any manner would be the actual students and faculty members from the Yale University's School of Art who actively edit the website/Wiki. I can't imagine a normal person navigating the site and saying, "Yes, I love the website like this, you should keep it like this. Don't change a thing because I like to live in a constant state of discombobulation. Oh, and I also generally like my eyes to be attacked--that is always preferable to me, and this site does a bang up job of that, so don't change a thing." |
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Post by elizabethland on Feb 19, 2013 11:54:14 GMT -5
petitions.whitehouse.gov/SpeedThis site is quite easy to use and visually pleasing. The most important actions a user would want to complete (signing or creating a petition) are highly visible, with less important actions (links to other White House sites) are less prominent, though still available. The only thing that might slow the speed is that you have to sign in, but even this is intuitive, requiring you to sign in only when you wish to sign a petition or create one, both of which are actions you would expect to have to sign in for. EfficiencyIt is difficult to make a mistake when traversing the process. Each step is laid out with large buttons that clearly state what will happen when you click them. However, it is possible for inexperienced computer users to accidentally click buttons, especially if they are using an overly sensitive touch pad on a laptop. Most of the time you can just go back, but if you accidentally click “sign this petition,” then there is also no way to un-sign a petition once you've signed it. This is a fairly remote issue, though, so I can’t keep the site out of the Hall of Fame based on this factor. LearnabilityThe site is highly intuitive, with each step making sense and helpful hints available to users on most pages. It's very easy to learn to use and I imagine most users can immediately jump in to the process of creating or signing petitions. MemorabilitySince the site is so intuitive and its learnability fairly easy, it is difficult to forget how to use it. User preferenceIt should be acknowledged that since this is the only authorized website for petitioning the government, it is difficult to make conclusions about whether a user would prefer another site over this. However, the site designers took all usability measures into account when designing the site, so while you might not have a choice, the site is still pleasing enough and highly usable that many users, myself included, likely wouldn't want to use another site to accomplish the same task.
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Post by geleskie on Feb 19, 2013 11:59:09 GMT -5
Geleskie, Bethany
www.reel-big-fish.com/
The website I would like to nominate for the Hall of Fame is the site for a ska band, Reel Big Fish.
Speed: Naturally it depends on what a user wants to do on the site, but the clear labeling for the different things one can do and simple, straight-forward design make it very easy to do most of the things one might want to do on a band's website (learn more about the band's history, its discography, its upcoming albums and tours, and buy merchandise).
Efficiency: Relating to speed above, it isn't easy to make mistakes in navigating and using this website because everything is very straightforward. There are no hidden drop-down menus, no misleading labels. The only possible exception might be if one clicks on the Videos link, he'll find himself on the band's YouTube page, which might be unexpected since the photo gallery does not do a similar thing and link to its Facebook photo albums.
Learnability: There's not much of a learning curve here. Everything is very straightforward.
Memorability: Remembering how to use this site should not be a problem for most users.
User Preference: Personally, I like the site layout and design. It isn't over-cluttered but it still conveys a great deal about the nature of the band.Another aspect that I found incredibly frustrating about this site (in addition to those highlighted by Andrea and Leann) was the sheer length of it. Although I only have to use the Page Down key to get to the bottom of the page, the way that everything is clustered together makes it feel as though I've had to scroll down forever. Scrolling down is, however, your best hope for navigating the page because at the very bottom of the page you can find a link to a Site Map which is still an eyesore, but at least nothing moves and it is much easier to tell where one ought to click to end up in a certain place. Naturally, the links down there are not the lovely open-in-new-tab sort that I want to use on sites like this (so that I can be sure of finding my way back to the main page at need), and that is somewhat irksome.
Overall this whole website has the feel of an enormous pop-up advertisement. Definitely one for the hall of shame.After clicking on a Simpsons picture which was a link to...itself in the exact same dimensions as it was shown on the webpage I scrolled all the way to the bottom to check to see if this was really a legitimate website, or if someone (Harvard, perhaps?) had somehow managed to misdirect the link from the Yale webpage to send prospective art students to this monstrosity, and then send them fleeing. Then I saw two things that were of use to me (not to a prospective or current student, probably, but for the purposes of this assignment I found them useful). First there was confirmation that this site is, indeed, a Wiki to which anyone can contribute, but above that awful yellow box is a nigh invisible link to an About This Site page that has a nightmarish background involving a tiled .gif of an antelope(?) chewing, but also provides some sort of reassurance that this is, as Justin speculated, a joke. How...nice? I can understand the urge to troll, but frankly I don't feel that this website serves its intended purpose by allowing goodness only knows how many people to make changes whenever they like. (Seriously, look at the history of the changes made to the site). The things I'm describing now might not even be there by the time the next person reads this post (a possibility Justin also mentioned). That being the case, I don't think there's much hope for learnability or memorability. Incidentally, there is a more obvious link to the About This Site page on the left navigation bar, but I honestly failed to notice it. I was too busy trying to determine if the "Eva Respini in conversation with George Crewd" image was a clickable link to an event or part of the background (it's part of the background). There is definitely something wrong with a website design where I am more inclined to hunt for camouflaged links at the bottom of the page than trust the links on the main navigation menu.
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Post by Mary Sanphilipo-Ward on Feb 19, 2013 19:18:50 GMT -5
art.yale.edu/  This was just insane. I realize that artists enjoy being edgy but this is an assault on the senses. The colors are jarring and there are too many. The posters only open to a larger version of what is there. You gain to further information so why bother with making them links? Text is too big in spots, miniscule in others and flashing in others. Not a site I would want to have to interact with on a regular basis. petitions.whitehouse.gov/  In contrast, this site is pleasant to the eye, Several basic colors, and a complimentary pairing at that. It is easy to find your way around and there are steps explaining the usage. Even though there is an abundance of information on this site it is not overwhelming. A true joy to maneuver.
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Post by andreab on Feb 19, 2013 20:22:16 GMT -5
art.yale.edu/I have to agree with all the comments made about this site. The constantly changing graphics and the hard contrasts make it difficult to navigate. And while I appreciate someone thinking "outside the box" as much as anyone, this is so far outside that one has to concentrate on the simple act of navigation. Additionally, the backgrounds used draw ones attention away from the "art". The backgrounds change with each page. Overall the backgrounds of this page steal the show from what should be the star - the content. It is hard to use, to remember which links you have and have not used and to stay focused on the content. A star on the Wall of Shame!
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