@David:
CSSMania is not even worth mentioning. They seem to simply approve every design submitted to them. I’m not surprised though, because AFAIK, the people behind that site aren’t designers at all.
@Skelliot:
I am particularly fond of Site Inspire (which was apparently voted best gallery IIRC), and I visit a few other Japanese and French galleries. There is a significant different in quality, believe me. BWG is, arguably, one of the better ones, which is why I still regularly visit, but the ratio of quality sites to “ugh” here are akin to 1:10.
@Joshua:
You’re asking me to set aside 40 minutes of professional time, for free. *smiles* However, without going into that kind of detail, the questions I would ask every time I enter a page are: “Why am I here”, “What am I looking for”, and “How do I go around and return to this page”.
So on the main navigation, you have home, services, store, and blog. And for some unknown reason, you have about us and contact tucked away at the upper right-hand side. So I then click services, expecting to see a list of the services provided, and I am greeted by another “Price is Right” page, and I have to click door number 1, “what we do”, in order to find out what I was trying to find out in the first place (services).
So I click door number 1, and then… I’m at the portfolio? What happened to the list of services I was looking for? And no, the copy “Guifx is a touchscreen interface design company, with a passion for improving user experiences.” doesn’t answer any questions.
The biggest difference between print and web is the navigation. If your navigation is a failure, so is your site, which is why architecture and content planning are critical. In fact, that is why those two are always steps 1 and 2 before any design or development work is started.
And if a site can’t get those right… why is it on a best web gallery?
Fantastic comment, if I may say so. This is the kind of constructive criticism that I look for on this site that not only points to the flaws in the site in question but also helps me to make sure that any site I design does not fall in to the same traps and helps eliminate errors from my work.
DDD – Many thanks for your unpaid professional time!
@DDD, you’ve shed a lot of light on the subject, many thanks for that.
I must admit that those things weren’t apparent to me on first visiting the site. I kind of just ‘got on with it’ in a naïve sort of way, which I guess a lot of people might do, without ever realising their experience is being impaired. It takes some nous to be able to pick up on those issues.
So thanks for imparting that knowledge and also for sacrificing your break on my behalf!
One of the main things I noticed with the site is that I wasn’t able to get much of the information I would of desired if I was a possible customer. While the imagery on the site is attractive, the overall cohesion of the design is lackluster. It really does feel like a mishmash of design elements. The services page and the home page look good (even if they are slightly lacking in informative content) but when you get to the blog and shop its like WOAAAAH. The design loses all continuity.
Although the website has the information we seek, it’s not objective…
In the first page, we see a big call out for downloading icons that doesn’t seem to blend well when transmitting the message …
” What we sell ” it’s the primary message you want the user understands … that’s because the user is asking ” What do you have to offer me ” …
Basically you see the touchscreen and the design message, but you can’t understand right away if they only do that… or if it’s just a design area …
After the big image you tend to look beneath it and you see the call outs … the first being an icon …
If you click “Experience GUIFX” you go to a page that, in my idea, should have been the first page they should show …
The message is all there
What We Do , Why we Specialize, What set us apart and the main banner says it all …
Maybe they should think the sitemap again … but this is just my quick review … usability wise.
Something more important is that while searching for a good internet electronics store, look for web shops that are continually updated, maintaining up-to-date with the most up-to-date products, the most effective deals, and also helpful information on products and services. This will make certain you are dealing with a shop that really stays on top of the competition and offers you what you ought to make knowledgeable, well-informed electronics buying. Thanks for the critical tips I have learned through the blog.
47 Comments
dudeydudeydude, as usual you make some good points, and have picked up on some things that may even be fixable.
I’d be interested to hear how the ‘apparent lack of content hierarchy planning’ is maifested in this design.
@David:
CSSMania is not even worth mentioning. They seem to simply approve every design submitted to them. I’m not surprised though, because AFAIK, the people behind that site aren’t designers at all.
@Skelliot:
I am particularly fond of Site Inspire (which was apparently voted best gallery IIRC), and I visit a few other Japanese and French galleries. There is a significant different in quality, believe me. BWG is, arguably, one of the better ones, which is why I still regularly visit, but the ratio of quality sites to “ugh” here are akin to 1:10.
@Joshua:
You’re asking me to set aside 40 minutes of professional time, for free. *smiles* However, without going into that kind of detail, the questions I would ask every time I enter a page are: “Why am I here”, “What am I looking for”, and “How do I go around and return to this page”.
So on the main navigation, you have home, services, store, and blog. And for some unknown reason, you have about us and contact tucked away at the upper right-hand side. So I then click services, expecting to see a list of the services provided, and I am greeted by another “Price is Right” page, and I have to click door number 1, “what we do”, in order to find out what I was trying to find out in the first place (services).
So I click door number 1, and then… I’m at the portfolio? What happened to the list of services I was looking for? And no, the copy “Guifx is a touchscreen interface design company, with a passion for improving user experiences.” doesn’t answer any questions.
The biggest difference between print and web is the navigation. If your navigation is a failure, so is your site, which is why architecture and content planning are critical. In fact, that is why those two are always steps 1 and 2 before any design or development work is started.
And if a site can’t get those right… why is it on a best web gallery?
(Right. Coffee break’s over.)
@DDD
Fantastic comment, if I may say so. This is the kind of constructive criticism that I look for on this site that not only points to the flaws in the site in question but also helps me to make sure that any site I design does not fall in to the same traps and helps eliminate errors from my work.
DDD – Many thanks for your unpaid professional time!
@DDD, you’ve shed a lot of light on the subject, many thanks for that.
I must admit that those things weren’t apparent to me on first visiting the site. I kind of just ‘got on with it’ in a naïve sort of way, which I guess a lot of people might do, without ever realising their experience is being impaired. It takes some nous to be able to pick up on those issues.
So thanks for imparting that knowledge and also for sacrificing your break on my behalf!
One of the main things I noticed with the site is that I wasn’t able to get much of the information I would of desired if I was a possible customer. While the imagery on the site is attractive, the overall cohesion of the design is lackluster. It really does feel like a mishmash of design elements. The services page and the home page look good (even if they are slightly lacking in informative content) but when you get to the blog and shop its like WOAAAAH. The design loses all continuity.
I dunno, this is just my opinion.
Although the website has the information we seek, it’s not objective…
In the first page, we see a big call out for downloading icons that doesn’t seem to blend well when transmitting the message …
” What we sell ” it’s the primary message you want the user understands … that’s because the user is asking ” What do you have to offer me ” …
Basically you see the touchscreen and the design message, but you can’t understand right away if they only do that… or if it’s just a design area …
After the big image you tend to look beneath it and you see the call outs … the first being an icon …
If you click “Experience GUIFX” you go to a page that, in my idea, should have been the first page they should show …
The message is all there
What We Do , Why we Specialize, What set us apart and the main banner says it all …
Maybe they should think the sitemap again … but this is just my quick review … usability wise.
Something more important is that while searching for a good internet electronics store, look for web shops that are continually updated, maintaining up-to-date with the most up-to-date products, the most effective deals, and also helpful information on products and services. This will make certain you are dealing with a shop that really stays on top of the competition and offers you what you ought to make knowledgeable, well-informed electronics buying. Thanks for the critical tips I have learned through the blog.