Recommendations to Improve the eBay Business Website Design - Assignment Example

Principles of Interactive Multimedia Table of Contents Introduction The most effective web design and contents play a very significant role in customer’s attraction and business enhancement. The basic objective of an enhanced web design application is to offer a better platform to business customers and employees for services and information. Thus, in order to attract more customers a firm should develop an attractive web site by following web site development guidelines (Lynch & Horton, 2009). In this scenario, this paper will assess some of the important aspects of enhanced web design and development. Here I will assess some of the fundamental aspects of eBay website design and contents. Basically, this paper discusses the web site related elements such as website navigation, position, page header and footer, typesetting, graphics and color based aspects. E-Bay business website is one of the world's top web based platforms that offer an excellent support for sellers and buyers to come together approximately for everything. EBay E-Bay Inc. is a US based international web based C2C (consumer to consumer) business that manages eBay.com web based platform. In addition, this business website offers online shopping and auction support in which people and companies purchase and sell a wide variety of products and services internationally. Additionally, E-Bay business was established in 1995 that is one of the distinguished accomplishment stories of the online dot com bubble (eBay Inc., 2012). Figure 1 Ebay Website Source: http://www.ebay.com/ This research will assess the web based design and contents of the e-bay website for the overall analysis of the system. This research will analyze some of the fundamental aspects and finally suggest some guidelines to improve these areas for better customer satisfaction. Content and Design Analysis a) Navigation & Shortcuts I have assessed the web based platform in order to analyze the navigation of eBay website. In this scenario, I have analyzed that the overall navigational structure of this website is very simple and helpful for customers. According to (Lynch & Horton, 2009), a web site should be divided into different parts and we should create a unique but related identity for each part because it will make navigation easy. In case of ebay.com we can see categories of every item that we want to purchase. The categorization of products makes it very simple for us to purchase and acquire products and services. For example, below I have shown the example of motors category where we have sub categories of the cars, bikes, trucks, SUVs, etc. Hence, this kind of structure makes a website a great deal simpler and easy to use and search. E-bay also offers horizontal and vertical product categories that are really simple arrangement for finding and navigating preferred items. I have also observed the page loading speed of the website. The website offers a very high page loading speed throughout the entire ebay web site. The overall website offers a very consistent page loading speed of all pages that makes this website very simple and easy to use for customers to come and search for preferred items. b) Where am I? The most important feature of a web site is that we should be able to know where we are on a web site (Lynch & Horton, 2009). In this scenario, ebay.com allows the users to know his/her current navigational place. This makes very easy for the customer to move around the website and assess some of the fundamental areas regarding website navigation. Here one of the main features that I have observed is the change of link color that changes to pink after visiting it. In this scenario, we are able to know our recently visited places and can assess that current links are already visited. The below given image shows the instance of superior website design and content analysis. c) Page Headers & Page Footers Ebay website has a constant page header that offers a number of facilities to clients. One of the main contents of page header is its logo. Then we have ebay links like community, sell, customer support, cart and my ebay. Here we also have a search box where we can search for our preferred items. This search can be made narrow by using category link, for instance, the below given ribbon outlines the business products and services. These links are really useful for clients who are able to access website any item at any time. The page header also contains the most important item that is about buyer protection. This is one major part of business security policy that contains some of the major aspects and initiatives that ebay has taken for the safety and protection of customer rights at the business platform. It is a kind of customer assurance statement that presents some of the major security management strategies that ebay has formulated to protect online shopping of the customer. Figure 2 Page Header The footer of the website is also very informative and helpful for customers. It also demonstrates ebay business, its strategy and security management aspects. Figure 3 Page Footer d) Typesetting The ebay website contains a very simple Arial font for information presentation. The overall presentation of information and data is very effective. The presentation of data and details of business products is easy to read and understand. The customer can take a deep insight into every aspect of the website and purchase the product after a detailed analysis. Figure 4 Typesetting e) Graphics & Colors The colors and graphics on the e-bay website are very simple and effective that can gain customer attention. These aspects make business website look so attractive. Here we have a website theme of light gray and white. In this way it makes overall website appearances simple, professional and attractive. Figure 5 Graphics & Color Recommendations Ebay is one of the world’s best business web sites. Thus, it is very difficult to find issues and design flaws in this website. The overall structure of the website is really effective and enhanced. The links and navigation are excellent. However I have discovered that ebay offers limited language support. In fact, ebay offers products all through the world. In addition, Ebay has made completely dedicated websites for US, UK, China, etc., However there is missing link on the main page of the website. This link is about language. For instance, if a customer wants to change the language, they are not able to find any link on the main page of the website. There is need for offering such links so that customers all around the world can be able to access and purchase online. Conclusion At the present, the Internet has become an essential tool for carrying out business activities. A web site contains images and links, which we use in order to access data and information on the Internet. The paper has presented a detailed analysis of some of the important aspects of the ebay business website. In this scenario, I have analyzed its web site for design and navigation. I have also presented some recommendations to improve the website design. References eBay Inc., 2012. What is eBay? [Online] Available at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/questions/about-ebay.html [Accessed 30 August 2012]. Lynch, P.J. & Horton, S., 2009. Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites (Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites). 3rd ed. Yale University Press. Read More