Interactive Website Evaluation - Outline Example

Interactive Website Evaluation Introduction: The websites that have been chosen for this study is Nike (UK). This company is extremely famous worldwide with a strong market position across the world. This report aims at analyzing a completely developed user interactive website and to base the analysis on a few criteria like the Functionality, Accessibility, Speed, Bandwidth Sensitive, Quality of Source Code, Layout, Navigation, User – Friendliness, Content, Customer interactivity, Security, Use of technology, Legal, and Adherence (Fisk, R. P., Grove, S. J. and John, J., 2000). Nike.com: The business model used in Nike is: “We grow by investing our money in design, development, marketing and sales and then contract with other companies to manufacture our products” (Nike Biz, 2009). The website that has been chosen sports oriented people and also enthusiasts who prefer to customize and personalize all of their products (Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R., 2006). The website also aims at targeting internet enthusiasts who prefer using the internet as a medium to buy their products and services. The website is developed using flash which is very appropriately and effectively used. The following section will deal with a detailed analysis of the website based on the flash, interactivity and overall usability. Website Analysis: This site has all the elements that would make it a successful website. There is an instant appeal in the website, alongside with an excellent and easy navigation system (Beynon-Davies, 2004). The company has used simple yet excellent, with very good use of Flash, which provides a chance to increase the interactivity of the website. Analyzing the website based on some essential elements of flash websites the following has been found: Colours: The website uses excellent colours and textures throughout the website. Care has been taken at all levels of the website to ensure that the attractiveness is not compromised in the website. Colours that have been chosen are simple which do not take on a lot of the attention of the website. The colours have been chosen with extreme care to fit with all the flash applications and to ensure that the website has a complete attractive look. Also the texture that has been used with the colours complements the flash applications of the site as well (Beynon-Davies, 2004). Design: The design used for the website is simple with a clear emphasis on what the website provides. Although there is a use of flash in the website the company has been able to keep the design clear with emphasis on the products and what the site has to offer. It is evident that the company has still considered the entire design and has ensured that the flash application and the base design of the website complement one another and bring out a strong attractive website (Reinhardt & Lentz, 2001). Interactivity: The website allows good interactivity and provides the customers with an excellent interactive shopping experience. The website is very user friendly and provides the customers with a lot of options for customization in terms of colours, sizes, and styles for the shoes as well. The company has made good use of the website and technology and allows a number of features and possibilities for customization including almost every product that is listed in the product line (Beynon-Davies, 2004). The level of personalisation and customization that is allowed on the website is one of the best features of the website. (SEORank, 2009) User – Friendliness & Customer interactivity: The overall usability and comfort of this website is very focused on customers. These highlight the fact that the company is clear about the needs of the customers and understand its market well (Fisk, R. P., Grove, S. J. and John, J., 2000). There is a strong positive aspect of the website, that customers have a chance to review the designs and view them from various angels before submitting the shoe created. The site allows for easy navigation and also the site map is very deep but with easy accessibility to all users. The website provides a chance for a customers and users to choose more than one shoe and customize it to their needs and requirements. Bandwidth Sensitivity: Considering the amount of flash applications that are present on the website, Nike has been able to provide for excellent bandwidth sensitivity. The website takes relatively much lesser time to load and the speed in most cases does not seem like it is affected at all due to the flash (Kim & Mun, 2006). The main page of Nike has a video and despite this, the loading time for the page and the video is very low. This is a very essential aspect of the website and it is seen that most visitors tend to leave the site if the loading time of the website is very high. Use of Technology: As has been noted Nike works based on its business model and the company is known for the high technology that it always uses. Creating a flash enabled site and a complete ecommerce website with such high numbers of flash applications shows the use of high technology and continuous updates. The website is very customer centric and this is noted due to the fact that it offers the customers with a choice of templates that they could use to gain a better idea of the colours and the designs. The company has a strong influence on the markets and it will always be remembered for the contribution to the online shopping experience (Dahan, E and Hauser, J.R., 2001). Considering this website and the flash that has been used in the website, it is seen that the company has been able to balance the website with excellent flash applications. The flash application used throughout the website is clear with excellent images and user friendliness. Also unlike other websites where the flash applications tends to overpower the essence of the website, Nike has been able to overcome this and has been able to use the flash applications in a way to works in sync with the actual purpose of the site. Nike has developed a website which is a new era in the virtual world and a totally new concept of personalization and customization. The websites have used all the features that are considered to be the criteria for flash website designing and have brought about a revolution in the online shopping experience (Evans and Moutinho, 1999). Comparison: The website of Nike is compared to that of the Interactive Flash CV prepared for Part 1. Though the scale, functionality, features and content of the two applications are completely different, the basic criteria can be compared. The usage of effective design, colour schemes and navigation structure are compared along with the extent to which the multimedia software, namely, Flash has been utilized by the two applications. As discussed earlier, Nike places emphasis on the commercial aspect and the design reflects the same. In the case of the personal CV, the end users are Employers and hence content is given prior importance with the achievements and qualifications being highlighted. The marketing messages and depth of the navigation are higher in the case of Nike website, as the objective is to keep the user engaged and interact with the application. In the case of the CV, the objective is to highlight the key points of the resume and the career objectives to the Employer (Conger & Mason, 1998). Bright colours and textures are used across the website, Nike.com, as discussed in the previous section. The personal CV uses minimal colours and effects, as there is a difference in the target users and the objectives. Promoting a brand requires the users to remember the key features and patterns and associate them with the particular brand. Nike.com website establishes that by emphasizing the logo and the captions along with the product line. The objective of the personal CV is to impress the Employers by providing them with the information relevant to the skills and qualities of the candidate (Fisk, R. P., Grove, S. J. and John, J., 2000). Nike.com adapts a three – tier link architecture. The homepage forms the first tier, with the categories form the second tier in the Flash website. The third tier has more detailed pages and interactive content which keep the users engaged. This architecture is followed to provide organized interactive content to the users and increase the time spent by the users on the third tier pages which are more specific and targeted (Shannon, 2009). The personal CV website does not follow any specific link architecture, rather a simple series of links providing content in a series format. This linking structure is more effective for a CV, as the candidate can choose to present the resume in reverse chronological order or in the order of skills relevant to the Employer, etc. Summary: Thus the report has analysed the website of Nike in detail, which has been developed using Adobe Flash. The interactive content of the website has been critically reviewed based on various criteria. Then the website has also been compared with that of the personal CV developed using Flash. This has shed light on the various aspects of interactive applications, such as the objectives, usage of colours, navigation system and the end user expectations. Bibliography Beynon-Davies, P., 2004, e-Business, Palgrave Macmillan, NewYork Conger, S.A., & Mason, R.O., 1998, Planning and designing Effective Websites, 6th February 1998, 1st Edition, Course Technology Dahan. E., and Hauser, J.R., 2001, ‘The Virtual Customer’, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Fisk, R. P., Grove, S. J. and John, J., 2000, Interactive Services Marketing, Houghton Mifflin, Boston Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R., 2006, ‘Exploring Corporate Strategy’, 7th edn, Prentice Hall, Essex Kim, D., Mun, Y., 2006, Design and Performance Analysis of Multimedia, Volume 3981/2006, p. 195 – 203, ICCSA 2006, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg Reinhardt, R., & Lentz, J.W., 2001, Flash 5 Bible, 15th February 2001, Wiley Publications SEORank, 2009, Flash Site Optimization, Accessed on 7th August 2009, Retrieved from http://www.seorank.com.au/seo_flash_site_optimization.html Shannon, R., 2009, Website Navigation – Effective Website Directory System, Accessed on 6th August 2009, Available at http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/navigation.html Read More