Australian Post Website Analysis - Report Example

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AUSTRALIAN POST WEBSITE SELECTED WEBSITE http://auspost.com.au/ - The Australia Post 1. INTRODUCTION Internet has emerged as a pool of information. It has solution to every problem. But as the web network is growing, the uality and competition has made things more stringent. Internet is very handy and accessible, which serves best in public interest but on the other hand manipulations and fake things get an easy hand too. Scrutiny of the content and context of certain information for sensitive use is very crucial these days. The selected website is an official post office website of Australia. It is very sensitive as people use this site for booking orders, check the status of their sent items, and utilize services of sending occasional presents and much more that require full reliability and up-to-date website status. It means this website has to be updated more frequently than website of any other genre. It deals with people directly and their time bound services. The most important part of website evaluation is its URL (Uniform Resource Locator). It is the basic address that establishes the reliability of the websites and explains the genre of the website content. The selected website URL has three parts, the last part. The last part .au shows the location of the website; in this case it’s Australia. The domain http part of URL shows the official status of this website, while auspost shows what this site is related to. The selected website is an official site for Australian post and the services they offer. This has to maintain high rate of credibility pertinent to the nature of its service. 2. THE BODY OF THE REPORT This section will include the detailed evaluation of the selected website keeping in view five major guidelines. a) Shortcuts The website has been designed on a simple set of links that are most frequently asked and required by the user. Shortcuts are provided and arranged based on usability of applications. Breadcrumb navigation format is embedded in basic design which is a good feature of a service website. The basic search and track bar moves with every page. But feedback option is not visually presented as done by major service providing websites neither it is highlighted for instance as by Canadian post office website: https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/home.page. Website is very text crowded. It has links within links and every heading has multiple sub headings i-e the user has to roam a lot to reach the right tab and place. Architecture of website is text oriented. b) Where am I? The navigation format used by this website is pretty good. A simple track keeps on appearing below the header that keeps the user well informed of its location and entire track he has followed. It is an impressive and user friendly approach which is not present in many good official websites like Finland post web link: http://www.posti.fi/ c) Page headers & Page footers Something that goes along which ever page you are is very critical to decide. A website page’s header and footer are amongst those things that a user carries to every page. It should be simple, precise and equipped of general information tabs but most importantly it should be free of repetition. “About US “, “Location” and “Help & Support” tab is available at three different places on the same page and user drags this duplication everywhere. A perfect example of simple header and footer is depicted by Oxford university website, http://www.ox.ac.uk/ d) Typesetting Typesetting is an important visual feature of a website. Auspost is a customer service site and its basic focus in typesetting is legibility, search friendly and keeping the hierarchy. As needs of the user vary from each other the entire typesetting has used two different fonts to maintain the hierarchy. However the option of language is not available which is very unique for a multi ethnicity national service website like auspost. The US postal website provides this service https://www.usps.com/ e) Graphics & Colour For a successful online brand, the design of website is critically important. Graphics and colour has the power to motivate, direct, comfort or distract the user and is the key tool to grasp the attention of the viewer. Non-verbal communication is said to be the most powerful form of communication, and amongst it the visuals are very important. Humans develop their perception on the way they see things. Appearances leave much lasting impressions than any other source. If graphics and colours complement each other in a web design, it serves as an effective too for user friendly interface. Auspost has taken red and black as primary colours for their web design with an elegant white background. It is a standard color combination used by multiple other postal sites as well including UK Post http://www.postoffice.co.uk/. This colour combination is signatory of postal services and appears vibrant. Moreover the light shade of blue has been smartly incorporated within the theme. But the graphics are very much simple and static. Homepage is the first user interface and should be attention seeking, while auspost has a static appearance with no dynamic visual provision to links. This goes same for internal links attached. No visual effects have been used to make the screen more interactive and lively. The entire format is less visuals and more text. 3. Recommendations Each website is evaluated based on its credibility, usage and quality. A standard post office website should not be lucrative or fancy, but it must satisfy the requirements of the end user. The world is getting faster and things have been compacted. The things of regular use have developed the compatibility with smart phones. Auspost has an interactive interface but it serves slow and does not function properly on smart phones for instance the search bar and drop down menus do not function properly on smart phone. The developers should work to resolve this constraint. Secondly the feedback option is very important in public dealing, a highlighted and prominent feedback tab should be displayed on webpage to make user realize the importance of their feedback. The third most important thing is the dynamic visuals, appearances matter the most in establishing the credibility of a website, more text and less visuals make the appearance boredom. Designers should work for a creative visual for adding more to user interest. The next important feature is quality and rich content. Too much clustering and repetitive information makes the site clumsy and less professional. The headers and footers that go along the entire pathway should be simple and less crowded. The last recommendation is the provision of language and office locaters on homepage. These two features add much to the user ease and are engaging as well. Office locators should be incorporated via Google maps to make it more effective. 4. Conclusion / Summary Web designing is not a formula; it is a set of influential content to brand oneself. Stanford Web Credibility project has conducted a research study to find out what influences a user to rate a website as credible or not. They cater options like company reputation, customer service and ease of use but the most favored opinion came to the “website appearance”. This much is important the entire web design for a company. Analysis of websites help one critically view the details of a site and help in identifying the weak areas of improvement. The selected website is very crucial for public interest and the regions mentioned in recommendations depict the viewpoint of a web user that how well one wants the thing to look like. Web designs are amended based on public demand and ease in use. Auspost is a highly viewed website but do not mention any date when it was last updated; neither has it displayed regional date and time for reference. Such weak points make the design questionable and should be addressed with priority. References Canadapost.ca, 2015. Canada Post CA. [Online] Available at: https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/home.page [Accessed 27 December 2015]. Lynch, P.J. & Horton, S., 2011. Web Style Guide. [Online] Available at: http://www.webstyleguide.com/wsg3/7-page-design/index.html [Accessed 28 December 2015]. Oxford, 2015. University of Oxford. [Online] Available at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/ [Accessed 27 December 2015]. postoffice.co.uk, 2015. Post Office. [Online] Available at: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/ [Accessed 28 December 2015]. usps.com, 2015. usps.com. [Online] Available at: https://www.usps.com/ [Accessed 28 December 2015] Read More