NBN Website Analysis - Report Example

NBN Assessment and Presentation Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Introduction The nbn co limited (nbn) is a government business entity that was established on 9th April 2009 to design, build and operate Australia’s new broadband network. The company is mainly concerned with providing services-on wholesale- to internet service providers and landline phone companies who offer nbn plans for homes and businesses. It is worth noting that the company does not sell directly to the public owing to the fact that is a wholesaler. That is, to attain services from nbn™ network, an individual or company has to contact their internet or phone provider and select a plan that suits their need. As a result of its huge business demands, nbn™ company is characterized by a website with large functionality that is able to perform all these functions in order to meet the demands from the customer. The website is aimed at providing the Australian residence with high speed broadband access, delivered through multiple technologies. This type of website can be best described as a Static Web pages genre of website due to the fact that it does not change content or layout with every request to the web server. That is, the nbn™ website can only change when a web author manually updates them with a text editor or web editing tool. Owing to its many users, the type of website developed for nbn™ company best suits its functions. The website analysis The nbn™ company’s website is aimed at providing the Australian residence with high speed broadband access, delivered through multiple technologies. The website has met its objectives as to provides information that is easy to follow and informative. It provides the detailed information on the services the company offers which are mainly fixed wireless and Ethernet Bitstream Services. For every service, there is a tool that guides the customers on the specific information they are looking for concerning that specific service. The currency of information as provided by the website was also splendid as each section of the website did contain information on when it was last reviewed and updated. The nbn™ company’s website is a large site that requires the use of Breadcrumbs to aid in navigation (NIEDERST, 2007, 74). The nbn™ company’s website is developed in such a way that it has both the primary and the secondary navigation schemes that enables the customers to establish where they are and to provide them with an alternative way to navigate around the website hence improving user’s ability. In this case, the website developers have used the attribute-based breadcrumb trails to display the attributes of a particular page. For instance, the page of services offered, contact us and many more (NIEDERST, 2007, 77). The website is designed using user 2.0., such that it is able to support interactivity hence easy browsing. The website has fully balanced the relation of major menu and home pages with individual content pages. As a result there is a clear hierarchy of menus and content pages that does not mislead the users (NIEDERST, 2007, 81). In addition, the website is well fitted with ‘search’ option to help in the navigation. The search option is located on the top-right corner for easy accessibility. However, it is worth noting that the website is basically centred in terms of information spread hence very limited room for column scan. The menus are arranged in hierarchal manner that ensure easy navigation. In addition, the Breadcrumbs and search tools complements the easy wayfinding within the website. In essence, the website is characterized by clear consistent, and well-marked navigation paths that ensures a unique but related identity for each region of the site (Lynch & Horton, 2008, p.15). To ensure clarity, the website developers ensured that there are no many choices on home page and the critical menu pages. To keep the good user orientation, the website is characterized by consistent landmarks in site navigation. This is supported by the browse and the search aspects of navigation hence the ‘I am here’ sense of local placement with the larger dimension of the website (Lynch & Horton, 2008, p.21). However, one important aspect of the orientation that is missing is the change of colour on the tabs. Change of colour on the tabs helps in indicating the current location thereby affirming a sense of place within a website. Having noted that, the orientation and the navigation aspects is still in an admirable position. The website follows a basic HTML format in regards to its header. This is described below (Jones, 2013, p89): The elements defines the title of the website The element: Defines a title in the browser tab The site is characterized by providing a tittle for the page when it is added to the favourites The site is characterized by displaying a tittle for the page in search results. In brief, the site adopts a header located on the top-left of the website. However, it is very difficult to identify the footer in the website, hence a conclusion of non-existence of a footer is of essence. The words are appearing on the website are large and visible. In addition, there is no much writing on the website hence easy accessibility. The site uses the Alegreya in wording. This brings out the diversity and varied rhythm which facilitates the reading of long texts in the website. Not only does the Alegreya provide great performance to the website, it also achieves a strong and harmonious text by means of elements designed in an atmosphere of diversity (Coffey, 2015, p.37). The site basically is themed on a blue colour though not many graphics is attached to it. The fact that it is a corporate business oriented site explains why there are not so many graphics. However, some pictures and graphics are used to break up the text and to bring out that aspect of visual expression hence aiding on explanation. This enhances the appearance of the web pages. From the displays of the website, it is apparent that the web developers used the Canvas API to help in the creation of the bitmaps hence enhancing faster performance; and because this is a HTML website, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are also used to develop the graphics (Allen & Chudley, 2012, pg81). Recommendations It is no doubt that the nbn co limited website is a well-designed ones. However, there are few recommendations that will help improve the website even further. i. Up-to-date in-store information The nbn co limited is a business oriented company hence connecting the online and in-store experience is a great aspect to give users another reason to visit the site again and again. ii. Exclusive video content The company should try hard to include video on the website where possible. That is; if a good video is embedded on the website, there is a likelihood that the users will subscribe to the youtube channel and watch the content whenever they need like even if they do not visit the site. This is also a strategy of marketing. iii. Keep the content as concise as possible. There are still some content of the website with too many information that can be summarized to precision. This lessen the time for search for the users. iv. Use headings to breakup long articles. This is important in that it will make the website be seen not as a block but rather as a compartmentalised chunks of information. This will encourage one to stay long on the site. Conclusion The nbn co limited (nbn) is a government business entity that was established on 9th April 2009 to design, build and operate Australia’s new broadband network. Its main objective is to provide services-on wholesale- to internet service providers and landline phone companies who offer nbn plans for homes and businesses. Being on the business, it is paramount that the company indulges on a good site platform. This is because, a well-designed website platform will attract more users hence more sales for the company. Due to its large number of users, the nbn co limited is characterized by a website that will be able to contain information needed by the customers. In this regard, the website of the nbn co limited is a well-designed site with high functionality that will ensure a much needed accessibility to its users. It is worth noting that, there are few limitations that makes the website short of becoming a perfectly designed website. But, generally the website is a good investment to the company that will ensure that it gets its value for the money. References ALLEN, J., & CHUDLEY, J. (2012). Smashing UX design foundations for designing online user experiences. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=451844. COFFEY, M. (2015). Building business websites with Squarespace 7: master the tools and techniques of using Squarespace to create professional websites. http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/?fpi=9781783559961. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LOGISTICS, INFORMATICS AND SERVICE SCIENCE, ZHANG, Z., SHEN, Z.-J. M., ZHANG, J., & ZHANG, R. (2015). LISS 2014: proceedings of 4th International Conference on Logistics, Informatics and Service Science. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=984763. JONES, K. B. (2013). Search Engine Optimization Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing. Hoboken, Wiley. http://grail.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=1161977. LYNCH, P. J., & HORTON, S. (2008). Web style guide: basic design principles for creating Web sites. New Haven [Conn.], Yale University Press. NIEDERST ROBBINS, J. (2007). Learning web design: a beginner's guide to (X)HTML, style sheets and web graphics. Beijing, O'Reilly. http://www.webstyleguide.com/ Read More