Intial Web Page Analysis : : Part Two

Information of web site selection

I chose this particular site firstly, because I have an interest in wines from Western Australia. Secondly, the existing site that was originally built by a web developer presents very simple pages that are not streamlined or easy to navigate from page to page. Therefore, it is an excellent web site to perform usability testing on the target audience.

Thirdly, I feel the current Fox River Wines web site needs to be presented with easier navigation control to the viewer with a more aesthetically pleasing layout scheme. Therefore, I am taking this opportunity to rebuild the web site with the use of Macromedia Dreamweaver and create an on-line shopping tool for local, interstate and international customers.

Finally, when researching similar sites within the wine industry, it was a challenge to find a web site that captured ease of use, navigation and appealing layout with graphics. However, I was able to highlight many problems (Problem identification below). Therefore, I select to base this project proposal on the redevelopment of Fox River Wines web site.

Problem Identification

The current Fox River Wines web site has many usability problems. First, it is visually it is disengaging, plain and doesn’t offer any depth of information to what Fox River Wines has to offer. To solve this problem, I would like to completely revamp the layout and display of the site pages using Macromedia and include a search engine on the homepage. Additionally, I would leverage the use of conventions to display information about Fox River Wines and what they offer.

Secondly, the site is not fluent from page to page. Each page link from the homepage displays a different layout and there are no standard links to other pages least the homepage for ease of navigation. This may cause confusion for users moving around the site to search or find the information they are looking for. Additionally, users are not able to easy view where they are in the site therefore I would implement a navigational tool such as ‘breadcrumbs’ (Krug, 2006) to visualise the site hierarchy to the user.

I would also like to look at creating visual enhancements such as buttons and links, obvious to what is clickable and where users have been (Krug,2006) (i.e. links they have already clicked). This will be achievable by thorough userbility testing of a revised site.

Thirdly, as the site offers an on-line ordering facility, there is a need for a dynmanic web environment. The page should list all products on offer with a simple order form and secure online payment facility (i.e. for credit cards, bpay details and paypal). Additionally, an effective way of requesting information or asking a question to the business owner is lacking on the current site. To overcome this, I will look at creating a streamlined contact and order form with the use of Macromedia.

Fourthly, the current website doesn’t feel like it promotes the business or its products and its affiliation with larger winery groups in the region. Rather, it detracts from the quality of the business image and potentially the products it may have to offer. To achieve a quality feel to the web site, I will create a simple, clean layout with minimal instructions and removal of ‘happy talk’ (Krug, 2006).

Finally, the site does not display when the site has been udpated. I feel this is important to the user to identify if the information is current and up-to-date and if what is on offer is relevant.

Survey ...

I have set up a survey for the first assessment ... if you're interested in participating in the survey, I appreciate all responses received.

Click here to take my Online Survey

Basis for Project Survey

For the basis of my survey I will look at finding out the following information to leverage my recommendation for the Project at hand:

• Minimal Required Functionality : What will the website be used for (i.e. Winery promition / Wine Sales / Information etc)
• User constraints : What limitations will users visiting the site have (i.e. Bandwidth / Browser limitations)
  
• User preferences : How do users want Web site to act? Are the users familiar with web-browsing or are users new to the internet? Do your users have cookiephobia? (IE 6 has a default configuration that blocks many cookies). Fast downloads with few graphics or lots of streaming audio & video?
• User habits : How do users currently carry out tasks? Do users view competitor's sites?
  
• Existing Systems : What kinds of systems (i.d.home PC etc) do users operate?
  
• User dislikes : What do users hate about the existing site or comparible sites?
  
• Personal Data : Who are users? How old are they? What's their level of Internet know how? How educated are they? What sites do they use the most? Are they current customers of potential customers? Where do they live? How many computers do they have at home?
  

(Curtin, NED23, 2007)

Intial Web Page Analysis

My initial reaction to the Fox River Wines web site is almost irritating. Apart from a nicely chosen graphic of a fox by the river, the home or index page is rather bland, uninteresting and doesn't really tell me what the company offer or rather, what they are providing. Secondly, the layout is very patchy so navigation to 'find' information is difficult.

Moving off the home / index page to the first link on offer, the 'About Fox River Wines' page is uninspiring and almost feels like I'm viewing a MS Word document. Next, there seem to be no links or navigation channels back to the index page or to other pages on offer - I need to use my web browsers 'Back' button to navigate back to the home page.

The third and fourth links for 'Company Profile' and 'Mt Barker Region' offer a similar layout to the 'About' page. There are no navigational links or offers to move off the page, and a simple layout is lacking in interesting features / layout / graphics. Additionally, the only way to view all information on the page is to continually scroll - one of my pet web-hates. I would consider amalgamating these pages together and even moving this information under the 'About' page.

The 'What's New' and 'Wine List' display a different layout to the previous three pages and home page. There are now visible navigation links to other pages and there is no scrolling required here. The information contained within the frame fails to load with a warning message : Warning: main(/home/httpd/reynolds/wines/wine_display/wine_display_fox3.phtml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/httpd/foxriverwines/winelist.phtml on line 12, which leads me to think the wine list is not maintained by the site owner and has become redundant or been removed after a period time out.

A logo and a link to Goundery Wines is display on the bottom left hand pane and provides a gateway to an alternate web site (this may be undesirable if your wanting people to stay within the confines of your page to maximise traffic and potential online sales if that is what you offer). Additionally, an e-mail link opens the users preferred e-mail system and a link to the web site developers home page.

The last page offers online ordering ... a very simplified version of online tools. Again, the document links are broken so we are unable to view what was supposed to be displayed. There is no area to input what you would like to order i.e. types or number of bottles of wines. Another item to note is the site does not offer any credit card security (i.e. Verified by VISA or Secure Server) for credit card customers. The order form has been built using FormMail V 1.92.

Overall, a very uninteresting web site design that is hard to use and move around. A complete overhaul and review of the web site information and layout is appropriate for the Project Proposal Assessment Task 2.

Video Consent Form

Just checking out Steve Krug's site, and he uses a simple consent form for test users to authorise video recording of usability testing.

This is mentioned in his book, but I thought I'd post it here for others to download a copy and customise for their own use ...

A good point will be to append the signed consent forms in the report for Assessment Three (and Four).

Update on Site Permission ....

Just a quick update ... Edwin has confirmed since I won't be actually uploading pages I don't need to obtain permission from the site owner at this stage ... I'll post a link to the class discussion shortly.

YAY!

Website Redesign

Fox River Wines

After a few attempts at selecting a site to base my research and project on (and grateful feedback from Edwin and Students) I've settled on a very basic site for Fox River Wines that is a great initiative ... especially since I love wine :)
(Might need to do a few wine samples along the way, eh!)

• Site was created by a web developer ... although it is simple in nature, there may be many reasons to why this site is the way it is:

• Site owner requested a simple layout
• Low budget and therefore basic page service
• Add-on pages as required, therefore resulting in broken links and no uniform layout from on page to the next
• Site not maintained on a regular basis
• Web page not important to the owner (however this is a downfall I will address in later posts)
• Web developer not experienced or lacks usability knowledge
  

• Site developed with HTML Frames - a total of 7 pages
  
• Pages are very simple, basic colours and uninteresting - almost un-engaging
  
• The 'About Us' page doesn't contain links to other pages at all, therefore using the back button within a browser is required to access alternate page links
• There is little or no consistency of links between pages ... they appear in different locations and layouts from page to page making it difficult to navigate the site
• The Wine list page contains broken links (suspect developer has removed pages or changed attribute)
  
• A small yet unnoticeable link to a parent site (Goundrey Wines) and the developers link (Reynolds Technology) is present only on the Wine List page.
• The site has a simple order system with ability to enter credit card details .. however, the site is NOT encrypted (oh dear)
• Snail Mail postage details are visible
  
• The site also includes a radio button to subscribe to a mailing list (however, it doesn't specify if this is an electronic or snail mail subscription OR what the subscription provides)
• The site does not have any facility to 'unsubscribe' or 'cancel' orders. I assumed this would be done over the phone
  

Proposed Site Objectives

• Revisit current content and update as necessary
  
• Repair or remove broken links and / or pages that not functional
• Assess current pages and add / remove as required
• Create a simple, snappy and easy layout for navigation, speed and information
• Update images, fonts and colour scheme
• (Additional objectives to be review as research continues)
  

Comparision Sites for Research and Usability Testing

1. Foates Ridge Boutique Wines
2. Margaret River Wine Centre
3. Goundrey Wines
   

Next Steps
From here, I'll begin checking out some easy and functional sites. In addition, reading and research on successful site development and usability will take place.

Officially on Firefox ....

What took me so long? After reading several blogs and recommendations of fellow students, I'm a converted Firefox user. Its so simple and compact and very easy to navigate ... even for a desperate die-hard to convert to MAC, I'm loving the option to have a MAC OS Skin on Firefox.

One item of interest I did stumble across when checking out the Add-ons was a cool little tool called FLECK. Fleck allows you to add Notes and Bullets to websites, then share the annotated pages with other people .. could be a really useful resource for NED23 :)