HTML Made Easy

For people like me who are computer handicapped and have no clue what their doing when it comes to online design, I was forced to find all the help I could get. When it came to coding HTML, I thought I was hopeless, but I found a website www.accessv.com, and it really makes HTML easy. It starts out with a paragraph dedicated to encouragement. The first sentence is "You really can do it!" Then it goes into simple step by step instructions on what to do. The site is also very easy to navigate through all the different pages with all the different codes. So for those of you like me, who thought they couldn't do it...it is possible! And this site makes it easy!

Death to the Boring Blog Post

I found this somewhat humorous since we blog as a class and use word press. But, lets face it the classic blog is boring. They're white, black, and simple, nothing exciting about that. However this website www.smashingmagazine.com gives you step by step tutorial on how to take a word press page and turn in into a lively blog with some personality. This article even begins to discuss why blogging hasn't seemed to caught on to the times when every other social networking site can be personalized and fun.

"splinternet"

With inventions such as the iphone, ipad, android, kindle, and tv's connecting to the internet, have we seen the end of the golden age of the internet? Some would argue yes! The whole framework of the web and web marketing is based around the idea that everything is a compatible format. That every site or program works on every computer. However, now with the use of the inventions listed up above, this no longer holds true, especially if the site requires flash or mouse navigation. For example iphone apps wont work on an android and vice versa. Online marketers have coined this term as the "splinternet". This not only holds true with your source of internet connection, but what you can do on it. For example more and more things are being hidden behind logins. A perfect example of this is facebook. Facebook has applications that will on work on facebook.

Tweets Per Day

Over the past three years twitter has not only exploded in popularity, but had exploded in the amount of tweets per day. In the summer of 2007, their was hardly 5,000 tweets per day, and stayed that way until summer of 2009 where it jumped from 5,000 to 2.5 million. However the astounding jump came within the next few months. Twitter went from 2.5 million tweets per day to 50 million tweets per day, which is where it stands now. Tweets grew on average 1,400% - that's an average of 600 tps (tweets per second).

Social Sites Lure Users Around The Clock

So as I was scanning through CJRW's twitter I found the most interesting topic. The topic was that people who have both twitter and Facebook accounts are lured into checking their accounts in the middle of the night, at the same time. It's as if their internal alarm clock is set to wake them up in the middle of the night just so they can get online and see if anyone has tweeted them or posted something on their wall. According to a consumer electronics site Retrevo, 48% of users wake up to check their profiles or do it first thing when they wake up. The site also showed that users under the age of 25 were more likely to check or update their pages after bedtime, with nearly 1/5 saying they did so anytime they woke up.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007580

Internet Surpasses TV as main source or media

For years people have considered the television as their main source of media. In years past when asked, people said that they would rather live without the internet than their television. According to marketcharts.com in the year 2004 72% of people would rather give up the internet. However this year the same poll was taken and 49% of people said they'd rather have television, but 51% would rather have internet. One of the most interesting factors was that the younger you were, the more likely you were to say you wanted internet, and the older you were the more likely you were to want television. With the internet having the capability to watch television shows and do other things, the television is slowly losing its luster to the American public.

top ten family websites of 2010

Modern day families are finding ways to spend time together even through the internet. Here are the top ten sites by march of 2010 visited by families according to marketingcharts.com

Online Shopping Becomes Social

Social media is changing the way consumers browse and shop for their online purchases. Facebook recently rolled out a new initiative that allows users to "like" a certain product, item, or article. This integration with Facebook allows consumers to share coveted and must see internet items. This feature will certainly revolutionize the way Facebook users share online content with their friends. Levis.com was one of the first websites to use this feature; view the video below for more additional details.

Travelocity Review

With Spring Break and summer vacations looming, Travelocity seems to be targeting a younger, college to young adult audience. I say this because the website is fun and humerous, but it's a humor that only young adults would mostly be entertained by. This humor can be found in the little yard gnome who makes his way randomly through the different page and sections of the website dressed and ready for all the worlds hot vacation spots. During the winter months, he fully covered in scarves and ski googles, but now that its summer he's in swimming trunks, sun glasses, and sipping on a cool drink.

Travelocity has a very simple website to navigate. One of the first things you see is a "Book My Trip" box, allowing you to put your departure, destination, and desired times, instantly pulling up the best deals. It also gives you the options of searching different dream destinations and travel deals. At the top of the page there is a row of tabs making your search extremely easy.

Throughout the website the word deals, or no fees pops up everywhere, giving you the feeling that you really are getting the best deal. This also makes you want to continue using travelocity over its rival travel booking websites.

However, the coolest thing about this website is that the colors change with the time of year and day. In winter, the website was all dark blues, and now its more of a light blue with oranges and yellows, making the website itself feel more like summer time.

Amazon.com Review

Being a frequent visitor and user of Amazon, I was excited to review this site. At first glance the website seems a tad boring, being mostly white with just a few accents of blue and orange. But, with the page almost being cluttered with so many pictures of merchandise, if any more color was added the page would be to busy. The first thing the viewer notices when going to Amazon.com is a huge picture of their best seller, which at this moment is the kindle, and some form of deal they're giving on this product. Directly below the best seller, you see a row of items that other costumers are looking at. These are just a few ways they entice you to look at something you hadn't previously thought about.

Navigation of this website is fairly simple. On the left, there is a column that shows you all the different departments, making it easier to narrow your search. You also have the same option at the top of the page, but in drop down form.

My favorite part of this website is the ability to be a seller or a buyer, and having your own personal account and ratings. As a security feature, anytime you purchase an item, Amazon allows you to rate the process and outcome by asking you questions about if you were pleased with communication, transaction, shipping, etc. If you're rated poorly, this will sway other buyers from purchasing from you. However, as a buyer, you can also be rated on things such as did you pay in a timely manner. If your rating is poor as a buyer, sellers may choose not to let you purchase their items.

Top 15 most trafficked sites on the internet currently

These are the top 15 most trafficked sites according to Alexa.com, a web information site.
1-google.com
2-facebook.com
3-youtube.com
4-yahoo.com
5-live.com
6-wikipedia.org
7-blogger.com
8-baidu.com
Music search engine and free MP3 & video streaming for all kind of topic.
9-msn.com
10-qq.com (east asia)
11-twitter.com
12-yahoo.co.jp (japan)
13-google.co.in (india)
14-google.de (middle europe)
15-taobao.com (east asia)

Social Media

Almost every website now has an avenue for social media sign-ups on their page. Social media has become the new tool for effective marketing strategies in businesses big and small, national and global. Social media are different from industrial media (print, tv, and film) because they are usually very inexpensive while industrial media have lots of cost and resources. A few main differences between these two are usability - social media is much more user-generated and therefore user friendly, accessibility - forms of social media are available everywhere, even on phones, availability - social media has no sense of time lag, it is up to date at every moment, and reach - social media has the potential to reach across the globe quickly and in many languages. Overall to stay current and marketable in today's society almost always social media has to be involved.

Contextual Interviews

I think contextual interviews over the phone would be incredibly difficult to manage. Even with incentives, in the fast-paced and gimmicky world that we live in, I am not sure anyone would stay on the phone for 30 minutes to go through a series of questions for a website. The idea of contextual interviews in general is very helpful to the overall process, however, I can't imagine having much success over the phone. And the cost very much surprised me for formal usability tests: $10,000-$20,000 for one day with a consultant, a facility and ten participants.

MSN's header

I really like the header on msn.com. It has their logo and the navigation is color coded which seems to go with the butterfly in their logo. The search bar is large and right at the top, which makes it easy to find what you are looking for and it has a place to go right to your e-mail or sign-in page with hotmail or live. It's simplistic and colorful and easy to navigate.

Ouachita's website

I just wanted to note that I think it's inconvenient on Ouachita's website that there is no search engine within the site itself. Not all of the links are very clear and the logo is not always consistent with leading back to the home page from every other page you go to, especially within Tigernet. It is okay concerning usability but it has a lot of information that can't be seen directly from the homepage. It would be so much easier sometimes to just search in a search box.

Curly Girl Design website

The Curly Girl Design website is one of my frequented websites. It has eye-catching grpahics and is user friendly.
The site has navigation at the top with links to each of its major pages and once you get to those pages it has links to click for a new section. It has a sidebar that has the main blog roll and the pictures on the homepage cirulate according to their latest news. The footer mimics the top navigation where you can click on pictures to go to the pages and it also has a subscription bar and social media information below that. It's a very cute site and user-friendly because it is pretty simplistic.

Walmart.com

When first arriving at walmart.com, my reaction was that it wasn't very exciting. The outline of the page was organized, but there wasn't much color. Nothing really grabbed my attention. The graphics were mediocre. They really just included still pictures and no scrolling picture graphics except for a tiny one at the very top. Not very affective.
The navigation, however, I felt was accessible. When scrolling over the links on the left side, subcategories showed up for every main category in order to narrow down your search. There was also a clearly noticeable search bar at the top as well as a shopping cart link. The top links were very user friendly because they included store finder, registry, local ad, track order, and sign in.
I felt that it was great that they had the value of the day and the current rollback deals.
The website is targeted towards people who are able to order things online. Such as people with a credit/debit card. Usually young adults and adults. Walmart.com focuses a lot on their low prices on the website.
I was really only dissapointed in the graphics and the colors of the website. I feel like a lot of people are going to want/need to come to this site and lack of excitement and visual stimulation are not going to keep people there long.

Ticketmaster.com

The website that I reviewed was Ticketmaster.com. This website caters more to the 18 and up crowd; generally people who are old enough to purchase tickets online and go to events. The colors of the website are pleasing to the eye. It includes a dark blue with silver, white, and orange accents, all complimentary colors of each other. However, the colors aren’t too harsh to make it look busy.

I thought the graphics of the page really worked well for the user. The changing graphic at the top center of the page grabbed my attention right away. This is used to advertise upcoming and popular events. It changes by itself but you can also click to other pages manually. Right underneath this is “Top Recommended Events” section with pictures of the artists. There is also a big “On Sale” section, something that everyone will want to look at when searching for tickets.

The usability of this page is pretty amazing in my opinion. There are so many useful options that everyone will find helpful. There is a box where you can search for exactly the exact event you are looking for and the area. Also, at the top right of the page, it tells you what area you are searching from and the surrounding areas. It has a box that helps you with any traveling you might have to do, including insurance or hotels. On the left side bars there are several links to categories of many different events.

Since the website deals primarily with younger adults it has an option to follow them on twitter or become a fan on facebook. Also, catering to the adults in mid 30s-40s it has an option to search for family friendly shows.

All in all, this website is a success to its users. It provides functionality as well as a great design.

Southwest Airlines

When you first open up the southwest website you see a picture of the beach.  This was wise because travel is no fun at all, but the destination makes it worth while.  So they try to take the emphasis away from the awful and on the fun parts.  They have a white background with a blue and black color scheme.  The site contains many links that include checking-in, looking for specific flights, credit card offers, and highlights of specific areas that southwest flies to.  If you are looking for a specific flight or just somewhere you can fly cheap for the weekend they want to make sure that you can find it on their website.  There are also links to their facebook, twitter, youtube, and flickr.  Then at the very bottom of the page they have a list of everything that they have on the website just incase you didn't find what you were looking for on the home page.  I was surprised that they did not mention something about the fact that bags are free with southwest because that seems to be their main ad campaign and that might convince me to fly southwest.

Web Site Review

FedEx’s web site is very simple and task oriented. The most important tool on the home page is the user login.  FedEx is all about making money and ecommerce is the main objective of the website.  The other main tool on the page is the box that allows you to track a package.  I would imagine that a lot of people go to the site in order to find out when their packages are expected to arrive.  The color scheme is white and purple.  It is simple but a little bit boring.  But because it is so focused on getting the job done and not entertainment that is ok.

Analytics

I thought that learning about the analytics of a Web site was very interesting. Being able to tell the bounce rate of a Web site and how many views per page and for how long each viewer is on the site is very helpful for Web site creators. I know I am particularly bad about viewing a Web page for a few seconds and if I cannot find what I am looking for leaving and going to another site. I think Web page designers need this information to know exactly what users are looking for from the site.

BBC Online Review

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Whitney Crews

BBC Online review

The BBC online Web site is very clean and easy to maneuver. The navigation is simple and uncluttered. It has a search bar in the very center and a modern-looking analog clock with the date which is just user-friendly.

The color scheme is mostly grey with white widget boxes and the photos and different shades make the site less monotonous. However you can make BBC online your homepage and change any setting to your liking, such as moving around the widgets, selecting which news and information you want to see and change the color.

Because everything is in widgets it is easily changed to suite your personal preference for the homepage and it is also very easy to navigate the site. Editing each widget lets you choose personal settings that are very specific, like the Sports portion where you can select a certain sport to view or which country’s news you would prefer to see.

You can also delete any box you don’t wish to see and one widget has available the news in 42 languages you can choose from. There is online access to the television stations associated with the BBC and their radio stations.

Adjacent to the footer is another way to search the site, by topic, and if you still cannot find what you are looking for you can search A to Z in the site. The footer is typical of a Web site.