What's up guys? Today I've selected 4 websites to do small reviews on, 2 of which where I'll go over some issues I notice and the others I'll discuss what I like about them. Lets wait no longer, here we go!
The first website I'd like to discuss is www.spotmeter.com. At first, it took me a minute to really gather what this website is all about. Kind of a turn off initially, It's wise to be able to have the viewer have a clear idea of what kind of website they are visiting right off the bat. The other issue I have is the lack of clarity. It seems like they are trying to condense a few different direction into one page, going hand in hand with my previous criticism about being hard to follow direction and grasp whta message they're trying to convey. I'd make things a bit clearer and easy to understand for the viewer if I were to do a makeover on the website. Intentions seem good, just a little hard to follow.
The next website I'll discuss is www.roverp6cars.com. My initial thought upon opening this website was, "wow, this is cluttered!" They are delivering their message loud and clear, they are all about automobiles and parts for them. The formatting seems very crammed together for my taste though. The other issue I take is that, in my opinion, it looks like a pop up spam advertisement. The very thing you hate to see in your inbox or through 'click bait' on Facebook. I really think this website is a new layout away from being visually legitimate, just fix the clutter and perhaps a more professional looking format.
Next, we'll talk about www.stonebrewing.com. You can tell a lot of time has been put into the design and layout of this website. Very clear this is a top notch brewery and that they carry themselves as the kings of the craft brew world. It is very easy to navigate throughout the website, making it convenient to check out upcoming events, online store, find businesses, events, and more. The aesthetics of this website is a sure fire representation of how they company carries themselves, very prestigious.
Lastly, I'll give my two cents on www.apple.com. Similar to Stone Brewing, you can certainly tell there is a lot of thought and passion behind this website development. It displays everything right off the bat in a pleasing manner. Not cluttered, easy to navigate, and attractive pictures of their products. They have a simple and open layout making the navigation very easy. Finding anything that you need, apple related, is very user friendly and easy to understand.
Lets wrap up with again saying that all of these reviews I posted are my personal opinion. Every person will view these differently and see different things. Hopefully through this, if you visit these websites, you'll be able to see them a little differently than before. I'll be looking forward to reading everyone's thoughts on my reviews and if they agree or disagree, maybe you saw something different, who knows? As always, thanks so much for reading 'Ridgeway's Thoughts'!
I like the Stone website as well. The whole time I was clicking through it I was wondering how much it cost. I wonder how many people it took, how long it took and what the budget is for a billion dollar companies website. My favorite feature is when you scroll over the different restaurant links it changes the picture to that restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you were thoughtful in your approach to each of these websites. Like you were trying not to step on any toes as your walking us through the critique.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the stone brewing site was well thought out, and the price was going through my head as well. Maybe it's intentional? It's a good strategy none the less, it makes you want to call them up and ask for more info. I can see how that can be a business to business move.
Anyway...I liked reading your post, it was excellent material.
Nice post Dave. I agree with your assessments, but had a different experience with the Stone Brewwing site. Although it was well produced with great photography and easy to navigate, I found it a bit overwhelming and aggressive for my taste. I think this is probably a reflection of my personality being more conservative and restrained than the demographic they are going after. I asked my 27 year old son and some of his buddies for their thoughts, and they were very positive. The take away here is to make sure to design your website with your target market in mind and get feedback from that demographic as part of the website development (which I expect Stone probably did).
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