Computer Literacy 1 - ASSIGNMENT 3

Azalea Gras-Velázquez	DVDs in the net	0458703
November 2005	DVDs in the net	NotePad

Welcome to the new era! VHS is out, DVD is in.

Granted, no news here, but have you noticed the amount of websites that inform you about dvds, rents them or even sells them? I have decided to observe a few of these to write my critique on websites.

Most online shops' websites have the same appearance at first glance. You can see their name and logo at the top, some form of tabs beneath which will take you to different areas of the shop, an amount of links at either side of the website and the main information (text and images) at the centre.

A good website must be able to show the information you are looking for in a straightforward way. If you take a client through a million links before allowing him/her to get to the desired information, there is a big chance that either he/she will not go back to that website in the future, or will simply abandon half way through and search for a more client-friendly website.
This said, I think assigning a website the caption of "good website" or "bad website" is a very subjective thing.

After browsing through a fair amount of websites that offered dvds, it must be said I had a bit of a headache and decided at that point that a "bad website" would be the one that made my headache worse. Here is the one that got the job done:

www.dvdsontheweb.co.uk

What I particularly disliked of this website may seem rather trivial, but I think it is worth mentioning.

The choice of colour: even though having a white background is probably a smart move, having dark blue all over the place just made the screen look smaller and, me, feel cornered
The information offered first: what I enjoy the most of online shops is the fact that you do not have a salesperson running after you asking if he/she may help you find something you will want to buy (if you look at them closely, you may see a small tag behind their right ear that says I work on commission), but this website did just that! We read from left to right, top to bottom. The first thing I certainly do not want to see is the shopping basket
The flickering labels: I am aware that the fact that they offer free delivery throughout the UK is a great deal, but... do they really need to make it flicker all the time?

I thought for a while how to show the similarities and differences of the websites I was studying in order to give a better appraisal, and established that having a base case is always a good way to go forward. Therefore, take for instance that you want to buy The Phantom of the Opera on DVD.

At:

NB: From here onwards, let www.amazon.co.uk, www.fnac.es and www.play.com be referred to as (1), (2) and (3) respectively.

At first glance

All three websites seem to load fairly quickly ((3) slightly more slowly, but still bearable). There are now two options: you can either click on the link that will take you to the DVD section of the shop, or use the search engine. Since we already know what we are looking for, we will use the latter option.
(1) and (2) have very efficient search engines, but (3) has sometimes problems and does not always show you the information demanded. You may need to be more specific (by choosing the area in which you want to search, in this case, DVD-Video). Say you were actually specific in all three websites.

The options

All three websites will now show you the DVDs that relate to the title you wrote.
(1) and (3) have a more attractive layout than (2) and offer more information. Taking a closer look at (1) and (3), you can see that (3) provides more data about the products, but (1) gets involved with the clients by differentiating between "popular results" and "all the results" and by showing related products that considers you might also appreciate. You may also note that (2) is not consistent with the language, using Spanish except for the release dates.
Select the DVD that was released in May 2005 ((3) shows production year rather than release date, so choose 2004).

Some technicalities

You can clearly see that the function of these websites is to sell a product. Their target audience is any person with a credit or debit card able to purchase through the internet. In this sense, I think all three are effective, since it is clear what links to click if you decide to buy. But if you consider how they promote the merchandise, I think (1) is the most effective, due to the more legible outline. All three have reviews for the product, but (3) does not seem concerned in obtaining any kind of feedback from clients. (1) and (2) have customer reviews and (1) has, again, related items that might interest you.
It seems as though (2) considers more important content than style in its website, and (3) chooses style over content. Out of the three, (1) comes across as the one that is able to balance the two more efficiently.
I would say all three have a similar structure and are easy to navigate (with some minor difficulties in (2)). In a good day, the amount of clicks you will need, to get to the information you seek, is probably the same.

The small print

There are a few flaws in these companies that are not obvious until you try to buy their goods.
For instance, when entering the details of your bank account in (3), your billing address must be written in the exact same way as the bank has it. It may not sound like a problem, but take for example a long address that includes street name, neighbourhood, building number and flat number. The only way for knowing how you told it to the bank (you may have shortened some of the words) is to check the balances your bank sends (which include your address). Add living in another country and not having those balances redelivered to your current address into that equation, and it can be a real problem.
What (2) is forgetting to mention is the fact that they do not deliver to your house. When you purchase a product from (2), it is transferred to your nearest fnac shop, where you have to collect it in person.

Wrapping it all up

You could conclude that, out of the three websites we have been observing, (1) is the one that offers a better service. Then again, you might want to check the other two for cheaper DVDs or special promotions!