CNET 329 Websites Comparison: Itravel2000 And Expedia
CNET 329 2017 Fall Term Project- Team Requirements
Background: Your major (and only) assignment for this course is to research and critique the web site design, content, and ease of use of at least two on-line competitors within the same industry. You are free to use any industry but the following are firms you might consider as examples:
Retail Electronics: Best Buy, Audio Video 2001
Desktop/Laptop Computers: HP, Dell
Books/Music: Indigo/Chapters, Amazon
General Retail: Canadian Tire, Sears, Wal-Mart
Travel: Expedia, itravel2000.com,
Communications Service Providers: Rogers. Bell. Telus
Automotive: Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Honda, BMW. Etc
Cellular Phones: Apple, Samsung, Blackberry
Team Size: Self organize into teams of 4-6. Teams of 2-3 are allowed but the size requirements are not changed.
Paper content: Examine at least two E-Business sites for, at a minimum:
Layout and visual appeal of the site
Ease of navigation
Quality and quantity of content
Usefulness of site search tool
Ease of checkout (you do not need to actually buy anything but you should go all the way to the last step in the process- often confirm purchase?-click no)
Make comments on relative quality of each of your firm’s performance on the elements you have researched. Make recommendation as to how they might improve.
References: Make direct reference to the slide sets, text and outside sources to support your observations and recommendations about the sites you have examined. As neither the text nor slide sets have extensive comment on best practices for design and content of web sites you need to research and include some references to other sources. While most of your comments should be in your own words, make some direct references to source material and ``include direct quotes inside quotation marks`` and use footnotes or end notes to indicate your source.
Paper size: 8-10 pages (12 point font, space and a half) exclusive of screen prints.
You should include screen prints of firm’s web pages to support your findings
Timing: For the 2017 Fall session, due date is week 12, in class before 8 pm on Thursday Nov. 30.
WEBSITE COMPARISON
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Website comparison: itravel2000.com and Expedia.com
Ecommerce websites are unlike any other websites and they are designed to enhance the experience for the user and effectively deliver the service as per the expectations of the organization. They are designed for simplicity whilst not compromising on the functionality of the website. Their aesthetic value is meant to retain traffic on the website. This makes ecommerce websites very graphical to support various types of media content to promote the products they sell. All these elements must be packaged to together on the website to meet the expectations of the organizations and the preferences of the user. User experience and functionality must therefore be optimized at all times. The irreducible minimum of ecommerce website is centered on users, usability of the website and functionality. Expedia .com and itravel2000.com are one of the main travel websites offering diverse products to their clientele and have designed and developed websites around the aforementioned elements.
The websites are similar in various aspects which are necessary for travel websites. They feature a booking part which users can book or sample their services. The booking feature is pinned on the homepage for all visitors who visit the site to notice it at a glance. Homepage is the most visited webpage of any website CITATION Tho14 \l 1033 (Young, 2014) and a feature to encourage visitors to try their products would obviously be pinned on it. For both websites, the booking feature has several text fields for capturing information about the user to enable the organizations respond appropriately.
The information presentation especially the text on both websites is strikingly similar. They have used relatively readable fonts inked in black and without serifs. The subheadings stand out from the rest of the text by bolding them and enlarging the font size. Most of the headings are links to other webpages within the website. Fonts also contrast with the background for readability. The backgrounds are brighter and the fonts which are mostly black contrast beautifully adding to the website aesthetics. There are a few huge fonts which are mostly for promotional information capturing the attention of the user instantly and prompting them to check out their offers.
There are some graphical components on the websites. Most of them are images that show the services the user can experience if they chose their services. Some of these images are pinned in the background and overlaid by some textual content with relative transparency. Images are mainly meant to improve the aesthetic value of the websites and break the monotony of the textual content. They say that a picture speaks a thousand words and thus these images also double up as channels to convey some message to the user. Some images are also hyperlinked and thus they redirect the user to other webpages when clicked. The developers also added some JavaScript codes that slightly enlarge these images when a mouse is hovered over them.
Additionally, the website is multilingual. The designers had to consider non-English speaking users who visited their site and had to ensure they enjoy a good experience. They also have an advanced search feature that help users to key in terms that could help them access some more information about the services they are seeking. The search features in both websites display the best possible related concepts it encounters in its database. The search results are displayed on a new webpage and ordered in the order of frequency of hits.
Using a mouse to surf improves human-computer interaction experience if the website is designed to respond to mouse input CITATION Man15 \l 1033 (Management Association, Information Resources, 2015). It enables the user to navigate the website easier and faster unlike using any other inp...