Assignment #3 Javascript Calcuator

Assignment 3 - Calculator
 

Assignment #2

Part One

Both concepts want to make using the web an easy process, which leads to differences between the two concepts.

Jakob Neilson concentrates more on the visual aspects of the website. He uses usability as an example of this. The users must be able to learn the website as easily and quickly as possible and to also remember how to use it for future uses. He clearly states that if a website doesn’t have complete usability that most users will exit the site and continue their search elsewhere. For an eCommerce site this concept is very important. If a customer can’t find their way around your website easily, they will stop using your page, go elsewhere for their products, and not recommend your site to their friends.

Donna Maurer on the other hand concentrates on the behind the scenes design of the website. If the website doesn’t have a good hierarchy it won’t be easily understood which in turn will drive away your visitors. When creating your website you must understand and relay to your visitors the commonalities between the different topics on you will display. Maurer also concentrates on the importance of incorporating databases into your website. Users must be able to search your database using tags which will help your users locate topics on your website much easier.

While both researchers have different ideas about how a website should be built, they always seem to agree on the end goal. Users must be able to use your website, and enjoy using your website at the same time. If topics are buried under countless links the user will go elsewhere. If you are an eCommerce website, incorporating both of these techniques will surely give you a chance in today’s business world.

Part Two

Usability & IA Assessment

At first glance www.Goodwill.org is pleasing to the eyes, it is easy to read, and has a layout that is easy to follow. Although, once you start navigating through various pages it would be hard to say that both Nielson and Maurer would be happy about the way this website was designed and built.

I believe Nielson would be happy with www.Goodwill.org. It is easy to accomplish tasks as there are clear links everywhere. Even being my first time visiting, I was able to learn much about Goodwill and the type of activities they perform. It seems as if this website would be easy to navigate in the future as well. Links are clearly set up, which lead the user further into the topic. A far as memorability is concerned it doesn’t have anything that will help me remember it either way, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some websites have such a horrible design that people will complain to others about it, which will deter future users from even visiting it. Although, I feel as if the next time I visit www.Goodwill.org, I would be able to continue using it like I never left after a quick refresher.

I went looking for errors on this website and I noticed one main problem. There is a search bar on every page, to help locate topics easier. I searched for keywords such as Careers and About. These searches brought up no information for me. On the main page, they advertised this story about a man named Javier. It was one of the many success stories that the page has, and I was interested in searching for it to read about his story. I searched for Javier, and it couldn’t find anything on the site. I just thought that if it was important enough to make it onto the homepage, it would be important enough to be searched for. Other than the searching, in the short amount of time I had to browse the website, everything else seemed to be in working order.

Overall, I didn’t have a disappointing time navigating through www.Goodwill.org. The colors complemented each other making it easy on the eyes, and right from the start I knew what Goodwill wanted to do with their website. If I were to have a problem, under the Contact Us page, they provided me with all the necessary information to get in contact with someone at Goodwill. At that point I could voice my opinion and hopefully the company would look at my opinion and see if it was something that would work better for their website.

It seems like www.Goodwill.org also follows Maurer’s findings as well. There are well thought out hierarchies that are used in this website. When I click on About Goodwill, it brings up topics such as “What We Do”, “How We Operate”, and “Careers at Goodwill”. They are topics one would expect to see when they are just learning about Goodwill as I was. The hierarchies appeared planned as I didn’t have to search the whole site for the information I needed. For the most part it seems as if www.Goodwill.org follows a very strict hierarchy. Information seems to be placed in only one location on the website. This helps keep the amount of errors on the website to a minimum, as data will not be mistyped in various locations.

Unfortunately, www.Goodwill.org doesn’t seem to be tagged properly. This problem was discovered while searching for various topics. If web pages were properly tagged, they would have been brought up in my search. I know for sure that there are About pages, and Career pages. It doesn’t make sense that users couldn’t search for them. Looking at the source code for this website, it appears that meta tags were used, but this will not be helpful for the current user. These tags will assist people who use various search engines to initially locate the website.

It appears as if Goodwill’s website doesn’t utilize a database at this time. All the information they feel is important to their customers can be written as html. If the time comes that a database must be incorporated into the website I hope they use someone who has a great understanding of databases. There are very specific ways that databases must be utilized, or incorrect data will be displayed to users. You would not want your customer to search the database for public information and have them accidentally stumble across sensitive documents.

Along with pages not being tagged correctly, www.Goodwill.org doesn’t seem to use faceted classification. I cannot get to information more than one way. I have to follow a certain path of links before I can get to the Online Learning section. This may deter users from returning to this website if they felt this was a difficult task to perform. Also, when pages are deleted or new pages are added, links may become disabled because of a mistake in coding the pages. This will lead to information being lost in the internet until the code is corrected.

Getting the reactions of Jakob Nielson and Donna Maurer would be interesting. Most everything Nielson talked about is implemented in the design of www.Goodwill.org. This website was easy to use from the very beginning and would be easy to use in the future as well. It also is pleasant to use, and doesn’t make you want to leave and find another source of information. Maurer on the other hand would probably have a few problems with the design of the website. While if follows a type of hierarchy that makes the website flow nicely with clearly labeled links, that is the only way you can find the information. Searches are useless as nothing is tagged correctly, which could make some users very discouraged. Overall though, I felt www.Goodwill.org did a good job getting their information to both their current and potential customers. Fortunately for them I would gladly visit their site again when I needed to, which is ultimately the main goal of any website.

Edit: Since writing this blog entry, the search feature is now functioning properly. Everything I search for produces results. I now have no errors to report about this website.

Assignment #1