Web Protocals and Principles :)

Web Protocals and Principles

           

For this assignment I have to critically analyze a website to show that you have an understanding on them. So, I have decided to report on EBay.com, which is a website that is used globally and it is where people can sell / trade items with other users of the website. This website is commonly used for selling and trading; making this websites mainly a marketing application, but it also promotes deals and companies products that are available on here.

Assets

Graphics- EBay.com is filled with many graphics for different reasons, such as: to show what you are purchasing (as shown in the screen cap on the left), adverts and deals that are available and graphs to show what’s been most searched / purchased. When you click to view an item, the screen layout transforms to a simpler and less cluttered form with a big image of the product, which is more effective because then the product is the “centre of attention”.

Text- The website has a good balance of images and text, so that their audience doesn’t feel over whelmed by information and gives the website a more casual feel. The text is used effectively because on an items page they only display text that is relevant to what you are purchasing, and information on the seller of the product so that you feel more assured that you aren’t going to be scammed or ripped off in any way.

Video- There is no videos features included on this website, because there is no reason for them to be used on the website due to all the information that the viewers / audience can be presented in text and images.

Sound- There is no videos features included on this website, because there is no reason for them to be used on the website due to all the information that the viewers / audience can be presented in text and images.

Animations- EBay.com they include an animation feature but the reason they use it to show what items that available from sellers’. For instance when the seller has a vast amount of items for sale there will be an “automatic scroll” on a continuous loop of the products they can offer.

Considered factors in specific areas

Audience- When making a media text you have to take into consideration; who’s your target audience? Then when you this has been considered you have to break it down even further into, such things like: age, gender, usability, accessibility, language, and experience. These factor allow you to get a really good idea of who your target audience is and some of the characteristics of them, by analyzing the collated information.

Semiotics- Semiotics is in “lay man’s terms” basically subliminal messages. They are signs and symbols that tell you do something by either using effective word (they will use mandatory words to grab the viewer’s attention) or by using certain colours. Ebay.com uses some of the techniques of semiotics; these techniques have been applied to eBay’s buttons to make them stand out, because they are blue (the colour blue is used for signs that are mandatory) and they use the words “Buy It Now” to insinuate it’s a command the viewer should carry out. 

Form- The form / layout of eBay is quite cluttered because of all the adverts and products available to their target audience and viewers of the website. But, surprisingly they are consistent in their design, like: all the pages listings of products are the same and the pages with just one product on are the all consistent too, making this a very good website. In terms of information that is provided is good (but the information is only as good as the seller’s provide, because it is them that supply the information on themselves).

Navigation- Navigation on a website is how you move around the site using hyperlinks, hot spots and general linked assets on there. When you are designing a website you have to take into consideration that your audience will expect to be able to find the information on the site with minimal waiting time / navigating around. In terms of having good navigation things like: everything with a link does what it’s supposed too, information is relatively easy to find (the audience should be able to find what they want in 3 steps or less) and the site doesn’t have long loading times so the audience reframes from leaving the site to find a better one.  The navigation on eBay.com is quite good because the site is capable of loading hundreds of products in a short space of time, making this site great for not keeping their audience waiting. Obviously you may not be able to find what you are looking for in 3 steps or less but because of their global scale of merchandise there is an incredibly good chance that the audience will find what they want.

Usability- The usability of a website is the how easy it is to use, which in most cases it has to be relevantly simple for their audience to use because not every person is computer literate (meaning they don’t find computers as easy to use as some other people would do). EBay’s usability is fairly simple to use when browsing and purchasing products on their website, so in a way you can say that they have an effective usability that even the computer literate audiences could use. The website does have a downside though because you have to go through several pages to confirm the payment of the website, but this will be to make sure that the exchange is done by the books / completely legit transaction.  

Limitations- The limitations are the factors that may be considered as a threat to the website reaching its full potential. The factors that could threaten the website are such things as: File sizes (the file sizes of the graphics included on the website), Download times (how fast it takes for the site to appear), Content (the things that you have included on the website), Legal & Ethical issues (the content has to abide by the legal and ethical constraints), Plug-ins (sometimes things on the website require that certain plug-ins are installed to view them) and finance.EBay.com would have had to take all of the listed factors into consideration when they were creating the website to make it as successful as possibly without causing problems with the audiences.

Conclusion

Overall, from my analyse I believe that ebay.com is really good and successful website in the area of expertise they specialize in. This is because the site has good navigation, assets of it are to an exceptional standard, the form / layout is simple and effective even though it is slightly cluttered and the usability is simple enough for people of all ages. This analyse of ebay.com is able to provide a good understanding of why it is a successful website.