The company website I chose to analyze is Boeing.com. Boeing is the leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes and military aircraft and has expressed leadership in aerospace and innovation. To be honest, their website looks a little corporate. That's not a bad thing, but I think it could use a little more life or intensity, given what the company does.
The banner, for example, is pretty lifeless. The logo is simplistic, but has abstract qualities and I think it works well enough. The images Boeing uses are amazing and definitely attention-getting. These images are definitely the life of the website. However, the text on the images definitely interferes with the impact of the picture and there is text on the majority of the pictures (which change at random each time you visit the home page). The links at the top of the page are grouped kind of oddly, but all the links hav
e rollovers, which is a nice feature and they are themed colors as opposed to default blue and purple. The pictures on the home page link to different areas on the website. There is also a list of "Quick Links" at the left and a few important (and different as opposed to repeat) links at the bottom, including contact us, which is user friendly. The site also features a section at the top right that allows the user to login and select a country and language. It also lists the stock and its last update at the top right. There are two search bars per page (except for the home page). One searches the section you're currently in and the other is a global search of the website. Both bars are fairly small, but especially the one that searches the current section.
The only bad thing is that the "Quick Links" on the left don't match the style of the links on the left when you navigate to a subpage and the links on the subpages are nicer. They have more appealing rollovers, though the kerning of the type needs help and the way the drop-downs on some of the links work is not exactly user-friendly. If a link has an arrow next to it, you must click the arrow and the entire page reloads to provide a few links under the category. Because of the cramped space for the links and the shadow between the links and the main page area, Boeing looks like it uses frames, but after a quick glance at the source code, I didn't see any indication of them. Additionally, if they used frames, the whole page wouldn't have to reload for the sub-links to appear. The link to the home page is in the bar beneath the rest of the links at the top of the page. It is a breadcrumb system because it lists where you have been on the site starting with the home page and going down through the pages you visited in order to get to the current page. After further exploration, I realized the whole banner ad contains alternate text telling you to click the Boeing logo to return to the home page. It was interesting that they would put that much emphasis on it.
All in all, I would say Boeing needs a little help in the design department, but it's far from some of the worst sites I have seen. The site is organized and fairly easy to navigate and the imagery is stunning, which provides a good impression to the average user.
No comments:
Post a Comment