In an increasingly interconnected world, a company’s website serves as the face it exhibits to its consumers, business associates, and the wider public. Website design and usability are of immense importance if companies are to achieve effectiveness in using websites to express what they do, what they stand for, and why they matter (Green & Pearson, 2011). This paper reviews the official website of Best Electronics of San Jose, California, with the view to identifying design and usability issues rendering the website ineffective and recommending several solutions that might enhance the website.
Description of Issues
The official website of Best Electronics is poorly designed as the webpage is very long and offers too much information that appears quite disorganized. Additionally, the website uses an oversized font with no visual appeal, hence lowering users’ satisfaction. Furthermore, the centered text and multiple link colors make comprehension and navigation difficult, while much of the information c. At the same time,d in the website does not communicate any meaningful content about the company and what it stands for. In usability, it is evident that the constructs of navigation, interactivity, and supportability lack from the website. These deficiencies have been addressed in Bayer’s official website, which is very well organized with short link pages and standard font size. Unlike Best Electronics’ website, Bayer’s website provides extensive information about its core business and is visually appealing due to its exciting design and technology. Additionally, Bayer’s website is easy to navigate, interactive, and supported by extensive links that open at the mouse click.
Although it is easy to open Best Electronics’ website, most of the links contained on the website are either dead or open at a very low speed, pointing to problems with the company’s web servers and its networking infrastructure. As for the web servers, it may be that Best Electronics is relying on overcrowded servers that are used to send many other pages to other people simultaneously, leading to issues of Internet downtime (Huang & Cappel, 2012). Still, Best Electronics could be using hosting companies that utilize obsolete technology, which slows the server processing time and onward transmittal to users. When servers become overloaded, it is likely possible that the network infrastructure supporting these servers is also overloaded, leading to the extremely low loading speed exhibited in some of the links contained on Best Electronics’ website. Bayer’s website and associated links load extremely fast, possibly because they are accessed through its global site.
Suggested Solutions
To improve its Internet footprint, Best Electronics need to consult a qualified website developer to design a professional website that is visually appealing and informative with regards to the company’s core business, what it stands for, and why it matters. Available literature shows that an effective website should have the capacity to reduce the mental effort expended by users to search for information (Chevalier, Maury, & Fouquereau, 2014). A visually appealing website will definitely reduce the mental effort, hence increasing user satisfaction. Additionally, Best Electronics needs to deal with usability issues of navigation, interactivity, and supportability by consulting qualified personnel with the capacity to use the latest designs and technologies to develop a fully operational website. Lastly, to deal with the problems of slow loading speed in some of its links, the electronics company needs to ensure that it is hosted by companies that employ the latest technologies in wide area network optimization and resilience. Such technologies, according to Huang and Cappel (2012), are effective in reducing server overload.
Conclusion
This paper has not only identified design and usability issues rendering Best Electronics’ website ineffective but also recommended several solutions to enhance the website. The management of Best Electronics needs to implement the suggested interventions to enhance the company’s Internet footprint.
References
Chevalier, A., Maury, A.C., & Fouquereau, V. (2014). The influence of search complexity and the familiarity with the website on the subjective appraisal of aesthetics, mental effort and usability. Behavior & Information Technology, 33, 116-131. Web.
Green, D.T., & Pearson, J.M. (2011). Integrating website usability with the electronic commerce acceptance model. Behavior & Information Technology, 30, 181-199. Web.
Huang, Z., & Cappel, J.J. (2012). A comparative study of website usability practices for Fortune 500 versus Inc. 500 companies. Information Systems Management, 29, 112-122. Web.