Summary
The website, baselinemag.com, primarily showcases information that relates to new business developments in the IT industry. This can range from what is currently trending in the industry today, what policies are currently being developed and finally it also showcases articles giving advice to businesses about current trends in employment, retention and new innovations that might interest managers and employees alike. Overall the site itself caters mainly to individuals who have businesses in the IT industry or people who are currently employed or want to be employed in the IT industry. The main source of income from the site appears to primarily be from both advertising on the site itself to corporate sponsorship agreements where companies such as IBM get the ability to place their own advertisements on the site for a specific free.
Overall look and feel
While the site has the same generic white background seen in most websites that have informative articles there is an inherent issue about the spacing within the site (Fan & Tsai, 2010). Information and content seems to be squeezed directly into the very middle of the site despite there being space on the left and right portions. While this is actually a growing trend in website design as seen in a variety of news network websites the fact remains that such sites usually reserve on entire page for a single article and have few advertisements on them (Ou & Sia, 2010).
In baselinemag.com there are multiple links to various forms of information scattered throughout the site as well as advertisements intermittently spaced on the top, left, right, bottom and middle of the site itself. All of these factors inevitably contribute to making the site seem very messy and confusing to most people viewing it (Moran, 2011).
Apparent Target Audience
The apparent target audiences of the site are people working in the IT industry, this can range from decision makers, HR personnel, new hires or people wishing to enter into the industry as a startup. This is based on the fact that the articles on the site are not concentrated on one specific genre but rather are spread out over a whole range of possible topics that can interest the readership groups which I just mentioned.
Usefulness of the site
If I was a mid range employee at an IT firm and wanted to known what the latest trends in the industry were, this would one of the first sites that I would visit. In terms of the sheer amount of IT industry data this site has more accumulated information compared to the next possible runner up in a site of this particular type. The site focuses more on serious article creation and as such mostly has articles which pertain directly to trends, problems and future endeavors that might happen within the next few years (Kelly, 2010). Based on this, in terms of sheer research quality this website would prove very useful to individuals who are in search of a site that is focused on delivery serious articles rather than the usual amount of junk comedy or useless articles that practically inundate the entirety of the internet.
Links to follow up
While I am interested in various updates in what is happening in the IT industry a lot of the material on the site is business related however these two links did interest me due to their content.
Other Interesting Aspects of the Site
In as much as I would like to cite something unique about the site the overall format is quite generic and there is little that is actually striking. If I had to say that there was one thing noticeable about it would be the sheer amount of links and content that is linked to IBM. I have rarely seen a website with this much corporate sponsorship so as such I believe that would serve as what I would consider unique for the site.
Relation to the Objectives of the Module
In direct relation to what I learned from the module I can say that with confidence that I can now spot problems with how a website is designed and recommend how image and performance could be improved in order to make the website better. Overall this module has helped to develop a certain level of intuition as to what works in website design and what does not.
References
Fan, W., & Tsai, M. (2010). Factors driving website success – the key role of Internet customisation and the influence of website design quality and Internet marketing strategy. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21(11), 1141-1159.
Kelly, K. (2010). Consumer Health Information Websites with High Visual Design Ratings Likely to Be also Highly Rated for Perceived Credibility. Evidence Based Library & Information Practice, 5(3), 42-45. Web.
Moran, G. (2011). The sins of website design. Entrepreneur, 39(1), 44. Web.
Ou, C., & Sia, C. (2010). Consumer trust and distrust: An issue of website design. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(12), 913-934. Web.