Collection and evaluation of websites

¶ … poor in delivering content and a navigational experience to visitors. The two useful or good sites are www.Oracle.comand www.Microsoft.comwith the two poor sites being www.Cincom.comand www.freemap.com.The two sites that excel at web design criteria were specifically chosen due to their representation of both consumer and enterprise-class software, which are by nature abstract products to comprehend without seeing them on a computer screen. In addition, the two poor sites include a software company, Cincom Systems, which is in the enterprise software market yet cannot seem to say what their core product offerings are succinctly and clearly. The site meanders as a result. The second poorly designed site, Freemap.com, is an excellent example of how not to design a site using frames, and further, what makes a website difficult to use.

Accessibility for the Handicapped

This is the attribute of a website that defines how easily or difficult it is for someone with a motor skills or visual handicap to access the website. According to W3C's Web Accessibility Imitative (2007), there are a series of benchmarks for evaluating how accessible a website is for those with disabilities. These include the content of the web page including both its organization and the flow of the contents' messaging, support for multiple Web browsers, support for assistive technologies including support for alternative keyboards, special viewing options for the site, and support for adapting the website for specific users' levels of expertise. One of the key aspects of accessibility is support for multiple navigation paths to the same areas of a website. The following table shows the evaluation of each website in terms of accessibility functionality.

Website

Accessibility Analysis

Good Sites

Microsoft.com site that exemplifies best practices in accessibility for the handicapped, from the multiple paths to the same content, to the approaches used for making the latest news from Microsoft more accessible and readable, this site also provides the handicapped with many visual and navigational aids to getting the information required.

Microsoft also has specific mirror sites of this main one specifically designed for the handicapped.

Oracle.com

Oracles' use of high contrast lettering (black and red on white) and the use of content organization in taxonomy-based organization on the front of the site greatly enhance the navigation of the site for those with disabilities. The site also has graphical tools available for navigating the site entirely on graphical icons, without the use of text. There are also icons specifically designed to increase the font size on the page for easier readability.

Poor Sites

Cincom.com verbose and difficult-to-navigate site, this one confuses the visitor as to just what business this company is in; the text is incredibly small and difficult to read; and there is little if any support for multiple navigation paths for those with handicaps.

Freemap.com

Very difficult for anyone with disabilities to use this site as the text trailing the cursor makes navigation alone difficult; no allowance for those with visual or motor skill deficiencies; lack of support for specific resolutions and no option for a non-frame option make this site the worst of the group in terms of accessibility for those with handicaps.

In summary, the two good sites, Oracle.com and Microsoft.com have both aligned their content and their use of graphical tools to make accessibility easier for the handicapped. This is a major aspect of any design prior to the development of the site, and it shows the commitment at Microsoft and Oracle to create accessibility as core a strength of their websites.

Microsoft.com designed for accessibility, also reflected in their products and services:

Oracle.com designed for accessibility:

Commercial Implications: Support for E-Commerce

This attribute of a website design refers to the capabilities of the site to accept online orders and if a services company, online reservations. Each of the four sites included in this analysis are commercial businesses, each have products for sale, yet only three of them actively provide links for completing quotes and generating sales from their sites. For any site to be considered aligned with this design criteria, there needs to be a strong focus on having an integrated workflow that supports the catalog-based shopping, quoting, pricing, ordering, fulfillment and service process workflows. Compounding this complexity is the need for having a high level of product customization logic and options for tailoring the specific attributes of a product through the use of sales and product configurators. AMR Research (2003) provides a definition of how quote-to-order and build-to-order processes are integrated into overall website workflows. In addition, those sites with the highest levels of commercial performance also have the ability to respond quickly to pricing and product exceptions. Columbus (2003) specifies how enterprise software companies enabling quote-to-order and build-to-order strategies are creating applications that allow for a high level of agility in responding to special pricing requests. Clearly the ability to manage more complex product customization options while staying agile with the design of a website's e-commerce options is an essential part of best practices in this area of website design. The fact that there needs to be a very high level of integration between front-office and back-office systems to make this specific attribute of website design possible is made clear in the findings of Askegar and Columbus (2002) in their research in the high tech arena specifically. The following table summarizes the commercial implications of both the good and bad websites in this paper.

Website

Commercial Implications

Good Sites

Microsoft.com

Excellent support of catalog management and online store integration to useful product and feature listings; extensive and globally recognized leadership in providing product samples and downloads; one of the industry's largest set of clipart and downloadable templates; support for online ordering of all Microsoft Development Network (MSDN) applications, development tools, and templates; possible to also purchase for download any application in the Microsoft Office Suite of products as well; the use of Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) for delivery of smaller applets for use as part of their server platforms is also noteworthy in this area. Password protected areas of their site include portals purpose-built for each of the dominant vertical markets that Microsoft sells into. These include education, government, and large Fortune 500 accounts that have site licenses of Microsoft's applications.

Oracle.com

Pervasive support for pricing and selling of their lower-end databases entirely online is the major strength of Oracle's site on the commercial implications of their design. Like Microsoft, Oracle also relies on password-protected sites that specifically address each of the larger accounts they have in key vertical markets, and have extensive password-protected portals for their largest enterprise accounts. Oracle also has a series of pricing exception tools for customers to define pricing and discounts as per Columbus (2003) research as mentioned previously in this section.

Poor Sites

Cincom.com

Despite having four divisions of software applications and literally several hundred products, Cincom has no products for sale on their website and further, does not promote the up-selling and cross-selling of applications at all. The lack of order capture on the site is amazing given the many segments of the market the company sells into, and the many price points it competes at.

Freemap.com

This entire site is actually a product catalog for the store, and has many opportunities to move directly into an ordering workflow, yet stops the workflow and just presents the 800 number. As the store is selling maps, an online ordering system would be relatively easy to create and use to sell maps and fulfill them online. As this site represents a retail store the development of an online ordering system with relatively simple fulfillment is easily accomplished.

Microsoft.com's Commitment to Commercial Support:

Oracle.com Commercial Support:

Best-in-class websites have created synchronized series of systems for ensuring the content on their websites stays current, accurate to the products being sold and services offered, and also focuses on making content original including a fresh voice of the writing. Content on the world's best websites is alive and literally jumps of the page as relevant to the reader. Web Content Management (WCM) systems in these top-performing organizations are integrated to the broader Enterprise Content Management (ECM) initiatives. These ECM systems make the task of keeping fresh content on websites possible, and are often specifically designed to break down the silos tat keep valuable content from being used across an entire series of websites. According to Columbus and Murphy (2002) the use of Web Content Management systems to break down organizational silos around market, solution, product and services information is a characteristic of top performing websites. As is the case with the previous attribute, it is not immediately obvious from viewing a website, yet the depth and freshness of content on a website is a sure indication that an integrated Web Content Management system is in place. The following table discusses why Microsoft and Oracle have very strong websites in this regard, and why Cincom and Freemap.com have websites that are in need of a Web Content Management system to ensure higher quality content over time.

Website

Good Sites

Microsoft.com

The first indication that Microsoft.com is based on a strong WCM platform is the excellent division of specific areas of solutions, segments, and product sectors, all unified by common messaging and a consistency of content. The content in the site is current to the specific messaging of Microsoft today, including the launch of Windows Vista and the increased focus on Longhorn downloads for testing by beta testers. The content also provides excellent user-level guidance on office productivity, enterprise applications, and entire mini-sites dedicated to how to get more value out of their server products.

Oracle.com

Oracle is one of the leading providers of WCM systems and their support for multiple taxonomies ion their websites illustrates the company is actually using their own software to power their websites. The organization of content by the role of the visitor to the website also illustrates a strong WCM system being in place as well.

Poor Sites

Cincom.com

Too much content and not enough clarity as to just what the product areas are vs. The service ones; this site is overrun with content and writing and not clear enough on the main areas of the site to understand what the main message of the company is. There is an abundance of content on their CEO who seems to be building more of al legacy than explaining why the products make sense for the unmet needs of potential customers.

Freemap.com

Quite frankly, it is a site that shows there is no content management system in place within this company, and the lack of consistency around how content supports the specific images makes the site difficult to navigate and use, which is the subject of the next part of this site. While the author if this site date-stamped when the last update is, it is very unclear as to just what is topical and current on the site at all.

WCM systems form the foundation of many of the world's leading websites, and this is best illustrated by the support of multiple role-based content definitions across an entire website. Microsoft and Oracle's support of roles-based content queries is a case in point.

Evidence of a WCM System in place at Microsoft.com (Notice the level of detail in the content driving the industry definitions - evidence of a strong WCM system)

Evidence of a WCM System in place at Oracle.com

Navigation Design and Assessment of Logic

This is the one aspect of a website design that is the most difficult to attain without much experience in how different website visitors and users interact with and eventually become loyal to a website. In the case of Microsoft and Oracle, their content management taxonomies, their approaches to organizing the various segments of content, and the roles-based approach to navigation depending on the role of purchasers all point to exceptional depth of knowledge in what users want in terms of navigational design and logic flow. The worst sites of Cincom.com and freemaps.com on the other hand show that a deliberate assumption has been made that all users will interact at a comparable level with the website, and therefore there is no need to have a workflow-based logic applied to the knowledge itself. This is a major limitation of any website, and if this were a weighted analysis, navigation design and assessment of logic would have the highest percentage of points associated with it.

The highest performing website on this dimension have an intuitively easy navigational structure, advanced search functionality, multiple views of the site map, logical menu systems, and a series of breadcrumbs to specifically show the navigational elements of the site. The following table shows how navigational design can either be a best or worst practice for any website. Many organizations actively measure this attribute through the use of social science-based research, including actively monitoring users' perceptions of the functionality of websites' navigational ease of difficulty.

Website

Navigation Design/Assessment of Logic

Good Sites

Microsoft.com

Microsoft has in 2007 moved to a pop-up navigational interface as is shown below, which brings graphical icons for each Windows products when the Products and Related Technologies Section is selected in the website. Notice that the layering of the navigation makes it intuitively obvious where the user is in the context of the website. Microsoft also has a breadcrumbs-driven interface that includes the navigational path across the top of the screen as well. Navigational design and logic also include the ability to quickly get to support and service information over new product information - both workflows are optimized.

Oracle.com

In the figure below notice that Oracle is providing both a purely product-driven taxonomy for the user to traverse in looking for information on the one hand and also offering a very process-centric approach to organizing the information in the left column in the other.

The Evaluate, Implement, Use workflow is a case in point, and is also evidence that their WCM system is designed to be very process-centric in its approach to managing content.

Poor Sites

Cincom.com

Navigational paths and logic flows tend to overlap one another and make the task of finding essential information very difficult. There is no actual approach to making the site cohesive, and the lack of navigational consistency is obvious.

Freemap.com flat and very one-dimensional site from a navigational perspective, this site lacks navigation and the trailing cursor is a real pain to use to get anywhere on the site. The fact this site uses frame only a very large, high resolution monitor could make sure of is another example of why the site should stay away from this approach to managing content. Navigation links are sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical yet always confusing to use and difficult to work with.

Website screen from Microsoft.com selecting the Windows products:

Website screen from Oracle.com selecting products:

Site Design

In the worst performing sites this is where the developers choose extensive and often intricate frames to complete their designs at the expense of creating a more unified and intuitive flow to the site. In the case of the top-performing websites on the other hand, the page and site design is considered superior due to the strong focus on making the page balance as part of the overall site. Companies who often achieve best practices in this area include a balanced set of images on their web pages, re-arrange their page structures to make them look less cluttered (like Microsoft does today), and also reduce the number of conflicting colors on the site as well. The use of horizontal menu items is also much easier for users to navigate, regardless of the screen resolution used.

Website

Site Design

Good Sites

Microsoft.com

Excellent use of frames and navigation along with graphics that make the site inviting and intuitive to use. The structure of the front page of the site lends itself well to the creation of promotions and key product announcements on the front page as well. Each subsequent section of the site also is consistent with this approach and allows for each product group to define its own messaging within the structure of the site itself.

Oracle.com

Oracle uses a very innovative approach to organizing pages with the process workflow of the specific software product aligned with the left column of the website, and also includes a hierarchical flow of content in the middle of the page itself.

Poor Sites

Cincom.com

While Cincom uses a series of templates for simplifying the layout of content and its use, and also includes the use of pages for specific product areas. The content on each page however is inconsistent and often quite comprehensive. The lack of editing standards is clear from the rambling and often confusing text on the pages, in addition to variations in page design.

Freemap.com

The site design is a disaster and the specific pages show a lack of forethought in how they were organized with frames.