Organization Riordan Manufacturing is a plastics manufacturer with three plants and a corporate headquarters. One plant produces custom parts, another produces plastic fan parts, and the final one produces plastic beverage containers. Their intended audience in theory is other companies willing to sign contracts with them, and potential employees to hire. The site provides such a gateway, acts as an introduction to the public, and allows a visitor to peer in and evaluate the effectiveness and worth of the company.
Criteria
In preparation for the redesign, careful consideration must go into what criteria to judge the old design and other examples for sites. To that end, the following criteria are of utmost importance: page layout, content presentation, navigation, effective links, color and graphics, font usage, accessibility, relevance spacing, multimedia, and browser compatibility. Each piece must fall under certain criteria in order for the user to consider it effective. Certain elements and pitfalls should remain at the forefront of any design to justify the resource cost of the criteria.

Page Layout The first thing anyone would notice about the Riodan Manufacturing website is that is is cluttered with useless images that contain absolutely no context. There is a slideshow of images that take center stage. The first image is of different plastic bottles. The second image is nearly undiscernible as to what it is meant to represent. The third image is of two different types of fans. The fourth image is of a number of plastic containers. It is unclear as to what the point of these images are designed to represent. Also, these photos should not take up a majority of the screen. There is no information about the company located on its only public facing home page. No site map is present, as the site is only one page. Overall, this site is ineffective and utterly useless to the company. It is recommended that the site be broken up into multiple pages. Each page should include the same page layout to exude a uniform and professional look. The images on the home page should provide context as to the company’s core business. It is recommended that images of the specific products the company manufactures should be used. The contact us information should be moved to its own page. There should be an about us page created and a link should be added to the home page. Making these small, but noticeable changes would change this from a placeholder site to a fully functioning addition to the business as a whole

Content Presentation There is a severe lack of content on the Riordan Manufacturing website. Over half the page is taken up by a slideshow of useless images. Below this, three generic buzzword headings that may describe the company, but are extremely generic and vague. Below this is the company’s address and phone number. This is the crux of the content on the website. This content should be further flushed out. Each heading should be a link leading to a page explaining what the headings mean and how they relate to the company. The slideshow should feature images that directly relate to the company and explain to the user what the company does and how it can benefit said user. The address and phone number should be moved to a contact us page.

Navigation
On the Riordan main page of the website there are only two active links, one to the main page and the other to the intranet site. The main page has no navigation for the potential customers to browse through. If the main idea is to sell products or services to companies or individuals it is a complete fail on design. Navigation is one of the most important key elements in a website it will guide people to choice that the company wants the consumer to see and help them learn what they need to know to make decisions about the company and what they can do.
Navigation should include a sitemap of all locations for the user to go to. The layout should be clear, easy to read and user friendly. The links within the menus should have proper labels and lead to the correct places. Lastly, all navigation should work on all pages proper and have a similar structure.

Effective Links
Effective links refer to links that have purpose and are important enough to connect to places that matter. Links that take a user outside the website should warn the user and define the reason why the redirection may occur. The user should see visual clues to links that the user has seen and also tell the difference of what is currently selected within the website. Too many links may be confusing to a user or make it more difficult to maintain from the creator side. The main idea for effective links is that a user can navigate easily to and from important content that the creator made for a specific purpose or goal for the user to achieve.

Color and Graphics Color and graphics can make any website come alive and become more appealing for people to view. The more interesting graphics and color usage are, the more likely a user will stay on the website and explore. If colors make reading hard the user will typically leave the site because no one wants to struggle to read about anything. Graphics make any service or product more enticing to anyone people do not always just want to read text there needs to be a balance between both sides to keep people from disengaging.

Font Usage
There are many things to consider when dealing with fonts. There are very many ways to portray content it is important to consider what the purpose is of the website. Knowing what the main idea of the website and then understanding who the target audience is will help build an idea of the font type, scale, design, and color of everything the user will see. For example, if the target audience is children under the age of seven the fonts may look very big and bold with vivid colors to catch the eye of someone in that age demographic. On the other hand, elderly people may not see well so the font size will look big but may not show bright colors that may irritate an older generation. In the beginning it is important to understand the look of things the creator is trying to do with the site and take into account the design for the target audience and make changes accordingly.

Accessibility Because this is a single page, there is absolutely no navigation. Also, there are no tags on the images on the page. Making this a multi-site webpage and adding links to all different sites will make this webpage noticeably more accessible. The addition of image tags will assist those with website readers to understand what is on the site. Lastly, since this is a global company, an option should be added to translate the page to other languages.

Relevance It is unclear who this website is targeted to. The average user who stumbles across this page would have no idea who Riordan Manufacturing caters to, whether it be the average consumer or a business supplier. Adding information about the company’s past would go a long way to rectifying this. It is also recommended that information on key clients be added to this page. It is understood that Riordan supplies Dr. Pepper with its plastic bottles. This is a client that is known to all and should be championed.

Spacing

Multimedia
Multimedia by definition is use of computers to present text, audio, video, interactivity, et cetera. The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words applies in that often to conserve space and not create a long drawn out explanation that requires the user to scroll through copious amounts of information, using a slide show or video is acceptable. However, this method may backfire unfortunately if the multimedia proves ineffective. To avoid this a designer must ensure that the content of any kind remains relevant, brief, and meshes well with the overall layout and color theme of the site. Another aspect to avoid s the use of stock photos if one chooses to insert pictures, as they do not leave a good impression on a visitor.
Browser Compatibility Some people would not consider browser compatibility as issue, but that is far from the truth. The nuances of each browser are similar to the nuances of different operating systems in that each once has its requirements and they all differ. The purpose of a company ensuring that a site functions on all the major internet browsers is that the burden of work should remain with the company. A visitor to the site should not have to install a new browser or have a lower grade experience due to the browser he or she uses. Such exclusivity has no business on a website of that nature. The average internet user knows little about browser compatibility and is not expected to understand why a website does not function properly when attempting a visit.

Comparison to Other Sites

Analysis of Organization

Recommendations for Improvement

Proposed Changes