Website Evaluation and Prototype for Redesign

Introduction Team A has been working together to create a list of essential design criteria for evaluating the Berry’s Bug Busters Website, a virtual organization. The team also completed a comparative review of two sites that have similar audience and purpose to the Berry’s Bug Busters Website. The intended audience for this website is people over the age of 18 that find themselves with a pest problem. There are no specific demographics related to the service offered. These two sites are Orkin and FreedomPest, which provide some useful examples of ways to improve upon the curent design of Berry’s Bug Busters Website. The following is the list of design features: Design Features 1. A chat window so that customers can talk about their pest issue with an expert to answer any questions

2. Incorporate social media logins such as Facebook and twitter to increase our customer base.

3. A drop down window which will help them search for the pest that they are having trouble with and explain the behavior and diet of such pests.

4. Have a taskbar that lists our services, pests, testimonials, schedule an appointment or to contact us.

5. List our accreditations and licenses.

6. Create a space for regular customers to open an account, gaining access to “privileges” such as discounts and complimentary services. (Log in).

7. Link building. Adding links to our business profile in directories such as Google Local, LinkedIn, Insider Pages, and other.

8. Sections properly labeled.

9. Interesting and appealing design

10. Suggested browsers for better viewing

11. Easy access to information

12. Appropriate and up-to-date links

13. Appropriate format

List by Category Headings

Accuracy:
-Is it free of grammatical and spelling errors?
-Was any important information omitted?
-Is it up-to-date?
-Accreditations and licenses.
Presentation of Information:
How the information is presented is very important not only because it makes the first impression on the user but also because it affects how easily the information can be reached.
-Is the information easy to access?
-Is the design appealing?
-Are the sections properly labeled?
User friendliness:
-Is the site intuitive and easy to read?
-Does it make possible for the user to navigate it with little training?
Usefulness:
-Appropriate format.
-Incorporate social media logins.
-A drop down window
-Suggested browsers for better viewing.
Freshness:
-Is the site frequently updated?
-Appropriate and up-to-date links. Comparative Review

The Orking and FreedomPest are real companies with a comparable audience and purpose to the Berry’s Bug Busters virtual company. Analyzing the aforementioned sites under the team A’s design criteria, one can say that their Websites and business models are lacking modern functionality. Another aspect that may inhibit customers to go further on their research for the company’s products and service is that customers have to submit their information to obtain a quote for service, or they may have to call the company.

Out of the two websites researched for its website, the team feels that for its target audience, which the team determines is residential; Freedom Pest offers the best design and info that customers are looking for. Current and potential customers can chat with an expert to answer their questions and gather information about the issue they are having without making an appointment. It also offers the companies accreditations and shows that is a licensed and insured company that will put customers at ease. They are also on the social media site such as Facebook and twitter. This can provide free advertising through customers sharing and liking the website via the social media links.

Evaluating the Use of Design Principles

When a company tries to effectively communicate its message through a website, it has to make sure that it follows four design principles: repetition, contrast, proximity, and alignment.

Repetition

The idea of using this principle is to replicate one or more elements throughout the design with the purpose of unifying it. Berry’s Bugs Blasters uses repetition to some extent. For example, the light brownish color used in the logo is also used to highlight the company’s phone number, the Internet link, the percentage of the coupon, headings, and the footer of the website. The rectangular shape is also used not only on the main navigation links but also to display the images of pests, the frame of the coupon, and the shape of the footer. Also the repetition of the photo captions “Have a – (snake, ant, termite, spider)- problem? We’ll blast’em good ‘n’ dead” helps to create a unified look. Even though the Website looks somehow unified, there is room for improvement.

Contrast

The idea of applying this principle is to grab the attention of the intended audience by creating visual excitement. Berry’s Bugs Blasters failed in this aspect, since the Website displays too much white. There is no contrast between the background color (white) and the text. It gives the impression that the elements are floating around the page. In this case, the design may not be appealing to potential customers.

Proximity

The intent of this principle is to create visual groups, making the navigation easier for the users. Berry’s Bugs Blasters has a very simple design that displays only two main groups: the pests and the methods the company offers to treat them. This design makes it possible for users to navigate it with little training.

Alignment

Applying this principle would give the Web page visual unity. Analyzing Berry’s Bugs Blasters’ Web page, one can say that the simplicity of the design makes it difficult to see the visual unity since there are only two columns vertically aligned. While simplicity should be true for a website’s functionality, when applied to design it can often leave much to be desired.

Proposed Recommendations

• Incorporate FAQs.

• There should be a cost calculator based on square footage and pest problem.

• Adequate use of white space.

• Incorporate accreditations and licenses.

• Incorporate “Log in” for regular and recurrent customers to access “privileges”

• Incorporate social media logins.

• Incorporate a chat window.

• Create a more appealing and interesting design.

• Add more information about pests like seasonal pests, environment, conditions under which they grow, etc. and link it to PEST WE DEAL WITH.

Description of Proposed Changes

We have put several design features into our website Berry’s Bug Blasters to make it unique and to stand out from the crowd. During our research we had looked at several exterminator websites and have determined from a customer standpoint what we feel the customer would like to see when they visit an exterminator site.

The following are the descriptions of the changes we have made to our website from our research. • A drop down window, which will help customers search for the pest that they are having trouble with and explain the behavior and diet of such pests. This way a customer can obtain information of what is attracting the bugs or rodents to his or her property and take the necessary measures until our experts arrive. • Have a task bar that lists our services, pests, testimonials, schedule an appointment or to contact us. Through this a customer can have his or her questions answered and find out who we are and what we do. They can also read testimonials of happy clients that, hopefully, will give them confidence to hire us. Customers can always contact us to answer more in-depth questions or concerns they may have. When they have all of their questions answered and they know a little more about us, we have made it very easy for them to make an appointment that best suits their busy schedule. • List our accreditations and licenses. We are proud to list our accreditations; we have worked hard for them and by listing them we feel that our clients can rest easy knowing that we know what we are doing. • Incorporate social media logins such as Facebook and twitter to increase our customer base. We feel that by doing this, we can reach more clients and it will give out business more exposure. Social media have exploded over the past several years therefore, we know without a doubt that we will be able to increase our customer base by adding these social media sites to our Web site. • Link building. Adding links to our business profile in directories such as Google Local, LinkedIn, Insider Pages, and others. We have determined through our research that this action is also another way to give our business more exposure and to increase our customer base. • Interesting and appealing design. Through our research we have discovered that if we do not make our Website appealing or interesting to our current and potential clients, they will look somewhere else to resolve their bug issues. We also have learned that we have mere seconds to interest potential customers in our website; so if we do not have interesting and useful articles to draw them in or make our website appealing to the eye, we will lose potential business. • We have incorporated a cost calculator based on square footage and pest problem. We felt that by doing this we can give our clients a ballpark figure of what it will cost them to resolve the pest problem. This action will help them to make an informed decision whether they want to hire us or they want to try and resolve the issue themselves. • Another design feature that we felt would be helpful to our customers would be to add information about pests like seasonal pests, environment, conditions under which they grow, etc. and link it to PEST WE DEAL WITH. This way we felt that we could help them determine what conditions attract certain types of pests, what conditions they thrive in and what can be done to prevent it.

• Enhanced meta data to improve the websites ranking on search engine. This is vital to bringing in new customers to the website. Most people will find their products or services through the use of the search engine, and will almost never look further than the first page.

These are just some of the design changes that we made to our original website design to help our business grow and to help our customers get the information and help they need.

Proposed Site Diagram

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Conclusion

The intent of this paper was to take a business’ website, and improve upon it where possible. To redesign a website takes more than the ability to code; it requires a keen eye to analyze and construct a desirable product. The paper lists deficiencies that exist with the current website, and also suggestions in which it can be improved upon.

By following some essential guidelines to constructing a website, along with the fundamental understanding of design and coding; it is possible to create a professional website. By then comparing that website to other existing ones, it allows an ability to evolve beyond the competitors. It provides not only an opportunity to see what other companies have for idea, but also can be a good starting point for new companies trying to enter into the market.

While it may be easy for any person to create a website; it is difficult to create one that is able to draw users in with its attractive design, and keep them engaged with the compelling content necessary to drive any successful website.

References

Felke-Morris, T. (2011). Web development & design foundations with XHTML (5th ed.). Pearson Education.

Ledford, J. L. (2009). Seo: Search engine optimization bible (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.

Wilton, P., & McPeak, J. (2009). Beginning JavaScript® (4th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wrox.