week 6 reading

Chapter 10 talks about usability as a common courtesy. It discusses why it is important for your website to be easy to use so that the user knows what they are looking at and how to use it. Basically, does the user “get” your website? Make sure your website is clear and that it is offering all the necessary information to the navigator. If you treat the user badly, they most likely will not return. If they have a negative experience on your site, there is a good chance that they will think differently about your entire company. Stay away from things that will diminish your goodwill; such as hiding information, asking for unnecessary information, having an amateur site, etc. Keep all these things in mind, and your site should provide common courtesy.

Chapter 11 discusses accessibility to your website. Can every user navigate their way around your website? This includes users with disabilities. You could look up tons of reasons why this is a necessity to your website. This provides equal rights to all users and it is a law. Designers and developers tend to stay away from this designing for accessibility because it creates more work for them and it can sometimes compromise that look of their design. All in all, accessibility is very important and shouldn’t be overlooked.

ECommerce Wireframes

ECommerce Site Thumbnails

ecommerce moodboard

Week 4 Reading

Chapter 7 of, "Don't Make Me Think", talks all about designing a good homepage. Right away, the site needs to demonstrate a mission statement, an explanation of what the site is about, a search bar, teases for promotional items or events, and timely content (information that gets updated often). The homepage also has to appear trustworthy should show not only information I need, but information I didn't need as well. Basically the homepage has to be amazing because it is what everyone will stop by to look at at least once. What the consumer sees on the homepage will be the deciding factor on whether or not they decide to return in the future. To sum it up, the homepage needs to answer all of the consumer's questions with ease and it needs to be easy to use.

Creating an Effective Homepage
Designing a Homepage
Building Homepages

ECommerce Project Statement

Background:

Maddie's Closet is a website that specializes in selling small child and baby clothing and accessories.

Target Audiences:

The target audience is the parents of the small children and babies. Basically anyone who is in need of children's items.

Objectives:

Our objective is to make the website easily functional so that consumer's will keep coming back for purchases. Right now the site is quite confusing and cluttered. We will simplify and clean up the site so that it has a greater return rate for customers.

Obstacles:

Our biggest obstacle will be organizing all the information on the site so it is simple and easier to use. Also, this store has a lot of competitor's who it will be competing with, so it will have to stand out and look representable. 

Key Benefit:

Maddie's Closet sells high quality clothing and accessories at an affordable cost. Their new website will demonstrate these qualities.

Support Statements/ Reasons Why:

Being able to easily find what you are looking for on the website will result in a greater return rate for customer's. 

Tone:

Youthful, Fun, Bright, Simple

Media:

Using stock photography of existing products and happy consumer's to set a happy mood.

Website Final

Final Design