Web Design Elementals: 
 Case Studies
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Some In Depth Reviews

In order to gain a greater understanding of good design in practice, this area of the website looks at some professional websites and the good and bad elements of their design. As professional business, it is in their interest to ensure that the viewers of their sites can understand and interact with their websites.

The five sites reviewed all have some admirable qualities and some shortcomings. By pointing them out here, it is hoped that the ideas of good design will be driven home when others decide to make their own websites. Reviews are based off the site's design as of 7/20/02. Click on the "Live Site" link to see what the actual site looks like.

Case Study Details - What are we looking at?

The home page of a website says a lot about an organization. It is the main point of access for most users and it should leave the surfer with no doubts about what your website is about. Simplicity is always good, but do not leave the user in a void when he or she arrives at your homepage. The most important thing to do is quickly inform the user and enable him or her to navigate your site with ease.

Content pages make up the majority of a website. They provide all the information and details about that site, and are where a user will spend the majority of their time (if they make it past the home page). Because these pages have such a broad use and must hold a diverse set of information, good design is key to keeping a website understandable and easy navigated.

The case studies look at these two chief pages and study the design elements of them, pointing out the strengths and weakness of each.

Besides the layout and design of the site, the case studies also note how the site works with the computer and browser. Screen resolutions of 800 x 600 are considered the lowest denominator when designing a website, as they are the smallest computer monitor still in widespread use. As such, it is important for designers to recognize this when thinking of the intended audience. Ideally, users would all have nice, big monitors, but since they do not, sites that are designed for lower-end users must consider monitor size.

Beyond the size of the monitor there also is text size and lack of image support. Some people turn images off and/or increase the size of their text so they can more easily read site content. Some sites that are image driven can become completely illegible under these circumstances unless proper design is used. Proper design includes "alt" tags and sites that consider variable text sizes.

The Five Sites:

Apple Computer Inc. - Case Study - Live Site -
Apple is a software and hardware computer company noted for popularizing such mainstream computer elements as the PC, the mouse, the GUI, and wireless technologies.

Dell Computers Inc. - Case Study -Live Site -
Dell is a well-known hardware seller that offers affordable computers in a wide variety of packages.

Microsoft Corporation - Case Study -Live Site -
Microsoft is the world's largest software company, best known for its Office software and Windows operating system.

Yahoo! - Case Study -Live Site -
Yahoo! is one of the most popular search engines. It combines searching with other online entertainment such as e-groups, online games, chat rooms, and news.

Google - Case Study -Live Site -
Google is quickly becoming the favorite search engine on the Internet because of its ease of use and simplicity. Yahoo! powers its searches with Google.