|
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft's
website (live site) uses a navigation
structure similar to the one we saw on the Dell website, with its link
structure spread across the webpages. Microsoft has some main links, located
in black, on the top of each webpage. The links down the left side of
most webpages are pretty consistent as well, but change with different
areas of the website .
Another
problem with Microsoft's site is its lack of effective color use. While
most of the site uses a light
blue, many pages on the site use different colors, like yellow
on the office page,
red on the college employment page, and images
for headers on the download page.
Besides the lack
of color coordination and link design, Microsoft's website offers a few
more pearls of poor design. navigationally, the site is a mess. Once a
viewer enters some areas of the website, like the Office
area, accessed from a link on the main page, there exists no way to
get back to Microsoft's
home page other than the word "Microsoft" on the top-right
of the webpage.

(Two example webpages whose themes do not match any other
webpages)
While it is always
good practice to have a link back to your main page on every page in a
site, this link should be easy to find and with the rest of the link navigation
on the webpage. Microsoft does not include this link with any existing
link areas, forcing the user to search for ways to get back to the main
page.
Meanwhile,
on the top left area of the Office webpage, there exists not one, not
two, but three links to "Microsoft Office Home." This is the
site the user currently is on after arriving from the main page, and even
within the site, three links, all in the same concentrated area, is very
poor design. As well, links should not direct users to the page they are
already on, as this frustrates users who may not understand why the page
does not change when they click on a link.
Another element to
note on the Microsoft site is its failure to remain in the 800x600 pixel
size that the main page fits into. The site's artwork and text all cuts
off neatly at the 800x600 mark on some
pages, but overflows
on others.
Also,
although the site is designed for this minimum size, when the browser
window is very large, the site does not adjust for the increased visibility
area, instead locking all its content into non-resizable tables. Even
if the end user has a larger space available for veiwing, the Microsoft
website still imposes restrictions on how much a viewer can see at one
time.
This of course, is
also true for the Apple and Dell sites as well, as neither site resizes
to fit larger monitors. The Apple site does however change with larger
monitors, as it is always centered on the screen. Thus, increased browser
windows and the extra white space that they allow is used to greater effect
since it is divided and thus less distracting to the site overall.
Like
the rest of the sites we have looked at so far, Microsoft's
webpages do employ "alt" tags to inform readers who may
not accept images on their browsers.
In the end, the biggest
problem with Microsoft's website is its lack of consistency. Poor consistency
is bad design. It is hard for the user to understand and it reflects poorly
on the sponsor. In this case, the sponsor is the largest software manufacturer
in the world.
|