The Internet serves many purposes for people. Whether it is sharing information or used a tool for commerce. Younger generations of people have grown up in the preliminary stages of the “Information Age” where the Internet and computers in general have thrived as the main medium for information sharing and other purposes. As the Internet has developed and progressed in the services it provides, so have the people that take advantage of those services. Users expect more from the Internet and rely on it more every day for basic needs such as reading the news or communicating with peers.
Today many businesses utilize the Internet for its most basic and important functions. Usiff.com is an auction site that solely depends on the Internet in order to operate as an auctioneer. While it is useful for people to buy and sell products online, it can also be confusing in the general layout of its website. Experienced Internet users can figure their way around the site, but other less experienced users may have difficulty navigating through the site. That does not mean that less experienced users cannot use usiff.com or even enjoy using it, but they may not realize how some things about the site, including its layout can be changed to make navigating or using the site an easier and simpler process.
I encourage anyone to visit usiff.com and describe the pros and cons of the web design or layout of the website. When visiting the usiff.com list what stands out to you and decide whether you would use the website if you had a need to buy or sell something using an online auction site. Compare it to other websites that you visit on a regular basis and what you take from those websites and put into usiff.com to make it more compatible with your preferences. Also please indicate how often you use the Internet, for what purposes and specifically if you use Internet auction websites. As a user, ask yourself if you can have a good interaction with the website, explain why or why not and if not, then what could make it better to use.
April 18, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I use the internet on an hourly basis… literally.. I’m on it alllll the time unless I’m sleeping. I’ve never actually auctioned or bought any auctions off the internet but after checking out this site…I begin to have warning signs about using it to sell my things. Truthfully, with all of the links on the front page, it looks like an advertisment site instead of an actual place that you buy things. Other websites I go to on a regular basis are far more simple than this one to navigate. Drop down boxes would be much more helpful than just a list of all the possible categories somthing could be in. I can feel my eyes moving everywhere across the screen… and it seems like they keep ending up at places that I don’t really care about. =( They really need to make the site a little more compacted but with a spacey feeling…if that makes any sense… Hide the links behind drop down boxes or something…eeeeep
April 18, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I use the internet almost constantly since at any point I’m either checkin my email, watchin YouTube or actually doing something constructive. For the most part though I go to news sites, both mainstream and blog. USiFF, aside from not loading right now, is a decent site once you have a minute or two to take in where everything is, but its almost overpowering when you first go, because you have no idea where to look. In my eye, the site could use some more white space and should allow you to hide menus and sections that you dont want to see, or move them around. They’ve built a blocky interface which could make that work, it actually somewhat reminds me of iGoogle…
April 18, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I agree that the web site is way too clustered with information on the front page. I like the idea of drop boxes for the links, I believe that would be an effective way to organize the web site and make navigation easier. The comment about how it looks like an advertisement site is interesting. I did not think about that at first, but after visiting again I agree that it does appear like an advertising site if you do not pay close enough attention to it.
April 18, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I agree with you foxbjk that more white space is certainly needed for the web site. In regards to using the Internet I rely on the Internet as my main source of news around country and the world. Specifically I use it to stay informed for politics, sports and other forms of entertainment such as music and movies. Back to the web site, is there anything else that stands out that is either good or bad besides too much information presented at once? I think more white space and drop boxes for links would help a lot in that regard.
April 18, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I think that the usiff.com site is a nice alternative to other auction sites such as ebay.com. One thing I do not like about the site is the colors. The colors to the site give a boring or blah feel when viewing it. After seeing what others wrote, I think the advertisements take up too much attention. I would try to reduce the amount of space the advertisements take and change the colors.
April 19, 2008 at 9:45 am
That is an interesting perspective in regards to the colors of the Web site. Personally, I do not mind the colors that the Web site uses, but I like those colors or at least variations of those colors (blue, green) in most cases. The advertisements do cluster the area or distract the user. We (as in our group) need to figure a way to improve this section of the Web site. Any advice from any other person will be useful and appreciated.
April 20, 2008 at 3:19 pm
This has more to do with the first parts of your post. I feel that I can find the information I want on this website quite freely. The different categories are right on the left of the website; it is clear where to go if I want to sell something or if I want to ask a question. So, if we’re just analyzing the navigability of this website, I would say it’s pretty good. Everything I wanted to know was very readily available.
April 20, 2008 at 6:34 pm
In response to atalders, that is an interesting comment. I must concede that while I still think there is too much clustered information and advertisements, the Web site is not too difficult to navigate. I would suggest reducing the number of links on the left. Then provide more detailed categories for sublinks. An example would be combining all music or sports related links into one category and then have a subset of links for different categories within the main links.