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SAMSUNG CANADA WEBSITE Usability Review Presentation - Stuart Matthews
Home Page
1. Indicate country (Canada) 2. Using the word ‘submit’ usually indicates a link; in this example it’s not a link. 3. Valuable screen space is used for something other than helping the user achieve their online goals. 4. Three animations continually move, causing distraction on the page. Animations, id used at all, should loop only once, then stop. 5. Flash should be used sparingly, if at all. In this case, when user mouse-overs one animation the others stop, revealing type over type – resulting in an unprofessional appearance. 6. Another reason to limit the use of flash. In this example: when area is clicked user is taken to an unrelated page. Poor navigation.
Product Category
Page – TV’s
7. Prime screen real estate is wasted, in this example, with poor copywriting. The headline ‘images, images, images’ is meaningless. Category page header is missing. 8. Country identify is missing on this page. 9. Broken link. 10. Replace poor headline with meaningful text which is relevant to the user. In this case, indicate the top four benefits of Samsung televisions. Each statement should be a link to further information. 11. and 11a. Indicate country of website. 12. Fix broken link, and add a product video tour about the superior technology of the product and always have a call-to-action on the page... in this case “Where to Purchase’. 13. Include a strong selling statement, large letters.
Promotion Page
/ Special Offer Page
14. This page begins with two category page headers ‘Promotions’ and ‘Special Offers’ that are redundant as only one is required. 15. Since there is but one Special offer, this drop down menu is not required. 16. The one special offer is cash back on a printer. Illustrating other products on this page only serves to confuse and/or mislead the user to thinking that the cash back offer might also extend to other products. Remove all non-related text and images on this page. 17. Page is again missing the ‘Canada’ country header. 18. This page is missing the product header to quickly identify which product(s) are part of the cash back offer. This page assumes the user will be able to identity the one square inch photo as some sort of a printer. The only mention on the page of the product is buried within the text block as ‘printer’. 19. Critical Error: This black text is actually a hidden link, to somewhere. Using the wrong color can confuse users, which might not mouse-over the text. When ‘$30 Cash Back’ is clicked, a PDF is launched. There are no indications, as is the convention, of a PDF file, or where the link is leading to (i.e. PDF coupon to print out, complete and mail-in). 20. This headline is presented in a color usually assumed by users to be a link, but is just the headline for the body text. 21. Poor call to action on the page. Text is too small to be noticed and presented in an ambiguous manner. Better to state: Hurry! Cash Back Offer Ends in 12 Days! 22. Spelling error. This is but one example of several errors found on the site. Spelling errors erode the professionalism of the site and the perceived quality of the products. 23. Critical Error: No where on this page is it indicated where the coupon is or how to get it... until you read through the tiny type and stumble across ‘ simply fill out this coupon’. What coupon? This text is not a link.
Samsung Coupon
Page Once the user has accidentally found the coupon, it too presents a usability problem. Designed in two pages, with the first page used a promotion and the second page the actual coupon the user was looking for. The user is now ‘forced’ to avoid printing the first page (with it’s heavy saturation of color). A better course of action would have been to combine all text (in black) on one page.
Product Category
Page – Computers and Related Products
24. Critical Error: Incorrect page identification header will cause user confusion. This is not the LCD Monitor product page! 25. Incorrect top image: features one of several computer products. This image should be used only on the ‘monitor’ products page, or redesigned so it looks like a feature, rather than a category illustration. 26. Five words in the wrong tense (spelling errors). 27. Sub-titles in black are actually links – words should be in blue to indicate links.
28. Keep Samsung logo, top right. Suggest removing top of page existing graphic (below) as it can confuse users to thinking this is the Monitors product page.
29. Replace image (above) with a bold category headline indicator “Computer and Related Products’. 30. Include product images indicated by the page header. 31. Re-design LCD Monitor graphic so it becomes a featured boxed item, not to be confused with the category page header. 32. Include CANADA country indicator. 33. Critical Error: Sub-heads are actually links and should be in blue, not black. Change sub-heads to plural. 34. Better use of the screen area would be to include benefits to the potential customer... information on warranties, free shipping, and the like, could be included to entice the visitor deeper into the site.
Product Page
– Computers and Related Products – Color Laser Printer
This page was most confusing. It lacks a page header, or rather the page header banner appears in the middle of the page. 35. There’s a drop down menu placed within the page, in an unexpected location. 36. What appears to be the page identification banner appears in the middle of the page. Better if this were placed at the top of the page (38). 37. Critical error: within this page and throughout
the site, much content is hidden below the fold. There is no sense that
something exists below the fold line of the page. This is caused by
poor page design. Next: see re-designed sample of this page
Product Page
– Computers and Related Products – Color Laser Printer continued
38. Move the product banner to the top of the page to indicate area of the website. Include within this banner text indicating the section of Computer and Related Products. 39. Move the drop down menu to under the banner, and rename it to the more appropriate ‘Select Another Model’. 40. Enlarge the featured product and the ‘Enlarge Image’ link (renamed from ‘image view’). 41. To ensure the user understands there is more content on the page, make sure some text and images appear above the fold. 42. To accommodate the new banner placement, move other links to the left hand side along with the other navigation links.
Create Credit Card page and Customer Self-tracking page (from other parts of this website)
43.Critical error: lack of security and privacy assurances 44. Website asks that a user not include dashes when entering a credit card number. Yet most credit cards have no dashes in the numbers, only spaces. Giving an visual example of what’s required for input into the ‘Number’ text area, would help the user quickly understand how to type in the numbers. 45. Critical error: user can only enter 5 digits of a six digit postal code (even though user indicate country as Canada. 46. Critical Error: ‘Save’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons are of same color and too close together. User could easily mistake one button for the other, and clear the entire field by accident. Better to have buttons different colors to clearly indicate functions. The ‘Save’ button should be renamed ‘Next’, as the user is in a multi-step process, concluding with a purchase, not merely saving information. 47. On the Customer Self Tracking page, a different style and design of buttons are introduced, thus causing more confusion with the user. Better to use a consistent design (size, color, terminology) throughout the site. Choose the term ‘Cancel’ or ‘Reset’, not both.
Products Category
Home Page
49. and 50. Critical Errors: Navigation on this page needs a complete re-working. Only one of the top four boxes is a product section header/link. The other three are only links to sub-product pages. Each of these four boxes do not look like links as they are flat and look like banners. The actual main links to the other sections are the sub-heads under each box. These links are in the wrong color (black) and not large enough. 51. Page is again missing the Canada country indicator. 52. The left hand navigation links appear in a different order than on the page. 53. Under the header ‘Mobile Phones’ the alst item ‘View all phones’ should be the first in the list. 54. Grammatical errors abound on this page. There are 13 words which should be in the plural form 55. One spelling error ‘Dive’ instead of “Drivers’
Various other
Errors
56. On the home page: a graphic, as shown below, is offered to the visitor. This not a banner, but actually a link (flat in design so it is not obvious that it is a link). Further, the wording within the box does not indicate what the link is about, or where it might lead to once clicked.
57. When the graphic (as above) is clicked, a new window opens up (as below):
After reading the text, I understand that it is a notification service. This form also has a checked box confirming that I want to be ‘kept informed of the latest Samsung news...” This check box is redundant and can only serve to confuse the user. What happens if I uncheck the box, fill in the form and submit it? It gets processed.
58. Critical Error: After I fill out the form (57), in I.E. or Firefox, it’s processed and a within the same pop-up window the following Thank You message is displayed as illustrated in the screen capture below:
59. And finally, when searching for a dealer to purchase a Samsung product, I’m offered this Map image as the store location in New Westminster, BC.
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