I never really thought about how important website design was before since I don’t often encounter bad websites. However, after looking through some of the example websites, it was very easy to tell the bad ones apart from the good ones!
There was one website that stood out as the worst in my opinion, which was https://itcorp.com/
It has no aspect of design at all; no logo or navigation bar, not a single link, its literally just a plain white background with a couple lines of black text and that's all. I was shocked to see how short and simple it was. Although, to give them credit, they did actually answer the question of why their website is so plain and it is because they are not trying to attract any customers and have the website for the sole purpose of owning the domain. I think they could improve their website by at least including some color to start, but they don't seem to be interested in improving/changing anything.
Another website that stood out as bad, which I happen to be familiar with is https://sandiego.craigslist.org/
Personally, I grew up using Craigslist to buy/sell things, adopt pets, find jobs, find roommates (few good ones, but the majority were pretty terrible), etc. So I'm used to how it looks and how to navigate it. Although I don't use it much anymore and when I do, I use the app as opposed to the actual website. Critiquing it from a design aspect, it is rather plain and can be a bit confusing to navigate as its essentially just a bunch of links. Its a bit overwhelming and definitely not entertaining or aesthetically pleasing. I'm sure there's more than a few ways they could improve their site, however, I actually enjoy the simplicity of it and wouldn't change anything at least for the nostalgia factor.
Referring back to last week's blog post, the first website I chose as an example of a good site in my opinion is https://nutraleaf.com/
I'm probably a bit biased since it's a family-friend and my husband helped create the website, but I've always thought the website was aesthetically pleasing, colorful, entertaining, informative, and easy to navigate. Looking deeper, I also noticed their proximity of text to images is great as well as the hierarchy of text, and their logo is in the optimal position of top left.
Another website that I personally enjoy to use is https://tartecosmetics.com/
They change their website often since they constantly have new products to feature so it's always fresh, exciting and entertaining. They include a lot of pictures and videos, which make it feel very interactive. After reading this week's lecture, one thing I noticed that they can improve on is their alignment as most sections are aligned in the center as opposed to the left.
I learned that design and aesthetics make a huge impact on how consumers will use a website and how long they will spend on it. If it is too cluttered and difficult to navigate, people will get confused and not want to waste their time trying to find the information they are looking for. If its the website of a business that is trying to sell products/services, then that would result in loss of sales. Ultimately, a good website is such an important aspect and asset to a company.
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