Logo Update

After a very helpful discussion with NED23 students on WebCT, I have updated my proposed logo design. The following issues were raised by fellow students:

• Not enough contrast - especially the dark red subtext.
• Words may be too tight together.

Most agreed that the first logo was the best because the background symbol was more appealing than the abstract shapes.

The following two designs are now my working drafts:

Logo Ideas

Here are some of the logo designs I have come up with so far.
A wisp of smoke maybe?
Not sure about this next one:
This one is semi-interesting:
I started this one a few months ago, before I realised that it was too childish and unprofessional looking for a professional website. Also, users might mistake it for a button. Nevertheless, I still like it for some reason:

Recommendations from Usability Testing Sessions

1. Use a text size that is comfortable for a majority of users.
2. Use rollover effects for links. They make it easier to discern links from regular text/images, and they can be quite visually appealing.
3. If implementing a large logo, it is best to display it only on the starting page. Large logo’s can be visually distracting if overused.
4. Be careful about which form fields you make required ones. If the user doesn’t want to give certain information, they won’t hesitate to falsify.
5. Whatever colour scheme you choose, ensure that it doesn’t distract users too much. It must have enough contrast to be readable. This may also affect the required text size.
6. Use image previews on the “Portfolio” page. This will make it easier for users to quickly view your previous site designs. Also, it may prevent them from clicking their way out of your site!
7. Ensure that you limit the number of menu options and pages within the site, because users will have trouble finding what they are looking for.
8. Keep wordiness to an absolute minimum.
9. Ensure that menu links are unambiguous. For example, “Contact” and “Support” are too closely related to be separate items. I would replace “Support” with “Help”.

Findings from Usability Testing Sessions

Findings for Netdogz

Both participants stated that the text was too small to read comfortably. Although it is possible to increase the size of most text within the browser, neither of the two participants knew about this function. Regardless, anything that takes the user extra time to accomplish, is likely to detract from their overall experience with that site.

The large site logo, found only on the “home” page, immediately drew the attention of both participants. Additionally, Paul stated that the logo added a lot to the web site’s visual appeal, whilst Ellie thought it was “ok”. The fact that it is only found on the “home” page means that it cannot take over the site and possibly detract from the experience.

Another minor issue discovered was that the “phone number” field on the contact form was a required one. Ellie explained that she would enter a false number more often than not. Perhaps this field could be left as not required, because from the Netdogz standpoint, there is no reason to collect false information from users when they don’t have to. That way, only users who wish to be contacted by phone will enter their phone number.

Both participants decided that they liked this web site due to its appealing colour scheme and overall layout. From the three web sites tested, this one rated the best among participants.

Findings for Darwin Web Design

There were no complaints about text size for this site. This leads me to assume that the text is of a reasonable size - taking into account that it is black text, against a white background.

The most appealing feature of this web site was its scrolling design preview at the top of each page. Both participants said that this feature drew their attention immediately; also both decided that they liked the feature. When clicked, the scrolling preview leads users to the “Portfolio” page. One participant, Paul, said that he really liked this page.

On the downside, the colour scheme was displeasing to one participant, whilst the other made no comment on it.

Findings for Focus Web Design

One participant complained of small text size.

Both participants said that they liked the rollover effects in the main navigation menu at the top of the page.

Both participants said that they liked the web site’s colour scheme.

Unfortunately, both participants decided that the portfolio page was poor compared to the previous two sites. This was due to the fact that no image previews of the web site designs were included – only links to the respective sites. This increases the amount of time it takes for users to get an idea of the types of designs that the company creates.

Each participant criticised the site, with comments such as:

• Too much wordiness,
• Too many options in the menu, and
• Too many pages to browse.

It was obvious that the separate “Contact” and “Support” links in the menu were confusing to one participant.