Website Navigation Critiques

The first website that I decided to focus on was the official website of one of my favorite musicians, Tori Amos. www.toriamos.com features an easy-to-use, yet unique style of navigation structure. The website features six navigation templates:news, music, tours, photos, press, and store. The navigation panel also includes links to itunes, twitter, facebook, myspace, and last.fm.

As the founder of the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, the site features a link to her organization at the bottom (www.RAINN.org) The structure of the site is very easy to follow laying out a quick preview of each section out on the homepage. The only thing that I saw could improve was that it had no drop-down feature for each template. The homepage was also very lengthy since it pretty much lays out every detail.

The next website that I decided to explore was Starbucks' official website www.starbucks.com. The Starbucks website features a basic overview of their coffee and who they are. It features a basic navigation structure, but unlike the Tori Amos site, it simply features a promotional video along with a panel. The panel includes: coffee, menu, coffeehouse, responsibility, card, and shop. Further down you can explore what is new in the world of Starbucks coffee as well as promotional ads. At the top, there is a search tab which allows the end user to search the site.

Because Starbucks is a corporate company, I understand the conservative use of fonts and color. I enjoy the basic layout. However, there is almost too much text in the drop down menus. The good thing about this site is that within the homepage, the enduser can familiarize themselves quickly and easily. Just like the other site, it also links to social networking with facebook,twitter,and google+.

The next website that I chose to review was www.choosemyplate.com. This is the website linked to the food pyramid. The website is a lot less complex than the other two websites I looked at. The panel features templates including: home, about us, News and Media, Site Help, and Contact Us. A lot could be improved on this website when it comes to layout options. It features a pretty blue background, but it makes eating healthy appear boring.

Using a more lively array of colors would make it pop out to the end-user. Though the colorful plate in the middle adds brightness and draws the user in, it needs to be a more active site. I do like that it features a clipboard including photos of food at the top. All in all, the homepage is informative, but it could definitely use some touch-ups.