4. WEBSITE CHECKLIST
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown just how much the web can drastically change; Vodafone have recorded a 50% increase in their total internet usage (Crawford, 2021). A well designed website can help brands increase their leads and conversions but more importantly it provides a good user experience and helps customers visit the website with ease (Smart Insights, 2020). As well as this, an effective website helps to increase an organisations credibility and legitimacy (Kaplan, 2020). Existing studies have investigated the different elements for an effective website. A study by Lindgaard and Dudek (2003) proposed that the correlation between the website’s usability, aesthetic design quality, content and overall user satisfaction increases websites effectiveness (Lindgaard and Dudek, 2003).
STATIC WEBSITE
A static website is the simplest form of a website, and it consists of HTML files as each one represents a physical page and each page is a separate HTML file (McMahon et al, 2011). A static website will always look the same to everyone, common examples include resume websites, portfolio websites, and brochure websites as they are small and contain limited content (Juviler, 2022). However, they lack personalisation as you can’t tailor content to the visitors (Juviler, 2022).
DYNAMIC WEBSITE
Dynamic websites deliver content for individual pages and are appropriate for developing large websites for example catalogues and complex series of data (McMahon et al, 2011). A dynamic website allows visitors to search records and displays different types of content every time a user views it (McMahon et al, 2011). Therefore dynamic websites can target different types of users.
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For this entry a Checklist for Oh Polly has been put together to assess the proposed correlation of design, content, and usability by Lingaard and Dudek (2003).
CONTENT
The content should be arranged logically for the consumer to read (Roy and Crabbe, 2014).
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The website needs to have sufficient content to make itself visible to search engines to increase their online traffic (Wang and Xu, 2017).
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The structure of the content must have information provided to suit the user and the website needs to offer mechanisms’ for communicating with the user (Garcia et al, 2017).
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The content must be in the language or the languages that it was found (Garcia et al, 2017).
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The website needs useful information for different types of users with different interests (Garcia et al, 2017).
Clear structure that is arranged logically for the user to visit.
Clear logical headings that collapse into subheadings for the visitor to read.
(Oh Polly, 2022)
(Oh Polly, 2022)
The website includes a favicon that can be displayed in the web browser.
The structure is aesthetically pleasing and is recognisable that is belongs to the site.
(Oh Polly, 2022)
DESIGN
The structure of the content should be aesthetically pleasing but ultimately meet the needs of the client (Beaird, 2010).
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Users should recognise each page as it belongs to the site (Beaird, 2010).
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There must be an emphasis on making a particular feature draw the viewers’ attention. (Beaird, 2010).
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The design needs to have a convenient, simple overview of the information it contains (Garcia et al, 2017).
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A website must include a favicon, which is a shortcut website icon, that can be displayed in the web browser tab and on bookmarks (White, 2022)
USABILITY
It must give a clear, quick overview of the different sections of the website so that the consumers can locate what they are looking for (Garcia et al, 2017).
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An effective website will contain a search engine for visitors to quickly find what they are looking for (Roy and Crabbe, 2014).
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There must be access to a contact us page for visitors to access the companies’ details (Garcia et al, 2017).
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The website must have functioning correct links across all pages (White, 2022).
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Users can move about easily via intuitive navigation (Beaird, 2010).
The website has a clear search engine that includes the option of an image search or their reccommended popular searches.
(Oh Polly, 2022)
Clear contact us section for visitors to access their companies details.
(Oh Polly, 2022)
Incorporated a new letter subscription services for visitor's to receive more information
(Oh Polly, 2022)