Week 3 - Two websites that need work

http://tectorch.com
• Cluttered & Disorganized	Cluttered & disorganized were the first things I thought when I went to this site.  Alignment issues, multi-colored fonts too big & small along with images & titles running into each other had my eyeballs going all over the place.  Lack of navigation links in strategic places and with so much crammed into the home page does not make a website to stick around for.
• Lack of pages & Navigation
• Bad Grouping
• Grid need for products
• Bad font size & type
C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D. (issues)	Problems
1)    C = Concept & Contrast	• Bad use of bold and light text colors
2)    R = Repetition	• No home or page links up top.
3)    A = Alignment	• Company history text misaligned.  Featured Products section cluttered
4)    P = Proximity	• Product image too close and evenly distanced to text above and below.
5)    H = Hierarchy	• Company name competes with Made by American headline.
6)    T = Typography	• Too many fonts and too small in some parts.
7)    E = Ease of Use	• No page or home links at top.
8)    D = Depth of Content	• Too much on home page. Very cluttered. Very busy.
9)           Design, Aesthetics, Branding	• Broken link (Speedway Testimonials link) / Wavy flag distracting.
10)         Miscellaneous	• Links have too many underlines.
C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D. (Fix)	Improvements
1)    C = Concept & Contrast	• Bold where appropriate. Lighten body of text.
2)    R = Repetition	• Place home and other page links up top & make visible for each page.
3)    A = Alignment	• Align text left.  Align Product Section vertically.
4)    P = Proximity	• Reduce image size appropriately. Group product image and text better.
5)    H = Hierarchy	• Headline company name. Sub-headline Made by American
6)    T = Typography	• Reduce font quantity. Size fonts appropriately. Lighten text in body.
7)    E = Ease of Use	• Have home navigation button up on top of each page.
8)    D = Depth of Content	• Have company history and other elements their own page
9)           Design, Aesthetics, Branding	• See above to fix design.  Better placement and identification of brands.
10)         Miscellaneous	• Have lines appear w/mouse hovers.  Fix broken link.  De-animate flag.
http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp
• No clear message at 1st,2nd glance	Ok, where do I begin.  This website is a hot mess.  No clue at 1st glance what this site is about.  Clipart had little or no meaning.  Too much (way too much) text to wade into on pretty much every page.  Needs to be broken up with more subject lines.  Long drawn out stories were just snooze fest.  Can definitely follow a 3 column rule here.  My eyes just went everywhere till they wanted to snooze.  Just a jumble of seemingly unrelated subject, photos, and videos.
• Chaotic jumble of text, image, video
• Alignment, orderly issues
• Lousy navigation
• This "movie" was just way too long
C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D. (issues)	Problems
1)    C = Concept & Contrast	• Concept unclear first glance. Have to wade and read a lot of text here.
2)    R = Repetition	• Don't need same video on every page
3)    A = Alignment	• Left column centered. Text flow by photos needs work.
4)    P = Proximity	• Text too close to photo on home page as well as the other pages.
5)    H = Hierarchy	• No headline/sub headline to help with what this site is all about.
6)    T = Typography	• Text is a little on the small side.  Too much of one text.
7)    E = Ease of Use	• Long pages.  Zero top of page links..  No back links.
8)    D = Depth of Content	• Too much content that just keeps going on and on.  Got bored quickly.
9)           Design, Aesthetics, Branding	• Ugly design, cluttered aesthetics, zero branding.
10)         Miscellaneous	• No photo/ clipart captions.  No site map.
C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D. (Fix)	Improvements
1)    C = Concept & Contrast	• Place  headline and sub headline to convey what this site is about.
2)    R = Repetition	• Have video one time on home page or it's own page.
3)    A = Alignment	• left column links need to have the text align left for easier viewing.
4)    P = Proximity	• Alternate photos & text left then right going down the body of the site.
5)    H = Hierarchy	• Place appropriate headline/sub headline.
6)    T = Typography	• Break up paragraphs with more subject lines.
7)    E = Ease of Use	• Strategic placement of top of page & other navigation links.
8)    D = Depth of Content	• More subject lines, Separate content with more page links.
9)           Design, Aesthetics, Branding	• Do all of the above. Not sure about branding though.
10)         Miscellaneous	• Place appropriate captions and site map.
http://apple.com
Sites that work: 1	Clean and uncluttered lines with great use of colors and photos, I find Apples site appealing.  Navigation links at the top of each page, staying put when going from page to page.  With the exception of one maybe two pages, I do very minimal scrolling on most and no scrolling needed on the home page.
• Clean, uncluttered pages
• Very little or no scrolling per page
• Great navigation
• Good use of colors and photos	I don't get lost and get the concept of each page as I move about, unlike the first two problem sites mentioned above.  I find the Apples design and aesthetics very nice with a great sense of flow.  And of course the branding is very strong, reinforced with each page.
• Great branding
• Feel like sticking around longer here.
http://www.toyota.com/
Sites that work: 2	Like the Apple site, Toyota's website is nice, clean and uncluttered.  Navigation is clear and at the top which for me feels better than on the side.  Little scrolling with many of the pages with this site.  I find the build and price feature to be very helpful.
• Good navigation
• Great information
• Like the Build & Price feature	Another feature I like is the subtle animation you see on the home page with the background slightly moving.  Gives you the sense the car is on the move.  Only thing I would like to see is the search bar on top rather than at the bottom of the page.  For me this site works.
• Convenient Find a Dealer page
• Good use of colors and photos
• Feel like sticking around longer here.

Week 2 - Five Business Websites using Social Media

(Actual quantity of sites listed: 7) 

I decided to list 7 sites for comparisons.  3 colleges, 2 computer stores, 2 local theme parks.

Further below are the actual online addresses for each of the 7 sites listed in the grid.

As you can see pinterest is cited just 1 time as well as Flickr.  Could not find any individual mobile address with any of the sites.  Whether or not this important I'm not sure.  Perhaps somebody can comment on that.  The "Suscribe" catagory is a newsletter or permission based email.

Disregard the dots.  This grid was copied from my Excel spreadsheet and the dots just won't go away.  As far as colleges go, Miracosta utilizes social media a bit more.

	MiraCosta College	Palomar College	Cal State Univ-SM	Frys Electronics	Best Buy	LegoLand-SD	Sea World-SD
Website:	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	Website
Facebook:	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	Facebook
Twitter:	ü		ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	Twitter
YouTube:	ü		ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	YouTube
Instagram:				ü			ü	Instagram
Pinterest:						ü		Pinterest
Google+:				ü	ü			Google+
Linkedin:	ü							Linkedin
Blog:	ü				ü		ü	Blog
Mobile:								Mobile
Flickr:	ü							Flickr
Suscribe:				ü		ü	ü	Suscribe
Yelp Reviews:	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	Yelp Reviews

	MiraCosta College
Website:	http://www.miracosta.edu/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/MiraCostaCC
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/miracosta
YouTube:	http://www.youtube.com/user/MiraCostaCC
Instagram:
Pinterest:
Google+:
Linkedin:	http://www.linkedin.com/company/miracosta-college
*(Intl) Blog:	http://www.miracosta.edu/studentservices/iip/Bloggers.html
Mobile:
Flickr:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/miracosta_college/sets/
Suscribe:
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/miracosta-college-oceanside-campus-oceanside
	Palomar College
Website:	http://www.palomar.edu/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/palomarcollege
Twitter:
YouTube:
Instagram:
Pinterest:
Google+:
Linkedin:
Blog:
Mobile:
Flickr:
Suscribe:
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/palomar-college-san-marcos
	California State University-SM
Website:	http://www.csusm.edu/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/csusm
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/csusmnews
YouTube:	http://www.youtube.com/user/csusm
Instagram:
Pinterest:
Google+:
Linkedin:
Blog:
Mobile:
Flickr:
Suscribe:
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/california-state-university-san-marcos-san-marcos
	Frys Electronics
Website:	http://frys.com/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/fryselectronics
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/fryselectronics
YouTube:	http://www.youtube.com/fryselectronics
Instagram:	http://instagram.com/fryselectronics#
Pinterest:
Google+:	https://plus.google.com/+FrysElectronics/posts
Linkedin:
Blog:
Mobile:
Flickr:
Suscribe:	http://ews.frys.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=homepage
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/frys-electronics-san-marcos
	Best Buy
Website:	http://www.bestbuy.com/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/bestbuy
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/BestBuy
YouTube:	http://www.youtube.com/user/BestBuy?sub_confirmation=1
Instagram:
Pinterest:
Google+:	https://plus.google.com/+BestBuy/posts
Linkedin:
Blog:	http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Blogs/ct-p/blogs
Mobile:
Flickr:
Suscribe:
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/best-buy-oceanside-2#query:best%20buy
	Lego Land - San Diego
Website:	http://california.legoland.com/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/legolandcalifornia
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/legoland_ca
YouTube:	http://www.youtube.com/user/legolandcalifornia
Instagram:
Pinterest:	http://www.pinterest.com/legoland_ca/
Google+:
Linkedin:
Blog:
Mobile:
Flickr:
Suscribe:	http://california.legoland.com/en/about_us/eNewsletter/
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/legoland-california-carlsbad
	Sea World - San Diego
Website:	http://seaworldparks.com/seaworld-sandiego/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/seaworldsandiego?from=Footer_Nav
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/ClydeSeaWorldSD?from=Footer_Nav
YouTube:	https://www.youtube.com/seaworldsandiego?from=Footer_Nav
Instagram:	https://instagram.com/accounts/login
Pinterest:
Google+:
Linkedin:
Blog:	http://www.insideseaworld.com/?from=Footer_Nav
Mobile:
Flickr:
Suscribe:	http://cs.silverpop.com/abec/preferences/error.sp?pid=SWF&e=ne
Yelp Reviews:	http://www.yelp.com/biz/seaworld-san-diego