Navigation:
The navigation of the site is set up with a primary navigation that contains “Home”, “Videos”, “Channels”, and “Community”.
A secondary navigation is available when one of the tabs in the primary navigation is selected. These links allow the content to be refined and more specific videos to be found.
In the top right corner of the page is the permanent navigation, which allows users to sign in, view their favorite videos, find help on using the site, and sign up if not registered yet.
At the bottom of the content, there are pagination links that allow the pages to load more quickly by splitting up the content.
Lastly, at the bottom of the page there are the useful but seldom used links and a repeat of the major links. These are used to find information that is important but not needed by everyone, such as privacy policy and terms of use.
Architecture:The architecture of the site is designed to allow the many videos to be accessed and viewed quickly by users. The main page has several links that lead to different ways to view the content (videos), while also allowing the user to navigate to their account info, their favorites, and popular content. There aren’t very many levels to this website, as the purpose is to display the content. Clicking on “Help,” for example, brings you to the Help Resources page, where you can then navigate to a more specific type of help. If you click on “Help Center” and then click on different links to filter the results, the page breadcrumbs your way to help indicate where on the page you are. This helps keep the many pages of the site easy to access and navigates.
Content/Typography:
The content hierarchy is very apparent through the use of bold letters, letter size, and letter color.
Heading 1:
Large black font, used as headings on pages.Heading 2:
Medium blue font, used as content titles on pages.Paragraph:
Small black font, used for information requiring sentences and paragraphs.This typography is very easy to read, as it is a much darker color from the white background. This prevents the text from fading too much into the background and becoming difficult to read (such as in the green heading text from www.phillycarshare.org, see below).
The content on the page is organized very effectively to allow users to find the content they’re looking for quickly. Popular content is either accessed by the links on the right of the page or the thumbnails in the center of the page. The login box is located on the right of the page, and the search bar is located at the top of the page.
Grid/Structure:
The site is comprised of several rows with a column on the right about halfway down the page. The navigation is in the full page width row, and the content is in the rows below this. The right column contains the login box, news and updates, and advertisements (a major source of revenue for the free service). At the bottom of the page is a full page width row that contains the important and but seldom used links. This structure is very common, and is easy to navigate by even the newest members as many other sites use it as well.
Iconography/Imagery:
The site uses several icons to help users navigate the site. These include:
Stars indicate which videos other users have liked/disliked.
Share icon allows users to share videos with others.
Heart icon allows users to tag the video as a favorite to be found more easily.
Playlist icon allows users to add the video to a playlist of other chosen videos.
Flag icon allows users to tag videos that may contain inappropriate content for administrator review.
Positive/Negative icon allows users to rate comments made by other users.In addition to these main icons, videos are displayed as thumbnails. This allows users to quickly browse the results of a search or an exploration of popular content and quickly sort possible videos to watch just by looking without reading the titles and information.
Color Palette:
The website is made up of the following main colors:
Black, used for text and some headings
White, used for the background
Red, used in the logo and in the rating system
Blue, used as links and titles for videos
Yellow, used to indicate important or new itemsThis palette really helps to bring out the content on the page, as the colors are not very bright and the background is pure white. This makes the colorful thumbnails of the videos and the videos themselves when opened stand out, which is the purpose of the site.
Site Focus:
The focus of the site is to provide users with video content on material that they find interesting or amusing. Users can sign up on the site and upload their own videos to the database, allowing others to view them. An important feature of the site is the ability for users to make comments on and rate a video. This helps future users search and filter out undesirable content, as others have previously viewed and decided if it was worth watching or not. Also, comments allow users to interact with the publisher and get questions answered.
Another great feature is the recommendations on the right of the page. These are videos that other users who have enjoyed the current video have also liked. This allows users to watch videos that they might otherwise not have watched.
Improvement:
An improvement to the site could be to allow for several filters to be applied to the results of a search or to browsing the site’s content. For example, clicking on “Videos” and then on “Science & Technology” allows users to see related material, however I cannot further refine my search at this point by looking for videos that contain, for example, material on computers. I would have to enter this into the search bar and try there. This would allow for users to spend less time searching for material they are interested in and more time viewing the content.
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