The document discusses several key factors that affect the usability of websites, including navigation, language, efficiency, speed of response, respect for privacy, design of web pages, accessibility, and visual appeal. It analyzes how these factors are implemented on the websites of Tesco, TheyWorkForYou.com, and The Howard School. Specific examples discussed include Tesco's use of drop-down menus, rollover images, and storing customer shopping data in cookies to improve usability.

1. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
THE USABILITY OF WEBSITES
INFORMATION INCLUDED
NAVIGATION
LANGUAGE
EFFICIENCY
SPEED OF RESPONSE
RESPECT FOR PRIVACY
DESIGN OF WEB PAGES
ACCESSIBILITY
VISUAL APPEAL
INFORMATION ON THE SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDED
THEYWORKFORYOU .COM
TESCO
THE HOWARD SCHOOL

2. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
USABILITY
The usability of a website is the aspects that combine to make the website appeal visually to
visitors and to be easy to use whilst giving the correct information.
RETAINING CUSTOMERS
The whole point of the website is to keep the visitors interested in the services provided and
persuade the visitors to explore the website in more detail, there are many things a website has
to do dependant on the type of organization such as whether being a non-for-profitbusiness or
a retailer. It is important to persuade the people to purchase items if the organization is a
retailer and therefore the certain factorshave to be taken into accountto make sure that this is
possible.
FACTORS AFFECTING USABILITY
There are eight factorsthat affecthow a visitor perceives the usability of a website, the first of
these is navigation whichis the ability to maneuver around the website. The language refers to
the context of fontthat is readable by the visitor. The efficiency refersto how quickly the user
can find what they are looking for. The speed of response refers to the time taken to load the
individual pages and/or respond to visitors enquiries. The respect forprivacy refers to how
confident the visitor can be that their personal information willnot be distributed. The design of
webpage’s refers tothe layout and handiness of the website and where related links are
grouped together. The accessibility refers to how the visitor is able to use the website in terms
of if the website needs maintenance and different languages. Finally, the visual appeal refers to
the use of colorschemes and graphics to make the website lookattracting to new visitors and
persuade them to further use the website. All of these factorsare taking into consideration
when evaluating on the usability of a website.
NAVIGATION
The navigation of something is how a visitor finds their way around it, in terms of a website it is
how everything is organised so that the visitor can go to different parts of the website. For this
reason the navigation links should be in text so that any visitors using browsers that hide or
don’t reveal images know which links to press, however the website could just use images as
they have the option to display alternate text if the image is not loaded. Tesco does this on their
logo howeverthey have not done this fortheir dropdown menu which is a disadvantage. What
this means is if a visitor is using an incompatible browser they will be unable to use the website,
it is possible to say the same about mobile browsers howeverTesco have combated this by
using a specifically mobile formatted website.

3. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
MOUSEOVER IMAGE NAVIGATION
This type of navigation is when youscroll over a link and it changes to something else, you could
be moving the mouse and as soon as it is on top of the image it may display another image or
start something such as an animation. Tescodo this on their drop down menus, when you scroll
over the headings an image appears howeverthis rolloverimage navigation, on the banking
heading if you scrollover one of the options the image changes to appear as if there is light over
it, what this shows is the option selected whichis easier forvisitors to recognise.
ROLLOVER IMAGE NAVIGATION
As explained previously when on the Tesco website you move yourmouse over the heading it
will make an image appear that is related to the selected heading, this is useful forthe visitor.
Howevera disadvantage of this is that if the visitor accidently moves the mouse overanother
heading it willswitch to that and therefore this can be frustrating. As youcan see there is an
image whichhas displayed because the menu has been scrolled over,it also gives a link to order
the product.

4. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
DROP-DOWN MENU NAVIGATION
This is when you scrollyour mouse overor clickon a heading and in response it gives youa list
of the sub menu headings, usually this will appear underneath, you can see in the aboveimage
that Tesco do this but The Howard School makes use of this by placing the sub heading
underneath the heading, this is useful because they do not have to display all of their links on
one page. Theyworkforyou.comalso uses this.
NAVIGATION IMAGES/GRAPHICS
This is where images are used instead of text to try and get the visitor’s attention, forexample
rather than the title being food, the menu heading could be an image of an apple. This is
effectivebecause the visitors recognise the apple as food and the use of images makes it visually
appealing to the visitors. Tesco use this on their menu headings, to try and make the visitor
more interested the website has also changed their images to represent the seasonal holidays
that were close to the time. In basic terms, youcan see this in the image; the food section shows
cakes with a festive topper, the phone iconhas a picture of a phone with a Santa hat on the top.
Therefore it is obviousthat they are doing this because it is the Christmas season, this is more
appealing to visitors as Christmas is one of the trending things.

5. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
LANGUAGE
The language of a website doesn’t necessarily mean the language that a person reads and writes
in, it can refer to the context in whichthe text is laid out as in being easy to read and understand
without involvingtext that is irrelevant. Many sites that are well knownuse clear and
straightforward text so that visitors know what they are reading, specialist websites that focus
on a group of people that may have some form of knowledge of computers may have more
technical details that regular visitors won’t understand. Tesco clearly use only relevant short
detail as most of the visitors are not looking fortechnical terms.
EFFICIENCY
The webpage that a visitoruses must be efficient,it needs to be able to load fast, as in not having
large amounts of large images whichwouldtake time to load as well as this the process of
service that the website provides must be fast, such as Tesco’s whichallow the customer to add
items to a basket and checkoutquickly.Theyworkforyou.comisefficientbecause the data is
under headings and the data can also be sorted in order of a certain heading allowing the visitor
to search information by last name, first name or party.

6. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
SPEED OF RESPONSE
The speed of response is similar to the efficiency howeverit relates to the technical aspect of a
website in relation to its loading times, to securely transfer data the uploaded data is broken
down into packets and they are then when at the receiving end are reassembled to gain the
original data.
RESPECT FOR PRIVACY
This refers to the use of things that will take personal data fromthe visitor, forexample on some
websites, if you have to enter an email address youmay find that later you willget spam
marketing messages as a result of your email address not being kept private. Information that is
gathered through cookiesincludes IP address, login details, computer specifications,referring
web address that redirected to that page, the pages viewed or search and site history and phone
number used to contact.The biggest example of this is cookies,some websites will store
information from your personal computer so that when yourevisit the site it gives you all the
information you previously had. Tesco do this, if you add items to the basket and leave the
website when you return it will retrieve the list of items so youcan continue adding.
DESIGN OF WEB PAGES
The design of web pages refers to the layout of the webpage, everything needs to be visible to
the visitor and the fonthas to be large enough to be readable, many websites leave links like
“contact” at the bottom of the website, as this is a common design used by most websites people
usually know that they should find it there or at the top. The site should be laid out so that the
visitor knowswhere they should look. For example the Howard School uses drop down menus
and all the visitorhas to do is move their mouse over the subject they are looking forand the
appropriate options forthe visitor to select willappear. This allows the visitor to go to the
specific place because the webpage is laid out in a way that is easy to use. As well as this all of
the menu headings are collatedtogether in one area whichalso makes it easier forthe visitor.

7. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
ACCESSIBIL ITY
This refers to how the visitor is able to use the website, there may be parts that the visitor is
looking for and cannot find, this is why most websites that have large amounts of information
either have a site map or list all of their most common links at the bottom of the web page.
Theyworkforyou.comdoesthis and even has headings for the links. Accessibility can also refer
to the uptime of the webpage, some websites can sometimes go down fora period of time for
maintenance which means visitors cannot use the webpage or willhave restricted access for a
small amount of time. Tescohave a section on accessibility whichexplains on how to use the
website in small easy steps, this is good forvisitors that are new.

8. Unit 34 P1
Mr McColgan Lewis Appleton
VISUAL APPEAL
The visual appeal refers to the visitor’s interest in the webpage based off the colorschemes and
visual aspects. Websites need to keep visitors interested by making things stand out, promoting
offersthat the customer wouldpersonally enjoy. The HowardSchool has attempted to do this
through the use of a colorscheme that they have stuck to fora while and from previous website
versions. Toadd to the time being winter they have even added a dynamic snow effect,another
thing they do is have a slideshow of images which keep the visitor interested because the
website is not plain and static.