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Newegg.com design refresh critique
Newegg.com has been pretty much my exclusive site to purchase computer hardware for the last 4-5 years. Recently Newegg.com has refreshed their website design. First, I would like to say that there are some key points that I really like about the refresh.
The good stuff…
I want to be positive at first here, while there are some glaring mistakes I would like to focus on the good parts.
The first thing I noticed, and I mean the first, was the text for the prices (reference #5) in the list of products that you’re browsing. This I really like a lot. It’s cleaner and easier to read. Which I think is why I noticed it first, along with people always want to view the prices of the products they’re interested in. Bravo!
Another thing I noticed, probably the second thing was that the “Compare” section had changed (reference #4). This is very nice now as well. I can see and remove the products I want to compare from this point and they carry over to the next page of products. Very cool in my opinion. The compare page itself was cleaned up a little as well.
The page turner is kind of middle ground (reference #3). I like it but I guess it didn’t really change enough for me to think it’s stellar like the previous two features. One thing that did change drastically with that work flow is the “Loading…” message you get when turning pages. I’m kind of indifferent about that as well.
Ok, now for the critique part…
13
World Usability Day @ Michigan State University
Today is World Usability Day, and I am at Michigan State University which is hosting conferences. I’m here with Davin Granroth, and he’s showing me some of the ropes on usability. So far today I’ve seen exactly how hard it is for visually impaired people to use the web. So many websites are made so poorly(even 508 aside) that screen readers really have a hard time making any sense of the data that’s on there. Think of some sites that you thought were really terrible to look at(*cough*myspace*cough*) and then think about writing software that can read those out loud for people that cannot see…good luck!
So you might be wondering, “Is there ANY good news??”
28
OS Critique: Mac
We visited Best Buy last night to check out Macs and netbooks. MacBooks are sleek, though that can be taken multiple ways. For some it means smooth and pretty. For others it means slippery. As more and more people adopt Macs, it makes sense to take a look at the ups and downs of their OS and interface. A lot of people are enamored with the Cupertino Kid, though a friend of mine remarked that a computer whiz he knows has become “measurably dumber” since becoming a Mac user. Let’s take a look at what the virtues and vices of a Mac.
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26
I’m Here Because Someone Lacks Discretion
Well, Tom has suckered me into joining the blog. I tried blogging once, but it’s hard to keep the momentum going when you’re posting about offshoot/hybrid philosophy. Fortunately, this time it’s up to Tom to keep the momentum going. I’ll probably be posting about operating systems, Python, and because I first learned to program on a Commodore 64, I’ll probably be looking for old (really old) computers still active in the wild. For instance, I know of at least one water treatment plant that monitors arsenic levels with an Atari.
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