investigation
evaluation of similar site
Evaluating a similar web site will enable me to step into a user's shoes and try to understand what it is they will be looking for. It will show me any user interaction that is required and help me gain a conceptual understanding of the main user pathways that will be found in PSD's web site. It will also help me assess the security and legal requirements.
I searched the internet for a software development company in the UK and discovered: Octavia Information Systems. I was impressed with their front page and the services they provide are similar to PSD so I have chosen to briefly evaluate their website.
First impression...
I was very impressed with octavia's front page. It clearly describes what the company is about and what they do. They even state on their front page their 'main focus' which is to "maximize the business benefits of Information Technology." To the right is a screen shot of the front page. It appears clean, concise and colourful. I appreciate the simple and un-cluttered style which has been used. There are no unprofessional flashy moving images flying all around which could distract visitors from their main task.
They also include a section titled: 'What our customers say...' this gives the impression that they are a well established trustworthy company. A brief history of the company is also found on the front page. I would suggest that this helps any new visitor learn more about the company in an instant.
The company's logo and name is displayed clearly at the top left corner of each page - the PSD partners would also like this to be the case with their logo. Four partner logos are also located on the front page, I would imagine that this would go some way in enticing new businesses who have already heard of these big corporate ICT brands to work with octavia. Underneath the company's 'customer feedback' section they have another division which contains the latest press. This is to help associates keep up-to-date with company news.
Navigational routes and aids...
The navigation is simple and succinct. It consists of a bar at the top of each page which includes drop down menus when appropriate. The navigational system made it very easy to access all the different parts of the site quickly.
One important thing that was missing was a site map. These are very useful - especially for disabled users. A good site map should include everything that is contained within the site structured in an organised and effective manner.
For the average internet user, the octavia website is a very easy to use site, the navigational routes are very dynamic, the user need not follow any particular stage or go through every different section of the site. I was also impressed with site's intuitive structure - because of the company's 'multi-disciplined' nature, they have split up the services section into the five different disciplines shown on the front page.
HTML validation and accessibility...
Sadly, the octavia site fails HTML validation. There are two major problems with the mark-up: no character encoding and no DOCTYPE is specified. Even when the validator falls back and uses UTF-8 encoding and HTML 4.01 Transitional the front page contains 17 errors. This undoubtedly effects accessibility both for disabled users, mobile users and robots (search engine spiders).
The PSD web site will use the most up-to-date 'Strict' mark-up currently recommended: XHTML 1.0 Strict. Every page will be validated to ensure that the entire site is accessible to all.
Because the octavia web site does not pass validation it should provide alternate accessibility options for disabled visitors. It does not. This is sadly another case of discrimination. Making a company's website accessible to all is actually required by UK law so I would assume that octavia are law-breakers. Implementing accessibility options is no mean feet. This is a great example of laziness and thoughtlessness or purely just ignorance on a company's part.
Content...
Most of the content within the site is well written and has a professional edge to it. I was impressed with amount of detail that the company had put into each page and would like PSD to replicate this. I found one page in particular very pleasing. In the 'about octavia' section of the website is a page simply called 'skill set'. Within this page is a broad overview of the company's core skills in six different areas. These are: network & system, application/data design, programming languages/tools, development platforms/technologies, database platforms and internet/intranet. I noticed that in various sections of the site this 'skills set' was referred and linked to.
Security and legal requirements...
Because octavia's website is merely a brochure type website they do not have any pages discussing either privacy or any legal matters. The only related element is the copyright mark at the bottom of each page.
From this we can infer that it is not necessary to have any policies at all, but that would be a mistake. I intend the PSD website to have both a legal and privacy policy published on it.
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