Team Leader: Sanne Evers Team Members:Kristie Ting Marissa van Rijsingen Nina Ghijsens Felicia Rodrigues dos Santos Research topic:Layout Design Concept Assignment 2 – Research Design Report

Article 1 – Don’t bore your visitors keep them thinking The article states that a good website design should keep the viewer interested. We share this opinion, together with people that share many years of experience in the website design industry. It all starts with the first seconds a client reaches a website. If your site does not look user –friendly and visual appealing, the client will leave the website and will start looking for a better alternative (Davgit, n.d.). Next to that the article states that it is important to keep a website functional in order to make a website look (and be) user-friendly. Text should be easy to read and the navigation should be straightforward. We agree on this statement. Too much or complicated texts on a webpage will cause over stimulation of the eye. Therefore the client will decide to leave the page or simply does not know where to start reading. (Davgit, n.d.) It also is really important to use words that your clients will use when the names for the navigation bar are being chosen. (Kate Haberbusch, n.d.) If clients need to search for a long time, they will look for another site that will be more user- friendly (Davgit, n.d.). After the content of a webpage is made user-friendly, the viewer needs to be kept interested. You will reach this through a consistent website lay-out that is visually appealing (Kate Haberbush, n.d.) Next to that it is really important to not make using the website too easy for your clients and to keep them thinking in order to hold their attention (Gherke & Turban, 1999).

We now will show different examples to make clear what is user-friendly and what is not. All using the statements as used in the article. “Keep the viewer interested, functional and user-friendly design, easy to read texts, straightforward navigation” We believe that the Queensland University of Technology Virtual (see next page for an example) has a user-friendly website design. This because:  They use a navigation bar with not too many, clear options. Therefore clients will easily and quickly find what they are looking for. The search engine bar servers the same purpose.  The actual design of the website is functional. For the University as for the user of the Virtual as well. They use their image colours and have a clear overview (e.g. the navigation).  The eyes of the client will not experience much over-stimulation caused by the use of colours or other design features. This all because of the consistent use of the colour blue. This makes it a whole so the eyes get the change to screen the site for the information they need. No over stimulation and no big distractions.

We believe that the Taylor’s Portal (see next page for an example) could improve some elements concerning user-friendly website design. We found the following points using the statements of the article:  The navigation bar is not visible when using the main parts of the webpage. Because of this, you will need to keep scrolling between the navigation bar and the main page with information.  The text on the page is not easy to read. This because of an overload of information and texts. Eyes will get too many stimulations which causes them to not know where to look. This will result in spending a lot of time searching for the information you need with a high possibility of not finding it.  The inconsistent use of colours and the over deed of it causes the same effect. There are too many distractions and stimulations for the eyes, to really see what is on the site.

Article 2 – Don’t make them wait In this article it becomes clear that the most important thing when you visit a website is the speed in which the page is loading. We partly agree on it, partly disagree. Of course it is very important that the site comes up very quickly but if the site does not look attractive at all nobody will stay on the site anyway. We think it is best to go for the middle way (or better, the best of both). So make sure your page loads within a reasonable time but also care for the design and attractiveness of your site. If your site loads quickly but the visitors are for example not able to find their way on your site. According to the article (Aaron Hopkins, 2014) it is not very hard to make your site load faster and so it is possible for everyone to use these tips. When we look at the portals of Taylor’s university and QUT we see that they both load pretty fast. For students it is probably more important that the site loads quickly then that the site looks good. There is a lot of content on these pages so they must have a harder time keeping the site up to speed but we think they are still fast enough.

Article 3 – Find out what colors will cause your visitors to hate you This article implicates how colours can affect your website visitors. It implicates that the use of red and yellow colours will leave a negative mark on your clients, what might results in them not returning to your website again. You have to be glad that people reached your site, don’t overload them with colours. if you want them to stay on your site. Also, there are 261 colours you can use for your website. Are you using a colour outside this 261 colours palette, the colour might reform into something not so attractive to the eye. This results in a clients disgust towards your website. The most popular colours amongst people concerning website design are: blue, green, black and purple (Kissmetrics, n.d.). This underpins the statement about red and yellow colours not being suitable for your website design. We completely agree with the use of peaceful colours for your website design because your website should invite people to stay longer. Bright and screamy colours will never invite people to surf in peace and stay to watch everything your website has to offer. Next to that it is important not to use more than three colours on your website. The use of more than three colours will overload the visitors of the website (Avantgate, n.d.).

Examples based on the Taylor’s Portal and the Queensland University of Technology Virtual. All using the statements as used in the article for argumentation. (see the next page for images) Example 1 – Red versus Blue To point out that he colour red is not a popular colour to use for your website, the Taylor’s Portal gives you immediately a negative feeling by showing the red colour after opening the website. Also, it is associated with a negative subject (a payment warning) that punishes you before even choosing your subject. The Virtual of Queensland offers a very peaceful appearance because of the use of the calm colour blue. This also gives you a moment to think about where you want to go on the site. Example 2 – Do not use more than three colours on your site This one is easy to point out. The Taylor’s Portal is using more than three colours, which gives a screamy,childish appearance. You don’t really now where to look. The Virtual of Queensland is using grey, blue and a little bit or orange. Colours that are likely to been seen and fit perfectly together. There is no math needed to figure out on which website visitors will stay longer.

Article 4 – Navigation We think it is important to know where you are on a website. It is also important to know where you have been and where you can go. People do not like it to go to any random page on the internet. They want to know where they are. Your homepage can make a difference. This is the page where people decide if they stay or if they will go to another site. It is also important to show people where they are. When you visit a website you want to know where you are and about what you are going to read. We think that it is also important to begin with the most important information. You have to make sure you tell the story you want to tell. It is also nice when there is a homebutton on every page of your website so people can return to your homepage any minute. This article shows more reasons why good navigation is important on a website: (08 August 2006). This article shows you that it is important to use obvious section names. People just want to find what they are looking for (like stated in the article 1 review). The colour of a link does matter. This way people know if they already been on a site or not. When you make a link purple, what means on most sites that you already visited the site. You have to make sure that you make a link re-clickable so people can return to it. (Eric Miller, n.d.)

Example: The portal of Taylor’s has clear navigation buttons. You can find a menu on top of each page and on the left side of the homepage. They easily give you the opportunity to return to the homepage, it does not matter on which page you are. Taylor’s Portal does not work with the purple and blue links. You can not see if you already visited a page or not. We thinks, on Taylor’s Portal, there are too many menus. One on the left, one above, one in the middle and they all show you different subjects. It is a bit messy. You can click on a page or topic but internet does nog open a new page in the internet browser. We think that it is better if the link or button you click on shows up in another internet page in your browser.

Citation Aaron Hopkins 2014, Optimizing Page Load Time. Available from: Avangate n.d., Choosing the right colours for your website. Available from: Davgit n.d., User-Friendly Web Design. Available from: review.toptenreviews.com/user-friendly-web-design.htmlhttp://web-design-software- review.toptenreviews.com/user-friendly-web-design.html Eric Miller n.d., Five Rules of Effective Website Navigation. Available from: Gehrke, D., & Turban, E, 1999, Determinants of successful website design: relative importance and recommendations for effectiveness. Kate Haberbusch n.d., GA BLOG. Available from: strategies-make-site-user-friendly/ strategies-make-site-user-friendly/ Kissmetrics n.d., How to Use the Psychology of Color to Increase Website Conversions. Available from: Queensland University of Technology 2014, QUT Virtual. Available from: Taylors University 2014, Taylors Portal. Available from: