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Assignment 1: Website Comparison and Analysis
One sight I visit quite often is the World of Warcraft Community site (www.worldofwarcraft.com). This site is regularly updated with information about the latest updates and additions to the game World of Warcraft as well as significant community events, such as videos people have put together, links to import discussions in the game forums, and fan art.
The page has a fairly simple layout. On the left are various menus which link you to special topics deeper within the site. On the right are some hotlinks to related sites, like the Blizzard hiring page, the latest patch notes, and other especially new, major information. In the middle are various article headings and short descriptions with links to the full articles listed from most recently posted at the top. I should note that Blizzard itself maintains the site, not the community they cater to, so you wouldn't see articles posted by non-employees. The site is merely there to provide info to their gaming community.
One of the biggest design pluses the site has going for it is the well laid-out graphics. The background looks like an aged scroll, the menus are stylized images, and the page itself is choc full of interesting screenshots. The site definitely plays upon the viewer's desire to see things that are new and exciting and related to World of Warcraft.
Another page I visit fairly often that has excellent design and usability is the Apple webpage (www.apple.com). It is very cleanly organized, intuitive, and graphically tasteful. It, too, has a fairly typical layout, with important links on a bar at the top and what looks almost like a news article layout as the main body. The Apple site differs fairly drastically from the Warcraft site in one major way. While the Warcraft site is loaded with images, fancy backgrounds, links, and menus on the sides that all beg to be clicked, the Apple site is almost minimalistic in comparison. The necessities are all there and very clear and easy to use, so navigation is simple and intuitive. There is only a plain white background, and the text is all very organized and tidy. Apple is stressing this clean and efficient look, because that's the way they think of and market their products.
Both websites are very good at what they do. The Warcraft site plays upon the gamer's need for overstimulation of the senses, especially visually, whereas the Apple site gives you the sense that you're really looking at the ultimate state-of-the-art, futuristic computerware.