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Assesment One | Web Systems BN102 | | | Rachael Mayhew MIT 110101 | Tanya Linden | |

1.0 | Introduction

The “bad” website I have chosen to critique is a website designed to advertise a book named “The Bombshell Manual of Style – by Laren Stover”. The website begins with a few flash images moving around, which then leads to you needing to remove images of underwear before you can move forward.
You are given the option of completing a quiz designed to see if you are a ‘bombshell’, or the option to skip and move straight to the crux of the site.
The website content mainly consists of little facts about the book or what a typical bombshell is as you move on, till you eventually get to the end at which point you are offered a way to purchase the book.

2.0 | Visual Effect

2.1 Colour Scheme
The colour scheme is a white background with pink or black typography. Pink colours, depending on the shade, are sometimes associated with love, romance or youth from the viewer’s point of view. However white is seen as cold and sterile which is a contrast to the use of pink. There are many images used on this website so this may be the reason for a simple colour scheme (Empathizing Color Psychology in Web Design, 2013).

2.2 Imaging
I am using a laptop with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768, and as can be seen in Appendix One from the original website, www.bombshellmanual.com, the images used are pixelated heavily. This is seen with every image used which is numerous, including the flash images.
Most of the text throughout the website is a simple and readable font; however the hyperlinks to different parts of the website are cursive flash images.

2.3 Page Layout
The main content of this page is centred with much space on either side. This however, may be a deliberate move due to the fact on more than one occasion you must ‘uncover’ the text by moving images from on top of the text to the outer text.

3.0 | Navigation

The navigation, or lack thereof on this website, is a purely a forward momentum with no chance to go backward. If you step off the main path, there is no option to go back or even start again unless you refresh.
After the initial quiz, if you chose to do so, you cannot skip if you change your mind halfway through. To continue forward there is an image of a dog that you must click and drag that urges the website to load the first content page. This dog image actually caused me to start again from the beginning due to not moving it all the way across when initially asked to move it. I then tried to move it a second time as I could not see the text (see Appendix Two) which prompted everything to begin again.
As you progress by hitting the “more” hyperlink, it moves into a different spot after each page changes, making it difficult to move quickly through if you have already read these pages. At no point are you offered all of the options like “purchasing the book” or “Bombshell Bulletins and Resources” at once, nor can you skip to the end or the beginning at will.
When you get to the very end, your only option is to go back to the previous page (the only time this option is offered) or to go to Amazon.com to purchase the book. Clicking the picture will direct you straight to their website by opening a new tab.
The main fury in the navigation is that if you accidentally move forward, you have no way to get back. You cannot even go back a page on your browser (I am using Explorer 9). Many of the hyperlinks that suggest to some different content do not actually work. I am unsure whether this was because they actually did not go anywhere or the page could not move on.
I opened this also on my iPhone where it promptly told me that I could not see all their moving images due to not having Adobe flash player. However, I was able to see the content much clearer than on Internet Explorer, the navigation through pages was just as difficult.

4.0 | Content

Amazon’s write up of the book