Description:

HowStuffWorks is a media company that is internationally recognized as the leading provider of information on how things work. Founded by Marshall Brain, HowStuffWorks offers in-depth articles that explain the world from the inside out to millions of readers every month.

Target Audience & User groups:

The target audience can be anyone of us, the information in the web page is suitable to all ages , no matter kids, youths, adults, even elders can go to this web site to find the articles which they are interested in. For communities or some organizations, the web site also can provide them some helpful information.

Key Features:

Colors:

The web page designed mainly on two colors, yellow and white, and the color of the letters within the page is black. Using of blue color on highlight words, such as menu, for example, like the categories, "Video", "Books", etc.

Animation:

The web site does not contain any animations, but it used a lot of logos which in (.GIF) format.

Navigation:

The navigation is simple, click and go to the direct page, without any frame setting. Users just need to click on the topics that interest in then can go to the pages.

Good Design:

• users can easily find the topics through menu or icons and go to the desired page.

• overall layout is quite attractive, and provide the  Search function incase people cannot find the articles.

Bad Design:

• poor navigation because there isn't any links to let audiences to return to the main page. In my case, after I read an article, then I need to press the "Back" button on my Internet Explorer.

• Menu function is inadequate because they just act like a normal link. For example,  "Video", "Book" in the web page.

User considerations:

The designer of this web site didn't think carefully when he design the page. The web site contain huge of information, and the navigation system is very poor. This will lead the users hard to navigate, another words, users will spend more time on searching.

Summary:

The design of this web side is insufficient, because with the big amount of  information, the author of this web site didn't give out a good navigation system. The navigation system is very important, it'll save the users time if the web site has a good navigation.

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