Pros And Cons Of Interactive Web Design For Local Farm Shop

Design 1 – Description and Evaluation

Discuss about the Effective communication with data visualization.

It is always important for any business organization to have their well-established web presence. Interactive design is a simpler term used to present only small part of the whole User Experience concept (Silver, 2013). A good interactive design is the user friendly layer that helps the users to communicate with a software or web interface (Huang & Benyoucef, 2013). The report will describe the pros and cons of the two designs made for the local farm shop and would finally assist in selecting one of the two design sets as the final web-interface. The report critically analyzes each webpage design with keen attention to the design standards.

Fig 1.1 above shows the home page design. It consists of an ‘About’ section, a navigational menu and the offer zone. The ‘About’ section further a slide show window that is meant to display images or special offers in regular time intervals. It also contains a few paragraphs about the business being represented and the name of it. The navigational menu is needed to navigate between the different pages within the website. Finally, the Offer Zone are is to highlight each day’s or week’s offers. Users can click on each offer and land in the respective goods’ page to view and add them to cart.

Fig 1.2 represents the Store Page of the website. It beholds tons of functionalities and feature that will be discussed in a later section. As its header, it has the navigational menu, the name of the business, a heading for the page and a catchy phrase. Then, it puts up a sub menu that shows the types of products sold by the shop. In the frame below, the products are lined up. Users can view the price of each, choose the quantity of buy and finally add the items to cart.  To the right, the ‘cart status’ option list down the items that the user has added to his or her cart. It also shows the quantity and total amount of each. A search bar is provided with a net calculated amount shown by cart icon. Users can also login here before checking out for bill payment.

This page shows the restaurant facility of the local farm shop. This page has a sub menu to browse between the options of the restaurant. It shows the booking option, the Menu option to view the foods menu, customer reviews and a picture gallery. A small slideshow of the gallery is also presented in this page. The page has options for users to enter name, phone number, number of tables and the date of booking. The option to call the restaurant to book for a birthday party is also available.

Design 2 – Description and Evaluation

This page has a basic map and the list of locations for the stores and restaurant of the shop. On selecting a store from the list, the map points to its location (Krum, 2013).

Fig 1.5 shows the Login and sign up page of the website. It has separate sections for login and fresh sign up. For signing up, users are needed to give their basic personal details and create a password (Neil, 2014). To the left, the best offer’s advertisement for the day is displayed

Fig 2.1 Home Page

Fig 2.1 represents the home page for the second set of design of the local farm shop website. It has a header section with a navigation bar, login option and cart value icon, shop name and social media handles. In the body, there is an about section with an image slider and texts. Below is the offer zone with clickable links. On the right, there is a new sign up page and a login button to take the user to a secure login page (Stallings et al., 2012).

This page is the online store portal of the second interactive design. It has all the same elements and options as the first, just with a different layout. Users can directly remove items from the cart just by clicking the X icon. The only difference is the header, that has a new look and feel. It also contains the contact number.

In this page, the same table booking functionalities for the restaurant are presented. The only additions are the time option. It also has the added Party booking option, in the sub-menu itself.

This page separately presents the social media domains for the stores and the restaurant. In addition to that, the page also has the contacts option with a link to the find location page.

This page displays all the locations of the store and restaurant just as the first design.

• The login and new sign up options are present in the same page.
• The advertisement on the sign up/login page creates a marketing awareness.
• The sub-menu in the Restaurant page is easy to be spotted by the amateur users as it is located at the top, below the main navigational menu.

• The home page fits in the sign up page for new users and redirect existing users to separate login page. This simplifies things for a new visitor to the website as they can readily sign up.
• The ‘Book for Parties’ option is now available; therefore users will not have to call the restaurant to book for parties.
• Customers can book tables by adding the time slots as well.
• The presence of a Contact Us page helps in customer support.
• The cart value is displayed all throughout the website, unless the customer checks out by paying.
• Use of a variety of attractive icons (Lin et al., 2013).

• Viewing overall, the design lacks a few crucial elements like the Contact Us page, without which customer service becomes impossible.
• The lack of a social media linking section.
• The navigation menu is different in the home page, compared to other pages. This creates a design gap (Colborne, 2017).
• The Restaurants page does not have a ‘Book for Party’ option. Customers will have to call the respective authorities on the given number. This slows down the process and takes off points from the use of the internet.
• Moreover, time slots cannot be set for booking tables.
• The cart value can only be seen in the store’s page and nowhere else.

• For users who like to have the login right away after signing up, this design will be a disappointment. They will have to separately visit the secured login page.
• There is no more the huge offer advert. This might affect the marketing strategy by a pinch.
• The contact us page does not have contact details of every store separately.

• Communication: The webpages uses maps, images and regular headings to convey clear messaged.
• Navigation: The design offers both internal and external navigation through menus and sub-menus.
• Layout: Very little uses have been made of the grid layouts. Lots of overlapped frames have been used to hold important sections.

• Communication: The webpages clearly communicates to the user the contents that they possess. This is done through the use of regular headings, information, images, maps and interactive icons (Lin et al., 2013).
• Purpose: Each webpage has their own function and there is clarity in the options that they provide.
• Navigation: It is easy to navigate with the help the main navigational menu at the top of the website. These are buttoned in style, thus offering better user experience. The sub menus are sorted in the right of the screen of their respective pages, thus giving a modern look to the website.
• Layout: The website uses fantastic grid layouts. This helps to make use of every space available and still produce an attractive eye-catching interface.      

The usability goals for design 1 are restricted to the basic functionalities of the website. Users are expected to login, browse through the offers, book a restaurant table or buy some products and check out by paying. Nevertheless, this design aims for marketing through clever usage of the offers and adverts.

However, design-2 aims at providing all sorts of support to the customer. From visual aids in the maps to customer support trough contacts page, the design makes use of every aspect of web development. It also aims at making it easier for the customer, by providing every option at their click’s distance.

Comparison of Design 1 and Design 2

The second design must be given the earliest preference when considering one of the two for development. This design has all the qualities that can take the website and the company to great heights. As discussed in the sections above, this design clearly has tremendous advantages over the other design. It not only offers the best layout design, but also does it intend to help the website visitors with visual aids and interactive options to get their job done without any difficulty. Having fulfilled all the needed features for the shop’s website, this design also provides a constant set of design principles all over the website. All these points give this set of design an edge over the other one.

The design is meant to be for users belonging to all age and community. Everybody is expected to visit the website and order online or book a table or two in the restaurant. Special care has been taken for the novice user, with icons and elaborate headings to clearly indicate the options available (Lee & Kozar, 2012). Users are expected to visit or use the website from any computer device with a 683:384 resolution screen, to get the best display.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that to design multiple interface designs before finalizing one, is necessary. This helps to weigh one against the other and assists in breeding up new idea that may come up. The best design always answers every problem that a visitor to the website may face. This actually guides the overall business module to success.

References

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