XINYI WONG

YUM.SG

Yum

Home page
How informative is the home page?
The homepage has pretty much information ranging from food reviews, food search to top rating restaurants.The colours and typography for yum.sg are fun and well balanced, making reading easy for the eyes. and contents are not too cluttered or too much for the readers to digest.

Does it set the proper context for visitors?
Yes, i believe so.

Navigation
Is the global navigation consistent from page to page?
Yes, the heading and the subheadings bars are consistent.

Do major sections have local navigation? Is it consistent?
Majority of it is consistent, with the exception of the section 'about us', which has more sub headings under it, as compared with the rest which had either quotes or nothing on the bar.

Site organization
Is the site organization intuitive and easy to understand?
Yes, the links are straight to the point and easy to find what you need.

Links and labels
Are labels on section headers and content groupings easy to understand?
Straightforward and easily understood.

Are links easy to distinguish from each other? Or are they ambiguous and uninformative ("click here" or "white paper")?
Links are easily distinguished with their typography and colour usage, and no ambiguous links were spotted.

Are links spread out in documents, or gathered conveniently in sidebars or other groupings?
Subheading links are displayed in a sidebar, and various links are located together with their repective contents.

Search and search results
Is the search engine easy to use? Are there basic and advanced search functions?
Its is easy to use, and even comes along with convenient choices of search for types of cuisines, hotspots and regions.

Are they organized and easy to understand? Do the search results remind you what you searched for?
Yes they are. Although search results shown were not according to their ratings as i would expect, it could be adjusted to viewer's preference be it by ratings, featured, names or most reviews. I would have to say i am pleased with this function.

Do they give relevance weightings or provide context?

Readability
Is the font easy to read? Are line lengths acceptable? Is the site easy to scan, with chunked information, or is it just solid blocks of text?
Fonts were easy to read as typography was pretty well used. Bold fonts were made to attract the attention of readers towards their point of focus. Colours was also a factor that contributed to its readablity.

Performance
Overall, do pages load slowly or quickly? Are graphics and applications like search and multimedia presentations optimized for easy Web viewing?
Pages loaded relatively quickly and i would say the same for the rest of the graphics and applications as well.

Content
Is their sufficient depth and breadth of content offerings? Does the content seem to match the mission of the organization and the needs of the audience? Is the site developing its own content or syndicating other sources?

"Yum.sg is the definitive, premier online dining guide dedicated to help you seek, discover and enjoy the best dining experiences in Singapore."- yum.sg

I would say its contents matches their mission as above, as it does help people discover better/best dining experiences in Singapore in whatever cuisine the readers may want to search for.

Is there a good mix of in-depth material (detailed case studies, articles, and white papers) versus superficial content (press releases, marketing copy)?

Consistency
Does the site have a consistent, clearly recognizable "look-&-feel"? Does it make effective use of repeating visual themes to unify the site? Is it visually consistent even without graphics?

Their corporate colours kept this site looking and feeling fresh and fun, despite little graphics usage, and at the same time consistent with the amount of colours used from page to page.

Visual Presentation
Is the site moderate in its use of color? Does it avoid juxtaposing text and animations?

Does it provide feedback whenever possible? (for example, through the use of an easily recognizable ALINK color, or a "reply" screen for forms-based pages)

What are the strengths of the site?

Strong sense of typography and usage of colours.
Navigations were also pretty much well organised.

What are the areas for improvements?

HUNGRYGOWHERE

Hungrygowhr1

Home page
How informative is the home page?
The homepage has a little too much information which ranges from places to checkout, search tools, latest dining photos, latest reviews, and even today's star reviews (when there was already a latest review section).

Does it set the proper context for visitors?

Navigation
Is the global navigation consistent from page to page?
Yes, the heading and the subheadings bars are consistent. However, global navigations seem to be quite irrelavent if readers were looking for good food. hungrygowhere.com provided navigations like 'suggest new place' and 'write review'.

Do major sections have local navigation? Is it consistent?
Major sections do not have local navigations.

Site organization
Is the site organization intuitive and easy to understand?
Everything was easy to understand, however, everything was cluttered together and shouting for attention making it confusing for readers to find what they want.

Links and labels
Are labels on section headers and content groupings easy to understand?
Majority of them seems to be irrelevant to me.However, colour usage seems to be rather diatracting as there were around 5 colours (including rollover) used just in the header bar.

Are links easy to distinguish from each other? Or are they ambiguous and uninformative ("click here" or "white paper")?
Links are quite easily distinguished in blue. No ambiguous links were spotted, other than the 'abc', and 'postal' spotted on the search tool, as it wasn't very clear to me initially what was its function.

Are links spread out in documents, or gathered conveniently in sidebars or other groupings?
Links are displayed on the sidebars, or together with their respective section.

Search and search results
Is the search engine easy to use? Are there basic and advanced search functions?
Its is easy to use, and even comes along with convenient choices of search for types of cuisines, hotspots and regions.

Are they organized and easy to understand? Do the search results remind you what you searched for?
Yes they are. Although search results were shown according to ratings, and were also providing options for viewers to choose their choice of viewing whether from ratings to service or ambience.

Do they give relevance weightings or provide context?

Readability
Is the font easy to read? Are line lengths acceptable? Is the site easy to scan, with chunked information, or is it just solid blocks of text?
Fonts were not very legible as it was a little too small which makes it strenous on the eyes. Line lengths are quite short too as there were many things cramped into a page.

Performance
Overall, do pages load slowly or quickly? Are graphics and applications like search and multimedia presentations optimized for easy Web viewing?

Pages loaded slightly slower than yum.sg. However, still at acceptable pace.

Content
Is their sufficient depth and breadth of content offerings? Does the content seem to match the mission of the organization and the needs of the audience? Is the site developing its own content or syndicating other sources?
I wouldn't say its contents matches their mission, as hungrygowhere did not state its mission of its organisation. However, if their mission were to help us discover good hunts for CHEAP and good food, i believe this would fit its category.

Is there a good mix of in-depth material (detailed case studies, articles, and white papers) versus superficial content (press releases, marketing copy)?

Consistency
Does the site have a consistent, clearly recognizable "look-&-feel"? Does it make effective use of repeating visual themes to unify the site? Is it visually consistent even without graphics?

With its vibrant orange, red and yellow corporate colours, it give a very singapore-ish feel to the website. However, i wouldn't agree that hungrygowhere.com is consistent in its look and feel. the header bar changed from the colourful use of striking colours, to a plain grey against white when it hits the forum page.  

Visual Presentation
Is the site moderate in its use of color? Does it avoid juxtaposing text and animations?

Does it provide feedback whenever possible? (for example, through the use of an easily recognizable ALINK color, or a "reply" screen for forms-based pages)

What are the strengths of the site?

Colours used are pretty 'exciting' and it gives a very 'singapore-ish' feels to the whole site.

What are the areas for improvements?

Playing with typography, making reading easier for viewers.
Not with everything standing out, screaming for attention.

GOODFOOD.SG

Goodfood

Home page
How informative is the home page?
The homepage wasn't very informative as they placed their survey as their 'center of attraction'; when it should be the food. Followed with News&Updates and their mission.

Does it set the proper context for visitors?
To a small extent. Other than the 3 pictures of food on the top left, i probably wouldn't have thought of this as a food website.

Navigation
Is the global navigation consistent from page to page?
Yes, there were only 3 headings. 'categories', 'places' and 'forums'.

Do major sections have local navigation? Is it consistent?
It is consistent, however typography of website doesnt bring out the "Heading" feel as majority of their fonts seem to be bold, and colours doesnt bring out the headings (e.g blue on maroon).

Site organization
Is the site organization intuitive and easy to understand?
Yes, it is. However usage of colours and typography makes the whole website seem dull and doesn't bring interest to the user.

Links and labels
Are labels on section headers and content groupings easy to understand?
Yes, they are straightforward and easy to understand.

Are links easy to distinguish from each other? Or are they ambiguous and uninformative ("click here" or "white paper")?
Links are easily distinguished. However, on the bottom left of the page, there was a link that goes 'Similai ?! (What're these ?) Halal ?' which i thought was ambiguous.

Are links spread out in documents, or gathered conveniently in sidebars or other groupings?
Subheading links are displayed in a sidebar, and various links are located together with their repective contents.

Search and search results
Is the search engine easy to use? Are there basic and advanced search functions?
Are they organized and easy to understand? Do the search results remind you what you searched for?
Search results only contained keywords you typed in for the search.
There were also no advanced option. It would be good to have advanced search like the other 2 websites.
It helps to summarise what the user may be looking for, instead of pages after pages of search results that are vague.

Do they give relevance weightings or provide context?

Readability
Is the font easy to read? Are line lengths acceptable? Is the site easy to scan, with chunked information, or is it just solid blocks of text?
Font were not easy to read as it was blue text on maroon background. The length were acceptable and easy to read. however, text on the left and right bar were quite chunked with information on the small space given.

Performance
Overall, do pages load slowly or quickly? Are graphics and applications like search and multimedia presentations optimized for easy Web viewing?
Pages loaded relatively quickly and i would say the same for the rest of the graphics and applications as well.

Content
Is their sufficient depth and breadth of content offerings? Does the content seem to match the mission of the organization and the needs of the audience? Is the site developing its own content or syndicating other sources?

"You'll love our meticulously organized and categorized directory of hundreds of dishes and food outlets spread throughout Singapore's food centres (traditionally called 'hawker' centres), coffeeshops, food courts and restaurants."- goodfood.sg

I would say its contents matches their mission as above, as it does help people discover more food in Singapore.

Is there a good mix of in-depth material (detailed case studies, articles, and white papers) versus superficial content (press releases, marketing copy)?

Consistency
Does the site have a consistent, clearly recognizable "look-&-feel"? Does it make effective use of repeating visual themes to unify the site? Is it visually consistent even without graphics?

Their corporate colours were quite dull, and doesnt make me feel appetised. There wasnt much graphics used, and the typography of the website doesn't make it seem consistent.

Visual Presentation
Is the site moderate in its use of color? Does it avoid juxtaposing text and animations?

Does it provide feedback whenever possible? (for example, through the use of an easily recognizable ALINK color, or a "reply" screen for forms-based pages)

What are the strengths of the site?

-

content maybe?

What are the areas for improvements?

Prada

http://www.prada.com/

HOMEPAGE

How informative is the home page?

The home page wasn't very informative as everything has been categorised into their headings.

Does it set the proper context for visitors?

Is it just an annoying splash page with multimedia?

No, it isn't.

How fast does it load?

Relatively fast.

NAVIGATION

Is the global navigation consistent from page to page?

Yes, it is.

Do major sections have local navigation?

Yes, they have. Infact, the site's concept is slightly similar to our desktop. It allows us to close a "window" when we do not need it, or even open another link in the same page while waiting for the other to load or something.

Prada2

Is it consistent?

Since is has this concept, i would say the local navigation is consistent.

SITE ORGANISATION

Is the site organization intuitive and easy to understand?

Yes, it is. Everything is labelled into their categories, without much sub heading and sub-sub headings.
 
LINKS AND LABELS

Are labels on section headers and content groupings easy to understand?

Yes, they are.
 
Are links easy to distinguish from each other?

Yes, the links are seperated with a line. Moreover, their subheadings are aligned differently from the headings.
 
Or are they ambiguous and uninformative ("click here" or "white paper")?

No. They are labelled into clear, straight forward links.
 
SEARCH AND SEARCH RESULTS

Is the search engine easy to use? 
Are there basic and advanced search functions? 
What about search results? 
Are they organized and easy to understand?
Do they give relevance weightings or provide context? 
Do the search results remind you what you searched for?

READABILITY

Is the font easy to read?

Yes, the fonts are generally easy to read. However, this may also be due to the little information they have on their website that are in words. Majority seems to be made up of video clips are images.
 
Are line lengths acceptable?

Yes, they are.
 
Is the site easy to scan, with chunked information, or is it just solid blocks of text?

It is easy to scan and very much summarised.

PERFORMANCE

Overall, do pages load slowly or quickly?

They load generally fast.
 
Are graphics and applications like search and multimedia presentations optimized for easy Web viewing?

Yes.

CONTENT

Is their sufficient depth and breadth of content offerings?

Yes, there are. The contents are suitably oraganised into their headings.
 
Does the content seem to match the mission of the organization and the needs of the audience?

Yes. Majority of them do. However, i dont think they meet the needs of the audience as majority of the content doesnt seem relavant to their brand or what the audience may be looking for in Prada if they are looking for apparals.
 
Is the site developing its own content or syndicating other sources?

They are developing its own content.
 
Is there a good mix of in-depth material (detailed case studies, articles, and white papers) versus superficial content (press releases, marketing copy)?

No.

Topshop

http://www.topshop.com/

HOMEPAGE

How informative is the home page?

The home page is quite informative as it displays their new collections and styling features.

Does it set the proper context for visitors?

Is it just an annoying splash page with multimedia?

No.

How fast does it load?

Very fast.

NAVIGATION

Is the global navigation consistent from page to page?

Yes, the global navigations are consistent from page to page as they are contantly kept on the left side of the page.

Do major sections have local navigation?

Yes, they do.

Is it consistent?

Yes.

SITE ORGANISATION

Is the site organization intuitive and easy to understand?

Yes, it is. The clothings are organised into various headings and further subheadings to make it easier for us to our minimise our search.
 
LINKS AND LABELS

Are labels on section headers and content groupings easy to understand?

Yes, they are.
 
Are links easy to distinguish from each other?

Yes.
 
Or are they ambiguous and uninformative ("click here" or "white paper")?

No, they are suitably labelled into their groups.
 
SEARCH AND SEARCH RESULTS

Is the search engine easy to use?
 
Are there basic and advanced search functions?

There is only the basic search functions.
 
What about search results?
 
Are they organized and easy to understand?

 
Do they give relevance weightings or provide context?

Yes. They provided the price of the object.
 
Do the search results remind you what you searched for?

Yes.

READABILITY

Is the font easy to read?

Yes, they are.
 
Are line lengths acceptable?

Yes.
 
Is the site easy to scan, with chunked information, or is it just solid blocks of text?

The site is generally easy to scan as majority consist of images, along with some words of description.

PERFORMANCE

Overall, do pages load slowly or quickly?

Quickly.
 
Are graphics and applications like search and multimedia presentations optimized for easy Web viewing?

I believe so.

CONTENT

Is their sufficient depth and breadth of content offerings?
 
Does the content seem to match the mission of the organization and the needs of the audience?

Yes, it does. The clothings are sorted into categories, making online shopping easier for the audience.
 
Is the site developing its own content or syndicating other sources?

I believe they developed its own content.
 
Is there a good mix of in-depth material (detailed case studies, articles, and white papers) versus superficial content (press releases, marketing copy)?

No.