Harvey Norman Holdings Limited is an open organization that is recorded on the Australian Stock Exchange, whose chief exercises essentially comprise of a coordinated franchising, retail and property undertaking. Harvey Norman is an ecommerce retailer from Australia and it also deals in other products and services like outdoor fittings, home furnishing, flooring, equipment’s for sports and toys. The retailer is multi-branded and multi-category that contains products from prominent brands including Samsung, Microsoft, LG and Lenovo to name a few. The main aim of this report is to evaluate features used on the website and analyze how they can benefit the retailer. The focus of the study is on evaluation of functionalities and usability of the interface used on website on different platforms including desktop and mobile. The report would present both positive and negative points about different elements on the website considering the interface and the user experience. It would find how effective the website would be both for desktop and mobile versions.
Totally, there are five different resolutions that were tested on multiple websites with different layouts in the report. The evaluation also includes the reviews from two more people. In the end of this reports, there are some recommendations are made for improving website in order to make it more user friendly making the interface better in terms of using interface and end user experience.
Australian Franchise System
Harvey Norman works mostly under an establishment framework in Australia and reliably conveys an unparalleled retail offering to Australian shoppers with a broad item range, bleeding edge innovation and business initiative in key item classifications. Harvey Norman Holdings Limited stipends establishments to free business administrators under three driving brand names: Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne. The franchisee offers items in the accompanying classifications: electrical merchandise, furniture, automated interchanges, bedding and Manchester, little machines, rugs and flooring.
Harvey Norman:
The Harvey Norman brand name is a retail symbol all through Australia with 185 franchised edifices all through the neighborhood market. The solidified element has few limit and capacity to exploit market opportunities using our low adapting. Our brands are business pioneers in the center varying media and innovation fragment.
Domayne:
The retail chain Domayne was dispatched in May 1999 and at present has 11 stores in NSW, 1 store in ACT, 2 stores in Queensland and 2 stores in Victoria. Domayne offers a contemporary scope of furniture, bedding, PC and electrical items.
Joyce Mayne:
The retail brand was procured in July 1998 with 7 stores, of which six were changed over to Domayne in May 1999. As at 31 December 2011, there were 15 Joyce Mayne stores, 7 in New South Wales and 8 in Queensland.
Features
Harveynorman.com.au has taking after key components:
- Item order – All the items are classified in their particular diverse classifications. For e.g.: Computers & Tablets contain desktop and portable workstation related items; telephones, embellishments and GPS contain telephones, and so forth.
- Enormous Brands purchase – Site permits clients to make buys from huge brands at low expenses.
- Store locator – Site permits clients to discover stores close-by to clients in view of the suburb or postcode. Notwithstanding this, stores are additionally recorded in view of the kind of item. For e.g.: electrical thing, equipment, and so forth.
- Pamphlet – Site gives most recent news and rebates offer through bulletin.
- Item list – Site gives distinctive inventories to diverse items. For e.g. Home apparatuses index, inventory for Big brands, lavatory bargains, and so forth.
- List of things to get – Customers can make list of things to get for future buys. To utilize this element, clients are obliged to login through Facebook. This demonstrates that site makes full utilization of online networking.
- Analyze – Customers can think about more than two items which permits clients to settle on flawless choice about the buy.
- Enlistment – Users can make accounts on the site.
Desktop
The first resolution that would be evaluated in this report is the desktop version. This resolution is greater than 1280 x 720 and is at 2560 x 1400. This is 16: 9 resolutions which is a wide screen format. This resolution is spread out well by using every inch of the space on the website. The logo used is also very convenient considering size as it can be clicked very easily in order to go back to the homepage. The menu is also made large and is spread evenly making the navigation easy. The items on the menu are also evenly spread with the use of space sufficiently over the wide screen space. Below the menu, there are products and categories displayed in line with scroller that can be used both horizontally and vertically to scroll through different products and offers by the company.
This section also uses indicators for identifying position of current images in the scrolled area. This area has some additional buttons as well as options for allowing users to navigate through different pages. Scroller area is the first area that is visible to users and it is made wide and very readable. On the left of the horizontal bar for navigation, all the categories listed on the store is available. The section is text based and very plain in terms of design used for the entire website presentation. Different categories of products are only presented as lists of text one by one.
When cursor hovers over the menu and its items, sub-menus for specific categories are displayed in a large section. Hardly any segregation in hinted here on the horizontal navigation bar which appears very old style. Segregation would have been useful for easy identification of different sections and categories of products on the website. As the categories are only listed as plain texts, users may miss out on certain categories because of difficulties of scrolling and viewing. When exploring the main body on the homepage, featured products are listed in line one after other. These products are explained in this area using big thumbnails, titles and small descriptions on the specifications that are otherwise added below title. For example, in place of Samsung 55″ Series 6 Ultra HD LED LCD Smart TV, it should have the resolution, and panel type of the Samsung Series 6 Smart TV along with the screen size. In addition to this, the dimensions and weights of products should also be mentioned. The page body does not have the categorization and segregation of the products. It just lists the products one after the other. Moving to the sub-section of the products for example at http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops also presents with same kind of interface like that of homepage in place of screen’s left portion which can be utilized by local navigational horizontal bar. The horizontal bar just filters/refines the product for end users. The body of the main page is filled by up the content i.e. they cover entire widescreen real estate.
Mobile Hi-res Portrait
The mobile format of the website is different than it’s desktop counterpart. In this version, the menubar shifts to the topmost section of the website and search bar drops just below it. The horizontal navigational browsing bar is activated by a button. Upon clicking this button the navigational browser slides into view. The rest of the body displays a single product vertically which ends up making the website quite lengthy to scroll. The sub-category for instance at http://www.harveynorman.com.au/computers-tablets/computers/laptops is similar to the homepage. However the filter bar which is used to refine the results is turned off by default is activated by pressing a button called as “refine results” Upon clicking, this filter bar takes up the entire section of the web-page and the user can make his or her selection and then click on apply thereafter it fades away displaying the refined results. (ref) However the comparison section which lets users compare two different products does not work as well as it does on the desktop. For instance, even if two products are selected it overlaps each other as shown in the image below.
The comparison section should have been designed differently, as compared to the rest of the interface.
Mobile Hi res landscape
The website’s landscape version would be somewhat similar to its portrait version with a difference in the ‘scroller’ are which would allow scrolling through wider images like possible on desktops. The key features of the website body would be listed side by side in double rows unlike in the portrait version. This reduces the need to do more scrolling on the website. The sub categories are also posted as sections on the website with double side by side listing of products. The section for comparison has certain issues related to design consistency but landscape version still remains more useful than the portrait version but it still lacks behind desktop version.
Mobile Low Res portrait
360 X 640 is next resolution used for Blackberry Z30. In this resolution, the user interface remains similar to the portrait version of the previous resolution in mobile and thus, there is very little difference that can be found between them and previously mentioned resolution.
Mobile Low Res landscape
Blackberry Z30’s landscape mobile version is almost same as the previous resolution in mobile. There is no difference even in this particular version as well.
Review by others
Age : 22 | Classmate | Male
Desktop
As reviewed by the person, the vertical navigational bar that is visible on the homepage is not been designed properly. He found it too simple as it used the plain text format. It does not give very good idea about the way product categories are placed on the website. The listing of products on the homepage was also not satisfactory as there were too many categories being offered and presented on the homepage. He was also dissatisfied with the way products were categorized as it confused visitor about the number of products being offered by the organization. The comparison screens as well as category screens were found good and do not require any modification. The user also felt the need to have a better breadcrumbs facility as the trails were not managed properly and it was causing confusion in users on what section of the website they were accessing.
Mobile Hi-Res and Low-Res
The reviewer also mentioned some discrepancies about the homepage. The content was too much to be able to complete fast and smooth. Such type of content could overwhelm users using machines with limited RAM capacities. There are chances that real-estate people would not be interested in reading so much on the website. The reviewer was happy with the mobile version of the website both in high and low res for both portrait and landscape versions. It was mainly because these versions were fitting the screen well, used big buttons and easy navigation facilities.
Age: 65 | Retired Professional | Male
Desktop
The reviewer was not satisfied with the product categories as they appeared on vertical bar for navigation saying that it was not required and it could be done only on the menu bar. But, he appreciated the fact that on clicking a category. appropriate subcategories appeared. This was due to the use of large icons that were evenly and appropriately spread out on the screen.However, one issue was that there were overlaid texts and buttons on the scrollbar on the homepage. Moreover, the speed of the scroll is so high that it becomes difficult to follow the content. The reviewer appreciated the use of big images on homepage as well as on the product pages.
Mobile Hi-Res and Low-Res
He was satisfied with the way mobile website was created. He sais that the website has better navigation than its desktop version as the shop button was open as slider on the vertical navigation bar. Search bar on the mobile website is also bigger making the website look much simplified. He believed that the space on the website was used appropriately. However, comparison sections were not required to be placed on the mobile web pages.
Chrome emulator
The emulator remains on the components which choose how nearly the site is being rendered to the genuine physical gadget. The Google chrome emulator gives basic screen sizes. This is the perspective’s span to render the site. The emulator additionally underpins supplier client operators and rendering motor. Despite the fact that the gadget method of Chrome gives different copying devices, it does have certain limitations.It is not ready to emulate framework shows, for example, location bar. Local shows, for example, are additionally not copied as modular rundown. Improvements like number inputs opening console may differ from gadget to gadget. The principle furthest reaches of CSS like those present in Internet voyager are not copied. The iOS 5 introduction zoom bug is additionally not copied. In spite of the fact that WebGL lives up to expectations in emulator yet is not bolstered in iOS 7 gadgets. Apart from the technical description, chrome emulator is a simple and easy to use tool to render a live website in different screen resolutions and formats. At the same time, it allows the developer to see how their website renders under different internet connection speeds. So that they can make some last minute fine tunings to ensure that their website is not too heavy and does load quickly even in the slowest of connections. Chrome emulator makes the task easier for an end-developer or designer who would otherwise end up using different devices or conditions to actually simulate the results. The selection of devices and screen sizes is however limited in chrome emulator.
There are alternatives as well to the chrome emulator. One of the most popular includes http://www.browseemall.com/ It has many different devices and other features such as secure testing and unlimited screenshots and cloud based backups, however, it’s a paid version. Then there’s a http://developer.samsung.com/remotetestlab/rtlDeviceList.action emulator specific to samsung devices. The emulator at http://www.keynote.com/solutions/testing/mobile-testing is geared towards providing a much more realistic testing as it even simulates ‘realistic’ carrier speeds and then showcase how the website would actually load and work under those settings. One of the most basic cloud based versions is at http://quirktools.com/screenfly/ which is simply a different resolution simulator.
Recommendations
- The static scroller used on website can be very distracting to the elderly people and hence may be modified.
- Vertical Navigation bar may be redefined to fix it on the let side of the home page just as done in the product sub-categories. This bar may also be made consistent on all pages using appropriate placements of images and icons including audio icon, video icon, TV icon, etc.
- The main section on the home page should be listing products from all major categories while category titles or sub-category titles can be featured.
- The breadcrumbs can be made more evident and functional. They must appear prominent and should include step by step sections as well as sub-sections till the point where user uses them on the site.
- The mobile website homepage may only display a limited number of products and categories so that the page load is reduced.
- The comparison section made for mobile devices should be re-designed specifically for the portrait versions on mobile.
Conclusion
The website was analyzed by the reviewer from different perspectives using the emulator tool of Chrome. It involved testing for different resolutions, formats and screen sizes. The tool was really useful as it was able to uncover different types of inconsistencies in the design that were otherwise not easy to discover. It is recommended that irrespective of the size of a company, the company must always try to improve the user experience on the business websites. Also, user characteristics such as demographics are also important to consider while creating design for the website. The tool used can also help speed up the development work on the website.
References
Beverly B. 2003. Applying Tufte’s Principles of Information Design to Creating Effective Web Site. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/projects/PageSleuth/references/p309-zimmermann.pdf. [12 Sep. 2015].
Cavoukian, A. and Weiss, J. (2015). Privacy by Design and User Interfaces: Emerging Design Criteria – Keep it User-Centric. [online] IPC. Available at: https://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/pbd-user-interfaces_Yahoo.pdf [Accessed 12 Sep. 2015].
Sherson W. 2002. Principles of Effective Web Design. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.shersonmedia.com/grant/cv/items/presentations/WebDesignTalkfest.pdf. [Accessed 12 Sep. 2015]
The Webby awards. 2014. 2014 – 18th Annual Webby awards. [ONLINE] Available at:http://winners.webbyawards.com/2013/web/general-website/television/hulucom. [Accessed 12 Sep. 2015].
Waller R. 2003. Making connections: typography, layout and language . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.robwaller.org/RobWaller_AAAI99.pdf. [Accessed 12 Sep. 2015].
