Critique of Website Competitor Benchmark

¶ … Competitor Benchmark Critique

The objective of this project is to use the competitor benchmark to compare the following websites:

http://nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html

http://amatteroftaste.me/

The audience of the two websites include tourists, holiday makers and people seeking to have a nice time.

The study uses the functionality, marketing tactics, navigation, content, usability, multimedia and e-commerce for the benchmark analysis.

Look and Feel

A comparative analysis of the two websites reveals that amatteroftaste.me scores higher than the second website in term of font style, and screen. The color content of the amatteroftaste.me is better by using the white color in the background and dark colors on top of the white color. The strategy makes the font be more readable to the user than the font of the nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html website. Moreover, the screen of the amatteroftaste.me is better than the screen of the second website making the contents be more readable to users. The amatteroftaste.me also uses the flash video to display the products and services offered to the customer making the website more appealing to users than nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html, the second website, which has no flash to display the product and services making the website less appealing to users. In this category, amatteroftaste.me score 75% while the second website scores 40%.

Navigation

The navigation platform of the amatteroftaste.me is more appealing than the navigation platform of the http://nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html. The http://nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html has 6 menus while the amatteroftaste.me has five menus and 14 sub-menus. Moreover, the amatteroftaste.me submenus elaborate the product and services that the company offer to users. Moreover, all the menus of the amatteroftaste.me are functioning however some of the menus of the nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html are not functioning. Typically, only ABOUT ME menu is completed, however, the MY HOME menu is still under construction. All other menus are not functioning. Contrarily, all the menus of the amatteroftaste.me are functioning. Based on the analysis, amatteroftaste.me scores 85% while the second website scores 30%.

Content

Similarly, the amatteroftaste.me has a better score in the website's content than the content of the other website. Apart from being professional written, its contents are easier to understand than the content of the second website. For example, the content of the Home Page of the amatteroftaste.me is professionally written in such a way that a person with little understanding of English will understand the content. Moreover, the website uses the pictures as the visual presentations to explain the content of the Home Page. On the other hand, the content of the Home Page of the http://nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html is not as colorful and understandable as the content of the other website. In the Home Page of HELEEN MELIA TOWNSEND website, the word contents are too elaborate, and the pictures on the home page are not as professional as the pictures of the http://amatteroftaste.me website. Moreover, there are some grammatical errors identified in the About Me menu of the nova.umuc.edu/~im639c23/imat639/about.html website. Some of the grammatical errors are as follows:

"I lived on the beautiful and lively 32 square mile capitol," and (Townsend, 2016 p 1).

"I am a native of the Caribbean by way of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI)."

(Townsend, 2016 p 1). Although, both websites are legible enough to enhance their readability, nevertheless, the color combination of the font of the amatteroftaste.me is better than the color combination of the second website. Thus, the http://amatteroftaste.me scores 80% in content while the second website scores 35%.

Functionality

A comparative analysis of the two websites shows that the amatteroftaste.me scores higher mark in term functionality. For example, http://amatteroftaste.me scores 65% while the second website scores 20%. A difference in the score is based on the fact that users can subscribe to the email newsletter of the http://amatteroftaste.me while the second website does not offer an opportunity for the user to subscribe to the newsletter. However, the two websites do not seem to be password protected showing that a hacker can easily get access to the content of the websites.

Multimedia

A comparative analysis of the multimedia of the two website shows that the amatteroftaste.me scores higher mark than the second website because amatteroftaste.me has a creative flash video that displays the products that the organization offer to the consumer. Typically, the amatteroftaste.me score 85% while the second website scores 25%.

Marketing

The http://amatteroftaste.me / scores higher mark in term of marketing because the website scores 2 out 10 in the Google analytical ranking. However, the second website does not have any score in the Google ranking. Moreover, the amatteroftaste.me enhances the user experience based on its pop-up configuration.

Benchmark Score

http://amatteroftaste.me http://nova.umuc.edu/

~im639c23/imat639/about.html

Look and Feel