website: www.joneschijoff.com

When you first open the page it takes a moment to load this grid, which first appears as a sketch of a brain. When you drag your mouse across the different boxes the sketch only magnifies until you click somewhere else bringing you back to the large boxed sketch of a brain. Next you notice the arrow….usually on a website that has some sort of graphic opening this means to enter the site or at least to take you somewhere new. Not the case. Clicking on the arrow flipped the boxes over and gave you these individual pictures. At that point an arrow appears on the other side of the graphics which only takes you back to the sketch of the brain. One could spend a very frustrating couple minutes going back and forth with these arrows wondering if the page has finished loading or will provide new information.

When you click on the pictures they are magnified with a circular arrow in the bottom left corner. When you click on that the picture is flipped over with some sort of tidbit about the company and the photo itself. For the average internet surfer who isn’t familiar with this company it would take three layers of clicks before they could get any actual/textual information. Even then, you may only get “Mantra Kitesurfingbar Simplicity is key. The MANTRA utilizes a co-molded polymer body with porting that allows for any debri to be flushed through. Water, salt, sun and sand may sound like fun but to a product its not.” This still offers no tangible information. The site offers no contact information, no mission statement or any information on the nature of the business. All in all- bad.

Good website: http://craigslist.org

It’s hard to have an ultra-modernist design when you have to pack SOOO much information into on page but I think that given volume of information craigslist needs to provide on its opening page, it does a phenomenal job. It isn’t littered with graphics and the many search categories are clearly organized making the use of this site simple to the newest of users.

New York City’s craigslist is clearly divided by borough along the top of the screen which you can use to narrow your search at any step in the process. You can search for different services in many very clear ways: 1. Along the side bar there is a search box with a drop down menu of various service categories you can search in. 2. There are 3 columns divided with large section headers (Personal, Housing, Jobs, for sale etc.) with sub categories listed beneath them.

Once you have chosen your search category you are given a simple list with hypertext links. Each link is the title page, and generally includes information on price, location and whether or not there is a picture in the link. There is always a box at the top of the screen for the user to adjust their search criteria. Along the top left corner of the window is a list of the criteria you have chosen. For example: new york craigslist> manhattan> for sale/wanted> furniture- by owner. Each of those items is hypertextual and can link to an entirely different layer of searches.

The option of posting to craigslist, accessing your account, help, FAQ, abuse and answers to legal questions is clearly accessable in the top right corner of the craigslist homepage.

Overall I would say that craigslist is a highly manageable and usable database. It’s easy to navigate and find what you need and they provide all the information you need about them/ their services up front. The site is not littered with advertisements or pop ups just clear, hypertextual information.