Compare and contrast
...on entry to Movies.com the user is greeted with an interface which is rich in color and texture. It is a visually rich site which provokes the audience to delve further into the sites structure (Casey, 2004). Since this is a site made by an American company primarily for the use of the American public, color schemes and site approaches have been employed to suit the American culture (Farkas et al, 2002, 1). In the area of typography, this site can become at times cluttered. There is a myriad of fonts used on the home page. Clarity is compromised in this (Matthews, 1999). As visually stimulating as this site is, the user is greeted with a home page that at times can make it difficult for the him/her to highlight the key modular elements (Apple Computer inc, 2005) . Greatest Films lacks many key features when addressing it in an aesthetical manner. Upon entry this site is bland. The background is white with plain black text on it and the only color or stimulation presented is that of the advertisements running all the way down the right hand site of the page. Cultural referencing of the site relates to the United States, as does Movies.com. This is a site which focuses on films produced in Hollywood. The contrast between these sites is extreme. While both are cluttered with information and options it is the more stimulating out of the two which make the navigational experience more tolerable. In navigational terms both sites can, at points, be complex and frustrating to operate. The home page of each of these sites sees the user being greeted with an overabundance of information and options. Movies.com operates primarily through a main navigation bar situated at the top of the users screen. Highlighting of the pages title makes it easy for the user to locate their position within the hierarchy of the site (Farkas and Farkas, 2000, 350). However once the user begins to explore the options of the page they are in they can soon get lost in a multitude of drop down menus and hypertext. This site operates through a linear and multipath information structure (Farkas and Farkas, 2000, 342). Shortcut links to utility nodes are easily distinguishable and links to main branches are prominent. It is only once the user gets emerged in the information within these pages that they can get lost within it. Greatest Films is more difficult to navigate through. Its information structure is more network structured (Landow, 1997, 50). The initial menu bar is complex in the sense that it is difficult to operate if you are not exactly sure of the information and of the area in which it sits. Information presented by the site is filled with hypertext which can lead the user to get lost within the site and distract them (Landow, 1997, 61). This network structure of hypertext is not practical for the type of information being presented. The levels of interaction with these sites are vastly different. Movies.com offers various levels of interaction. Through the process of registration the user can personalise the information provided to a more localised region. For international residents this facility proves to be redundant as it does not provide information for cinema times outside of the United States. All other information such as upcoming movies, trailers, critic reviews and the store are all indexed through an easily utilised navigation bar which is always present at the top of the page. The information is set out in a neatly organized grid layout to assist the user in finding components of the interface effectively (Matthews, 1999) . The organisation of this creates a sense of order to the screen. The commerce section of this site integrates smart interaction design by creating a more localised personalisation to the site (Preece et al, 2002, 14). Upon registration the user enters their geographical position and the site determines the closest cinemas or sales outlets and directs the user to them. The user can purchase tickets or items from these local outlets. The usability of these options are effective, efficient, provide good utility and are easy to use and remember. The only drawback in this system is the inability to create a localised site for residents outside of the United States. Greatest Films, on the other hand has a cumbersome navigational system. It offers some of the same services as Movies.com such as reviews and co...