Week 3b: Aesthetic, Design, and Branding

www.facebook.com
www.amazon.com

These are two of the websites that I use frequently. I believe that there are several reasons that these sites are effective and used by myself along with millions of other users.

• User Friendly
• Purposeful 
• Aesthetically Pleasing
• A multitude of items to keep you interested and therefore stay on the site

Although completely different, each site has a good color scheme and contrast of colors. This along with proper alignment that makes easy on the eyes. I also think they both have great navigation functionality. Each page contains their logos and have relevant information in the same proximity. They both have done a good job creating some sort of hierarchy that places important or most relevant information as the focal point.

They both offer you some level of flexibility in how you are able to customize what it is you are looking at. With Facebook you can add groups, apps and games. Amazon allows you to do a few different things depending on which product you are using of theirs.

I use Facebook in the same manner as many, which is to stay in touch with friends and family. It is also a very good source of various types of information that includes peoples opinions and rants, political views, current events, funny videos, food recipes and of course ads.

I use Amazon not only to shop but also compare items. It is also a decent resource for research. Since they have added the Prime feature I also use it to watch movies, as well as, listen to music.

I understand the value of ads to each of these companies. However, I could do without seeing so many unless I am shopping. Facebook's new Live feature is pretty cool. They could integrate it a bit better. It appears under the app section and that seems odd to me. I cannot personally think of any changes for Amazon's site.

Commented on Katie Nolte's and Makiela Robinson's blogs.