WEBSITE SURVEY AND

ANALYSIS

Charlotte Swinnen, Cis Dewitte, Axelle Harinck, Evans Nana-Ekow Aryee,

Jasmien Vlaeminck
E-SKILLS 2017-2018
Executive summary

This report will talk about 12 different websites, found by the different
team members from different cultures. We analyzed a site from Kortrijk,
from Ghana, one from Sweden, a German one, an Australian one, a site
from South-America, a Malaysian website, a Colombian, an American, a
global one, an Argentinian and finally, a British one. We used different
criteria to analyze those websites. Being Up-to-date, Navigability,
Consistency Credibility, and Responsiveness were the 5 criteria we used,
because we thought that those are the criteria that people value the most
nowadays. The biggest difference we noticed between the sites of
different cultures are the different colors and lay-out.
Table of Contents
Executive summary .......................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4
Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 4
Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 7
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction

We will be analyzing 12 different websites from all over the world, using
the following criteria: Being Up-to-date, Navigability, Consistency
Credibility, and Responsiveness. Being up to date is a very important
factor for a website nowadays as the world is constantly changing and
moving forward. Navigability is also really important because people get
bored quickly, so if the navigability of your site is not clear or doesn’t
function well, your audience will just leave and try another website. It has
to be consistent and credible, because nowadays, with the fake news
everywhere, people trust less, so a site should be reliable, clear and
something you can trust. It has to be responsive because people are used
now to really quick answers and even quicker service.

Discussion

We first started by analyzing this Dutch website. (Stad Kortrijk, sd) It

aims at giving information about a big city in Belgium: Kortrijk. The
website is up to date. The navigability is not good; it takes a lot of clicks
to get to the needed information. They always use the same colors, which
makes the website look very consistent. It looks credible but the website
isn’t responsive, you need to write an email to get an answer, there is no
easier way to communicate.
Afterwards, we went off to Ghana. (Ghana Web, sd) This is actually one of
Ghana’s largest credible, accessible and consistent informational site that
provides legit information to it audience. This information is in the form of
news both locally and worldwide. There are job vacancies as well, being
posted through this platform for the purpose of reaching large potential
vacants. The interface of this website in terms of interestingness and
simplicity is not that easy because of the numerous features of both
relevant and irrelevant information making it a bit chaotic. In terms of
functionality it serves it purpose, being informative and giving it
audiences recent updates both locally and internationally. Connections
and interactions have also been made possible through the social media
platforms such as Facebook, twitter and email address options which is
stated on their website. This site is also updated regularly and this is
shown by the news update in correspondence to the time and date. in a
nutshell the colors and font style are a bit different from other European
and Asian sites as this can be seen by the bright and dominate colors
which was used in this site.
This is a Swedish website (Columbitech, sd) is aimed at selling and
promoting their mobile and computer system based software responsible
for securing information and data without any interruptions. The website’s
main page is simple and self-explanatory and directly makes it much
easier for potential customers to go about it. Its color choice and font
style suits the purpose in which the website serves. It is responsive and
up-to-date; this is evident from the replies they give to customer
questions in their frequently asked question part. In short, this website is
not the best but could be qualified as one of the average sites to look up
to in terms of preciseness and accuracy.
This is the website of a very big German car company (Mercedes-Benz, sd),
so it is completely up-to-date with their latest models. And this also makes
it very credible. It is a very easy site to navigate with a clear homepage
and menu. Only one minor disadvantage is that this is the German version
of the site and it is not easy to change the language on this site, you have
to go to another version of the site with other languages. The site is also
very consistent, they always use the same sober colors and fonts. All the
cars pictured on the homepage have the same color. The site in itself is not
very responsive, you have to send an email or call, but if you want a faster
answer, you have to contact them on their Facebook page or on other social
media.
This is the official website of the Australian government (Australian
Government, sd) and that means it is very credible. The site is completely
up-to-date, proof of this is the section that displays the next public holiday
in Australia. The site is very easy to navigate because the homepage has a
clear menu that displays all the categories of information you can find on
the website. If you select one of those categories, you will find a list of all
the possible topics you might be looking for. So, it is easy to find what you
are looking for in only two clicks. The site is also very consistent in fonts,
colors and layout. It is even a little boring. If you need to contact them,
you are better of searching for them on social media to get a quick
response.
Taringa is the South-American version of Facebook. (Taringa!, sd) This
means that everybody can post anything on there. This also makes the
content not credible. The site is very up-to-date on the other hand. It even
displays a number that represents the current number of users. The site
looks very chaotic and is not very easy to navigate on. Although chaotic,
the site is very consistent. Everything has the same font and color except
for the pictures on the site. Since it is a social media site, it is very to
contact your friends, but the site itself is a bit less responsive because it is
hard to contact them.
The following website is aimed at giving information about the company
Petronas. (Petronas, sd) It uses green and white. It is very simple, subtle
and consistent. The website is trustworthy and up-to-date. It is easy to
navigate through the site; it has a lot of sections but it is easy to find
everything back. They have a ‘contact us’ button on the top of the page,
which makes the website very responsive.
A Colombian website (Visit Colombia, Land of Sabrosura, sd) which is
aimed at promoting the touristic parts in Colombia, this site actually
functions as one which givers foreigners a choice or list of options in
which they can choose from. In terms of interaction it is quite easy to
navigate the site within seconds thus helping you to find the relevant and
needed information. Unlike some sites its color choice and font size suits
the site making it a pretty good site. The follow up links and
communication tools are also boldly and clearly highlighted making it easy
for people to ask for help from the help desk for further information. The
site is a currently updated one which is one of the important features of a
site.
This website (Global Heritage Fund, sd) is aimed at collecting money to
empower communities by preserving their heritage. The website is very
simplistic and only uses a few subtle colors. Most of it is white, black,
grey and blue which makes the website quite boring, but on the other
hand also consistent. The website looks and is very credible and it is easy
to navigate through the website, you only need one click and it gets you
where you need to be. It is very structured and there are also some
pictures added which makes the website more interesting. The website
makes it easy to leave a message and get involved.
This is an American school website (Ludington Area Schools, sd) and aims
at giving information about the school LHS. The colors of the website are
the same colors of the school. In America every school district has
different colors and in Ludington high school those are orange and black,
so they made the website in the same theme as the school spirit. This
makes it look consistent. The website looks and is very credible. The
home page is a little all over the place because of the right column with
all extra information. If you navigate through the site and you click on
something, it is sometimes empty which makes some pages useless. (for
example: team pictures, nothing is added there), because of that the
website doesn’t look that up to date. You have to look quite some time
where you can contact anyone, so the website it nog that responsive.
This website (Disfrutemos BA, sd) aims at giving information about
everything you can do in Buenos Aires. The website looks very colorful
and bright. It looks a little like a kids site, but it is not. The bright yellow
and also the confetti background makes it look a little silly. It’s hard to
navigate through the website because there is not a lot to navigate, you
can only go up and down and the information is a little all over the place.
It does look credible, but a little childish and it isn’t really responsive, but
it is up-to-date.
This website (Coca-Cola London Eye, sd) aims at giving information about
one of the biggest attractions in the UK, the London Eye. The website
used black and red colors and a lot of big pictures which makes the
website instant attractive to look at and consistent. The website is up-to-
date and gives you all the different types of capsules. The website isn’t
that responsive, it’s hard to find where to contact anyone with possible
questions. The website is very credible and gives the correct prices and
information. The navigability is good, but sometimes it looks a little busy.
Conclusion

I think we can conclude that different websites, the different layout, use
of colors and such depend on the different culture that is making the
website. In Ghana we saw, and also Evans could confirm, that people like
the use of bright colors and fonts because it is part of their culture. They
don't like the grey, blue and white because to them, it looks boring.
Argentina likes the use of those bright colors as well, but to us, Belgians,
it looks a little silly. If you take a look at the UK you see that they more
lean to the Belgian way of making websites; consistent and clean
looking.

Bibliography

(n.d.). Retrieved from Stad Kortrijk: https://www.kortrijk.be

(n.d.). Retrieved from Ghana Web:
https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/
(n.d.). Retrieved from Columbitech: https://columbitech.com
(n.d.). Retrieved from Mercedes-Benz: https://www.mercedes-
benz.de/passengercars.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from Australian Government:
https://www.australia.gov.au
(n.d.). Retrieved from Taringa!: https://www.taringa.net/posts/recientes
(n.d.). Retrieved from Petronas:
http://www.petronas.com.my/Pages/default.aspx
(n.d.). Retrieved from Visit Colombia, Land of Sabrosura:
http://www.colombia.travel/en/where-to-go/andean/bogota
(n.d.). Retrieved from Global Heritage Fund:
https://globalheritagefund.org/get-involved/join-ghf/
(n.d.). Retrieved from Ludington Area Schools:
http://www.lasd.net/schools/ludington-high-school/
(n.d.). Retrieved from Disfrutemos BA:
https://disfrutemosba.buenosaires.gob.ar
(n.d.). Retrieved from Coca-Cola London Eye:
https://www.londoneye.com