As Is Analysis of Yelp.com
Pros: The site automatically conformed to the surrounding main city, Columbus. Has a main menu bar at the top of the page. Options are highlighted when scrolling over them. An overall search option is provided in this bar also. This website had other categories on the left side of page for a different way to search (Food, Beauty& Spa, Real Estate, etc.) Further down page it has a “Recent Activity” comments section showing in real time.
Cons: Didn’t like that the “About Yelp” link was at the bottom of the page as a first time user. To me nothing really stands out other than the name of the page at the top and not much color.
Pros: The language is familiar to the user and follows real world conventions. Does have an “Open Now” filter when searching for housing.
Cons: When I searched for housing there
were two different areas that had similar information
links, which became confusing and scattered (at the bottom and then also at the right, which was under a
different section called “People Also Viewed”).
Also there are filters to help in narrowing search, but no filters for number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and pricing.
Pros: There is a menu bar that stays
constant throughout the whole website at the top
of page. Also provides a home page option and a search. Also has an option to use their app on a mobile device,
which is convenient. Can always use the backspace
option.
Cons: Not many obvious options to choose
from to narrow down search when looking
for places to rent in general and knowing what specifics you want not included.
4.
Consistency
and standards:
Pros: For the most part pretty
easy to navigate.
Cons: I had trouble searching for off
campus housing for OSU. I feel the search is word
sensitive and very particular. I searched Off Campus Housing near Columbus, Oh and the results showed
more than just housing options (CABS, Ohio
Stadium, etc.)
Pros: Everything pretty much spelled
out. The Yelp icon is always at the top left of every page on the site when one
needs to go to the home page.
Cons: Would be nice to have a
way to compare multiple places at the same time.
7. Flexibility
and efficiency of use:
Pros: I liked how certain things stayed
in the same area when searching for housing
(for example a site map stayed on the right side of the page, the filters stayed close to the top, and the list
of results stayed to the left and middle of the page.)
Cons: The “Real Estate” option didn’t
have many results to choose from. Searched
words do not match results (For example, used Upper Arlington as the place
and the results gave me random options around Columbus not even close to that city).
Pros: Pretty simple, not too complicated.
Cons: Not much color (mainly red and
white), maybe color blocking would be more
pleasing to the eye and also be able to find certain things faster on a page.
10. Help
and documentation: There is a “Help Yelp” option at the bottom of the page and a
section for “Content Guidelines” as general rules for users. It also has the
average “Privacy Policy” and “Terms of Service” options.
SUMMARY
I would rate this website as an average search engine. Overall it seems pretty vague. When I searched real estate I would get more than just off campus housing results (CABS, Ohio Stadium, wrong location). My biggest problem was not having a feature to narrow down a search when looking for specific off campus housing. The number of bedrooms, baths, and pricing was not featured to help. Also the results didn't show pricing and I could not find specific places quickly. It did provide most of the basic information about housing and a link to the companies website. The reviews of each place to rent seemed kind of low. I would personally like to see more. It did have the conventional features, but it also wasn't very aesthetically pleasing.
No comments:
Post a Comment