Analyzed Websites

“Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap.” I love www.woot.com, it’s a very fun site. They sell only one item per day at dirt cheap prices. (Yes, I’ve bought stuff from them, it’s hard to resist sometimes.) I look at this site just about every day. Now for the details: this site is set up using CSS and not tables. It isn’t exactly the prettiest site I’ve ever seen, but it gets the job done. I’m not particularly fond of the color scheme, and I really don’t like the white bar that the woot item sits on—it blends in with the background. There’s tabbed navigation across the top which is a little bit small and hard to find. The text is not resizable, but the images do have tags, so they aren’t completely ignoring accessibility. Unfortunately, it doesn’t validate (95 errors, ouch!) What I like best about this site is really the concept. It’s just fun.


The HGTV television network’s website, www.hgtv.com, is another site I visit often. The basic layout of the site is simple and attractive, unfortunately it’s so overcrowded and completely visually overloading that it’s really very difficult to find what you’re looking for. The main navigation is set up as tabs across the top with drop down menus, it’s fairly straightforward. The problem is there are so many additional areas of navigation that it gets very confusing. Navigation on the top, on the bottom, links all through the middle of the page—there’s just too many things to click on! The text doesn’t scale, and there are no tags on images, which is a good indication that no one was thinking of accessibility at all. They do seem to use CSS primarily, but there were 147 errors when I tried to validate it. Overall, this site’s a pain to use.


Last but not least, I looked at www.newegg.com. Newegg.com sells computers, computer parts, and other technology related items. It isn’t the most exciting and beautiful site I’ve ever seen, but it does have a lot going for it. Even though it’s a site with a lot of products and multiple ways to find these products, it doesn’t feel overwhelming, and it quite easy to use. The navigation is very clear and easily identifiable. All navigation areas have either the blue or gold background of the Newegg logo. They use CSS instead of tables and seemed to take accessibility into account (which makes sense for a shopping site, or they might loose some of their customers). This site does have a mind blowing 562 errors, which is a lot for a site catering to computers and computer geeks. All in all, easy to use and worth a look.

Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft offers a student version of Office 2007 for $59.95. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Groove, Publisher, Access, Outlook, InfoPath, One Note, and Accounting Express. It’s straight from the Microsoft website, so it's legitimate as far as I can tell. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx to check it out.

I just thought this might be useful information, pass it on to anyone you know who might need it.