WEBSITES

TASK 2

E - S K I L L S
Lore Triest, Pieter Deramoudt, Guillaume Standert, Heline Jaf, Ngounjo
Doris Djongoue
2IBM01 and 2IBM02

Table of contents



TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 4
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 4
CASSIDY.COM .................................................................................................................................. 5
CONTENT: .......................................................................................................................................... 5
FUNCTIONALITY: .................................................................................................................................. 5
AUTHORITY: ....................................................................................................................................... 6
ATTRACTIVENESS: ................................................................................................................................ 6
V-TRAFFIC ....................................................................................................................................... 6
CONTENT: .......................................................................................................................................... 6
FUNCTIONALITY: .................................................................................................................................. 6
AUTHORITY: ....................................................................................................................................... 7
ATTRACTIVENESS: ................................................................................................................................ 7
KICKSTARTER.COM .......................................................................................................................... 7
CONTENT: .......................................................................................................................................... 7
FUNCTIONALITY: .................................................................................................................................. 7
AUTHORITY: ....................................................................................................................................... 7
ATTRACTIVENESS: ................................................................................................................................ 8
ULTIMATE-GUITAR.COM ................................................................................................................. 8
CONTENT: .......................................................................................................................................... 8
FUNCTIONALITY: .................................................................................................................................. 8
AUTHORITY: ....................................................................................................................................... 9
ATTRACTIVENESS: ................................................................................................................................ 9
DAWNFOODS.COM ......................................................................................................................... 9
CONTENT: .......................................................................................................................................... 9
FUNCTIONALITY: .................................................................................................................................. 9
AUTHORITY ...................................................................................................................................... 10
ATTRACTIVENESS: .............................................................................................................................. 10
PETITPORT.EUROPARL.EUROPA.EU ............................................................................................... 10
CONTENT: ........................................................................................................................................ 10
FUNCTIONALITY: ................................................................................................................................ 10
AUTHORITY: ..................................................................................................................................... 11
ATTRACTIVENESS: .............................................................................................................................. 11

MISEENPLACE.EU .......................................................................................................................... 11
CONTENT: ........................................................................................................................................ 11
FUNCTIONALITY: ................................................................................................................................ 11
AUTHORITY: ..................................................................................................................................... 11
ATTRACTIVENESS: .............................................................................................................................. 12
TRADEBOSS.COM .......................................................................................................................... 12
CONTENT: ........................................................................................................................................ 12
FUNCTIONALITY: ................................................................................................................................ 13
AUTHORITY: ..................................................................................................................................... 13
ATTRACTIVENESS: .............................................................................................................................. 13
ALIBABA.COM VS ALIEXPRESS.COM .............................................................................................. 13
AMAZON.COM .............................................................................................................................. 14
CONTENT: ........................................................................................................................................ 14
FUNCTIONALITY: ................................................................................................................................ 14
AUTHORITY: ..................................................................................................................................... 15
ATTRACTIVENESS: .............................................................................................................................. 15
B2BSOLUTIONS.CO.NZ ................................................................................................................... 15
CONTENT: ........................................................................................................................................ 15
FUNCTIONALITY: ................................................................................................................................ 15
AUTHORITY: ..................................................................................................................................... 16
ATTRACTIVENESS: .............................................................................................................................. 16
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 16
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 16
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 16

Executive Summary

For this task, our group compared and analyzed 12 different websites. We took a more in-
depth look at their content, functionality, authority and overall attractiveness. Those four
categories helped us decide if the sites were up to standards or not.

Pieter analyzed cassidy.com, kickstarter.com and V-traffic.com. Overall, kickstarter.com was
a much more pleasing site than the other two sites because it offered unique content,
detailed information and the visuals were very appealing. V-Traffic didnt have the best
graphics, but since its supposed to be an informative site and the graphics arent that
important for the content that its providing.

Lore analyzed ultimate-guitar.com, dawnfoods.com and petitport-europarl.eu, and overall
petitport was a clear winner compared to the other two because it was so easy to use and it
had a nice and simple design that fits perfectly with their vision. Dawnfoods did have nicer
graphics and ultimate-guitar did offer more unique content, but neither were as elegant and
easy to use as the website from the European parliament.

Mise-en-place.eu and tradeboss.com were analyzed by Hleine, and mise-en-place was
clearly better than tradeboss. Moreover, tradeboss is without a doubt the worst site out of
all twelve because it isnt visually pleasing, easy to use nor reliable.

Doris compared Aliexpress.com and alibaba.com, since those two sites offer similar content
yet there both different.

Last but not least, Guillaume took a look at b2bsolutions.co.nz and amazon.com. The site
from amazon was more visually pleasing because of the nice graphics and interface. Amazon
was also easier to use and more reliable because it offered so much background information
and a clearly stated privacy statement.

Overall, petitport had the nicest site and tradeboss was the least impressive one out of our
twelve sites.

Introduction

For this task for e-skills, our group needed to select twelve websites and analyze them
thoroughly. We decided to analyze them on their content, functionality, authority and
overall attractiveness.

Cassidy.com

By Pieter Deramoudt

Is an informative site made by the American lobby company Cassidy & Associates. The site
has a professional look. Their main goal is to inform people who they are, what services they
provide, in which industries they are active, and there is also the option to contact & consult
the company via email and there is an telephone number.

At Cassidy and Associates, we are experts at helping our clients navigate through the
federal landscape in Washington by developing and implementing customized, creative and
effective strategies that solve problems and create opportunities. (Cassidy & associates,
2015)

Content:

The site has six sections

Each contains a lot of useful, in-depth information, which is of course the main goal of the
site. But the only bad remark I would give is that the news section feels kind of outdated, not
much updates there, old information, it feels like they added that section to just be
complete but personally I dont think it adds extra value to the site.

Functionality:

Not much to say here. A very intuitive, to the point site, everything that needs to be on the
site is there, and not a word more. An example: in the industries section, again a lot of
information about the different industries they are in, and each one is a little bit explained.
But they only give you a brief introduction. When you want to read more, you can. Just click
on the plus icon.

Authority:

The site provides interesting information about the company itself but information about
the people working there is included as well.

Attractiveness:

A very clean site, with an appealing, professional look. Cassidy.com really exhales quality.

V-Traffic

By Pieter Deramoudt

Is just like the previous one, an informal site. About traffic. We discussed the French version
but the information about traffic can be obtained in the following countries:

Content:

Information about traffic in general but you can also search if there are any constructions, or
traffic jams in certain cities like Paris or Marseille, etc. There is also the option to search
based on your location, weather forecasts are included, as information were gas stations
are. Everything you need the know when you are on the road, they provide it.

Functionality:

Everything is easy to find, very functional.

Authority:

At the bottom of the page, there is an about us section. But very short. But I dont think as a
user you doubt whether this site is professional our not. It just is.

Attractiveness:

Not that attractive, but do we care? I dont think so. It is about traffic information after all.

Kickstarter.com

By Pieter Deramoudt

My favourite. A very appealing, easy to navigate, interesting site with a lot of content. A
consumer to consumer crowdfunding site.

Content:

First of all you can discover projects, the projects are subdivided into different sections like
technology, art, music, etc (twelve categories in total). There is also a project of the day. A
whats popular section and a new & noteworthy section.

There is also a lot of information how you can launch a project. With FAQs, an 8-step guide
how to launch your product, starting from building your product until your work is brought
to life.

In the about us section, there is also a ton of information. Just in general what Kickstarter is,
who they are, jobs they provide, statistics, and press attention.

There is also a help section with FAQs, help, their rules, a Thrust and safety section and a
support section.

Functionality:

Very functional, easy to navigate, intuitive, very professional.

Authority:

Like I said it, a lot of information about the company behind Kickstarter. Which is needed
because there has to be a lot of trust, after all, on this site you can pay.

Attractiveness:

A very appealing, easy to navigate, interesting site. Very nice lay-out, cool animations. Its a
pretty site.

Ultimate-Guitar.com

By Lore Triest

Ultimate guitar is a site made for and by guitarists. You can find useful reviews and much
more.

Content:

Ultimate guitar offers complete and relevant information. The reviews are really in-depth
and useful. The only downside is that there are no links to the sellers and the prices might be
outdated. However, that doesnt form a problem since its always stated where the reviewer
bought his guitar and when. So its easy for the reader to determine how relevant that price
in formation still is and in the end theyre more interested in the capabilities of the guitar
rather than the price.

Functionality:

Ultimate uses a very easy layout and is easy to navigate on. However, like I stated before,
there are no links to the sellers so that could be an improvement.

(Ultimate guitar, 2015)

Authority:

Ultimate-guitars credibility is quite low since its made by consumers. You dont get any real
information about who has posted something and they might not posses the right skills or
knowledge to post reviews. However, their target audience are guitar players and most of
them have enough experience to see which review is legit and which one isnt.

Attractiveness:

Overall ultimate-guitar is a nice experience for guitar players because of their unique
content. But their layout definitely needs improvement because it looks really outdated and
the graphics arent that pleasing for the eye. But its definitely worthy a recommendation to
other guitar players.

Dawnfoods.com

By Lore Triest

Content:

Dawnfoods offers relevant and detailed information on their website. You can find all the
details about every single product they sell, except the price. However, this is quite common
among wholesalers. A big downside is that there are no reviews available on their site, which
would be a big bonus because itd be nice to see what other customers think of their
products.

Functionality:

The site is very easy to navigate, which is a big plus. On the homepage you have a link to
their company blog on which they show you some recipes that you can make with their
products, which is a very nice feature to have. However, if you want to buy something you
need to contact a salesman first and this is not so practical.

(Dawn Foods, 2015)

Authority

On the site of Dawnfoods theres a lot of information about the company and everything
that they do, which leads to them having a high credibility. Moreover, the terms of use and
privacy policy are clearly stated, which gives them a good authority.

Attractiveness:

The graphics on the site look really good and the overall experience is very nice. The only
thing that they should improve is creating some sort of e-commerce. This way customers
wont have to contact a salesman and they can see the prices immediately. But other than
that, this site looks and functions great.

Petitport.europarl.europa.eu

By Lore Triest

Petitport.europarl.europa.eu is a website issued by the European parliament and its a
government-to-consumer website. Its aimed at all Europeans who have a voice that they
want to be heard by the European government, which they can do by starting or joining a
petition on this website.

Content:

On the site theres a lot of relevant information. Moreover, everything is explained very
simple, which makes it easier for people to use the site. On the homepage there even is a
section with information about how the site works, which is very useful.

Functionality:

This site is by far the easiest one to navigate. And for the rare case that you dont, they have
explained everything on the homepage. It has such a high functionality because its
interactive and easy to use. Its very easy to join or start a petition on this site, which is the
main goal of this site. Also, the site is available in every single language that is spoken in the
European union.

(Petitport Europe Petitions, 2015)

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Authority:

This site has the best authority out of all the sites that weve discussed in this report because
this site has been created by the European parliament. Moreover, theyve also put a privacy
statement and the terms of use on their website, which is important because people
deserve to know which personal information will be kept private when starting a petition.

Attractiveness:

This site is so simple, which makes it a lot more attractive to use. The graphics arent
anything special, but that is unnecessary because in this case the content and functionality is
way more important. This site is definitely worth a recommendation to other users.

Miseenplace.eu

By Heline Jaf

Mise en place is a site aimed at consumers (students looking for a job) and companies
(looking to hire trained staff in the hospitality, event and food industries). Its an
international site which is easy to navigate but lacks some information.

Content:

There is very detailed and complete information about what Mise en Place does and the
services it offers its customers. There is feedback from customers on the site, mainly from
the most famous customers and the feedback is different for each country. The site has
unique content, but it lacks price information concerning its services.

Functionality:

The site is very clear and easy to navigate. However there is no interaction on the site,
except for the option of getting in touch with Mise en Place. There are also no hyperlinks to
other potentially interesting sites.

Authority:

The authority of the site is rather good. Its a very credible site due to the feedback,
partners, its an international site, The terms of use and privacy policies are clearly stated;
any information submitted to the site is secure and not published anywhere. Unfortunately
there is no clear information regarding who is responsible for the site, it is just linked to Mise
en Place.

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Attractiveness:

Its an impressive site, it shows the class of the company and its experience over the past 21
years. Its use of graphics is great and its a visually appealing site. Its definitely worth
recommending to other users, being students and companies.

Tradeboss.com

By Heline Jaf

Tradeboss is the largest international business to business marketplace.

Content:

The site offers complete and detailed information about its products. It has unique content
and offers a wide range of products. Sadly the site doesnt offer real customer feedback and
the shipping details are rather vague and unclear.

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Functionality:

The site allows online transactions between the company and potential customers, but its
not easy to navigate the site at all. There isnt a lot of user interactivity, no real platform for
communication and feedback.

Authority:

The authority of the site is its greatest weakness. There is no detailed information about the
owner of the site, which leads to lower credibility. The terms of use and privacy policy aren't
clearly stated on the site either.

Attractiveness:

The site doesnt score very well
on attractiveness either. Its not
easy/fun to use and its not
visually appealing either.

Alibaba.com VS Aliexpress.com

By Ngounjo Doris Djongoue

These sites are both B2B but Aliexpress in addition also offer B2C. They both have similarities
in that they are both china based site, offer almost similar products and have similar look.
The sites have different suppliers or different stores with similar products that the buyer can
chose to buy from.

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Alibaba deals more with whole sellers and buyers. this makes it such that visitors cant
participate in the content of the site such as given you review, about products bought.
Meanwhile with Aliexpress visitors of the site can participate on the site content throw their
comments, reviews and feed back.

Both sites are attractive but Aliexpress is more organise and easy to navigate and less
complicated. They both ensure customer protection and guarantee legality for the site.
Again Aliexpress is more Customer friendly in the sense that they control prices, shipment
and delivery of product. But with Alibaba once you receive quotations the prices, shipment is
in the hands of the companies concerned.

Alibaba is more friendly with method of payments than Aliepxress. With Aliexpress you must
use the prescribed method; this ensure that it is verified by the sites first before your goods
can be shipped. Alibaba on the other hand is different, you arrange method of payment with
your vendor. The risk is for you to take.

However, with both sites u can either b a buyer or a supplier. Most of the suppliers are
Chinese base vendors and thats why the sites are so much reputed today for their cheap
prices and OK quality of products. These two site and most especially Aliexpress are strong
competitors to sites such as Amazon.

Amazon.com

By Guillaume Standaert

Content:

Amazon has very big range of products going from electronics to clothing, to toys et cetera.
We have to admit that we can almost buy anything there. Good information about the
products is certainly provided. Ratings, made byt customers as well as reviews are also for
your information. Clear information about the shipping of your ordered produtcs is provided
as well.

Functionality:

The site is definitely a B2C site where normal customers can buy from the company and its
different dirstributors. The site is very easy in use and this makes it a whole experience.
When we the website opens at his homepage we see a whole bunch of banners that change
over time as advertisements do. In this way we can click on the products displayed and we
get a direct insight in the promotions etc. Next to that you can visit you personal account on
the right hand side of the page. At the left side of the page you can Shop by Department.
This allows you to choose a category where you want to shop. Different departments are
displayed so there will be something for everyone.

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Authority:

As already previously mentioned this site is one of the biggest online web shops in the
world. When thinking about trustworthiness, we can certainly say that this site is very
reliable and secure. At the downside of the website we can get more links to different pages
that explain Amazon a bit more. Who they are, what they do Next to that a link to their
career site is included. This builds on their reliability.

Attractiveness:

When talking about the attractiveness of the website, we can certainly admit that the
website is designed very well. They have used the design to be able to attract customers to
products that are in promotion etc. (Cfr. The banners with promotions.). The theme corners
are another very well designed part of the site. During Halloween for example, the site
provided a corner with a whole range of Halloween products; this is very handy for people
who are looking for stuff for Halloween and who can see the whole range of Halloween
products in on time together.

B2bsolutions.co.nz

By Guillaume Standaert

Content:

B2bsolutions offers a wide range of services for businesses. For them, they think every
problem is there to be solved. Therefore, on the tab Services you can see the whole range
of services they offer, going from managed services to security to finance et cetera. They
want to be able to present a full package of solutions all adapted to the customers
(businesses) wishes.

Functionality:

The website is handily designed and is using tab pages with clear names. These names point
at some interesting subjects. The about page gives some more information about the
company itself. The news page give some news that the company wants to share with the
world. The testimonials page is logically providing testimonials of customers that have been
confronted with the company and that have used one or more of their services. The services
page presents all the services they provide. To end; there is a clear Contact Us page which
you can choose to contact the company to get more information as an interested business.

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Authority:

As the company b2b solutions is not that known, I do not think we can speak of a company
with a very big authority. It is probably not known by plenty of people. Although this, they
have done some effort building on that authority by putting a contact page on there website
as well as an About page where people get to know the company better. Building on your
authority is a must for companys like them.

Attractiveness:

On of the most fun parts of this website is to read that they provide IT consultancy although
their own website is not that attractive for new customers. This is in fact one of the funniest
things to read on the website there. Next to that their design was not that bad but it is a bit
old-fashioned. Some improvements could be done for their website.

Conclusion

After taking a look at all twelve sites content, functionality, authority and attractiveness, we
could agree on the fact that petitport and kickstarter were the two overall best sites and
tradeboss was the worst one.

References
Bibliography

(2015). Opgeroepen op October 29, 2015, van Ultimate guitar: ultimate-guitar.com
(2015). Opgeroepen op October 29, 2015, van Dawn Foods: dawnfoods.com
Cassidy & associates. (2015, 10 28). www.cassidy.com. Opgehaald van cassidy & associates:
http://www.cassidy.com/about-us/
Petitport Europe Petitions. (2015). Opgeroepen op October 29, 2015, van Petitport Europe:
http://www.petiport.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/main

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