The big footer

I've noticed the trend to have large footer areas at the bottom of websites. This is good for website usability, as in the above example, if I'm looking for forklift licences, I can click to go there directly from the footer.

What about even bigger sites that have 3 or 4 levels of pages? Perhaps a good idea to research and write about on my next post...

Usability: Store Locator

I was on Stormlinegear.com, looking for foul weather gear. On their Store Locator page, I noticed lots of options on their drop-down, but not all of them have stores, e.g. "Cairns" as shown below. I think from a usability perspective, it would be best to only list locations that actually have stores.

The website has a nice layout, but the programming behind the scenes also needs to be done well for maximum usability.

Sweet design of motorhomes

I discovered RV Direct who sells motorhomes in New Zealand. There are some pretty fancy motorhomes, including this one with a pull-out verandah shade roof:
















That design is pretty slick!

"Share This" social media buttons

I bought a hi fi system from The Audio Consultant, and thought afterwards I should check out their website. This got me thinking about "share this on social media" buttons; if you look carefully you'll see such a button on the right-hand-side just above the menu:

I think such buttons should really be built into the browser (or perhaps a browser plugin) rather than appearing  individually on websites.

It will be interesting to see if this become standardised, or if remains ad-hoc.

White space gone wrong

At hr-consulting.co.nz, it seems their "white space" (which is in fact grey) is out of alignment:


This makes the site look a bit messy. Or does grey-space not have the effect of white-space in the first place?

Photos in the background

Sometimes I get asked by clients if I can add a photo to a webpage's background. Usually I reply I can't, because that would look hideous. However it seems this swimming pools company has done this well:

Ok, the photo isn't directly behind most of the text, and it does eventually  fade out to a solid blue to allow the webpage to stretch properly. However it's still a photo in the background, and it does look good. So this is possible, it's just not often possible.

I was searching for home builders Hamilton, and came across Urban Residential Developments website. I like their use of white space.