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Contact SiteSource for a consultation about the best internet strategies for your business.<BR><BR><h1 align="center"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Effective Internet Development</font></h1>
<p align="left"><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><a href="http://www.sitesource.com.au/"><font face="Arial Narrow, Arial Black, Arial, serif"><strong>SiteSource</strong></font></a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Site Selection<br>
I will be analysing the site www.cbsnews.com. I have chosen this site as it
is interesting from a current affairs perspective and incorporates a number
of multimedia elements that a standard web site might not.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The screen shot above shows the default page that loaded this last weekend
if you typed in the URL mentioned earlier. This will be the main interface
that I will analyse, however there will be a few other specific ones when I
look at some specific issues.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Analysis<br>
Target Audience<br>
The key target audience for this web site is US residents who have access to
the CBS television or radio networks. The information that it provides is from
and consistent with the news arms of both CSB television and CBS radio in the
United States. </font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Additionally it is targeted at American residents who are abroad, who would
normally receive their news from CBS if they were at home.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The final target is a ore general world wide internet news customer, who would
never normally have access to the CBS networks broadcast in America. This final
target group is not specifically catered for in any manner though.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><a href="http://solutions.sitesource.com.au/">Functional
Objectives Commercial</a><br>
This site has two key objectives –</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">to increase/maintain the
audience of the CBS. (Both TV & radio) <br>
to add value to existing viewers by enhancing the relationship. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">In dealing with the first
objective you will notice that all information paths in this web site drive
you to on Air content. Although this is very subtle,
and doesn’t make the surfer feel in any way that they are missing out
on content on the web site, just they there is more on Air. The second objectives
is that the CBS on Air audience is directed to this site for updates and information
about the shows that they watch. This further strengthens the relationship
between these shows as products and the audience.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Constraints<br>
This web site is constrained to ft within the existing media’s infrastructure.
They don’t have their own presence in any story and must make use of
the three key <a href="http://diy.sitesource.com.au/">communication infrastructures</a> provided to them by CBS news on
Air services –</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Wire/Printed <br>
Radio/Audio <br>
Video/Images <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The first two are obvious,
however the video component doesn’t just
include motion pictures it also refers to graphics, which are all produced
for the TV screen, and then also appear here to add consistency. The only concession
is where the image of a map may be static on TV it is presented interactively
here.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Interactivity<br>
Features<br>
Choice/Selectivity <br>
There is a large degree of choice available from the page above. It includes
more than 100 links on this page alone. These lead to a variety of delivery
be it text, graphic, audio or video. The links are also varied to cater for
different surfers preferences.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Input Mechanism <br>
The site is obviously browser rendered with the key mechanism for interaction
being mouse (touch screen, track ball…etc) rather than keyboard, although
there is 1 small search box in the top right area for text based searching.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Effort to <a href="http://results.sitesource.com.au/">Access Information</a> <br>
The site has many redundant ways to get to the same information, which means
that getting what you want is very easy. The problem is that sometimes the
labelling doesn’t quite fit the reality of what you find.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Responsiveness of System <br>
With a broadband connection the site is very responsive and delivers content
quickly and effectively.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">User Monitoring <br>
There is no obvious monitoring of me as a browse the site. Where Amazon might
make suggestions of where I might like to go based on my past behaviour this
site doesn’t adapt to what it perceives as my tastes for news stories.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">User adding Information <br>
The site is not designed for users to add information. In fact I couldn’t
even fine a site feed back page.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">External Variables <br>
They main variable effecting this site is that it is based in the USA and so
distance may mean that there are issues accessing information quickly.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Purpose<br>
Involve Users <br>
This site involves users by getting them to navigate and select information
that is of interest to them</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Generate Site Traffic <br>
In line with the overall purpose of the site, traffic is generated by CBS News
on Air services. The site itself is designed to generate traffic back to
them rather than necessarily itself.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Feedback <br>
There are no online avenues for feedback</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">User Comments Generation <br>
There are no online comments, or news groups as one might find at similar Australian
sites.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Elements<br>
Interface Design<br>
Principles<br>
User Profiling <br>
With the fastness of the information provided and ways to access it, user profiling
would be a large part of this sites construction. You can navigate by <a href="http://isp.sitesource.com.au/">program,
theme, topic, headlines or opinion</a>. This would appeal to the same profile as
the CBS news on Air audience.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Metaphor <br>
The site makes little use of metaphor, other than the filing cabinet tab links
at the top of the page. Its extensive use of photographic and text elements,
as well as tight formatting rule out much use of metaphor.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Short Cuts <br>
Keyboard Short cuts aren’t available, The search mechanism is the best
short cut available.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">State Visualisation <br>
To help visualise the many links on the page the cursor changes shape in line
with convention. The only other concept used is that some of the headline
links get underlined on mouse over.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Focus <br>
The page follows standard web format with focus form top left (logo) to bottom
right (key product offers). In the left/middle is the bulk of information.
Thus the eye doesn’t find the page too cluttered, but it is busy.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Help <br>
There is no help provided</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Content <br>
The site is content rich, this co-ordinates with its purpose.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Aesthetics <br>
Aesthetically it may be a little cluttered, but it does give the impression
of having a lot of information at your finger tips.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">User testing <br>
I am unable to determine if there has been any user testing.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Usability<br>
It is a highly usable web site due to the enormous amount of linkage and redundant
paths.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Visualisation<br>
As mentioned earlier it conforms with the left to right English eye movement
principle.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Functionality<br>
You can get specific information quickly and easily, as well as browse around
for anything else that may take your fancy. This makes the web site very
functional.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Accessibility<br>
Not all pictures have alternate text. However as the pages are already text
heavy this isn’t a major concern. Many video links, also provide an
audio or text option.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Technical Issues<br>
Cross Platform Compatibility<br>
Should work with most browsers. While it doesn’t make use of layers or
frames, there is use of classes and style sheets which may cause some problems.</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Storage Formats<br>
<a href="http://estore.sitesource.com.au/">Multi Media Hardware</a>/Protocols<br>
The site uses Real media to deliver multimedia content. The player appears
embedded into the pages. See the screen shot below.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">back to <a href="http://solutions.sitesource.com.au/packages/">Online
designs for business</a> </font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">next look at <a href="p4.php">ADSL
broadband ISP Sydney</a></font></p>
<p> </p>
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