E-commerce

The Movie World My Fun is primarily a promotional website.  The site is an aide for the general public to view and purchase tickets for a number of amusement parks.  It gives the audience an overview of attractions, events and amusement park information.  The evaluation of the site gives its audience and prospective purchasers ideology of what can be found in the amusement parks listed on the site. The Movie World site, provides the general public with information about the Warner Bros. theme park with additional links to connecting partners to the My Fun website.  The criteria used to analyze the website and determine its worth are content and usability, with the use of the Website Evaluation Checklist.  The checklist is based on a qualitative approach to evaluation.  The qualitative approach research method was developed in the social sciences to enable the research of social and cultural phenomena.  The use of the internet is a cultural phenomenon that has been growing through the years.  Use of the web is a vast growing method of communicating and search engines.  The method includes participant observation, researchers impressions and reaction to presentation. (Myers, 2009)  This approach leads to a utilization-focused evaluation which determines methods based on what is most useful to the audience. (Duignan, 2009)  This approach includes five basic criteria Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage.  The analysis will go in depth into the findings of my evaluation.  The evaluation methods for the purpose of assessing the website will be based solely on qualitative research methods.

2. Qualitative Approach
The evaluation process explores design and technical requirements as well as informative content.  These criteria are required for an effective website.  The accessibility and efficiency of the website is an essential factor for the intended users to feel at ease when they explore the page and make their decision as to whether they will return in the future.  The evaluation began with the evaluation checklist designed by Anderson, Allee, Grove, and Hill in 1998 and updated in 1999.  The evaluation is also based on personalized criteria and criteria for the home page.  The site is easy to use, supplies adequate contact data and puts the user at ease during the purchasing process and payment for their services.  The evaluation will show a positive personalized experience.  The home page is logical, offers access to specials discounts and offers shortcuts to the links available.  Lacurezeanu and Coros use the same criteria to evaluate website.  They focus on ease through navigability, visibility and layout through design and contact support through information criteria.

2.1 Web Evaluation Elements
These criteria will be included in the checklist.  The checklist focused on content with subsections in authority, currency, information, selection, audience, value, accuracy, advertising, navigation, speed and access.  The scale for evaluating a website is based on points.  The minimum number of points is zero and the maximum is eighty.

The Warner Bros. website fell into the poor category which includes 0 to 25 points.  The calculated score for the website is thirteen.  The points were taken from the yes or no responses to forty-three questions.  Each question had a negative or positive score from one to three points per question.

2.1.1 Visibility
The scale was used to get an overall score and understanding of the appropriateness of the website.  The checklist evaluation showed the sites strengths and weaknesses.  The strong characteristic of the website showed itself in the audience criteria.  The audience portion of the list scored high, meaning that the site clearly states the intended audience general public.  Its content is appropriate for the audience and the presentation of the content is shows clarity.

2.1.2 Design
The design of the site is consistent.  Every link to the page is represented by the same design and structure where the links are listed to the left of the page and the tabs are the same throughout.  The design consistency gives the intended audience a feeling of ease as they scroll through the pages.  The links and selection throughout the site are easy to locate because of the repeated design.

2.1.3 Navigation
The site is easy to navigate and all links are accessible.  There is a personalization throughout the site showing commercial elements but at the same time, enabling interactive navigation and accessibility when searching through the links.

2.1.4 Content
The content is visible and clear and covers the overall overview of the theme parks.  The information is presented in a stable and unchanging manner.  The site contains a site map for easy navigation.  The page title accurately describes the content.  The Warner Bros. theme park emblem is on the left side of the header of the page.  The logo is at the header of each link to the page until another theme park is selected through the Choose a theme Park, Attract or Resort tab or at the footer of the page.

2.1.5 Accessibility
All clickable links have equivalent text links.  These links also lead to a way back to the main page no matter what link the audience is connected to.  The links do however impair the users ability to return to the previous page using the Back button because it is grayed out for the linked selections.  The speed during downloads not be a concern.  The speed between links is relatively quick.  There is a larger image that will takes a few seconds longer but not too much to create frustration throughout the navigation process.

2.1.6 Personalization
The accuracy portion of the evaluation scored a negative one.  The site does not have cited sources or credits.  There is no misleading or biased information provided, however, there is a not specific fact about the attraction, which can be found through other sources such as Wikipedia.  This source provides the audience with the full history and facts of the Warner Bros. theme park.  It provides years for the opening of the attractions as well as the year they have closed if it applies (Wikipedia, 2010).  There are no identifiable conflicts of interest within the website.  All information and text listed on the site appear to be factual and accurate.

2.1.7 Interactivity
The website does not list any sources or credentials, however, it does give full contact information on the theme park and the associated partners of the My fun organization.  The lower portion, footer of the page includes links to all of the partners and their contact information.  There is also a link at the header of the page that when clicked on, pulls down a list of options as to where one is the contact us link.  There are ten partners to the site listed in the contact information link to choose from.  The site clearly has adequate information on My Fun partners but it does not give currency on its primary sites.  The currency is not clear.  The general place to look for this information would be at the footer of the page or throughout the content.  The only visible currency for the website is a year at the very bottom of the page, which clearly states 2009.  There is no other origination date or edit posting dates on the main page or the links pages attached.  The currency provided on the checklist, gives the site a score of negative three out of a positive three on the scale.  The scope and selection on the website covers the necessary information needed for the audience to make their selection and choose an itinerary for their fun filled day at the theme park.  The site gives a general overview for all attractions and events that take place at the park along with dates for these events.  There is also a link to purchase VIP passes for these events and attractions advertised.  This section of the checklist scores a positive three.  The site has a link for My fun members to log on, however, there are no limitations when navigating the site.  The logging on as a member will give the users access to promotions and deals for purchasing tickets as well as lead to instant messages with updates, personally to their home email.  However, it is not necessary for navigation.  

3. Quantities Approach
3.1 Log Analysis Report
The total number of HTML files on this page is 1 which most browsers can multithread.  The total number of objects on this page is 64 which by their number will dominate web page delay. Above 20 objects per page the overhead from dealing with the actual objects accounts for more than 80 of whole page latency. Replacing graphic rollovers with CSS rollovers will speed display. Replacing graphic text headers with CSS text headers will reduce HTTP requests as well as replacing rollovers.  The total number of images on this page is 43. It is recommended to combine, replace, and optimize graphics. Replacing graphic text headers further reduce HTTP requests.  The total number of external CSS files on this page is 5. Ideally the site should have one on their page. They can optimization optimize CSS files using shorthand properties, grouping, and then minify to reduce their footprint.  The total size of this page is 1026711 bytes, which will load in 217.42 seconds on a 56Kbps modem.  Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback.  The total number of external script files on this page is 15.  Placing external files at the bottom of the body, and CSS files in the head enables progressive display.  The total size of this HTML file is 33386 bytes, which less than 50K. Assuming that height and width of the images are specified, the size allows the HTML to display content in less than 10 seconds.  The total size of your images is 725789 bytes, which is over 100K. Substituting CSS techniques for graphics techniques will create colored borders, backgrounds, and spacing.  The total size of external your scripts is 236127 bytes, which is over 20K.  Substituting  speedtweakcssmenus CSS menus for JavaScript-based menus will minimize or even eliminate the use of JavaScript.  The total size of your external CSS is 31409 bytes, which is over 20K. Optimizing the external CSS eliminate whitespace.  Using labeled container cells can target chunks of HTML content. Labeled containers will limit the need to embed extra classes and styles.  The total size of all your external multimedia files is 0 bytes, which is less than 10K.

In conclusion, the Warner Bros. Movie World website is an effective promotional site that provides the audience with plenty of information that will enable them to make an informed decision on the travel destinations.   The site is clear and navigational.  The consistency of the design allows the user to locate links easily however, the site has flaws.  The inability to use the Back button to return to the previous page is a problem.  This method of returning to a prior window is constantly used among all computer users and it is the easiest way to get from one page to the next.  There are links that will get the user back to their desired page but it is slightly more time consuming, especially for new users that are not familiar with the site.  The sites authority is not present on the site.  The user can easily and readily tell that the My fun site has a network of theme parks that are accessible through their site.  The site is a great informative tool but the implementing of the design and structure of the website can be more clear and personal.  The knowledge that a website is continuously edited gives the users a feeling of ease as they are updated and in the loop so to say about the new events and attractions that have been cut andor returned.  It would create a better sense of knowledge on the part of the intended audience.  The site would also benefit from showing updates on attractions as other sources do, so that the audience is aware of attractions that may have been there before but may have been closed.  The site would also benefit from showing their users how often the site is used and how previous users viewed the site and its usability.  Nevertheless, such as Patton says, each evaluation brings a blend of ingredients.  There is no standard recipe for evaluating websites.  Many article authors and researchers use a diverse combination of research methods to access a websites accessibility and interactivity.  There will always be new and improved methods for internet evaluations.  Each method will high difficulties within the program that will enhance the need for better research methods to provide clarity and focus as Brickmayer and Weiss have concluded.  Methods and research will improve as technology and the internet will improve.