Analysis & Research On Website CreatorsTiffanie Chan 11W

Overview

Before making my website, I must first research several website creators in order to choose the best option.

I selected three website creators: Weebly, Webs, Wix

I will analyze aspects like how easy it is to use the site, what sort of effects I can create, the appearance and many more.

I decided to do this because then I would be able to understand a bigger range of web tools and also allow me to create a better website after.

1) Weebly

It was very easy to sign up, all I needed was my email address and a password. The process was also fast.

This website creator is also free to use.

I also watched this video before starting and it was fairly easy to follow.

The first website I tried was “Weebly”. I created a free account. My first impression was that it was very user-friendly and I learned to navigate around the website quite fast. It is also free to use.

I then selected a website name. I named it: http://shoppinghongkong.weebly.com

(This is a sub domain under Weebly)

This is the main editing web tool on Weebly.

I really like this toolbar Weebly created for users to edit their website. It is definitely user-friendly and everything is organized in categories so navigation is quick and easy. I can add the features I mentioned in my objectives. (e.g. Photos, videos etc.)

For an experiment, I decided to create the main banner of the website. Weebly allowed me to simply insert a photo into the box.

Overall Comments on “Weebly”

1. My favourite aspect is the editing of the website because the toolbar is very easy to use and efficient.

2. The themes provided from the website is also very diverse.

3. The navigation of every page on the website is organized well so this allows it to be user-friendly too.

4. A disadvantage is that sometimes the “box layouts” are slightly restricting to users. You may have to stick to the box constraints (i.e. like when I was inserting the picture)

2) WebsSimilar to Weebly, the creation of the website was very easy.

Once again, it is free to create and use the website.

Second, I tried to use “Webs”. At the first stage, it was still very easy to use so I found it similar to Weebly. I was attracted to try using “Webs” because it mentioned that the websites look professional which is one of my objectives.

Unlike Weebly, you select different pages to edit separately. This is good as everything is kept tidy but it can also become overwhelming as you have to save separately too.

“Webs” also has a useful toolbar that is user-friendly.

One of the aspects I found very useful from “Webs” was the widgets I could add. There was a huge range of tools I could add. For example, Subscribing to the website, music players, search bars.

Clear sidebar and headings

Although I liked many aspects of “Webs”, I really did not like how there would always be an advertisement at the top of my website. This immediately distracts my users and does not give off a professional image.

Overall Comments on “Webs”

1. The web tools provided are useful and diverse.

2. In particular, the widgets provided will help make my website more interactive for users.

3. The pages are edited separately therefore, it can be more organized.

4. Unfortunately, I strongly dislike how an advertisement is placed as the header of my website. This is not attracting to my users and appears unprofessional. These are two exact opposites of what I previously stated in my objectives.

3) WixLike the previous two website creators, “Wix” is also free to use.

Unlike the other two websites, “Wix” allows you to edit by dragging and dropping. I thought this would be more user-friendly so therefore, I decided to try using it.

The best aspect I found about “Wix” was that resizing and moving photos was very simple and quick. It was a great web tool.

The editing tool pops up as a new window, allowing you to preview you website well.

Immediately, you can publish and advertise your website through social networking sites like facebook and twitter. This is very useful as I can reach a broader range of users faster.

Out of the websites, “Wix” toolbar seems to be the most simple and plain. However, contrary to what I thought, it was not actually very user-friendly as I found it difficult to find all the features I needed.

Simple editing was very clear but harder aspects like widgets were not.

Pages were edited separately but still under the same toolbar. It became quite complicated with all the different arrows and sub-sections.

Overall Comments on “Wix”

1. The “dragging and dropping” feature is very useful when inserting and editing photos.

2. However, the toolbar is confusing for users as you only get simple features presented clearly. Multimedia like videos and maps are harder to input.

3. It is beneficial that “Wix” is closely linked to popular social networking sites like Facebook.

Conclusion & Final Choice

Now that I have finished researching three different website creators, I will now base my final choice on the analysis done in this PowerPoint.

Although I liked aspects from all three, I believe the most user-friendly website creator is “Weebly”. I can edit freely with the toolbar and I also discovered several forms of multimedia which I can add. (E.g. Google Maps, which is very important to my tourism website)

I also felt that “Weebly” would help me achieve many of my objectives. For example, bright colours, pictures, specific layouts for each page, good navigation, professional.