This is an objective critical analysis. The writing style is very casual here because this is the way
my mind works.
What’s this site about? The logo is totally irrelevant and misleading;
it almost looks like the paramount picture logo. The text isn’t much
better: In what way does Prudential Verani Realty, may be the company
name but it doesn’t emphasis ‘property for sale’ to me; it’s not
something that I can remember easily, (I’ve mistyped the words and have
to check them to see if I’ve spelt them right – not to look like a
proper fool). In fact it discourages me to continue because it makes me
think that this site is trying to capture a niche market of upper class
buyers. I don’t think I’d spend much time in this kind of site.
After the logo the next thing that captures my eye are the three labels
on the right hand side. These labels immediately get to the point and at
the end of the day I think that these labels are probably the best thing
about this site. They are straight to the point and they address my key
needs, I’m looking for property, I need to know calculate my mortgage,
and sure why not send me an update, nothing to lose in keeping in touch
and knowing if anything else comes available.
Next my eye tracks back to the centre graphic and I think to myself who
is that woman? Maybe this site isn’t for me… that house looks way out
of my budget, I’m still signing up to their email update though.
Next I go to the list of labels, erh I’m tired I’ve been reading all
week at my new job and I’ve just spent all weekend reading study
notes trying to catch up. In fact (I’ll be honest I don’t even read all
of them). I ‘read’ (see) the first one HOMES & LANDS and terms of use
underneath. Now I’m thinking couldn’t they have summed it up at this
point with just the word ‘Property’. I’m finding LANDS really strange.
For some reason I jumped the text in the middle and looked straight at
the terms of use – text link and the contact us text link in the right
hand corner how untypical for this text to be there, but I’m happy to
see the ‘contact us’ link, and it’s only now that I’m am noticing the
‘contact’ in the capitalised labels list on the left side. What does
‘about us’ have to do with ‘contact’. (By the way I still haven’t read
all those labels.)
Now I’ve gone to the text. Verani sounds Italian, that reaches me on a
level of proximity, I live in Malta maybe these people are Italian;
interesting. The text is pretty direct here although somewhat lacking in
what I consider valid keywords for a real estate site. I’m not reading
the text I’m looking at it and picking up words like ‘specialise’, ‘Real
estate’. ‘Residential’, ‘your neighbor’. Great Italian neighbours that
Seriously!Jinterests me because I’m hungry and feel like some pasta.
Now for the more serious side of things:
*To use the top left corner of a webpage with a vague logo and long
unmemorable text/names isn’t ideal.
*The capitals in the list are most disturbing it reduces intention to
attract the users’ attention directly to that list but I think it does
entirely the opposite.
*The double labels, ‘search’ and ‘sitemap’ and ‘about us’ and ‘contact’
are confusing
*The labels are not in the best order in terms of usability and are
definitely not predictable.
*Labels are on the long side and not as clear as they could be.
*The last label stating ‘& more’, gives the impression that the content
on this site is really unstructured.
*Terms of use is unnecessarily duplicated and not in the typical position
*The site gives info about the Verani family, which is an interesting
personal touch – but who are they really? – maybe an actual graphic of
this family would have made the text more credible.( I understand that a
graphic of the family may be considered irrelevant to some people)
*Keywords are not stressed enough in the text on this page, so it
doesn’t correspond enough to SEO.
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