Introduction
This is an analysis of the Johnson & Johnson career Web site. The analysis focuses on navigability, content information, and aesthetic features of the Web site. Web site design evolves as technologies change. Nevertheless, a professional Web site must observe the guiding philosophy of aesthetic features (professional feel), navigability (ease of accessing and processing information), and functionality (functional aspects of the site such as data contents) of the Web site (Eccher, 2011).
Navigability
Web site designers for Johnson & Johnson applied the concept of Web site navigation during the design process. For instance, the career site has a site menu, ‘Explore Careers’ for navigating different jobs in various countries. The menu helps users find any item or information they wish to know about careers at the company. For example, users can navigate the menu and pick a career of their choice in specific countries listed. Besides, users may also wish to select careers based on their areas of interests under ‘business’ while others may consider their academic qualifications ‘student’ tab. The Web site is easy to navigate because of readily available menus to direct users. A menu should be smart to improve Web site navigation and usability. Maintenance of a Web site tends to be difficult. This explains why navigation should be simple to ease processes such as detecting errors, deleting, adding, or editing items (Collison, 2006).
To enhance the usability of the Web site, navigation must be a simple process. The career Web site offers these advantages and users can search for jobs through the search area using keywords or locations.
Content Information
The career website for the company consists of different content in different formats. Johnson & Johnson career Web site is high content Web site because it offers abundant information to jobseekers. The Web site has several contents since the designer restricted the number of images but included running ones to enable interactive capabilities (Black, 2011). The site has both text and graphic presentations. However, it lacks music and videos. While Johnson & Johnson career site has included a ‘listen’ button, the content can hardly play for more than three seconds. This is a major drawback for a professionally designed Web site for a multinational company.
The career Web site for the company is complex in design to accommodate much information and several related links. In this case, the Web site has fully achieved an application status and has several interconnected contents. For instance, users may click on the ‘engineering’ tab, which leads to other links with ‘Learn more’ or ‘View all jobs’. Consequently, the volume of this Web site content is high and it could increase significantly because of the size of the company.
The contents are not cluttered to enhance usability and experiences. A focus on usability of contents has eliminated challenges that users may face because of several links. Still, the Web site offers the best content, which can easily be navigated. A Web site with organized content is easy to maintain in terms of adding, deleting, or editing content. Jobseekers can browse several contents on Johnson & Johnson businesses, culture, and hiring processes. Also, there are interactive links to social network sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and the company’s blog. A good Web site must attract and retain its users through delivering valuable content and the company has achieved this by delivering appropriate and relevant content to jobseekers in various countries.
Aesthetic Features
Aesthetic features of the Johnson & Johnson career Web site depict a professional look and feel of the Web site. It is consistent with the business branding of the company.
The Web site has aesthetic features achieved with multimedia elements such as Flash media on the main site. For instance, there are texts and images, which move automatically and users can click on the ‘listen’ button for sounds or narration. Besides, users can also watch videos on the site.
Johnson & Johnson’s career Web site is highly organized and looks professional. There are no cluttered contents, which may interfere with aesthetic qualities. Also, all contents are neatly arranged with menus for ease of navigation and usability.
The designer managed to achieve functionality, aesthetics, and navigability through a complex design, which included relevant content for a career Web site. Users can navigate the Web site through various menus and find relevant content while a combination of texts and images provide a professional feel and look.
The effective design has created a career Web site that is versatile, efficient, scalable, consistent, and user-friendly (Thomason, 2004). The Web site achieves the main philosophies of a Web site design like usability, aesthetics, navigability, and functionality.
Suggestions for Improvement
The designer failed to customize the Web site for different users. For instance, users cannot choose any other language other than English. This should be a major area of concern for an international company, which seeks employees globally.
For individuals who seek to listen to content information, the listen button works, but the narration is extremely short. This could mislead users who wish to listen to narration rather than read content information.
References
Black, E. L. (2011). Selecting a Web Content Management System for an Academic Library Website. Information Technology & Libraries, 30(4), 185-189.
Collison, S. (2006). Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional. New York: A Press.
Eccher, C. (2011). Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates, (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Thomason, L. (2004). Design Tip: Web Site Usability Checklist. Webmaster Tips Newsletter, 7(4), 1.