Introductory Summary
I have just completed a virtual tour of the Sony Style – USA website. I was able to analyze all the sections of the website and observe its various link uses and functions. Everything seems to be highly user-friendly and designed to make site navigation a breeze.
However, there seem too many products presented within the website so it sometimes gets confusing and exasperating to find what it was that the visitor began to set out to find.
Over-All Presentation
The home page of the site was designed to highlight the latest product lines from Sony ranging from the Sony Vaio notebook PC to the Sony Playstation games and accessories.
Using multi-colored images of actual products and adding interactive elements to the pages helps to keep the interest of the visitor focused solely on the products on the screen. This takes away from the somewhat drab background color. Sleek and stylish presentations instead gave the chosen background colors a tinge of class and sophistication that carries over well onto the various products being featured.
The homepage effectively guides the first-time visitors of the website towards the various services, inquiry departments, and special product offers without the complexity of having to go through the whole website to find the support they need.
Appeal to the Reader
The website successfully appeals to the young and hip “yuppie” crowd of professionals of today who have successfully found a way to merge work and play, style and functionality, and durability with cost-effectiveness. With the wide range of choices offered by Sony Style in terms of product range and quality, one can see why the website is most frequented by young professionals and why these visits usually translate into online or real-time sales.
Product Information
The website outdoes itself in terms of product information as it contains as much information as can squeeze into the area for the product. However, the prints are done in font sizes 9 and 8, making it hard for the eyes to read. The use of red to highlight the important product release or availability information is acceptable over the white background that most of the pages use.
Account Registration and Online Sales Assistance
Account registration that allows one to access more parts of the Sony Style website is pretty much straightforward as it only requires an email account to sign up.
The online sales service also comes with a real-time live chat during PDT office hours from Monday to Friday starting at 8 AM – 5 PM and until 4 PM on Saturdays. I find this to be a highly useful feature of the website as it allows the potential buyer to make immediate inquiries regarding products being considered for purchase without having to bother to drive down to the store and find a salesperson who can hopefully, answer the questions the buyer has.
Conclusion
In the end, I see a highly entertaining, effective, and user-friendly website that simply begs to be visited over and over again, even if one does not have any intention to purchase Sony products at the moment.
I strongly urge the web developers of Sony to continue to develop interactive ways to keep the website interesting. As a tech-oriented website, it is at par with the best out there and, dare I say, outclasses the others in its class with its smooth and sleek presentation of products, creative use of colors, and concern with ensuring that the visitors, potential buyers, or current buyers always have the best surfing time possible at the Sony Style website.
What is on my wish list for this seemingly perfect website? Real-time tech support for under-warranty items should be a nice addition. After all, the user is the first line of troubleshooters available for any product.
Work Cited
Germshield, Cassie. (2006). Before you ask for a website critique: do’s and dont’s. Small Business Brief. Web.
Sony Style. Sony. Web.