This review is of the website for Wirebenders Inc., a Phoenix-based business specializing in the production of wire-wound transformers and electrical parts. It is not a review of the business or its products. This review was conducted using an 11x12 inch monitor with a resolution set at 1366x768 px. The web browsers being used to review the website are Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 17.0.1. The review was conducted on Friday, March 15, 2013.
Aesthetics
General appearance
This is in general an extremely outdated, unprofessional looking page that has not been updated for quite some time. The “slideshow gallery” is a GIF; the menu is a bullet pointed list of links. The links themselves seem to be in browser default colors. No CSS is being used at all.
Graphics and color
There are very few graphics, limited to pictures of the products produced by the business and photos of the staff. The color is a sort of light blue with the bullets in the menu providing red accents. There is very little personality to this page.
Layout
The layout is extremely simple, and the content is divided using tables. The header and the logo don’t really seem to be thematically acquainted with each other. It would probably help if the company name were left-aligned next to the logo instead of centered.
Typography
The font face appears to be the browser default.
Usability
Navigation
The only real issue with the navigation is that it could be better organized and condensed. (As an example, there really doesn’t need to be a separate page for a “newsletter” that hasn’t been updated for years, and the “What we Manufacture” can be grouped with “Product Applications” and “Major Customers.” It could also do with having actual buttons instead of a list of links.
Contact information
Contact information is available at various points on the site, and there is a form.
Social Media
There are no social media connections. There is a “newsletter page” page that has not been updated since 2003.
Relevant links
Several of the links are non-functional on the “Sales Representative” page. The links on the “Useful Link” page might need to be updated. One of the links does not seem to go where it is supposed to go.
Accessibility
There doesn’t seem to be many major accessibility issues, though the default size of the text in IE is a little small.
Canonical
Is the name of the page in the title tag?
Yes.
Is there contact information in footer as well as contact page?
No, it is in the main content area.
Is the copyright information in the footer?
There is no footer, copyright information and an e-mail link for the webmaster is in the lower left hand corner.
Does the logo link to the home page and is in the upper left corner?
The logo is in the upper left corner but does not link to anything.
Does the page layout follow current web standards?
No, it does not.
Assessment
This website needs an overhaul to get it up to current web standards. The basic layout is extremely outdated and not very professional looking. Some immediate suggestions include finding a way to make the logo part of the header design, creating header and footer sections and making use of some CSS to create columns instead of using tables to separate the content. It could also do with having an actual gallery of parts instead of an animated gif. (Possible options: Flash or Java to create a gallery that has actual interactive elements--even if you are not familiar with Java there are free galleries and tutorials for installing them available online.)
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