Site Audit: Telewest Business

Chloe Barker

Friday November 12th 2004

 

  1. Homepage: content and structure:

What is the corporate message and imagery that we want to convey? What is our brand? We are not a dental practice but a key business player and should be eliciting a feeling of trust to business-players. The home page image plays an essential in this.

 

The copy is rather lacklustre and dry and doesn’t actually describe the products and services available that well. We need to seduce, lure and entice, especially on the homepage.

There is a substantial waste of space (managed data networks – animated) which could be used for more interesting features, for example: quizzes or newsletter sign-ups).

 

There is little animation, leaving the page looking static and neglected. Scrolling, headlines or XML-feeds could address this problem.

  1. Overall content structure of the site:

The structure is somewhat confusing due to an excess of menus. This could be addressed by introducing drop-down navigation bars, or regrouping some of the content into similar headings.

 

  1. Tone of voice across the site:

As mentioned above, the tone is very dull and dry, which can put readers off. We need to ‘spice it up’ a little and introduce topicality and a sense of fun.

  1. ‘Products’ overview + development plan:

This area should be a lot more ‘interactive’ and should include: graphics, diagrams and an interactive walk-through, to help users and potential buyers understand the complex issues they are reading about (Flash & Shockwave). The copy should be simplified so that it is much less technical and accessible to the average user and small business buyer who might not understand difficualt technical jargon.

 

The site should also feature feedback (email the editor) options on all pages