Pointing Out The 'Question Marks'

What is a Question Mark?

Well, other than the obvious punctuation, it means something that makes people 'think' on a webpage. It takes a fraction of a second to process through their brain, but those instant moments are annoying for almost any user. It's just the way humans are. Every website no matter what is gonna have some things that give users question marks. Not everything can be perfect, and web design is no different. I'm gonna be going onto 3 different sites that I've never been on in my life and find things that may spike a question mark.

IBM

Ah yes, the tech giant of IBM. We all have probably owned at least one computer that had something IBM in it. Now you may be wondering, can such a prestigious tech company have question marks on their website? The answer is yes, and I'm ready to nitpick. 

First of all, someone may go onto this website looking for tech support and they may ask themselves "where do I go or who do I call to get some help?" and all they see is a really big image with little to know layman information. That is a definite problem as there are gonna be multiple people who are going for that reason.

Another gripe I have is the menu. While on the surface it seems alright, once you start scrolling around the page, it gets a little weird in the fact that it'll sometimes go away. If someone is looking for help, they may scroll to the bottom of the page, and for some reason they need to get to the menu. It takes some people a second to realize "oh hey maybe it'll come back when I scroll up". Once again, this thought happens in an instant, but it's still something to watch out for. 

Coca Cola

The first thing I see when I open the website is a page asking about my region. I completely get that it will have to show different info for different countries. What I don't understand is why when you click a country, small gray text shows up below asking for a specific country. Again, I understand that. But when it happens I couldn't see it very well and I was left wondering why the page wasn't loading. It took me a second to realize that it even showed up. A little more of a transition can go a long way. 

Now onto the site proper. I like the layout. It works and fits the coca cola image with the nice darker color of red that they used. My big problem that arises here is the fact that everything feels a little... cramped. I feel like it's shoved into a small space and they wanted to show as much info as possible, yet still doesn't have the info that an average user would get on the site to see. Let's take a situation where someone wanted to know the nutrition facts of Coke Zero, so they go on their website. Right away all they're seeing is an ad campaign and some social media stuff. As cool as that may be, not everyone will be interested. So someone will have to wonder "where do i get my nutrition facts then?" which brings up a question mark. 

Discover Card

A credit card company in this day and age should have nice, easy to use websites. So many people just wanna pay their bill online and just keep along with their lives. Now there's one big problem with the website right away... there doesn't seem to be a way to pay. At least not right away. Someone then would have to think "where can I just pay my bill?", causing a question mark. Yes, the design is sleek and minimalistic, but that doesn't forgive the fact that it doesn't serve the fact that many people go to your website for. 

Another thing that I don't like is the big ad at the top. Getting your product out there is good, but don't have it take up to 3/4ths of a page. Someone may think "well does that mean I have to apply for a new card or something?" due to the fact that the other cards aren't so much as mentioned. It will likely confuse some people. While not a bad website, these are just a few things that they should really think about.