ABSTRACT

Discussion of 12 websites:
evaluation of their content,
functionality, authority, and
attractiveness.
Mailson Embalo Amber Bouve
E-skills

WEBSITE 2
Artevelde University of Applied Sciences
 Introduction 2
Customer 3
C2C: Craigslist 3
C2B: YELP 4
C2B: Lego ideas 5
C2G: Tax On Web 6
Business 7
B2G: SpaceX 7
B2C: Ikea 8
B2C: The CocaCola Company 10
B2B: Accenture 11
Government 12
G2G: Social Security 12
G2C: Stad Gent 13
G2B: Flanders Investment and Trade 14
C2G: Brazil Government 15
Reflection 16
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Introduction

Formal Requirements

- Full report (i.e. Report format, Report Lay-out, Report Contents)

- A reflection at the end of the report, next to your conclusion

- An online Presentation with oral comment

- Add your group team charter to the uploads on Canvas

Assignment Websites 2:

“In this assignment you have to discuss 12 other sites, and evaluate their content, functionality,
authority and attractiveness or any other criteria you think necessary.”

We selected four different criteria that we used to analyze twelve websites. These criteria are
content, authority, attractiveness and functionality.

The twelve websites that were chosen for the analysis:

Customer

C2C: Craigslist

https://lille.craigslist.org/

Content: The chosen website that represents the customer to customer is an American website from
San Fransisco. Originally the site started as a community electronic newsletter but now they have
evolved into a website that has classified advertisements. The range of products and services that are
being sold on the website is rather large. They sell houses and have job offers. resumes, community
discussion forums, and gigs all have a page on the website. eBay is a competitor of Craigslist. (craigslist,
n.d.)
Authority: In order to be able to post on craigslist, you have to sign up. The authority to manage the
site still lays with the craigslist, they have the ability to delete unsuitable advertisements. (craigslist,
n.d.)

Attractiveness: As the website does not contain any flashy animations, graphics and the homepage
does not have any picture, it is perceived as a rather unattractive webpage. The popularity of the site
relies solely on the value that comes from its utilitarian design and the contribution that the users of
the site have to offer.
There does is some efficiency, because it contains all the subjects that you might be looking for. On
the other pages of the website next to the homepage, you can find images that are made by the
customers, which are often bad quality. (craigslist, n.d.)

Functionality: The website is easy to use, as mentioned before all the pages are already situated on
the homepage. The letter type is on the smaller side, which could make it for older peopled difficult
to read. On the homepage, you can equally find a help page that leads you to all the frequently asked
questions. The about contains all information on how to use craigslist and more information on the
website itself. As the site comes from consumers, they even provide you with a page that helps you
to avoid scams. As the site has the option to translate into 8 different languages, Dutch is not a part
of that. (craigslist, n.d.)
 C2B: YELP

https://fr.yelp.be/bruxelles

Content: As an example of C2B websites, I chose the American multinational located in San Francisco,
Yelp. it is a website that helps you with discovering local businesses, but mostly restaurants, bars,
dentist, grocery stores, ... The purpose of the site is for people to help them localize them. The
customers are also able to write reviews on how their experience was. this should inform other
customers, but also the business. (yelp,n.d.)

Authority: The authority of the website lies with the users who are able to write reviews, but also yelp
themselves, as they are able to delete inappropriate reviews if necessary. The website has currently
more that 180 million reviews. The shop owners are able to create a free account, in order to place
their business on Yelp. (yelp,n.d.)

Functionality: As for the functionality of the website, I could not find any errors. Personally, I would
not expect to be able to scroll down on the homepage, as the picture is filling the whole screen and
there is a central search bar. There are also a lot of filters provided, to make it easier to find what you
are exactly looking for. (yelp,n.d.)

Attractiveness: There is a certain attractiveness that already starts with the homepage, where there
are several pictures displayed of dished. The layout is rather basic with as main colors red and white,
as in the logo. Personally, I always find a website with a lot of visuals, more attractive. when going
down from the search bar, you have some nice-looking icons that give you the option to choose for
shopping, sports and beauty salons. (yelp,n.d.)
 C2B: Lego ideas

https://ideas.lego.com/

Content: LEGO ideas website is a customer to business platform where customers can submit a
product idea to LEGO. In fact, the website aims also at bringing LEGO’s users together and at building
a community of players since it offers the possibility to enter a contest or several activities which are
then published on the website. Strong from this community, each product ideas must be supported
by 10,000 supporters to move on and be reviewed by LEGO Review Board. The board will then
determine the project feasibility and quality before moving to production and sale of the product that
a consumer designed. All the ideas can be found in the blog part of the website. (legoideas,n.d.)

Authority: The Website is administer by the LEGO Group as Their logo and Minifigure are trademark
by them as well. (Group, n.d.)

Functionality: The website is really well organized, with 3 top menus and a search function. On the
right side of the website, the three main activities offered by LEGO ideas can be found: “submit a
product idea”, “enter a contest” “enter an activity” along with a link to LEGO’s e-commerce website.
Those stay visible and accessible even while scrolling down the webpage. It is worthy to note that the
usual bottom page links to social media and legal information (such as Terms of Service, FAQ…) are
visible on the right side of the website as well, which makes it easier to access. The main activities are
also summarized under the “Explore” menu, along with all the products ideas gathered under different
themes. The Blog can be found under the “Explore” menu, which is not ideal, it would have been
worthy to add a 4th top menu for “Blog” as many other websites do. The Community menu recaps all
posts from members but require logging in in order to access them. The “How It works” menu is very
straightforward and explain what the 3 main activities are along with the inherent rules.
(legoideas,n.d.)
Attractiveness: The website uses a clear grey background and white square for the “ideas in shop”.
The menu bar is dark grey. As for the activities offered, each have its own color (yellow, blue, red and
dark blue) however, the colors are not vivid but dark cool, definitely targeting adults. It is clear from
the design choices that the LEGO Idea’s website is differentiating from its image of a product for kid
by addressing in a more serious tone members of its community above 13 years old. The design choice
means to tell members that here they are taken seriously, their ideas are heard by the company and
they truly seen as business consultants for their wide experience as gamers. The website is projecting
serious and competitiveness but yet inclusivity and therefore attract an audience who want to be a
part of LEGO’s adult-with-a-youth-heart community. (legoideas,n.d.)
 C2G: Tax On Web

https://eservices.minfin.fgov.be/myminfin-web/

Content: The chosen website is one that helps the Belgian citizens with their taxes online rather than
the archaic way. This is an example of a consumer to government website, because the citizens of
Belgium are able to communicate with the government through this website. The content of the site
is very informative. it provides information concerning how to do the taxes online. (TaxOnWeb, n.d.)

Functionality: It is rather confusing to use the website, especially if you are looking for fast answers. I
would recommend a search bar where you can type key words, because of the big amount of
information that is available. Another downside of the site is that you need an E-ID reader for most of
the provided functions available on the website. Some people do not have this at their disposal.
(TaxOnWeb, n.d.)

Authority: The information and the website are both Authorized by the government of Belgium
(TaxOnWeb, n.d.)

Attractiveness: The attractiveness of the site is rather low, as it is very informative instead of high in
visuals such as picture, icons, … The website is very basic and professional looking. The colors of the
logo are extended towards the rest of the layout. (TaxOnWeb, n.d.)
Business

B2G: SpaceX

https://www.spacex.com/

Content: The website that is created by a Business made for government, but also provides
information for other businesses and customers, is called SpaceX. Their objective is to sell products to
governments, as they are convinced to be able to provide unique products, that are also excellent (the
best) in their performance. The website mainly focusses on selling the product, and provides a little
information on the future plans and current projects. (SpaceX, n.d.)

Authority: Founded by Elon Musk, the site is solely managed by the company itself. (SpaceX, n.d.)

Functionality: As there are not a lot of buttons on the website, the functionality is only average. the
number of pages is also very limited. The logo can be used as a home button function, unfortunately
there is no search bar, FAQ, ... But once you go to the shop, there are more options. A positive thing
about the limited buttons is the clarity that it creates. (SpaceX, n.d.)

Attractiveness: As the site is designed to be very minimalistic and is obsered as rather dark. This is
understandable as it is actually the website of SpaceX, a company that litteraly works with the space.
Space is thus also easily linked to the darker colors, and make the white and pictures have a bigger
contrast. I would personally not change the layout as it is rather futuristic, so very fitting for the
company. There is moreover also a decent overview of what the company offers. The products and
services are clearly described with all the necesaary information. There is also a page that offers all
the price information. (SpaceX, n.d.).
 B2C: Ikea

https://www.ikea.com/be/fr/

Content: Ikea’s website is a B2C platform aiming at both informing about and selling products for the
house and an interior design lifestyle. It is an e-commerce platform that complements its physical
stores. Indeed, on the page “products’ the website informs about the products available for sale in
store and online and their technicity which is organized under different categories. While on the page
“rooms” it gathers all products that “belongs” to specific rooms of the house while suggesting designs
inherent to a certain lifestyle. On the other hand, the website also offers services such as helping with
the online design of the visitor’s interior storage solutions or coaching for decoration and interior
design. It offers payment facilities. (Ikea, n.d.)

Authority: The website host is Amazon Web Services - EU (Ireland) Region, and Ikea manages solely
the edition of the website. (Ikea, n.d.)

Functionality: Ikea is present in 26 countries as do its website and in all local languages, and therefore
sell the same products worldwide. In terms of the functionality of the website, on the top right, there
is 4 icons:

- a “shopping basket” where the user can see all the products that he has selected to buy. A
convenient function is that it updates even when using the website on multiple pages: therefore,
when the user adds to his basket a product from one page, it appears in the basket on every page
open. (Ikea, n.d.)
- a “like” icon which allows the user to see the list of all the products he liked.
- a “menu” icon that unfolds when clicking on it and where the user can find all the pages available
on the website.
- a “truck” icon where the customer can keep track of his orders.
- a “my profile” icon which is the link to the customer profile page.

At the bottom of the page, there is the possibility to change country and language, along with menus
such as services, useful links, presentation of Ikea Family & Business. Links to social medias and
method of payment can also be found before the usual confidentiality policies, cookies, users utility
conditions, cookies parameters, complaints. There is also a link to Ikea’s other website where the
philosophy is explained: about.ikea.com (Ikea, n.d.)
Attractiveness: IKEA’s website design reflects IKEA brand identity, what they call democratic and sleek
design. The colors are simple, the background is white which emphasize the products and the
suggestion of interior design. Therefore, the eyes are directly driven toward what is of interest. There
is not too much menus which make it simple for the user to visit the website without getting lost
between the variety of IKEA products. IKEA’s website is equally attractive but not eccentric, simple,
intuitive and user friendly, build to bring an experience to the user but not to overwhelm him. (Ikea,
n.d.)
 B2C: The CocaCola Company

https://www.coca-colacompany.com

Content: The Coca-Cola Company is not an e-commerce website but a Public Relations website
featuring the values behind the global brand Coca-Cola Company, the history of the company, its vision
and leadership, its partnership, its approach to sustainable business and all the Corporate Social
Responsibilities actions that the group leads. All the brands belonging to the Coca-Cola Company are
also presented. The receiving hand of those information are the final consumers and there is no menu
for “resellers”. However, there is a top menu for investors, which lead to another website
“https://investors.coca-colacompany.com” where more strategic information about the Coca-Cola
Company financials are shared. (Coca-Cola, n.d.)

Authority: The Coca-Cola Company operates its own website: https://www.coca-colacompany.com.

(Coca-Cola, n.d.)

Functionality: The website is easy to use and very intuitive. Visitors can find the highlights of Coca-
Cola company’s news on the home page, and 7 top menus, a search icon and a country/language icon
on the very top right that offers the possibility to select the country and the language of choice. At the
bottom are the usual social media links along with menus such as Privacy and Do Not Sell My Personal
Information. All the information is very well organized under clear headlines, so it is very easy for the
visitor to navigate towards the information he is looking for as well as being inspired to look further
thanks to the attractive pictures. While going into the many subsection of a menu, the main menus
stay visible which provides the user with the website roadmap in order to never feel lost. (Coca-Cola,
n.d.)
Attractiveness: The website displays a lot of meaningful pictures. It is easy to say that the pictures are
selected with care to represent in the best way possible the subject of each section and the company’s
values. Being a global company under a lot of scrutiny, the pictures seems to have been selected to
reduce any culturally controversial meanings. The result is extremely agreeable to the eyes while
staying professional and neat. The colors are mainly pure white and a bit of red to remind their logo
which sticks with the company’s initial image despite having extended its portfolio. As for the pictures,
the colors/filters chosen are vivid with high contrast while being in harmony together which send
messages of dynamism, life, travel culture and solidarity which aligned with the company’s policy.
(Coca-Cola, n.d.)
 B2B: Accenture

https://www.accenture.com/be-en/about/consulting-index

Content: Accenture provides strategy advices to other companies. Its website is therefore an example
of a B2B and describe the kind of services the company provides but is not an e-commerce website.
In fact, if a company wants to buy Accenture’s services, it must contact a representative and price will
be negotiated as no prices are displayed on the website. The B2B website is sharing examples of its
expertise and analysis on the current context as a Public Relations tools to attract businesses to them.
Those are divided under different sections: Insights, Services and Industries. The visitor can learn more
about Accenture philosophy and business relations in the “About Accenture” section. Accenture offers
56 websites for each country it works in, available in local languages. The website has a member only
section where client and potential client must be capable to log-in and access the information they
subscribe for. (Accenture, n.d.)

However, a simple description the core business of Accenture aka consulting is not presented on the
website, so they assumed that whoever is surfing on their website is aware of the company’s offer,
before diving into the services they offer thanks to the “Services” section. (Accenture, n.d.)

Authority: Accenture site is solely managed by the company itself, based in Illinois USA. (Accenture,
n.d.)

Functionality: Using the website is pretty straightforward, only five top menus organizing all the
knowledges and services of Accenture. On the top right of the page, there is the possibility to change
country and language. On the lower part of the page there is a link to subscribe to the newsletter,
extremely visible because it is highlighted in purple. Links to social medias and method of payment
can be found on the bottom of the page along with the usual Privacy Statement, Cookie Policy, Terms
& Conditions, sitemap and contact us. (Accenture, n.d.)

Attractiveness: Accenture website uses purple and white color which leave a feeling of things being
neat and professional while the purple color is associated to power, and ambition, wealth and
creativity, very much representative of the objectives of a consulting firm. It creates a feeling of
distinction and originality as the purple color is unique for an international consulting website.
Photography chosen for the website highlight diversity, and picture professionals with a relax and
confident attitude body language. (Accenture, n.d.)
Government

G2G: Social Security

https://www.ssa.gov/

Content: The website made by a government to a government is here called social security. The
homepage contains a brief explanation with the services that are being offered. When you click on the
menu button, there are also services offered for customers, and not only the government. The main
subject on the website are social security and its benefits. (SSA Government, n.d.)

Authority: The authority of the website lies with the government of the United States. They have
created this website and are also the ones that are handling it. The website was formed at the expense
of the residents that are paying taxes. The GSO is only accessible by the government organization or
individuals that are authorized. (SSA Government, n.d.)

Functionality: There is not a lot of functionality that can be discussed when looking at the website.
The site mainly concerns information from government to government and services that they offer.
You can also find a menu button, a button to translate the website into different languages, a search
bar and a sign in/up function. (SSA Government, n.d.)

Attractiveness: I would personally not describe this website as something attractive. Next to some
icons and pictures, there is not much to it. Since the website has solely professional purposes and is
not really used as some sort of marketing method. Thus, lies the purpose of the website closer to
providing information rather than attractiveness towards the visitor. (SSA Government, n.d.)
 G2C: Stad Gent

https://stad.gent/nl

Content: The website Stad Gent is a website that supplies useful information for its citizens and
anyone in need of information concerning Ghent. It is thus a government to consumer website. The
website has a tab with FAQ. When scrolling down, there are place that provide information on the
services that are provided by the Stad Ghent. You can go further by clicking on them, and there you
can find the information to be more in depth. there is unfortunately no way on the website itself to
translate to English, which could be useful for international visitors. (Stad Gent, n.d.)

Authority: The website is administered and monitored by the city of Ghent. It is clear how the
authority is managed, monitored and administered by the Ghent City. The contact is rather a focal
point on the website and are difficult to miss, this includes the phone number email address as well
as openings hours. (Stad Gent, n.d.)

Functionality: There does not seem to be any problem with the functionality of the website. All links
provided on the website seem to be working fine and connected to the correct page. If you need to
find something fast, there is a search bar provided in the middle of the page. Overall is everything very
clear and user-friendly and able to provide information for all ages. (Stad Gent, n.d.)

Attractiveness: I personally find the attractiveness of the website of the city Gent rather average. The
site contains some pictures with a rather plain layout, it is not spectacular but neither unattractive for
the user to look at. (Stad Gent, n.d.)
 G2B: Flanders Investment and Trade

https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/en

Content: The Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) is website created at the government’s initiative for
informing businesses, especially Flemish. The aim of the website is to facilitate investment projects in
Flanders and support Flemish export companies. More specifically, the platform offers to provide
more information about exporting from Flanders, importing to Flanders and investing in Flanders.
However, as opposed to Accenture, no significant information is available on the website, the business
needs to contact FIT through a straightforward contact form. Therefore, the website content is pretty
succinct, it is more platform to offer to enterprises to connect with representatives of the Flemish
Authorities. (FIT, n.d.)

Authority: The website appears to be administer by the Flemish Government. The contact list includes
the HQ in Brussels and also different branches all over the world. (Gov, n.d.)

Functionality: The website is functional. It has a few short articles and explanations to support the
“contact us” function related to one of the three problematics that FIT offers to advise on. There are
6 top menus: services, organization, partners, jobs, contact and One strategy. The last onglet is written
in Dutch even when the language chosen for the website is English. The website is available in six
languages, to be chosen at the bottom of the page. On the main page, there is a corner for “News”
which relate to the Flemish region. The website functionalities are very simple, an effort was made to
organize the little information provided under straightforward top menus. At the bottom of the page,
the usual social medias links can be found along with link to another FIT website which dispatch the
user towards the right platform depending on his business needs, which hold more extensive
information per sector of activity. This can be a critic of the website’s functionality; it would have been
helpful for the visitor to add this link on the top menu bar instead. (FIT, n.d.)

Attractiveness: The website is powered on a platform using recent designs. The colors used are overall
white and soft grey, and blue for the main page and yellow for the “Our services” page. It is neat and
clear, the blue color is associated with collaboration whole the yellow is often used for services
offered, which aligned with FIT offer of advices. The map on the top part of the home page suggest
the international side of FIT. For a G2B website, the attractiveness and straightforwardness can be
appreciated as G2B websites are often crowded with information using an old design and little efforts
are made to organize the information. (FIT, n.d.)
 C2G: Brazil Government

http://www.brasil.gov.br/fale-conosco/fale-com-o-governo
Content: The Gov.br is a portal aiming at easing the communication between the Brazilian government
and its citizen. It has both top to bottom and bottom-up approach as there is a version beta of the
platform under development where citizens will be able to pass on their opinion and advices or
request to the government. By developing this portal, the Brazilian government wishes to gather all
information under one tool in order to facilitate finding secure sources of information in all matters
involving the State, the relationship between citizens and the State, and especially the services for the
citizens and available to citizens. (GOVBR.n.d.)
Authority: The site content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivatives 3.0
Un Adapted license. (GOVBR.n.d.)

Attractiveness: The website is really attractive, especially for a government platform where most of
information are serious or technical. The website keeps a white background but uses joyful colors that
reminds of the Brazilian flags (blue, yellow and green) but also its cultural identity. The design is
modern and dynamic, and it is easy to say that a lot of effort where made for it to be attractive and
intuitive for the users. There is the possible to change the white background for a black background
thanks to the small far right icon, which is really innovative and considerate for the users as is offers a
“night vision” style navigation for those who find the white aggressive, especially at night:
(GOVBR.n.d.)

Functionality: The website aims at gathering all services for citizens in one platform while keeping it
intuitive and straightforward. It is well done as the urgent news are visible on the home page using a
modern design and red color which allows the users to spot it and understand it quickly the content.
The first thing seen when landing on the home page is the wide search function at the center of the
screen which is very useful and straightforward. When scrolling down the page, a few services offered
by the website are presented, highlighting the new ones. Further down, the user has the opportunity
to navigate the services per categories which are represented by straightforward icons. Finally,
reaching the end of the page, one can find the latest news articles, before reaching the interesting
opportunity to express oneself through “denunciation”, “request”, “suggestion” and “praise”. Finally,
the usual social medias icons, site map and terms of use conclude the home page.
On the left-hand side of the website, the menu scrolls down when
clicking offering 10 sub-menus, including “services” which break down
in several sub-menus itself depending on the service that the user is
looking for. (GOVBR.n.d.)
Reflection

As we have become very accustomed with scrolling on the internet, we mostly only scrape the surface
in terms of the usage of the webpage. With this assignment, we had the opportunity to look at
websites through a different lens. The attractiveness of a webpage is something that often catches
the eye, but we never really mind checking up the authority or actually verifying the functionality of
the website. Websites that come from big companies, which I believed had difficult software running
them, appeared to be much simpler, for example the website of Space X.
The teamwork went very smooth, as we were able to divide the tasks evenly between the two parties.
we believe that this assignment has definitely contributed to our researching skills and the method to
use sources when writing a report in APA style.
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