Critique_Palma

=Critique of BookIt=

Low-level Items
Overall, the site uses a minimalistic approach: Nothing too flashy or too cluttered. The gray background of the main navigation bar contrasts well with its white labels. A distinguishing green background allows the selected tab to stand out. Bookit uses a standard sans-serif font making it easy to see. I found that at some points the site uses a green font while keeping the white background. This can be a little harder to read than the majority of text (dark gray on white background). I would suggest using a thicker font (or just making the current font bold) so that the links don’t get lost in the background. The font and color schemes are fairly consistent throughout: green for links, blue for their best deals, black/dark gray for everything else. For the most part, hovering over UI elements provide the user with visual queues that he/she is or is about to interact with an object: The main navigation bar glows green and drops down a relevant menu, links turn darker, boxes in the search form enlarge. The site’s layout is familiar and easy to use. As soon as the user loads the site, she/he is presented with a link to the site’s most lucrative deal in the top right, followed by some branding and support information. A navigation bar stretches horizontally near the top of the screen; a place the user is likely to associate navigational content.

Middle-level Aspects
I thoroughly enjoyed that each search result has two links in the top left: Hotel Details and Search Dates. This introduces a consistent method to perform common tasks. The Hotel Details link is exactly that: A page with more information on the hotel. The Search Dates button, however, moves the search form from the left panel to the area under the button. While it is neat to not have to navigate to another page to enter search information, the idea falls short in execution. The page does not automatically populate the “To” field with the nearest airport/city to that hotel. The easiest way to find out which airport is closest is to click on the Hotel Details link. Simply filling in the “To” field would bring much more functionality to this button. Bookit does error handling in the form of suggestions. When the user begins to type into the “From” or “To” fields in the search form, he/she is presented with a list of suggestions. This reduces errors because the user is able to recognize instead of recall airport/city names. Another nifty feature is the “x” on the right side of the “To” and “From” boxes that allow the user to clear the entirety of the box.

High-level Concepts
The site encourages users to explore its content by offering customer support should something go wrong or need clarification. Navigating the site is intuitive. Important links can be found either on the left side of the screen or in the navigation bar at the top. Using colorful tabs above the search form is a clever way to keep the user from jumping from page to page while still making it clear that the nature of the search has changed. However, it would have been even better if the color of the “Search” button also changed to reflect the color of the active tab. When it is time to search for dates for a specific hotel, Bookit provides a highly useful calendar widget that allows the user to visually select a date range. The calendar is color coded (based on price of a date) so it is easier for the user to select a time frame that is both cheap and convenient.