Kevin+Van+-+Critique

Kevin Van Critique of www.hotels.com

The hotels.com website has a very appealing and "open" layout. The main page has the input for the hotel search, icons for special deals, and navigation tabs. The main reason someone would visit this website is to book rooms at a hotel and I think the page does a good job at making the search inputs the first thing a user sees. They are located on the top left of the main page, making it very natural for a reader of English to focus on first. However, I feel that there should be a bit more focus on the search functionality than there is right now. There is a totally unnecessary (in my opinion) section stating hotels.com's "Promise to You" that is taking away precious screen space that could have been used for the search options. The webpage feels very credible, especially for users that recognize the cartoon spokesperson from hotels.com television commercials. In addition, the domain name even adds a bit of credibility to the website as trivial as that may be. Overall I believe the website is easy to navigate and visually appealing in a minimalistic way.
 * High level concepts -**

The search menu on the main page has a nice calendar for the check in/out dates. This definitely prevents erroneous inputs. Unfortunately, the calendar lacks keyboard functionality making it not entirely accessible. Most of the site is consistent in layout and design however there is a problem when you click the "Packages and Flights" link in the navigation tabs. The layout of that page is completely different and the navigation tab actually changes completely. This is completely unintuitive and it goes against the users mental model of the webpage. Once on that page, you have to navigate to another tab to be able to reach the rest of the website, thus defeating the purpose of the navigation tabs. In addition to this, the check in/out dates portion on this page has a calendar that functions differently than the one on the main page. On the "Packages and Flights" page clicking either check in or check out produces a calendar displaying a single month while on the main page, clicking on either check in or check out produces a calendar that displays two months at a time. The writing style throughout the website is very concise and diction is not over complicated. This allows the web site to communicate well with a wide range of users.
 * Mid level aspects -**

The colors used on the site are mainly white and red and provide good contrast and visibility. The color scheme is consistent with one exception. The background on the "Packages and Flights" page is completely different, making it feel almost entirely disconnected from the website. Text that is meant to grab the user's attention is sufficiently large and legible. Also it is apparent what text is meant to be a link to another page. Overall I believe that hotels.com succeeds in providing an appealing, minimalistic design and I don't see too many flaws with the low level aspects of their design.
 * Low level items -**