Arketi’s Site of the Week is back and ready to critique another website. Fret not, it’s also a short read this week.

This week we are looking at http://www.tunnelbravo.com.

What I really like about this site is the user experience. Click on the work examples and notice the affect on the page layout. Yet another effective use of JavaScript.

Another feature worth pointing out on this site is the stationary background. I’m seeing more of this and I think it’s a cool effect and a good way to ensure consistent brand identity on a site.

Bonus site:
For fun, check out http://unsuck-it.com. Have you ever been in a loss for non-jargon for your business correspondences? UnSuckIt is the site for you.

In this week’s Arketi Web Watch post, we look at Firstdata.com. Though the website certainly is well designed, there are several elements that need to be taken into consideration.

Homepage
The homepage is absolutely gorgeous. However, with the exception of the navigation, logo and footer, the entire homepage is in Flash. This is not SEO friendly at all, nor is it supported on most mobile devices. In fact, a lot of what is Flash on this homepage could be achieved using JavaScript or HTML 5 without losing much of the pizzazz, if any at all.

For instance, check out the unobtrusive “dashboard” feature at the top of the page.  In it’s collapsed, default state, it appears as a discreet ticker. When opened it becomes a scrollable pane of attractive, semi-interactive charts with a “subscribe” call-to-action (CTA) always present. Equally important, the main feature and navigation are not obstructed nor pushed below the fold when the dashboard is expanded.

The homepage main feature does quite a bit of heavy lifting as it serves as an overview for FirstData’s six service areas. The functionality to toggle between the six service areas could be a bit more obvious, but each story is so well paced and structured, that it is forgivable. The pay-off screens to each overview have engaging content such as videos as well as CTAs for white papers and press releases. My one complaint – I wish you could skip right to the pay-off screens. As nice as the Flash is, if I were a repeat visitor I would want to be able to skip the fluff and get right to the more valuable content. (more…)

In this installment of Arketi Web Watch we taking a look at Starbucks.com. The Starbucks site does a few things very well. However, like many large consumer sites, there are numerous design inconsistencies.

Let’s dive in.

There are some really nice things happening above the fold on the homepage. The global navigation has gorgeous typography; it’s so good that the tiny navigation descriptions are an asset and not a distraction. But it’s the navigation behavior that really shines on this site. Check out the drop menus, not only are they visually pleasing, but they have Calls to Action. One more time, the drop menus have Calls To Action!  As a veteran Web designer, I found myself saying, “why didn’t I think of that?” This is certainly something that I’d like to see become an industry standard. (more…)