Blog post 4

Web Usability

This blog post speaks about suggestions for improving the web usability of 2 sites. The first site is the web site of Bath and the second is the web site of Newcastle-upon-Tyre. I’ll describe and analyze each web site hence several sections and line items of Web usability.

The first section is Accessibility; this section contains not only traditional accessibility issues, but anything that might keep a visitor from being able to access the information on the web site. The site load-time was reasonable; text to background contrast was adequate and front size easy to read for both of the web sites. However for the web site of Newcastle the Flash and Add-ons weren’t used sparingly, indeed the home page was too cluttered. I think that this web site should take away some of the new technologies from the home page and make it more simple. Moreover both of these web sites haven’t a custom not-found page. It could be a god idea to one to guides visitors to content.

The second section is about Identity. A key question when someone first comes to your site is “Who are you?” and it’s important to answer it quickly. Logos companies were prominently placed, in the left corner on the top of the page. Home pages were digestible in 5 seconds, but for the web site of Newcastle one part of the home page was quite longer ( online booking option ). I think that a good think could be to make it less sophisticated because we have to keep “speed” in mind. Visitors need to get just the basic of the home page in few times. It’s also important to provide clear path to company information. For example with the good old “about us” page. The site of Bath uses it but I think it’s too short; visitors need an easy way to learn more about the company. My point of view is that this web site should provide more information or more complete.

The third section speaks about Navigation, as we know information architecture is a huge topic but some basics points cover it. The main navigation was easily identifiable but I think that the number of buttons should be reduced for both of these web sites. More than seven menu items could be confusing for visitors. And links need to be consistent and easy to identify, it’s not really the case for the web site of Newcastle. Indeed, the orange color isn’t really appropriate (blue should be better) and the fact is that there was a difference with the home page where black text was also a link. I think that only one color should be used. One other point is the site search which was good for both of them.

The last section focus on the content, it needs to be consistent, organized and easy to skim through. This section was quite ok for both of these web sites. However one point could be better of the web site of Newcastle, advertisings and pop-ups are obtrusive and not relevant for the content (for example ads about win 200£). It should be avoid and others ads more discreet.

So these web sites present some cons which should be changed in pros.

Blogpost 3

Social Media Marketing

This video was filmed last year. It was during the European Cities Marketing (ECM) annual conference held from June 9 to 12 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The main topic of the conference was “Social Media”. This video presents a study about the Success Factors in Social Media Marketing – state of the art. The presenters gave hands on advice about how to best apply social media marketing in order to achieve the goals set according to according to one’s business objectives. Social media are the new most important phenomenon of web 2.0. It provides customers the opportunity to share information. However it also provides supplies businesses to increase their sales volume, their profits and attract customers. It’s a new way to promote destinations and marketing tools could help them to reach this goal.


The study which was presented, investigates the success factors of social media marketing. Firstly the presenters define the study framework based on 14 interviews. The study participants are from different countries such as: Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Croatia, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland. This study shows Social media adoption by CTOs. Several questions from the interviews give some answers about motivators to engage in social media, types of social media platforms used or the time spend by CTOs in social media marketing research. The main motivators to engage in social media are the interaction with customers, also all feedbacks, get a modern image, share information and the most important is the fact that hence social media we have a direct contact with customers. Social media platforms which are used are various. We have the basic social media platforms: “Facebook”, “Twitter”, You Tube”, and “Flickr” and some others such as “Own Blog”, or “Tripadvisor”. Usually CTOs use in average 5 tools and spends more or less 10 hours per week in social media marketing research. So presenters conclude this session with three different levels:


· Level 1: They invest up to 2 hours per week for social media marketing research and they are experimental social media users.


· Level 2: They follow a predefined media social media strategy and invest up to 10 hours per week for SMM (social media marketing)


· Level 3: They invest more than 10 hours per week and use social media strategy in line with the overall strategy. This is the highest level.


Secondly a Social Media Controlling Framework has been developed to measure the indicators of success. It helps us to understand the progress toward reaching organizational goals and thereby business objectives. The presenters in this session make a distinction between “Manageable Success” and “Success beyond Control”. The first one means that it can be directly influenced by the management contrary to the second one. Manageable Success provides several opportunities: we can deliver information for a very specific target market, build a relationship and get a direct contact with the channel dis/reintermediation. The concept of “Success beyond Control” integrates recommendations, Buzz Building, Image creation, Opportunities caused by natural events or circumstantial factors. Furthermore the presenters give more details about the implementation of strategies or scenarios in each of the three previous levels.


To conclude, they tried to answer at the following question: Social media, what’s next? And the main idea was about more integration. We have an example with new generations of social media like the augmented reality.

561 words

Social Media Integration

Nowadays the number of cyber surfers doesn’t stop to grow up, and social media have consequently an impact stronger than few years ago. The two sites I’ve chosen to analyze are the website from St Moritz and the website from Graz.
Firstly the site from St Moritz tries to integrate social media. I think it could be an advantage to use social media, because most of people use them to find information, videos or pictures etc… And it could be a link between past and future travelers for St Moritz. On this website cyber surfers can find a link for the facebook page or the twitter page. For example on these pictures we can see the buttons to have the link. And I think that the small logos are a good idea because it’s easier to see or find them.(Picture)

However the website of St Moritz doesn’t have some buttons or widgets to directly share pictures on our own facebook page, and I think the city should think of it. The best part of this website was the fact that it integrates other social media than facebook, in particular “Tripadvisor” or “Flickr Photo”… On these platforms travelers can share ideas, photos, videos, advices. I mean Tripadvisor is a famous platform to get some comments or personal advices. And the fact is that all these social media are easy to find because their logos (links) are in the bottom of the home page. (Next picture ).

 My point of view is that social media could be advertising for the cities that use them. Moreover on St Moritz website travelers can use their mobile phone to get information, because there is a mobile version of the site. And it’s called “Mobil Portal”. For example on the following picture we can see the Mobil Portal page.

This site stands out from the others sites because one of the social media used on it is the social media “Delicious page”. This site is the only one which purpose several social media platforms links.


I think that the integration of social media is linked to the new trends and the image of the town perceived by travelers. I mean for example St Moritz is known as an attractive and active city so that’s why the website needs to integrate social media, to get the attention of young people and also future tourists.


Contrary to St Moritz site, the website of Graz doesn’t really integrate social media. On this website cyber surfers can only find a link with the facebook page. I think that only one social media isn’t enough and Facebook is so different than Tripadvisor. So it could be better to have both. But the good point on this website is that cyber surfers can share pictures or etc and print them in real time hence too the facebook widgets (following picture).

I think it’s beneficial for the website because if people share it all their social media contacts can see it and so on.
To conclude, in most of my sites social media aren’t integrated as well except facebook or twitter pages links. I think it’s essential to have social media links in these sites because we know that nowadays electronic world of mouth is the most popular influenced factor to choose a destination.

Photosynth

Site of St Moritz: http://www.stmoritz.ch/en/

Positive Aspect:

- The best part of this site is the fact that we have general informations about the city. In the "village Page" we have the Portrait page and  Spirit and History.
Here we can find informations about the history of the city, for example with the pioneering spirit we have the development of St Moritz. I think that travelers or tourists like to know where they travel.

Negative Aspect:

- The weak point of this site is the lack of visitors comments. There is no comments page where future travelers can see past travelers's opinion.
And in my opinion, sometimes it's nice to have some advice from people who live here or past travelers. But we have a link for facebook and twitter page, so I think that we can have some comments in these pages.

Site of Newcatle-upon-tyre: http://www.newcastlegateshead.com

Positive Aspect:

- All informations about the entertainment, the Food and Drink and Attraction are complete. we can find a lot of things to do and this site give all informations about the places to visit or things we can do. I mean in the page "Things to do" for example we have details about Sopping, Attraction, Food and Drink, Entertainment, Night life, or Sport and Activities.

Negative Aspect:

- The multimedia page is disappointing. We can download all pictures in the Image Library but we don't have videos. And there isn't also a 360°view of Newcastle.

Site of Graz: http://www.graztourismus.at

Positive Aspect:

- The best part of this site is the multimedia page. This site publish a lot of pictures which are downloadbled, and some files with videos. Moreover, we can find a 360° look aroun Graz to have a perfect idea of the city and a great perspective/view.

Negative Aspect:

- The weak point of this site is the fact that they don't purpose special offers or discounts. And ther is no Shop online so I think it could be interesting and beneficial to have one.