Technical Blog: My Three Favorite Sites
eBay
This is one of my all-time favorite websites. My eye is drawn to the colorful eBay logo and to the search box on the page. This probably is the most important area of the site. I would describe it was as fun, organized, clean, consistent, and colorful.
This site is used for online shopping. The site allows for anyone to buy and sell things online easily. The content on the main page is comprised of items for sale on eBay that would appeal to their user based on their previous purchases as well as other items.
It is very easy to find what you are looking for because the search tools are extremely customizable. I personally think it is actually easier to implement search filters on eBay than on Amazon (by price, category, and specifics within each category). Each page is fairly intuitive to use as it maintains a consistent theme across all pages.
After being on the site for a while, I still want to search for more things! I find it really fun to use, and I feel kind of proud of myself for being an eBay ninja who is capable of finding really good deals and never having to drive to the store to get things. I buy lots of stuff on eBay because it is extremely functional on a practical level, and visually appealing and clear.
Although this is the biggest search engine and the best-known tech company in the world, when I searched my heart, Google really, truly is my favorite site. It's incredibly user-friendly, clean, and more effective at finding the information you are looking for than going directly to a particular site-a lot of the time, anyway. It manages to contain an amazing amount of customizability and information without looking cluttered. It is intuitive to use. Its main page is simple and not visually over-stimulating.
Google's main page is like no other site's main page. It's just the Google icon and the search bar. That's it. It's the only thing that you see, giving it a clean appearance. It's also very fun (especially with the occasional Google doodle). If you compare to other search engines, Google is by far the least annoying visually. Yahoo, for example is completely cluttered, which a little search bar at the top. It is ugly and over-stimulating. Google understands that and keeps it simple.
Here's how I see Google, and why I love it so much: it filters through all of the poorly organized websites that exist and actually finds the relevant information. If I wanted to find the address of La Belle Day Spa (or some other place), I would go to Google and type "La Belle Day Spa address" and see it immediately. It would actually take longer to navigate to the LaBelle website and find the address of the location I want than to just use Google.
It is easy to browse through the results, whether looking in web or images. It is also the best way to look for videos. I never look on YouTube, I look on Google Video. That will include YouTube results and other video players (such as Vimeo, and every other non-YouTube video player).
If I get into a compulsive Googling rabbit-hole (which I often do), I still find it fun. It is an amazing why to find new things and make the information on the Internet even more easily accessible. I believe Google is a playground for knowledge and creativity!
In terms of user-interface design, Facebook has a very clean, streamlined look. The first thing that stands out is the blue "f" icon.
The entire site is laid out very well. It is intuitive to use, and easy to navigate to friend's pages. Because Facebook actually limits the amount of customizability (everyone's page is still blue, the exact same format) it makes it look cleaner. At the same time, being able to add your own photo makes the user feel like they can customize and make it their own, without making it look terrible like MySpace. It that sense, Facebook is able to strike a very good balance.
