Thursday Article & Interfaces

I think that graphical interfaces are very important in a technological advanced society. I don't think that the world wide web would have had as much success if it had stuck to one interface.....it wouldn't appeal to the broad range of people with different skill levels, and people would have gotten bored with it after a while. The amount of different interfaces allow people of all skill levels to use the internet and allow people to become more advanced with the internet as they move from one interface to another. I am not as familiar with the interactive interfaces as I am with the other, but because I am very familiar and comfortable with the other interfaces, I see this interactive area as a challenge.

As a business, the use of interfaces can greatly affect their profit and revenues. If they have invested a lot in their online shopping network, then they need to invest a lot into discovering the best interfaces for their customers because if it is too complex, then they risk losing customers and risk losing profit. The easier it is to order from an online company, the better rated the business will be. The website that I looked at was oldnavy.com. It does not have a wizard interface because the time spent going through each individual product to order would take more time than the customer has patience for. It did have a toolbar that let you see a product and change the color and pick out the size for when you bought it as well as zooming toolbar to get a closer look. The product would change on the interface as the mouse would hover over the color square. This is a very important customer tool because customers can see how the product would look after the change. This is a very good way to grow in your e-business. Once you get to the checkout, the interface changes to a wizard design because it has to deal with money and not all customers are computer wizzes. It takes you through the purchasing process step by step as to not miss any crucial information regarding credit cards and such. The interface is user-friendly and designed to give the customer as much convenience as possible.