Legal and Ethical Constraints

Web Accessibility

“Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.” Web accessibility is whether anyone with disabilities whether these disabilities are physical or mental can use websites things that are accessible to people with disabilities can be perceiving, navigation, understanding and interaction with the internet and can people with disabilities contribute to the web. Web accessibility can also help the elderly whilst using the web due to some loses in their abilities down to aging. Examples of web accessibility: People who are visually impaired will need text which is clear and can be read easily, People who are colour blind need colour sheets to view websites the same as people without the disability and people with dyslexia may need coloured sheets to go on top of their monitors and would need the webs font to stand out from the background due to when people with dyslexia have been looking at text for too long the words can flash or disappear momentarily.

Disability Discrimination 

Disability discrimination is “Treating someone with a disability less favourably because of his or her disability act.” If people who have disabilities mental or physical were using a website the people who run and maintain the website have no right to say that people with disabilities are not allowed to use their website, this is because it would breach the disability discrimination act. An example that breached the disability discrimination act was when a company took on an employer who had a prosthetic arm but due to her clothing that she was wearing when she was employed the company didn’t know then after her first day of work the company noticed her prosthetic arm and fired her the same day. Another example of a breach of disability on the internet could be that a website is being used by a blind person and the creators who made the website tell the blind user that because they are blind they cannot use or access the website.

Data Protection

“Data protection act regulates how personal information is used and protects against misuse of personal details.” The data protection act was put in place to protect people’s personal information from being misused by other people, the data protection act also controls how people’s information is used.  The act was started in 1998 this was mainly because of the misuse and use of peoples information before the act was introduced. A fairly recent example of a violation of the data protection act was the hacking of numerous people’s phones and selling the story on to news papers, which was a misuse of other people’s information. An example of a violation of the data protection act might be that someone had hacked into someone’s email or the person’s online bank access point and used the information for their own uses or passed the information on to others.

Computer Misuse

“The computer misuse act of 1990 is an act which makes it a criminal offence to access or attempt to access computer material without proper authority.” The computer misuse act was put into position to make sure that computer are not used to create inappropriate material, but also to make sure that material on computer are only used with the correct authority to do so. Another area that the computer misuse act of 1990 cover and regulates is to modifications of computer materials whilst being unauthorized to do so. An example of a breech on the computer misuse act on the web can be seen from when one individual was fired form their work place, the ex-employee then went on to use their computer to send their ex-boss five million emails. Another breach of computer misuse was when a computer maintenance worker was paid to fix a company’s computer but as they were doing so they deleted the company’s files.

Obscene Publications

“The obscene publications act of 1964 is an act to strengthen the law for preventing the publications for gain of obscene matter and the publications of things intended for publication of obscene matter.” The obscene publication act is put in action to make sure that any materials of an obscene nature which may offend a vast amount of people should not be used, also the obscene publication act regulates any product which may be used within any obscene publications as well as when a product uses obscene contents for publications. An example of obscene publications acts which recently came up in the press, this was when a well known comedian spoke of another celebrities partner and one of the said celebrities children in an obscene manner. An example of obscene publications on the web could be the use of a website to offend other people who they know or speech of public icons in an obscene context.

Web protocols and principal

The website that I am looking at is Shcuch.co.uk. The reasons I am investigating this website is because I often access the website in my own time and I also believe that it is a good example of a website due to its layout and has good assets such as its font families and colour scheme.

Schuh’s Applications

Schuh’s website appears as mainly a marketing application, as it allows Schuh’s consumers to look at their current stock, sales and projects professionalism throughout. With the website being sales based it also brings the consumer gratification because it is allowing the consumer to view shoes that they might at the end of the day purchase to enlighten their mood.  The website is also competitive, this is because it tries to keep ahead of other competing stores such as Office, Scotts and Barrats to gain consumers by showing that it has better prices, more brands and an overall better layout than the other Competitors.

Schuh’s Assets and content

The assets that make up Schuh’s website consist of relevant images. The images that Shcuh uses are of the shoes from almost every angle and what some of the shoes look like when they are being worn. Schuh also uses Graphics in its website the graphics which are the most helpful are the shoe’s branded logos which are found at the bottom of the homepage, this can allow the website user to find the brand they are looking for more easily and can be helpful if the website user doesn’t already know the brands name but does know what the brands logo looks like.  Another one of Schuh’s assets is its animation even though the link is simple it is also eye catching and effective, the animation that Schuh uses is a rollover link which is activated as the web user hovers over an image with their cursor. Another form of animation that Schuh uses is very similar it is found on the main page and it allows users to hover over images near the bottom of the website as they do this the chosen image will not alter but the images which are not relevant darken to allow the user to focus on the image they wish to look at. The text that Schuh uses is mostly the san-serif font Arial, this font is easy to read and is bold, they also use a serif font within small link banners this connotes to the website having sophistication and class.  The font is readable which can be an issue with some serif fonts being more difficult to read. 

Schuh’s Interactivity and Controls

Schuh uses numerous interactive products and controls. One example of transitions is the product display images which change as the cursor is hovering on the image, this makes the website look professional but it is also good for their marketing due to the fact that the user is allowed to see another view without even having to go where the product information and products images from all angles location. Schuh’s website also uses many hotspots one for navigational button which displays text saying sale but unlike the other buttons it is red rather than a black to white gradient, this draws the user’s eyes towards this button due to it standing out from the other navigators. Buttons are used throughout Schuh’s website one consistent use of buttons is the brands, men’s, women’s etc the buttons either allow the user to click on the button for all the relevant products that come under that category, but the buttons at the top also give the user a dropdown box which appears as the user hovers over the button this then allows the user to look at and chose a specific category if they wish.  Events and actions scripting Schuh.co.uk use is the alteration of the mouse as the audience hover over a link, when the user is hovering over a link the mouse will change to show the audience that what they are hovering over is a link and that it will take them to the relevant location on their website.

 Schuh’s Audience

Schuh’s website is very simplistic this makes it easy for the audience to use leaving it with only the basic computer knowledge such as typing, clicking and scrolling on the site so computer experience isn’t much of an issue on Schuh’s website. I believe that the targeted age group is around thirteen years old ranging to in some cases fifty years old, this is mainly due to the generations of the people with younger generations branded products have more appeal as well as the style of products are more aesthetically pleasing to the audience. Where as older generations share the same views as younger generations and prefer there shoes and accessories to simplistic and suitable for everyday occurrence, another consideration with older users is the computing abilities and accessibility that they posses. The accessibility of Shcuh.co.uk Is also not an issue due to factors such as the websites name and that the audience doesn’t have to sign up, due to these two factors the audience is not stop as they enter the website letting the users get straight to what they wish to do also because the website name is short and simple the audience doesn’t have to waste their time typing a longer website name. The language throughout Schuh.co.uk is formal and uses sophisticated wording this allows the audience to receive a feel of professionalism from Schuh.co.uk this make Schuh feel more trustworthy as well, Schuh.co.uk use terminology which relate to the specific way in which their product where made such as the style of stitch work, the material and what type of soles the shoe has. 

Schuh’s Semiotics

Schuh.co.uk uses colour semiotics One example of this is the websites background colour which is white, the colour white connotes a light and clean feel this allows the website to be easy on the eyes also white is the colour of perfection which is what Schuh would like to make their audience believe. Another colour semiotic is the use of a singular red button which has sale written on it, red as a colour is often used to draw attention to something as is its purpose on Schuh’s website this makes the website subtle with grabbing the audiences attention rather than using animation which might make the website look less professional and more tacky. Logo semiotics although the majority of shoe logos are simply the companies names in their signature fonts one brand in particular differs from the rest that are on Schuh.co.uk, the brand which differs is DCshoes which uses a logo which relates to the brand but not with the actual wording but people that know of the brand will know exactly what the logo stands for and means.   

Schuh’s Visual Cues

Schuh.co.uk uses several visual cues. Highlighted text is one of one of the visual cues used, a particular highlighted text visual cue is the drop down boxes which are near the top of their website the boxes start with a white text on a black background but as the user hovers over the box it opens the drop down box and displays the background as white and changes the colour of the text this draws the attention of the audience also within the drop down box the subtitles are displayed as the colour which the font of dropdown box has changed to the also draws the audience’s attention and gives clarity to the audience. Shcuh.co.uk uses a handful of visual cues attracting attention just one of these being the sale dropdown box which is red unlike any other dropdown box, because the dropdown box is red it connotes and represents that something should follow after it is viewed so in this case it is showing that they click on the dropdown box also red is a very bold colour which makes it stand out more so than a lighter colour red is also the colour which is used by most company to represent a sale and will use a red font to do so. Identifying and prioritising are also used in Schuh’s website with the sale symbol in the top left corner of the website, which allows the user to indentify that there is a sale also because the word sale is in a different font it draws attention towards it more.

Schuh’s Form

Schuh.co.uk has a well structured and well laid out, this is down to it firstly being uncluttered I believe that Schuh.co.uk keeps its pages neat and doesn’t have images, text or any other assets which seem out of place. Secondly Schuh use a very consistent layout the consistency can be seen with both its navigators and its display pages, the consistency make the website feel very professional with the display pages they barely change apart from the information which is given on the left hand side about what products come under the brand in regards to the navigators which are displayed near the top never change this allows the audience to easily find their way around Schuh.co.uk. The amount of text and priority of text is to a good standard, for example for each pair of shoes has its on paragraph and the paragraph only consist of relevant text which tells the audience what the shoes of made of and also with some the techniques used to make them.

 Schuh’s Navigation

Schuh use several navigational tools these being buttons, rollover links and hyperlinks. Schuh use rollover links for the shoe display pages, I believe that this is a good navigator due to the fact that it isn’t too flashy and annoying but gives another view point which grabs the audience’s attention subtly and makes the website look more professional. Hyperlinks on Schuh only serve the purpose is to take the audience from one location to another location on the website and does not link to other websites. Although the majority of the site allows the consumer to get where they want to be within three clicks, but if the audience do not know the product name they can be searching through numerous pages to find what they are looking for. Even though the audience might be searching through numerous pages to find a specific product this can be verified, this is because Schuh.co.uk do not fill their product pages with too many images this is due to the fact that don’t want to make the pages have too big a file space which might cause for the audience

 to be waiting for a longer amount of time than they might want to spend searching for products.

Schuh's Usability

Schuh.co.uk uses a simple but effective layout. This is due to factors such as its basic and friendly background and buttons both of which show that it isn’t in the audiences face, also because the majority of the website is white any differently coloured text stands out which is very effective even though it is such a simple process. The format is so simple, easy on the eye and efficient which makes Schuch.co.uk appealing to all the age groups and generations of which Schuh target their website towards

Schuh’s limitations 

Schuh.co.uk is limited in many of its areas, Schuh’s limitations consist of their file sizes, loading time and formats and whether the user will need to install plug-ins. The main limitation for Schuh.co.uk is their file sizes the file sizes can be an issue due to the factor that Schuh.co.uk use many images on their website pages, which store a large amount of memory when the images are all put together on the page. Although Schuh has a decent loading speed it can become slower if Schuh were to add more content like graphic, images, text and navigators to the website, if the website was to become slower at loading the audience might wish to leave the website rather than wait for it to load which would not help Schuh’s marketing or reputation. The final limitation which might effect the audience is the file format and whether the audience will have to download plug-ins, plug-ins can be off putting due to the fact that some web users don’t like to download software when they might be able to get what they want somewhere else with out having to do the download.