Hi Lizardnation
Having dabbled in the field of web site design, I hope I can give you
a comprehensive review both from the layman's point of view and that
of someone with a little technical knowledge.
Accessing the page with a 56K modem connection the page loaded almost
instantly which is always a good start, few users are likely to have a
connection speed much slower than that. Superficially the layout of
the page is logical and simple to navigate with the functional and
user-friendly navigation bar in the left-hand frame.
Before looking in depth at the site content I tested it in 800x600
monitor resolution instead of the increasingly common 1024x768 mode.
This introduces a horizontal scroll bar which must be used to view all
of the 'Web Features' right hand frame and might be seen as a slight
design flaw. However, the page is still perfectly usable and I would
not count that as a major negative point.
The addition of small images next to the links giving access to
sub-pages of each major section gives the page a more user-friendly
feel, but they would benefit from being linked to the target page.
Looking first at the 'Students and New Graduates' section, given the
volume of information to be presented I thought that the page was very
successful in breaking it down into manageable sections. When
presented with a page of text at the base level of each category, the
use of related images to break up the paragraphs made for an easier
read and increased the visual interest of the page.
Under the 'Areas of Employment' subsection, I thought the summary
table was a good idea to explain which fields are open to people with
which qualifications. Having specified a particular field, the
explanations of the work involved were helpful and sold the company
well. As a student myself, the online application form and facility
to upload a CV under the 'Apply' section provide a strong
encouragement to apply for a position with Shell.
Moving on to browse the 'Experienced professionals' pages, the
geographical breakdown of positions vacant improved the usability of
the section. Again, the explanation of the skills required and work
involved in each job was very thorough. Some details of the payment
package available would maybe attract more interest from prospective
employees though.
Not having a particularly extensive knowledge of Shell, I found the
'About Shell' section very informative although I suspect that the
'News and Library' articles linked to were aimed at more of a business
reader than I provided. From the user-friendliness point of view, I
found it slightly irritating that when following the link to 'About
Shell', the navigation menu completely changed and displayed the
sub-menu for 'Our Performance' despite the fact that this was not the
page being displayed. I suspect that this is an issue for the Shell
site as a whole, and not specific to the 'Careers and Recruitment
section'.
I would definitely agree with alienintelligence-ga in the suggestion
that a clickable map interface would benefit the 'Shell Worldwide'
page. Other than this, listed sites were functional and logically
placed.
The help section of the site was brief and to the point. I thought it
could maybe be a little more comprehensive, although for any
reasonably experienced internet user I would have difficulty to think
of any other potential areas of trouble.
Overall I found the 'Careers and Recruitment' pages to be very
user-friendly and hope my positive review reflects this. One comment
on the Shell.com site as a whole which has been remedied on the C & R
section is that the page title reflects solely the full page web
address instead of a more expected 'Welcome to Shell.com' or the like.
I hope that this answer has been useful to you; if you would like any
further detail or clarification please do not hesitate to ask.
mcfly-ga |
