West 6th apartments

Sunay Kandi, Mario Lago

Rough Draft

11/3/12

Burgess- MW-10:30

“West 6^th apartment’s website evaluation”

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Live simply so that others can simply live.” In a time where the most simple of tasks has the power turn into a 3x3 rubics cube, our society needs simplicity now more than ever. Why make something in life more complicated than it already is? For example, a lot of math problems require all this long, hard work when you could just type it in a calculator and get the solution; or when you’re trying to read an instruction manual and the directions have all these unnecessary words and phrases that will just overwhelm the reader. When I try booking my plane tickets, or try finding a good restaurant around town I want a website that I can easily understand and read through.  Making a website and a manual area a lot alike; you need to make the website as simple as possible so more people will be attracted to reading it and getting their task done just like a manual. The West 6^th Apartments located in downtown Tempe has a website that has excellent functionality because it is simple, informative, and yet still luxuriously elegant.

“Smooth as butter” is a phrase that can be compared to the functionality of the West 6^th Apartments website. As soon as one clicks on the West 6^th apartment link you are taken to a beautiful cover photo of Tempe, with a photogenic W6 in front of the red background is more inviting than an open house. After a few clicks on the site you realize how fast the website functions, arrows on the sides of the pictures offer more in depth details, again super easy. The website’s homepage is a screen with slideshow of pictures, already selected on one of the 6 tabs of options on the homepage. The tabs are Unparalleled living (the one that is already selected showing pictures), Tempe Locale, Featured Amenities, Floor plans, Online Application and Resident Portal, and Inquires and Contact. Basically the site functions so well because it is so simple. However the words on the tabs could be a little simpler such as the word “Amenities”. I didn’t even know what amenities meant until I clicked on the tab. Instead of amenities it could have said, “The Features and Benefits”.  On the other hand the West 6^th website has so fewer words, and that is what makes it simple. It is so easy to read because there are a total of less than 20 words on the main page alone. When it is talking about the features of the place it puts the main feature and then lists every little aspect about that feature such as when it talks about the Spa, it says spa features on top then it lists everything about the spa right under: Men and Women’s locker room, Lockers, Showers, Steam rooms, Stand up tanning salon, and a spa lounge. The simplicity of this page gives the reader a lot of information without overwhelming and confusing them. Well organized and simple to read black text over the grey back. It has a modern day touch to it, which is what gives it the simplicity. The application page allows the reader to apply online without having to go in to the place and fill out some long piece of paper. This gives it more simplicity because the reader doesn’t have to get up and go do something to get information about living at west 6^th. This website personally adds more information just solely off of pictures alone, the website advertises West 6^th just by showing the beautiful landscape around Tempe.

            The information presented in the website is so easy to navigate to because everything is well organized. Pictures are worth 1000 words, in this case that couldn’t be more truthful. When going onto the website and seeing that first page gives the reader an idea of everything that can happen at West 6^th by just looking at pictures. It didn’t even have to say any words, or phrases, just pictures of the day and night life that West 6^th has to offer. That’s what the first tab has to offer while the ailments tab shows all the features of west sixth such as a gym, couple theatres, a game room, spa, etc. It even says how many people can be seated in the theater room, or how many conference rooms are in the business center. The information on that page almost gives you a visual of what a room looks like because it lists every little appliance and furniture. It even says which appliances is stainless steel. You don’t even have to look at the first tab of the page to visualize what the room looks like. The information presented on the features page gives the reader a nice sense of imagery. The site aims to create a sense of luxury by showing the amazing views that Tempe has to offer in the Tempe locale tab giving a 360 view of Tempe from West sixth. The view gives the reader of what they are going to see around west 6^th, and lists out restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping places, and transport stations. Although the 360 view could use a night view too instead of just the day 360 view. When looking at a picture of a city at night or evening, it’s a lot more appealing because of the beautiful lights, or maybe the sunset. The sunset in Arizona is absolutely gorgeous and it would convince me to come get a place somewhere here so I can watch it, and west 6^th will provide a great view of that. You also get an idea of the floor plans on the floor plan tab giving you even more information. The resident application tab allows you to apply to be a resident for west sixth. If you ever needed more information, it is even easier to navigate to the contact info page, and submit your own personal information to gain more answers. However the website could have the prices listed on the page for each type of room, which will save time for readers, but it doesn’t. But it still has a lot of other information that is very useful to people. Therefore the website is very informative.

            The elegancy of the website is presented in the way the tabs are organized. When living at a high class place, you expect to see the website of that place to have a lot of elegancy. The West 6^th apartment website meets the needs of this elegancy. They are easy to navigate through, but still in a unique, appropriate way. On the website no matter what page you are on, there is a quote about West 6th on the top of the page that keeps changing quotes. On each tab, a different picture of a room shows up, giving it more elegancy because it fills up the blank space without putting too much visual on the page. The luxury of the place makes the website look luxurious as well giving it elegancy. The 360 view gives more elegancy because the view from top is gorgeous, and grand. The grey background with the black and white font writing is simple, but it doesn’t give the page a sense of elegancy. It could have a fancier font, that’s still legible and appropriate. The number of pictures on the website makes the apartments look so high class, and they are very detailed and clean.  Therefore the website is elegant because info is presented in a unique, appropriate, and clean.

            The West 6^th website is simple, informative, yet elegant. The information and pictures provided on the website is simple; it is easy to read, and the visuals don’t overwhelm the reader. Some of the words could be a simpler, but the simplicity is still kept throughout the pages. The information provided matches with the pictures showing evidence of the elegance of West 6^th. There’s just the right amount of information on each page to satisfy the reader. The elegancy is kept throughout the paper with the pictures, and unique features of the website. With the website being so simple it allows more people to give West 6^th a chance because they are presented with information that is understandable with no hard words or pictures to understand. The websites information allows the reader to get a good idea of all the features of the apartments and this will attract more people to look at West 6^th because they know all the possibilities of what they can do there. The elegance of the website gives the reader an idea of how fancy and clean West 6^th is which is just attractive to the eye and ears so those people who like the visuals and like what they hearing will give West 6^th apartments a chance. These 3 features of the website make it have excellent functionality.