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Animated electronic Greeting Cards are fun to use and very convenient if you're bad about sending regular mail on time. I've chosen www.boomcards.com, wwww.latincards.com, and www.monteazul.com (www.es.bluemountain.com) to compare for this assignment on web design. Latincards and Boomcards are spanish language based, although Boomcards offers english as an option. Boomcards is based in Barcelona, Spain, and is affiliated with Yahoo. Latincards on Latinred (red means web in spanish) is part of the StarMedia Network based in the Americas. Monteazul (BlueMountain) is a service of Excite, and one can choose from a variety of languages. These three sites are very different in design and structure, and they also offer a variety of different services.
Boomcards is very easily navigable. On the left of the front page is a vertical menu with the themes of the cards they offer. There is no clutter on the page, the only images being an advertisement running along the top, and the Boomcard of the week in the center on the page which is diplayed over a white background. Resources such as a search box, switching to english, and registry information are displayed across the top under the title banner. The vertical menu remains on all pages of the site, making it convenient for browsing. This is a very simple design, which makes it easy to know exactly where to look for what you want. All Boomcards are viewed with Flash4, meaning they're animated, and you can also include a song with the card. If you do not have Flash4, on all pages in the site, a plug-in download is an option. You can personlaize each card, adding your own message and song. You can not switch from spanish to english or vice versa, except from the front page. Neilsen discusses this problem in Chapter 7 of Designing Web Usability. Although he does say that it is not very often that a user would want to switch languages after choosing their preference, sometimes the feelings one wants to convey are better expressed in another language. Also, what if a user is directed to a page which is not the front page? How would they know that there is a change language option? The cards offered in english are exactly the same as those offered in spanish, so why not offer the user the choice to switch between languages while viewing the cards? Also, this site is very much Spanish humor/sentiment oriented, although, of course, you have the option of changing the text/audios to fit the feelings you want to express. One very good example of Spanish humor is seen in a card which shows George W. Bush sitting in an electric chair (Spaniards are for the most part against capital punishment). When the Flash4 animation begins, Bush is electricuted and an audio of the "f-word" is played.
Latincards is not designed as "simply" as Boomcards. When accessing the front page, a pop up window allows you to choose from which spanish speaking country you want the cards. This is nice, as expressions of humor, sentiment, condolences, etc., vary from country to country even if the language (spanish) remains the same. The countries include an array from Latin America, North America (Mexico and USA), and Spain. The front page is not organized very well, and has too many animated images in my opinion. There is no vertical menu anywhere on the page; therefore, you have to search the entire page which is set up in a four column, many row, table format on a white background to find the category of card that you want. Once you choose the category and move onto that new page, a vertical menu does appear on the left of the page listing all the other categories. Across the top of the page under the title banner is a horizontal list of services of Latinred; email, chat rooms, searches, classifieds, etc. Latincards also offers a Flash4 option, but the cards are limited and also the process of personalizing these cards is quite confusing and time consuming. Actually, I could not figure out how to personalize one of these cards, although it is supposed to be an option. Latincards provides the ability to create a card with your own photo and include an audio recording of your voice, which neither of the other sites offer. There is no option for changing languages so the target audience is limited to those who understand spanish.
Monteazul (BlueMountain) is designed very solidly. Across the top of the title banner is a vertical listing of all the languages you can choose from (very cool, you can look at cards in chinese, korean, japonese and other languages). On the right is a vertical calendar menu which lists holidays particular to the language and therefore culture which you have chosen. Although this list in in no way comprehensive, it is an option that neither of the other two sites offer. In the title banner there is a drop down menu which lets you look for and select the category of card you want, and automatically takes you to that page when you select. The rest of the front page is clearly set up; two column, five or six row, table without borders against a white background with no clutter and very few images. This site is clearly superior to the other two in terms of content, although as far as design and usability, I'd say it's a toss up with Boomcards. As with Boomcards, Monteazul does not offer the ability to switch between languages after the main page, and therefore encounters the same problems as Boomcards that Neilsen discusses in his chapter on International sites.
All three sites are dispalyed equally in the two browsers I tested (Netscape and Internet Explorer). For an international clientelle, I believe that Monteazul is best designed and has highest usability ease. Boomcards' pages are designed very well, however lack the content and international perspective of both Latincards and Monteazul. I had never heard to Boomcards until a few weeks ago, when a Spanish friend sent me a card. Boomcards began in 1999 when a group of young spaniards designed it to allow people to personalize their greetings and express themselves rather than be limited to what other e-greeting services wrote in their cards. I have always used either Latincards or Monteazul, but am now more tempted to support these innovative and enterprising spaniards by using their service.
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