Evaluation of Geolearning.com

  
 
Prepared by Steve Giersch
Summary
Evaluation
Suggestions
LIS5362 Spring 2004
 
Evaluation
  Going for a Test Drive  
 

Since I believe that marketing to potential corporate customers is the primary purpose of the site, I would say it serves that purpose very well. The home page aggressively sells their products by displaying an attractive ad for a different product each time you visit the home page or refresh. And of course clicking the ad delivers you straight to a full fledged sales pitch.
If the customer’s Chief Financial Officer drops by to see where all of that money is going, he is naturally drawn in by the invitation to calculate the return on investment. The corporate training director gets help completing an RFP for e-learning, and the merely curious are invited to test drive a course or order an e-learning starter kit.
Other audiences are also served, although less prominently. Those seeking customer support help get a form to fill out, an email address, and a phone number. I must admit that is a bit disappointing from a technology company in a world where online help and online live chat with a support technician are commonplace.
Potential employees with a technical background will notice the use of a Cold Fusion engine in the site, and Flash developers will believe they have found home. One click displays available openings and benefits.
The learners? Apparently you have to look deep under the cover to find anything that really benefits them. What lies hidden behind the login is known only to paid subscribers.

  
 
Pop Goes the Focus		  
 

This site does suffer from a bit of busyness, which takes away from any kind of central focus. Particularly annoying is the popup that jumps out at you every time you go to the home page. First, pop ups are just that-annoying. Second, the popup obscures one’s view of what is probably intended to be the central focal point of the home page. Once you dismiss the popup, though, your attention is immediately drawn to that central graphic advertising one of their products. The parade of company names flashed in the “sweet spot” of the page, apparently intended to show that they have a lot of customers, takes away from that focus, however. Combine that with the Flash logo at the top left and yes, even a Flash lover like me is slightly overwhelmed.

  
 
Smooth Sailing		  
 

I think navigation is one of the strengths of the site. An incredible amount of material is made available from the home page. Surrounding the central image is an array of “come hither” buttons, each using either an action verb or a descriptive label that tells you exactly what to expect. No mystery meat here. And the mouse-over menus on the left menu bar reveal even more content. It seems that you can get to almost anywhere in the site with only one mouse click. If you aren’t sure where you want to go, the prominently placed Search tool lets you select categories to search.

  
 

Typography
  
  There is a little too much mixture here for my tastes. I would like to see a little less use of italics in the site. I do like the fact that text links are not underlined until you roll over them. In addition, the use of CSS provides style consistency from page to page.
  
 
Boxed In		  
  Nice use of alignment to maintain that central focus on the home page. By right-aligning the left column and left-aligning the right column, they provide a nice frame for that central graphic. The home page designer might want to offer some help to the person responsible for the Trade Shows page because that page is a little ragged by comparison.
  
 
Feeling Good		  
  Although some would consider their extensive use of Flash a bit over the top, I feel it is tastefully done, and nearly every element on the home page invites action and interest on the part of the user. This site is also a good example of how the corporate world sees e-learning. In a way it is the same way they have always seen learning. Corporate decision makers see training through the lens of dollars and cents, as I suppose they should. They tend to equate training with motivation, and motivation with flashiness and “feel good” activities, and I suppose they should not. But we will discuss that on my suggestions page.
  
 
Strategic Proximity		  
  Geolearning makes use of Proximity on their Strategic Partners page to categorize the various types of strategic partners using white space between groups. The Searchable Course Catalog page does a nice job of using both alignment and proximity to differentiate the Keyword search from the Media Type and Topic search.
  
 
Repeat After Me		  
  The word e-learning is repeated in nearly every navigation button. This leaves no doubt what this site is about. The similar appearance of all members of each of the three main groups of navigation buttons on the home page helps to both create a pleasing repetitive effect as well as categorize the buttons.
  
 
Fast Mice 		 
  The stark black and white contrast of the top navigation bar makes it stand out, as well as separates the title bar above it from the content area below it. The hot red mouse depicted on the About Geo page contrasts with the cool colors used elsewhere, drawing attention to the meaning of the matching e-learning at full velocity header.