Souq.com and Hunger Station Evaluation

The majority of websites and mobile applications are tools created for business purposes. The former should be appealing and easy to use in order to attract customers at first sight. Therefore, developers usually incorporate different functionalities based on the client requirements, for example, customized design, technologies used, accessibility, content, originality, user accessibility, ratings and reviews, customer care services, social media integration, and others. Thus, a good website or application should meet a number of standards to prove their functionality. To analyze the aforementioned functionality criteria, Souq.com and Hunger Station websites applications will serve as examples for evaluation.

Souq.com

This e-commerce website deals with the sale of electronics, clothes, appliances, and books. It offers purchase services and also gives customers a chance to sell their products on the same platform. The analysis of the website lies on the following aspects.

Accessibility

The website is well accessible on different platforms. It loads quickly in the computer browser as well as in the mobile one, which gives a customer a positive experience when using various gadgets. In the Mozilla Firefox and Chrome windows browser, the site has a good resolution, and all the images and content fit perfectly well. In the Safari browser for the Macintosh operating system, the website is apparent too and loads perfectly well. The site uses English as the primary language, which prompts a considerable amount of international users to access it and shop as well. The website’s easy accessibility and simplicity are the advantages for its users.

Design

The design of the website imposes a shopping behavior to customers that can potentially become its regular visitors. The website has a menu bar with submenu options that are the links to different pages. This saves time for a user, when he/she is searching for an item while shopping. On top of the menu bar, there is a search field that gives the user the comfort of one-click search (Bakewell & Mitchell, 2003). The website has a track order option just on the top of the menu bar aimed to help customers find out the shipping details and location of the ordered products. The shopping cart is also set where it is visible to the visitors of the website.

If the user minimizes the browser, the main contents remain intact, and they adapt to any browser size. On a tablet the information is explicit as well as on the mobile phone. The Internet Explorer, as opposed to other browsers such as Chrome, does not properly display the content. The former does not support some of the fonts on the website, thus, making it look not so good to the user who has had an experience of visiting the website in another browser.

Content

The content of the website is well-arranged and visible to the user At first glance, the visitor will regard it is an e-commerce website that sells a wide range of commodities. The content of the website is inviting to people from different layers of society with various interests. The items are well-arranged and grouped in a number of categories. The user can assure of the accuracy of the content due to the correct linking of each piece to its class as well as to the accurate pricing of the different commodities.

The priority of the content is also present on the website, as the primary products are on the homepage to save the visitor time when searching for an item. The pictures on the website prove to be of a good quality that gives the user all the information he or she wants from this source.

The content is functional in delivering an online shopping experience through the purchase of the pictured items and making the payments online. The currency used for shopping on the website is the Saudi Arabia riyal, which is convenient for local users. However, the website should have included other currencies like the United States dollar, which is a widespread currency.

Technological Aspects and Interactivity

Contemporary technical elements of souq.com include online tests, surveys for the website, chat rooms where customers can interact, and messaging and bulletin boards where the website can pin its news and information. The interactivity of the website reflects the possibility for the user to choose either English or Arabic language. The website should add more language options like French, which is a widely used language, thereby improving the technological aspect.

Creativeness

The website has a sense of originality despite functioning in a field with a great number of websites of the same kind. It gives an option for the visitors to sell their own products on the same website, hereby, implementing creativity. In the slider, there is a negative aspect where the website displays a photo of Amazon products with the Amazon watermark. Amazon is a renowned e-commerce website and a competitor to this website as well.

User Account

Creating a user account is comfortable on this website, as it only requires an email address and personal details. The problem appears when the user enters his/her area or region as it mostly caters to people in the Middle East countries.

Rating and Reviews

The ratings and reviews are genuine. The positive and negative comments are in line with the user experiences on the site. The customer ratings are entirely fair, and so are the comments.

Customer Service

Customer service on a website is imperative, especially on the websites that buy and sale goods and services. In the case of souq.com, there is an excellent customer service that copes with questions within a short period of time. Social media platforms like Facebook respond quickly to customer questions to enhance the customer’s satisfaction.

Advertising

The successful advertising strategy on social media platforms entails search engine optimization. When the user types the name of the website on the Google search bar, he/she will get the link to this website among the first results. Moreover, the site has a newsletter subscription that helps to advertise itself as well as the products on it.

Social Media Integration

The website has social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. All these social media accounts have icons just above the footer of the website. These accounts provide more information about the website and also create a platform for customer interaction.

Hunger Station Mobile Application

This mobile application caters for the android and iOS users to find the nearest restaurant where they can satisfy hunger. This ordering food service operates only in Saudi Arabia.

Accessibility

The mobile application is accessible after downloading it from the play store for the android users. The usage experience is not very successful because the mobile app only works after a few attempts. A mobile application should have the capability to load quickly, which is not in this case (Hasan, 2016). The application does not have a help menu, which assists people of a low educational background. The resolution in the mobile application is appealing.

Design

Hunger station mobile application has an excellent welcome image, but does not go further than that. In comparison to other existing food ordering applications, this one does not meet the generally accepted principles. Nevertheless, it has a good Google map locator to check the restaurants in the neighborhood.

Content

The mobile application does not have an ample content, though it has four panels of the menu that include a restaurant, orders, offers, and the last column that holds the live chat and settings menu. It is not informative enough, so that people with a low educational background may not know how to use the application. The pictures in the food menu fulfill the objectivity of the website and the currency used is Saudi Arabia riyal.

Technological Aspects and Interactivity

The mobile application has very few technological aspects. It has a chat room where you can give your feedbacks and interact with other customers, which is not enough regarding the technological aspects. At least, it is essential to add bulletin boards as a tool for customers to read news on the new food menu.

Creativeness

The mobile application lacks originality as well as creativity. The food menu should come first to make it more appealing to the customers, thereby being an important field to use creativity.

User Account

The mobile application does not give a chance to create a personal account. When ordering food, you only need to register your mobile phone number and get an order ticket. A user account in such applications gives a possibility to provide security of personal details, ease food ordering service, and save ordering information.

Rating and Reviews

The rating of the mobile app is four stars, which is overrated and does not coincide with the reviews. Most reviews contain complains and customer dissatisfaction with the mobile application and the poor services.

Customer Service

The customer service in the application is inadequate and does not respond to customer issues quickly. The effect of customer care dishonesty draws customers away from the business application, which they reflect in their reviews.

Advertising

The mobile application is supported by its principal website https://hungerstation.com/en that gives it an advertising platform. Advertising builds even customer trust and keeps customers in check (Hahn et al., 2009). The social media accounts on the website also give an advertising platform for the application.

Social Media Integration

The application does not offer any social media links, which makes it hard for the users to identify the social media platform to interact in and give reviews.

Conclusion

Souq.com website and Hunger Station application meet some of the requirements that make them functional. Specifically, Souq.com is accessible, has good design and contemporary technology since it fully satisfies the clients’ needs. Furthermore, the website incorporates social media platforms as well as user accounts, and customers can log in and make an order. Among other functionality aspects, Souq.com has implemented the majority of them. On the other hand, Hunger Station meets some of the requirement such as the advertisement, creativity, accessibility, and social media platforms. However, the application lacks the possibility to create user accounts.

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