Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Some observations while browsing for a book

While browsing for a book, I came upon www.teachyourself.co.uk.

First thing I noticed was the 4 large rotating books near the bottom of the home page. This made me think - are these the only books on offer, or do I need to browse for more? I feel this thought came about because the section had no heading telling me (below there is something that vaguely resembles a heading - below?).

From here, I instantly recognised the bright yellow panel to the left as a menu. Science was what I was after. Up came a page with a big white space in the middle, bordered to the right to several thumnails of books. Looking for something to click straight away, I click a thumbnail (I choose randomly, clicking a book which vaguely represents what I'm after). Nothing happens. A thumbnail that isn't clickable - now that's something.

So I'm forced to think - how do I get a list of books this company produces?

I look at the page a little closer. The two identical page headings throw me, but a under I see the link I want.

To purchase a book I see in the PDF catalogue, I need to go back to the Science page, read instructions (on a good note - they're short and to the point), and manually copy the ISBN to another web site.

Well, that's how to buy a book. Not exactly hard in the grand scheme of things, but could be so much more simple. For a start, the PDF file should be replaced by a HTML list of books in the Science category. A link to the ordering page should be included in the HTML book listings, if it is not feasible to order the book directly from the Teach Yourself web site. A PDF catalogue should be made available for printing.

www.teachyourself.co.uk has plenty on opportunities for improvement.

1 comment:

>^,,^ said...

Hi John,

Teach Yourself is a strange site and I agree with your observations... I really wanted to click on the animated gifs to get to the books. Then I tried the yellow nav menu but that only brings up a pdf.

The navigation is all very unexpected for an online bookhouse and it is only when you open the "How to order" page, then go to the Hodder Education search page that you can then order by typing in the codes... a very convoluted process!
I wonder why they do not have a click through online order system? (and how many customers they loose by not providing one!)
cheers,
Meryl