Asthetics and design of websites I use a lot

(OOPS! Just realized I did not add the actual urls of the sites I am talking about on this entry. So here is the update. They are, ebay.com and miracosta.edu.) Oddly enough when I thought about the sites I use frequently to assess their usage of web design and branding principles the first one that came to mind is you tube and the first thing I thought is well they're messing up I don't see a single social media badge on their page. Ha ha ha, well duh ofcoarse not. I like to go to ebay to shop around so lets look at them. Overall I must say I can't see a lot of room for improvement with them. They have made their site properly. Their logo appears on every page, the navigation is consistent making it easy to find your bearings even when sifting through all kinds of auctions, excellent alignment. I thought that their proximity was good on everything too especially for their being so much user uploaded content which just shows how well they planned for all of the usrsupplied variable that would be generated by their site. Their hierarchy is well thought out and helps one to stay oriented and focused on their pursuit. Ease of use? I can't see it gettin much easier. The only thing they might add is a style guide similar to the one from this weeks lectures for people intending to auction off items so that they can make the most use of the design potential of their auction page. Overall, a great site by a company that has been at it for a long time. Next lets look at Mira Cost Colleges website. Honestly if I am going to reference websites I actually use typically these are about it. So at first glance the website seems appealing. This is because they have taken great care to desin it with a color scheme that pops. The no smoking symbol being displayed so prominently right on the front page is a bit of a turn off though. not really what I want to be captivated by. But that image oscillates to other images most of which are much more fun and feature people activley engaged in fun things or pictures of the collage which is an excellent way to bring a sense of connection between the asthetic and the target audience that they intend to appeal to. Again logo on every page, navigation consistent and predictable and the alignment of everything makes it clear that they are a proffession quality website. The hierarchy makes everything apparent and that is crucial for feeeling tht you can quickly assess the content on every page. The amount of content featured on every page is consistently well done, not too much, not so little that they are missing depth in encapsulating the info they mean to cover. The only room for improvement that I can see is that their contact info is not displayed prominantly enough and any time I've gone their to find a specific link to the path that will ultimately result in me getting a certain phone number for a specific department I wish to reach, I am certainly looking for far to long before I can figure out where to go for that. So overall I feel that their website like ebay's, is an example of very well done web design work that has resulted in very good ease of use and that certainly keeps me using them regularly.