Don’t Make Me Think is a book about web usability. It’s an older book but required reading for anyone who designs web sites. In a nutshell it states that if you want a successful web site, make it stupidly easy to use. Go complicated are it’s nothing but a big ball of fail.

In the world of tech commerce there are basically two types of consumers: The 18-27 market and everyone else. I fall into the “everyone else” category as I’m 33 years old. Many PCMech readers also fall into the same category as well - and that’s just fine.

Given our choices with internet tech shopping, who wins and who loses? Let’s find out.

I’ll be using a 1 to 5 scoring system. 5 = best, 1 = worst.

Apple

Score: 5

Design is a cornerstone of Apple philosophy concerning all their products. Their own web site is no exception. This is one of the absolute easiest places to shop. Right on the home page it’s obvious you click on “Store” to go to (duh), the online Apple store.

Product pages are easy to navigate, easy to read (important) and prices are listed up front. There’s no hassle involved.

Dell

Score: 4

The recent redesign of the Dell web site is a welcome one. It puts a fresh face on Dell and makes their products look more attractive.

The reason this site doesn’t score a 5 is because it’s not entirely obvious that you have to hover (yes hover, not click) over “FOR HOME”, “FOR OFFICE”, or “FOR DATA CENTER” and then select from the drop-down.

When on a product page you’re greeted with lots of itty bitty tiny text. That’s bad. All the nice large text on the front is gone at this point. But at least the prices are listed up front.

NewEgg

Score: 4

NewEgg’s home page was redesigned a while back and it desperately needed it. All text on the home page is very legible. The SEARCH field is placed on the left side which is smart.

Considering the monster inventory of stuff NewEgg has it’s actually fairly simple to get around and find what you’re looking for. The left sidebar on any product screen is helpful to sort by manufacturer or other options presented. Prices are also listed up front for just about everything.

CDW

Score: 2

CDW is a bit of a mess. Too much really small text. Menus at the top that stretch out to the right.

The links on the left are more or less worthless. If you click on Small / Home Office, you get this:

This tells me nothing. I don’t want to “discover” anything. I want to see the stuff you have for sale, get a price and BUY.

In addition there’s a poll on the home page. There is no reason for polls to be there. This is a place to shop, not take polls.

Circuit City

Score: 3

Circuit City puts categories direct on top of the home page in very easy-to-read format. The drop-downs only go one way - down. And that’s great compared to the down-and-to-the-right way CDW does it.

Product pages suffer from the same fate Dell does - lots of itty bitty tiny text. But prices are listed up front.

In addition, Circuit City puts links on the right that are actually useful, such as the Outlet store, Consumer Reports buying advice and other items. Very nice.

Best Buy

Score: 3

The first thing I notice about the Best Buy site is that it’s aligned to the left. This is 2008! Center your web site!

Aside from that this site is fairly easy to get around and the Outlet Center is directly linked on the home page - that’s good.

For products listed the price couldn’t be any easier to spot. It’s in bright yellow. Ugly? Yes. But effective and I appreciate it.

Alienware

Score: 1

Yeah you just knew I had to put a “1″ (worst) in here, right? I won’t disappoint. Alienware has an awful web site designed with all the “cool factor” in the world but very little in the way of being helpful.

You are immediately greeted with useless Flash animations and images on the bottom that you don’t know you’re supposed to click on unless you hover over them first. On Web Pages That Suck this is called Mystery Meat Navigation.

The product page has LED-looking bars that basically say nothing. It looks like stats for characters in a video game - which is exactly the intent. And it sucks. Bars don’t mean anything.

This is what you get when a company tries to target the 18-27 market. Lots of fancy useless Flash, information that’s worthless and a doomy dark look.

No thanks.

Even though Alienware is under Dell’s umbrella and has been for some time, you can obviously tell Alienware is totally gunning for the 18-27 market.