COMPANY: Hodges Badge Company, Inc. WHERE TO FIND: www.hodgesbadge.com CRITIQUE: Portsmouth-based Hodges Badge Company has a simple, yet effective site that serves as a fine on-line companion to the company’s catalog. Although the graphics sometimes seem as though they are simply scanned-in pages from their catalog, the self-deprecating text almost makes this fact excusable.
In discussing international orders, the text says, “Hodges Badge Company has considerable experience in exporting customer’s orders to foreign addressesWe hope that you will not confuse our experience as exporters with our expertise as exporters.”
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It seems that this creed could be applied to their rapport with the Internet as well.
NAVIGATION: The site (viewed on Internet Explorer 5) is simple enough to navigate. There are 10 on-line catalogs as well as links to wholesale, international ordering and by-mail catalogs on the left side of the homepage.
The first two links in the catalog, “Equestrian,” and “School” are the best for navigation, because they each feature several sub-categories to which the person exploring the site can go. The “Athletic,” “Fair/4H,” “Gymnastics,” “Swimming,” “College/Alumni,” “Red Ribbon,” “Convention” and “Dog Show” all lack extra links. Once in the page, there are no hyper-links to other areas, aside from the permanent navigation options on the bottom of the page. These constant options include “About Us,” “New Products,” “Specials,” “Employment,” “Contact Us” and “Home”.
It should also be noted that the “College/Alumni” link and the “Convention” link are identical. The “Athletic” and “Gymnastics” links also take you to the same page.
CONTENT: The content is the best part of this Website. It has everything that anybody who needs badges for any event would need, and more. The “About Us” section also gives a concise and interesting account of the Hodges history.
At one point in the “Want a Catalog” section, it is stated, “We realize that many of our customers prefer the comfort of a paper catalog. How many barns do you know with an online connection? Actual catalogs are, for most folks, more quickly referenced, easier to hold a discussion over, and they make a fine fly swatter in a pinch.”
This “might not help, but it can’t hurt” philosophy epitomizes this company’s use of the Internet. Hodges has enough customers with their horse show badges that they do not really need a Website, but they are aware of the number of teachers who are on-line who might patronize them for school event-related badges.
The homepage reads, “The information you find here will help you to choose the products and services you need for your upcoming event.” And invites the reader to call if they have any further questions, reiterating how Hodges understands its Website as a mere companion to their catalog.
The number of typographical errors on the “Dog Show” section of the site is another proclamation of this.
USEABILITY: This site, designed in frames, is simple enough to use. There is a working on-line order form and all of the links to sources within and outside of the site load quickly. The only problem is that some pages are dead-ends, and the person viewing the site can only get out of them by clicking on “home” or backing out with the browser’s “Back” key.
DESIGN: The only problems from a design perspective are those pages with the fuzzy graphics and the top and bottom frame of each page which limit the amount of varying images. For example, a browser needs to scroll down in order to see a normal-sized graphic in full, whereas if the frames were not so obtrusive, the entire image could be easily projected.
The graphics on the aforementioned fuzzy pages are rather inconsistent with the rest of the site. One would hope that these pages are only temporary. Pictures of athletes (soon to win the badges?) are laid out on a headache yellow background on the same page as the company logo and a waist-deep in snow cartoon character with a red potato nose boasting 10 percent winter savings. That is the only real visual complaint. But no matter how offended one is by this graphic, he is still advertising savings, which has never deterred a potential buyer.
Although this site falls short of breaking any new ground in cybvertising, a majority of the pages are not offensively bad. The images of the actual ribbons and badges are clear, colorful and laid out the way an on-line catalog should be laid out. The badges themselves are where the company’s quality is. According to the site, they turn 12 million yards of satin ribbon into rosettes, flat ribbons, and medals. The Internet is secondary.
WHO CREATED IT: EquiSearch.com
