Supplier of High End Windows and Doors Finds Home Site in SharePoint

                                                                                         

If you’ve been following along, you might have read earlier posts in our series “SharePoint Site Hi- light”, where we discover and critique web sites that are built on and driven by SharePoint. We’ve looked at chocolate makers, speedsters and the library with the most books. This time, however, we are taking a look at Pella, a supplier of high-end windows and doors.
So let’s pretend we are building a house, and we’re ready to check out windows and doors. Heading over to Pella’s site, right off the bat we are greeted by a well laid- out home page. The main part of the page is taken up by a slide show of attractive pictures for Pella products, with linked descriptions in a caption underneath.
At first, although the navigation is easy to find at the top of the page, I am slightly confused about where to start. I can follow the navigation at the top or check out the “GET STARTED” next to the slide show. After a moment of indecision, I decide on the “GET STARTED” area.
After leaving the home page, the layout changes and expands to include secondary navigation and several other links on the left- hand side of the page. I’m not an expert in doors and windows or how many types and kinds are available, but the sheer number of links available to follow is kind of overwhelming. It seems like the process could be a bit better streamlined.
After a few more minutes of digging, the site reveals a secret. Many of the links are redundant; the navigation on the left is copied in the layout. I know you are supposed to give people more than one way to get to things, but this seems like overkill to me.
All in all, the Pella site is reasonably well organized, and obviously has a huge amount of information for anyone willing to find it. The unfortunate side of that is that it may take some dedication, because things are not very easy to find if you know nothing about the products.
The color scheme is nice, the layout is pretty standard, and the basic things like search and navigation are found where they are expected to be. This gets Pella’s SharePoint site a plus for usability. The biggest problem for me was getting around. This nets Pella a 3 out of a possible 5 stars, not the best, but a solid score anyway.
That’s it for this installment of “SharePoint Site Hi-light”, Make sure to check back often to find other new sites based on SharePoint. Until then, see how many hosted SharePoint sites you can find!

About the author:
Adrian Gates (Adrian@apps4rent.com) is a Business Manager with Apps4Rent ;which offers premium hosted Exchange, Microsoft Hosted SharePoint Services and Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services.

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