I found it most interesting when looking at the three companies websites as to how different they approach selling their products. IDEO sells a design service rather than sells its own products so has to be approached seperately, but there are very big similarities followed by even bigger differences between the Apple and Sony websites.
To start with, looking at the Apple and Sony homepages, if the pictures of products were replaced then both could be used for either company. The only real differences in terms of design are that the Apple website has more rounded corners and is more colourful than the Sony website. The links at the top of the Apple homepage cover the broad product areas, and similarly the same is used on the Sony homepage, though by necessity the product areas are broader as Sony has its fingers in so many pies. Both homepages have large pictures of the newest products to attract your attention to them but clicking on them provides a completely different experience.
While clicking on the picture of the iPod Touch [above] on the Apple homepage brings up hordes of information about the product, including videos of product demonstrations and information about all the best bits of the product, such as its multi-touch screen interface (well.. duh!) and wi-fi web browsing, clicking on the similarly large photo of the Walkman 880i silver on the Sony homepage goes straight to a shop with very limited information, even when clicking on the nondescript "More Details" button. It seems Sony assume the customers already know what their products are and what they do and don't need any other information about it.
What makes this seem even more likely is the wording Sony uses on it's
information about the VAIO SZ Series laptop where it refers very little to the technical specifications of the product (which probably means its sub-standard and over-priced for a slightly nicer design, but hey, we already know that about Sony!) using wording which focuses purely on why the customer should WANT it. For example:
"The VAIO SZ Notebook makes a powerful impression" - targetted at a Business Professional perhaps??
"Your ideas have never looked so good" - Oh don't you look good in front of your colleagues?
"Unmatched control of your time and output" - 5 minutes faster every 10 hours? I'll buy it!
It seems from this that the two companies try to sell their products in completely different ways, and as such, unfortunately for Sony the usability of their website definitely suffers, or rather the customer trying to buy one of their products does...
Leaving those two aside and moving onto IDEO, their website is, despite the above mentioned problems with the Sony website, the worst of the three. Honestly, after looking at their splash page and then their homepage, it was very unclear about what they did, even having looked at their "About Us" page it still isn't clear to me whether they market the products themselves, or simply (re-)design products for other companies.
The information they provide about their designs is probably the most interesting from my standpoint as a Multimedia practitioner, though there is no way to purchase any of the products from them as most are conceptual or sold by other companies (to which no links are given by the products..)
I found IDEO's "Dilbert's Cubicle" design the most interesting (pictured above) of the ones shown on their website, as it addresses common issues for so many international workers, who work in partition-based offices. I find it interesting that the designers spent weeks living in a partitioned office space to gain empathy for these people and the challenges they face and the solution in my opinion is fantastic, though I doubt many companies will ever take it on since the cost will be far higher than the cheap plastic veneer cubicles used in most offices today.
Not much more to say there really..
