Chess Maze International
Websites that you purchase things off are not usually in your top ten most visited websites unless they manage to offer a huge variety of products or very popular ones. Chess sets however are a specialty item as hardly any family owns them and the ones that do most likely keep them in the loft. With Chess Maze I want to buy every chess set they have on offer, this is because they advertise their sets, boards and clocks very well. Offering an in-depth analysis of each set, how it was made, what it is made of and often with plenty of pictures to show each particular style of a set. The sheer variety of sets they offer is also very impressive, they offer approximately about 100 chess sets which is amazing and many customers will be spoilt for choice.
Chess Maze International strikes me as a very well thought out webpage with all the links that you could need to browse the products at the top and clearly identified by the contrast of colours used in the table. It also has very direct functionality as on the right of the home page they declare which types of credit card they accept so straight away you will know whether it is worth proceeding any further into the site. The colour scheme works well and adds a slight sense of modernism to the sight that might appeal to younger players.
Instead of using large brash images like Chess Giant, Chess maze international uses its images more subtlety. On the left of the home page it uses rotation images so that it can display many different products but without taking up more space than it needs to. This is highly effective and is a good way of advertising the chess products it sells which are all of high quality and have the price tag to match. There is also a box on the right side of the page that rotates different customer reviews. Obviously they are all very good comments as they can screen them and display the best but it is still a powerful tool to show potential customers how they are perceived by satisfied ones. The divider the page is housed in is visually quite narrow probably about 500 pixels which means it only takes up a third of my screen which makes it look like it is somewhat unfinished and over shadowed by the blank space in the rest of my screen. The font size is also very small which means I have to lean towards my screen and squint which is quite unpleasant and defiantly a design fault that obviously doesn’t cater for the visually impaired.
The website also has a links page that is entirely separate to the products its offers to sell but is very thoughtful which customers might appreciate. The links offer sites to famous chess matches, chess books, online chess programmes, and even other sites to but sets from. Next to the links link is the events link which has up to date lists and details of all the chess events and tournaments happening all across England some of which have an £8000 prize for the winner.
All together Chess Maze is a very thorough website which stretches beyond its means to accommodate any possible need a chess enthusiast could need. Its function might be just selling very high quality chess sets, boards and clocks but it goes the extra mile. Offering the web addresses of some of its competitors is either a sign of confidence that can be respected even if it’s not in the best interest of the company it is in the best interest of the customer. That is the feeling you get from Chess Maze, they really just want to help you and if you want to buy a chess set too then that’s fine. However the links to find the extra options they offer are quite hard to find as the links are small and the many pictured draw your attention away. The font is also too small and the website makes inefficient use of screen space. These are only minor problems however otherwise I thoroughly recommend using Chess Maze as it is a very good site.
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