Website Critique of a Portal for IT professionals

CIO.com is a portal mainly for IT professionals. CIO stands for Chief Information Officer, an individual that reports to the CEO of a firm and is responsible for managing IT to a strategic advantage for the business. It is arguably the highest position that can be attained by an IT professional in a firm. This website deals with the informational needs, news and the latest stories in the IT world. It provides readers with an in-depth idea of what’s happening in the IT file (main focus being the U.

S.). The website opens with its home page which displays snippets of the latest happenings on top. Most of the site is designed in columns. Stories in the form of titled links can be clicked on and viewed in their entirety. This gives it more of an electronic newspaper or magazine feel. There are sections for top stories, headlines, what’s hot, featured expert, videos, pod casts etc. In fact, everything expected of a high technology website is present here.

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The look and feel being simple yet knowledgeable, it is primarily intended for individuals in the IT sector. Job openings, the job market, latest news and reviews are all present along with expert opinions regarding various subjects. Furthermore, there are pages dedicated to how to do tasks ranging from developing business strategies to enabling IT as a tool. This ‘learning’ aspect of the website is probably the most attractive and is further complemented by the availability of free white papers.

White papers are case studies or lessons learned of sorts which bring into focus the activities of various companies. Being a technology website, the white papers are mainly based on business strategies and how IT was used as an enabler. One unique aspect of these white papers is that they are free to view. This is made possible by the vast array of firms advertising on the website. Firms like Dell, Microsoft, Symantec etc. all have their logos with one ro more of the white papers, emphasizing that the particular white paper was sponsored by them. When one of these links is clicked, a form appears where information about the user is gathered. Whether this information will be used by CIO or by any of its advertised partners is not clear, they do gather information to gauge what and how many users are viewing the website. These white papers are not too long but informative enough to give a detailed summary of what went on in various firms and how they resoelved issues by adapting a good business strategy with IT as the main enabler.

The most interesting aspect of the website however is the personal link on the left hand column. It displays an array of pages full of advice relating to work, time management, business metrics, workforce etc. This is probably the most useful link apart from the white papers section. Apart form this, ad banners and animated advertisements are present but do not come in the way of navigating through the website. It is easy to use though the amount of information present on each page is a bit too much at times. The layout could have been simpler so as to make it easier to navigate. Instead of more clicks, the website seems to have stuffed a lot of information in a small space. In short, the website is a great resource to find the latest news, career advice, case studies and expert opinions regarding the IT filed. It might not be a viable option for writing a research paper but still gives a great head start to any visitor.

References

CIO.com. (2007). CIO. Retrieved December 7, 2007, from http://www.cio.com/