Financial Blog

Nowadays I'll be starting a series of articles comparing how a modern site called PissedConsumer.com developed by and for consumers' stacks up against the industry experienced Consumer Reports. So what will be the characteristic that can bring victory to one of these websites?

The first test is very simple and you may perform it on your own: just load those sites at the same time. It's immediately apparent that Consumer Reports has got a slicker and more professional look. The site has got a simple but clear interface utilizing grey, white, blue, and a light touch of red. The main page comprises lots of pictures and links that are connected to some little articles. The appearance of Pissed Consumer is also pleasant as it is composed with smooth red and white hues. However, their website does not have the same professional feel to it as Consumer Reports. This is partially due to the different advertisements all over their webpage (supplied by Google). Some designers do not consider the fact that too many links with no images can repulse and clients wouldn't want to deal with the website again. In case we talk about structure, the website comprises two helpful sections. Newly developed reviews and articles from the customers may be simply found by usage of the first section. The other section shows the most popular discussions and it is called “hot topics”. One insignificant disadvantage of the hot topics part is that font utilized there is too small to distinguish it easily.

Consumer Reports pleasantly amazed me by their well organized construction. There are some wide topics which are subdivided on some more narrowly directed. The main page was also kept up to date information that was related to the newest published issue of Consumer Reports Magazine. The site of the Pissed Consumer also has got quite interesting structure but it is more difficult to use. Lots of people who visit that website at the first time complain about a huge amount of bad arranged information that confused them at once. There is a wide spectrum of topics placed on it in the right side of the front page, but there is no strict classification which makes it less efficient. Both sites comprise some excellent searching systems which make the navigation processes executed by visitors really easy. It's also important to mention that while at first glance Consumer Reports seems to have a wider range of product information, this is not true. Pissed Consumer doesn't propose a proper menus that is why it seems to be less helpful, but it actually can boast of lots of unique and really useful information.

We can't definitely determine which site gets more useful information as they both cover nearly the same themes of the articles, but we can definitely say that Consumer Report has better arrangement. It allows the user to quickly and efficiently search out the data which they are looking for. I would rather say that Pissed Consumer has got a bit more disadvantages that brings a chance to Consumer Reports to be more successful.