1. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
Part I: Domain Analysis Report of Competitor
A. Competitor’s Website Name and URL
Competitor: Whole Foods Market (WFM) | Website URL: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/
WFM is a competitor of The Fresh Market, Inc. in that it boasts high quality, organic products from
around the world as well as local farming sustainability practices. In this report, I will explain and analyze key
concepts of WFM’s information architecture with the purpose of extending Fresh Market’s clientele and profits.
The architecture of a website is not only an extension of the corporation’s mission and products but an
opportunity for clients and consumers to form a bond with that corporation. It is a portal that gives the
corporation a chance to virtually interact with clients and consumers throughout the globe and vice versa. In this
report, I will discuss the organization systems and labeling systems of Whole Foods Market website.
B. Website OrganizationSystems
Top-down Perspective
This type of perspective meets the common questions that users tend to ask when visiting a website. The
two screenshot below display the top-down perspective of Whole Foods Market homepage. It intuitively
explains to the user the answers to the following questions: Where am I? [1] I know what I am looking for, how
do I search for it? [2] How do I get around this site? [3] What’s important and unique about this organization?
[4] What’s available on this site? [5] What’s happening there? [6].
ScreenshotOne
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3
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2. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
ScreenshotTwo
Both of these screenshots demonstrate how WFM enables the user to search and browse to their liking.
The hierarchical taxonomy (aka site taxonomy) as seen in the second screenshot facilitates the browsing
information-seeking behavior which involves a user more concerned with exploring new or unknown content.
The organization system for this taxonomy is predominantly hybrid in that it incorporates both task orientated
and topical ambiguous schemes. This is represented in Screenshot 1 with the horizontal navigation bars.
Overall, WFM has designed their homepage well based on the user experience principle of Findability.
Sitemap
On the homepage near the copyright information at the very bottom of the site is a Sitemap link
(http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/site-map). The Sitemap is too lengthy to provide a copy of its entirety so
we will focus on the top 3 levels of WFM’s taxonomy. These levels have been color coded to easily interpret
the difference in levels. Level 1 – Purple, Level 2 – Maroon, Level 3 - Black:
Pollinators
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market
o Healthy Eating
 Getting Started
 What to Eat
 Healthy Cooking
 Family and Special Diets
o About Our Products
 Our Quality Standards
 Product Ingredient FAQs
 Food Safety
 GMOs: Your Right to Know
 Our Product Lines
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3. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
 The Whole Deal
 Locally Grown
o Recipes
 Recipes
 My Saved Recipes
 Cooking & Entertainment Guides
 Food Guides
 Recipe Forums
 Seasonal Recipe Collections
o Online Ordering
 Gift Cards FAQ
 Available At Your Store
 Nationwide
o Mission & Values
 Our Values
 Commitment to Society
 Environmental Stewardship
 Organic Farming
 Seafood Sustainability
 Whole Trade
 Animal Welfare
o Blogs
 Whole Story
 CEO Blogs
o Store Departments
 Unique To Your Store
 Store Departments
Careers
o Find & Apply for Jobs
o About Our Benefits
o Our Values and Mission
o Why We're a Great Place to Work
o Tasty Jobs
 Benjamin Mercado
 Lionel Vasquez
 Phi LeQuoc
 Rob Allen
 Stacey Cavin
 Theresa Boerst
 Xochitl Rico Moncada
Contact Us
Gift Cards
Company Info
o Board of Directors
o InvestorRelations
 Annual Reports
 Beyond the Numbers
 Conference Call Scripts
 Corporate Government
 Electronic Enrollment
 Financial Press Releases
 Financial Results
 Interactive Data
 InvestorFAQ
 Management Presentations
 Proxy Statement
o John Mackey's Blog
o Leadership Team
o Regional Offices
o U.S. National Offices
o Whole Foods History
Videos
Forums
Privacy
Terms
Email Subscriptions

4. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
This Sitemap sort of matches the taxonomy of Screenshot 2 of the hierarchical taxonomy in that Level 2
labels are not defined or listed as explicitly in Screenshot 2. The Sitemap more closely follows the vertical
menu bar in Screenshot 1 with added labels not originally seen as main headings. An example is below.
Synopsis of Organization Systems
 Very little to none disadvantages perceived regarding usability problems. – This site is
highly interactive, multifunctional, and visually pleasing to the user. There are numerous access
points to get to the same information sought.
 Does not encourage the “asking” information-seeking behavior on homepage. – Certain
sections contain FAQs. However, you must either figure out to contact your local grocery store
or read all the way to the bottom of each FAQ where it finally endorses a customer hotline
number to call and email. This gives off the impression that there is no defined unit or only a
handful of people who can assist users with generic inquiries.
 WFM’s site is partially database-driven.
o Yes, there is a search box on the homepage however no suggested words are offered.
There is also no advanced search option. It is up to the user to contemplate succinct
keywords to enter.
o It is only under the categories Recipes and Career that the bottom-up approach is used. In
the Recipes section, and Advanced Search option is displayed. In the Career section, a
specialized retrieval structure is displayed. In both of these examples, users can select
among controlled values from a drop-down list. These components promote the user
experience principle of Understandability in the sense that these drop down menus
encourage the user to synthesize the type of information they are looking for and select
multiple suggest subject headings for its best fit. Below are screenshots of each. The main
Whereasthisisthe actual Sitemap
orderfor the Recipes category:
o Recipes
 Recipes
 My Saved Recipes
 Cooking &
Entertainment Guides
 Food Guides
 Recipe Forums
 Seasonal Recipe
Collections

5. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
headings next to or above the drop-down menu selections below serve as key metadata
elements.

6. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
C. Website Labeling Systems
Contextual Links
These links are actually not embedded in units of information on the homepage but are typically
displayed as underlined terms in orange font on nearly all other webpages. They are used consistently
throughout multiple web pages but are highly prevalent in the following sections: Recipes, Our Blog, and Store
Departments.
Headings
On the homepage headings are usually bold with white font in different font styles according to
dominance graphic design principles. The larger the font, usually represents the main theme or purpose of the
page. Smaller sized fonts usually serve as subset labels to help the user navigate the site with through use of
narrower terms. This technique is used throughout the site. Font colors orange and white play tag to represent
main headings depending on the web page.
Navigation System Choices
On the homepage there were multiple navigation system choices: 2 were horizontal bars at the top and
midway through the site (both task oriented), one vertical bar invisible until the user selects the vertical term
“Menu” (topic oriented), and another as a site taxonomy at the very bottom of the site (topic oriented). The top
horizontal navigational bar is actually permanent on each website page.
Index Terms
Index terminology can be found in drop-down menus on this site as well as within advance search
options. These terms can include dates, cuisine style (i.e. Cajun), categories, special diet, etc.
Icons
Since this is a grocery store website, its simplified iconic labels are a good choice. WFM only places
them where absolutely necessary (i.e. plus, minus, arrow, magnifying glass, and star symbology). The Plus sign
is implemented to highlight or sort of flag the user that more information is available under this specific heading
in drop-down menu form. Once the user clicks on this symbol, it automatically converts to the Minus sign
which is implemented to highlight that the user can now minimize this information and move onto a different
category/heading. The Magnifying glass sign is used to represent the search button when users enter keywords
within a search box. This symbolizes the process of the lens bringing specific information to the light for the
user. The Arrow sign is used on the side vertical Menu bar to highlight that a menu will appear and spread in
the direction the arrow is pointing (right). Vice versa will happen once the direction of the arrow symbol
changes to left. Star symbology is used to rate recipes with the maximum of 5stars detailing a delectable recipe
that most users approved of.

7. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
Below are several examples of the labeling systems described above:
Navigational
System Choices
Index
Terms
Iconic Labels “ – “ sign (minus sign
usually symbolizes “minimize
information or see less of it”)
Iconic Labels “+” sign (plus
sign usuallysymbolizes“more
information to follow”)
Indexed
by month
and year
Headings
Contextual Links
Iconic Label

8. Dezirae N. Brown
Technology & Information Services Team - The Fresh Market, Inc.
Synopsis of Labeling Systems
 Very little to none disadvantages perceived regarding usability problems. – This site is
highly interactive with the implementation of all of the common labeling systems described
above, multifunctional, and utilizes consistent topology. There are multiple access points,
especially for browsing indexed terms. For example, each blog post has a specific category that
has been tagged to it. A user can choose to browse that category to find similar posts or the user
could utilize the index terms within the right vertical window which facilitates more concise
browsing.
 Absolute consistency was an obvious priority here: In terms of style, this Blog portion of the
website makes use of the font color Orange to represent interactive (clickable) links. Uppercase
letters and capitalization are used consistently in each labeling system, especially within the
Indexed terms and Navigational System Choices. Content is usually kept to small/short phrases
and up to 5 sentences as a description to serve a generic audience. No jargon is used, syntax is
kept to third grade reading level. Simplicity is best when attracting a broad audience. Regarding
presentation, there is usually a rectangular border or square to separate store deals and lengthier
content or categories. Visually organizing information into chunks promotes comprehensiveness
of the user, especially with a site like Whole Foods Market that requires granularity. A grocery
store promotes health, sustainability, farming, gardening, etc. of heavy, diversified topics that are
on a much larger scale than choosing items from the food pyramid or basic food groups to eat for
dinner.
Iconic Labels
Headings
Contextual
/Index Links
Navigational
System Choices