thebestlife.com

The Bestlife.com website is a spin off of Bob Greene's fitness books and programs. He was made popular on the Oprah Winfrey show. I had looked over some of Bob Greene's books and was curious about signing up for an online account. My attempt to sign up was quickly halted when asked for a credit card number to pay for my member fees. I had naively believed that this would be a free account like some other fitness websites I'm a member of (i. e. sparkpeople.com).

Intended Audience:

The website is for health conscious individuals, or those looking to lose weight through an overall lifestyle change. I suppose this site is also for die hard Oprah fans who support all causes mentioned on her show.

Usefullness of Content:

If you know absolutely nothing about Bob Greene and his "methods," then this website is a good starting place to just investigate a little further. There are videos of him introducing the program and the website--he's not exactly going to win an oscar for his performance in these ads, but their fun to watch, and I feel videos always draw an audience in more on the internet. If you don't have an account and want to get a better idea of what's offered before signing up, this website gives you a SMALL taste of the recipes offered and some other things you can expect to reap the benefits of after plunking down some money. Beyond that, unless you have an account the website isn't particularly usefull as more than anything but an advertisement.

Consistency of Design:

The deisgn is consistent througout and very pleasant to look at. All parts of the website are labeled clearly and are good indicators of the information you'll be linking in to. I have no complaints about the design.

Ease of Navigation:

The advertisements don't get in the way too much, and right at the top, nice and obvious, they have the Login feature for those guests that are already members.

If you're not a member, but want to sign up, you start the process by first putting in your Weight! A bit intimidating for some perhaps, might help to just ask for an email address FIRST before asking viewers to divulge such a personal detail.

The other features for nonmembers are easy to navigate through and look over, although again, there's not much to look at if you're a nonmember. I went to the shopping section to see if nonmembers were able purchase products at a discounted price. You can indeed purchase a product w/o being a member, but you still have to set up a User Id and password.