Research:Website
Firstly, I'll be researching different kinds of websites to help me figure out what kind of website I want to make. I'll be looking at websites that interest me such as; fashion, beauty and music. The reason why I am going to start looking at different websites is to analyse if the website is easy to access, how interactive it can be and the design. Hopefully I will come across different types of accesability, interactivity and designs to compare the sites I dislike and like.
My first website I checked out is Asos. Asos is a fashion online shop which I absolutly love. The reason why I love it beside the garments they sell is the design of the web. The thing I like about the design of the website is the layout and the way they used the colours. There isn't much colour to the homepage of Asos, but it is quite clever how they use the colours. The picture on the homepage is black and white, background is white and the text is also black and simple. Everything looks simple, and the name of the company 'Asos' is visible. It isn't hidden, it also doesn't need a bright red colour to be 'in your face'. On the site there is a little brief about Asos and the company. It is a short text, not an written essay. It explains what Asos is and its purpose. Right away the blue box caught my attention, and this is also another clever technique they used. Putting a bold, bright and colourful box around a simple design makes that person/customer instantly look at it. The reason why the chose such a simple design and one colourful feature is to direct that customer into buying products from the online store.
This image is another screenshot of Asos homepage. I wanted to analyse this part of the website because it is a great example of accessability, usability and navigation. There are four different pictures with four different purposes. The four images naviagte the customer to four different pages such as fashion blogs and a page to download the Asos magazine (digital copy). Below the four pictures are eight icons that you can click on to access Asos' pages on different social networks. The image right under is a screen shot of Asos Twitter page. I was navigated by pressing on one of the icons on the Asos homepage. This takes me to an entirly different website which is Twitter, a social network that is used by companies, celebrities and recently the 'norms'. This boosts up Asos' business by selling products to followers and updating their new fashion products on their website.
Moving onto another fashion store online. The reason why I am looking at a different fashion store website is to compare it to the Asos website that I analysed. This website is SimplyBe which is a fashion store online. The reason why I picked this website to compare it to Asos was the layout, text, colours and the navigation. SimplyBe's homepage is cluttered with a lot of text and too many colours. I feel a little overwhelmed by looking at their website. However, there is a positive thing about this website, the accessability and usability on this is amazing. The access on this website is quite large. For example, on the website you can access your basket, access another page to request a catalogue, how to contact SimplyBe and videos. However, the way it is layed out on the web is too cluttered. Layout is not the only problem, but the text too. The problem about the text is the typography. The appearance of the text and the style doesn't really encourage me to buy any products, or I would want to quickly buy my product and leave as quick as I can. The reason why I checked out this website is to avoid the techniques and try to focus on design as it is important.
Moving onto a different website with a different aim. This website I just discovered through the fashion stores (Asos and SimplyBe) is Pinterest which is a blogging website for business and everyday life. The reason why I looked at this website is the design.
Pinterest is a website where you can "pin" up images that you want to share with other Pinterest accounts. These pictures that you pin up are pictures that interest you and might interest other people. I like this website because I like how simple it is. An image in the middle and a little menu on the side to navigate the people who use this website is something I would want to do for my website. The reason why I like websites that are simple (as in simple colours, not many colours, not many images and simple typography) makes it easier for me to spot the access that want to go to.
This is the sort of website I am looking for. I mentioned that I was looking at websites that interests me. What interests me are music, make-up and fashion. I love to discover new fashion trends and make-up techniques in my own time. This website is a blog for fashion and make-up. The person is a freelance writer that is obsessed with make-up and fashion. This website is beautyandmakeupblog.com which was launched for more than five years or so. The reason why I love this website isn't only because we both share the same interest but because it is readable, the design is presentable and the accessability that this website provides. Reading these posts are comfortable and a pleasure because of the typography, the use of colours and how interactive it can be. This is the home page of the website, and a little window pops out which makes the website so interactive and that is what I want from a website. The window that popped up is to attract readers to sign up for the free daily newspaper. I feel like another person is interacting with me, its like serving a customer or looking after the reader to keep that reader intrested in the blog and articles.
This is the homepage of the website, again there are some thing that makes this website interactive. Before I analyse the interactive part of the homepage I want to discuss the design of this homepage. The layout of this home page is a banner that changes every five seconds to a different kind of cosmetic.
Once you start scrolling down the webbsite the recent posts come up. This is some sort of accessability aswell, we can access recent posts on the homepage without clicking away to get to that destination. This is an image of Bohemian Republik which is a cosmetic brand. This is a review on four different nail varnish. She writes a brief summary of the new cosmetics that have been released. She uses them, takes photos of her nails with the cosmetic on and write her own opinion about them. It is like she did our research on products for us. However, if I had to make a website about make-up reviews etc I woud like to have a homepage and a menu that pops up to navigate the reader to their destination. Even though this is more accessable, I find design and appearance is very important to me, so that is the only critsism I have for this website.
Like I was saying above, I prefer a menu popping up and it navigates me to my destination. This is what I am talking about, I like the way it has been designed. For example, the grid that has 'hair' has an image of her hair. It is easy to read, it is presentable and caught my attention. I also love the way the pictures are filtered because if all eight pictures were in colours it would be too much and clashing. It compliments the other colours on this page such as the pink font where it highlights the word 'catagories' which tells me that I am currently looking at the catagories. I also like the little search engine that is next to the menu. Again, this is great accessability and usability. On top this also navigates readers to other websites such as FaceBook and YouTube to follow her group page and to watch tutorial videos.
Zoella is a website by Zoe who is a make-up fanatic and shares her techniques and tutorials on YouTube. After receiving positive comments and many views on her YouTube videos she created her own website. Her website is about tutorials she made on YouTube, with pictures of the products, pictures of her final look and explaining the process and reviewing the products that she used in her videos. I chose this make-up blog to compare it to the other blog above. First let me start with the design. The colours used is quite colourful but it isn't distracting because of the light tones that are being used on this homepage. They aren't 'loud' colours, they are pastle and it is quite simple but not plain. I love the polka dots in the background. I usually dislike random patterns as a background, however it goes well with the little splash of colours in the middle. Layout bothers me a little bit. Comparing it to the other one, there was so much accessability and it was organised. There isn't many pages that we can access on this website like the other website above.
Anlysing these different websites with different purposes has helpt me think about the design for my website, how accessible it can be, how to navigate users to their destination and to interact with the audeince. In the near future I will be releasing more posts to help me write my proposal and to produce my website.
