Week 3a: Aesthetic, Design, and Branding

Allow me to start off by saying that the first few websites listed are a graphic designer's nightmare. Now that I've got that of my chest, let's get started:

1) http://www.exmouth-view.co.uk/

Right off the bat, I see problems everywhere. The first thing I notice are the broken image links along the left side and under the main image. This looks entirely tacky, and suggests one of two things:
1) they don't look at their own website at all and are unaware of the broken links, or 2) the coding was done by some other person and the owners never kept in contact with them or never learned to code themselves. Since I see that they update regularly (what with the last updated memo on the bottom left) and they even thanked a website that features awful websites for the free publicity, it's clear that they never bothered to update or redesign simply due to the fact that they would get taken off of that "awful websites" page and lose their curious online traffic. But I digress.

The second thing I notice is the scrolling text along the top. Most people look at something for an average of 8 seconds before moving on to the next thing, and people aren't going to want to spend that 8 seconds waiting for the scroll to restart so they know the name of the hotel. Not only that, but you can't even see the whole text at once. Instead, you have to sit there and wait forever to see the rest of the necessary information. A simple, static line of text would do a much better job at grabbing attention, as well as be more practical to read.

Ignoring smaller design errors, such as the red font, the vertical page layout, and the great deal of empty space at the bottom of the page, I noticed that none of the pages linked to on the home page ("Torquey", "Daily Menu", "Local Attractions", etc.) share a common layout. They all have different margins, and use different headers. The Christmas page bombards you with .gifs and even more broken image links. This whole website could use a serious overhaul. But, at least the owners seem like good sports about it.

2) http://spotmetering.com/

I'll give them this: All the information on the home page is centered. +1 point. Also, the .gif at the top of the home page, while a little outdated, isn't too distracting and matches the background nicely.

This is where the good things end.

Instead of having a nice, clean home page that neatly lays out important links and exudes an overall welcoming feeling, this home page bombards you with information. It's extremely overwhelming. Big blocks of text are impossible to focus on, and in this case, the text is constantly changing color, size, and style, making it even more obnoxious. On top of that, there are no jump links to easily direct you to a certain spot on the page. If you want to know about one thing, then you have to scroll through all this obnoxious text to find what you need to know. At first, I thought the links along the top acted as jump links, but they instead lead to different pages. Good lord, who was I to suggest that the world doesn't need this much information about spot metering? What a fool I was!

In fact, this site, while clearly meant for photographers, could seriously benefit from a more welcoming language. The jargon on this page is impossible for the average person to follow, which means that this website is likely to only attract that small niche of people who care about spot metering, while driving away those who might gain an interest but aren't yet at that level.

Finally, there are WAAAAY too many links on this website. There are tables and tables of links leading to outside websites, like Nikon and Canon. Nobody is going to want to constantly click back and forth when doing research. A smart website might say "For more information on spot metering with Nikon cameras", visit Nikon.com", or maybe even lead to another page that solely focuses on that.

Meanwhile, let's focus on two websites and what they do right.

1) http://www.headhunterhairstyling.com/

This is a very aesthetically pleasing website. A large part of that is the choice of color (a light yellow and turquoise) as well as the slideshow that greets you on the home page. The links are easy to find and not overwhelming (Some of the poorer websites had far too many links and added to a sense of confusion) and their social media is clearly listed on the bottom left. In this case, less is more, and a lot of those other sites don't seem to understand that. Lastly, all of the connecting pages have a similar layout, and it's very easy to follow. Everything is clearly labeled, and you can find your way around without a lot of scrolling.

2) http://www.apple.com/ 

Apple's brand has always been chic, clean, and shiny, and their website definitely reflects that. HD pictures of their products suggest that everything they do is cutting edge and new, and little taglines like "This is 7", referring to iphone 7 says that they don't necessarily feel that they need to "sell" it. Instead, they can just point out "what you see is what you get", implying that anyone will want to buy it because it's new. Confidence in a website or product speaks volumes, even when there's little content.

Apple has little boxes under the featured item, showcasing other new products that maybe aren't as newsworthy. All of the news is presented very cleanly with pictures that lead to new pages. It's also worth noting that a website with a single color scheme is far more pleasant to look at than one that can't make up its mind about what color each font should be. In Apple's case, their color scheme is white, grey, and black, with tiny splashes of color in their pictures. This is a very chic look, and should be applauded.

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I think that branding on a website is extremely important, not just for marketing purposes, but also referring to confidence in the product. When I said "less is more" earlier, what I mean is that a website with less content on the home page feels like they can get their brand across with pictures, a nice layout, and some text, but not too much text. It's a simple trick, but extremely effective. Meanwhile, when a page is just bombarding you with information, pictures, text, .gifs, and a colored background, it's almost as though the people behind the page have no confidence and instead are choosing to distract you with walls of text and colorful .gifs.