Week 3: Aesthetics, Design & Branding

For this assignment I chose to look at http://spotmetering.com/ and http://www.roverp6cars.com/p6news.html so that I could judge a website that I had no prior experience with. Both of these websites are very busy and cluttered. The spotmetering.com looks like something someone just getting started in web design would do. It also kind of reminds me of old myspace when you could still customize your profile. Maybe you can still do that, I don’t know, it’s been years since I was on myspace. Another major problem with spotmetering.com is that it is too long, I got lost after two scrolls. In addition, I did not like the white sometimes white text on a black background.

The Not So Pretty 

When looking at the roverp6cars.com, this site reminded me of really old websites when people were just starting to figure out how to add things. I could see my grandad really liking this site because of all the pictures. Then again he was the type of person that enjoyed just browsing the internet. This site is messy because they use too many attention grabbing ads, everything is bolded and colorful so the viewer loses track of what’s important. The content bar on the left side was a good idea, but having the titles over the same car picture made it very repetitive and uninteresting.

Improvements for both of these sites would be to simplify it. No one wants to really spend time looking for information now in days. For spotmetering.com have a better navigation bar or at least a search bar so people can find what they are looking for. The roverp6cars.com needs less jump out and colorful titles, I would rather see their navigation bar at the top but the left side works if that is where they want to leave it. Overall, if these two sites could be cleaned up and organized people will be more likely to stick around and read them. Honestly could not tell you what the spotmetering.com site is about, think it has something to do with cameras. That just goes to show I did not want to stick around long enough to sort through everything and find out.

The Ones We Like 

The websites that have great designs and layouts are apple.com, toyota.com and ford.com. These sites are also viewed by thousands of people a day and have become extremely successful so they know what works and what does not. They also have little room for error so they put a lot of thought and effort into their design. All three of these sites are very similar in design; the brand is at the top left, navigation bar across the top and four rotating attention grabbing photos. The photos are of what’s new, what’s next, something that relates to the customer, all without giving away too much information. For example, I did not know what a Toyota Miria so I had to investigate further. Ah-ha and just like that, they pulled me in!

Why Toyota, Ford and Apple Work

When a potential buyer is looking at these websites, the viewer is met with strong supportive branding. The sites are clean, professional and easy to navigate. They also do a good job at telling us what we want. Apples site says “It’s finally here” with a picture of an IPhone 7, it’s telling us it’s here and we need to buy it. Due to the ease and ability to navigate the websites the company is able to make a good impression on the consumer. The consumer gets pulled into the ads and inevitably the culture that comes with that product, they have then become branded by the brand. Why sift through all the car information that comes with roverp6cars.com when you can just go to ford.com? People like when things are clean, easy and pretty much telling us what to buy. This is why these sites are such a hit and the brand is so successful.