My Website Analysis
I wanted the first thing that the site's visitors see to be the name of the product, so they know that they are visiting the right site. I also thought that the main branding for the product should be displayed as the first thing seen on the webpage. In this case, it is the scene from the music video in which the running actress stands in front of the sunset. Since this has been used throughout the branding of my music video, I believe that it will be effective at emphasizing the authenticity of the product and make it recognizable.
To make the homepage more interesting, the 'Try Everything' title is in the style of a gif. This is more aesthetically pleasing and enhances interactivity. The dynamic aspect of the homepage is common among the website's of popular artistes of my chosen genre too.
The arrow logo is a simple design which matches the colour scheme of the overall webpage, making it look simplistic and professional. Green is also the most common colour associated with nature (the key theme of the whole branded product). Traditionally, an arrow is symbolic of a positive transition in life; a message that both the song and the music video for 'Try Everything' strives to incorporate. Having a simple arrow still keeps the symbolic meaning of the logo ambiguous, which helps to raise rhetorical questions and excitement for the website user.
The text used for the tabs on the navigation bar matches one of the two fonts used on the website overall. This consistency is key for achieving a professional, tidy look for the website design and possibly helps with the navigation as well. The capital letters have been used for the same reasons too. The colour used for the navigation bar is a neutral beige colour, chosen to accompany the vivid natural colours used throughout the rest of the website. This ensures that the colour scheme does not appear jarring and uncomfortable to the eye.
I decided to add this strip on the homepage of my website to provide the visitors with the essential information regarding the product that I am currently trying to sell: the music video. Being the first piece of information visible on the homepage, the visitor is inclined to read about it before doing anything else. It is also likely that the visitor is using the site to find out more information about the music video, therefore making the website efficient for the visitors. The use of the picture gives the visitors a taster for the theme and appearance of the music video as a whole.
Below the information strip explained above, my website features a direct link to the track 'Try Everything' on Soundcloud. Since Soundcloud is not the preferred method of audience consumption, only a shortened 'taster' version of the song is available on the homepage of the website. This should encourage the site's visitor to further explore the song by visiting the Soundcloud site (or other online streaming sites such as Youtube). I decided to attach the Soundcloud link to the website rather than the Official Youtube link because the official music video, in my opinion, should not be directly associated with my own video - this should result in my own music video looking more authentic and original.
Just below the Soundcloud link is the link to my own music video, advertised as the 'original' music video. Again, I took a still from the video itself in order to keep the theme and colour scheme of the website consistent and to create a page which is not overwhelming to look at. The use of space within the image (more specifically, the green space of the grass) ensures that the text is fully readable and hints subtly at the narrative of the video, thus inspiring a sense of curiosity for the viewer. On either side of this image, the main background for the whole website can be seen. After viewing and analysing pop artiste's websites, especially those of Coldplay and Dua Lipa, I discovered that the dynamic visual aspect of a website is common; creating a contemporary and interactive effect for the page. This makes the site more interesting and relevant for the visitors and should therefore encourage their return.
The final part of my website's homepage is arguably the most important, and is a feature that each pop artiste's website will have displayed too: the social media bar. Here I have used the well-known iconic social media logos as portals to my product's social media pages. The use of the logos instead of lettering avoids over-crowding and is simplistic. These logos are easy to recognise and are symbols which do not require translation.
Upon conducting my website research and analyses it was evident that although many artistes liked to feature their social media portals using an icon near the navigation panel (such as Taylor Swift, Drake and Camilla Cabello), each artiste definitely had a section at the bottom of their homepage reserved for social media information (Coldplay, Justin Timberlake and Portugal The Man are examples of artistes who have their social media access solely at the bottom of their homepage). My preferred location for my social media access is at the bottom of the page because I feel that this is the most natural place that visitors would expect to find it.
The News page of my website is a lot simpler than the homepage; with a plain, neutral background and the articles arranged in a straight, standard formation. I chose to organise the News page in this formation in order to make the news information easy to access and easy to read and understand. The excess space has been used in the design of the page to contrast and satisfy the heavily-informative and busy nature of the news articles.
Space has been used with the same effect for the Tour Dates page of my website - since the tour date information is so important, it is best to avoid distractions with interactive movement in the background. The use of space helps to improve clarity in a similar way to Drake's website.
The final page of my website is the Shop, where the visitor can expect to browse and buy merchandise for my product. There are several examples of merchandise featured on the page to create an authentic overall feel to the website. The strip featuring the cyclist can be seen at the top to reinforce the theme of the music video throughout the design of the website (similarly the strip features the runner on the top of the Tour Dates page), and the presence of this strip is also significant in regards to the branding of my product and its overall consistency. It is worth mentioning that the Shop page has a different background colour to the rest of the website: this was done purposely to replicate the style of most other pop artistes, who have their merchandise featured on what appears to be an extension to their main site (hence the slightly different colour schemes). This different colour is helpful at providing the visitor with a sense of location within the domain.
All in all I have built my website to be similar to those of other artistes in order to keep it efficient in a navigational sense. This could include my placement of the navigation bar, the social media portals and the consistency of the colour schemes. Likewise, I have broken some of the traditional 'conventions' of the pop website to create a unique and effective experience. This could include the use of the dynamic background and top image to add an interactive element to the webpage, or the use of high-quality, creative stills from the music video to add an artistic aspect to the site. The consistency of the fonts and colour schemes used throughout the design creates a professional and realistic appearance for my product's website.
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