Web Analysis
The website I chose to
analyse is the “Nivea” website. What attracted me to this webpage is the simple
use of colour in the website. These simple techniques are used to attract
readers, to get reader to find more about their product so that they end up
buying the product.
The Use of Visual techniques
Another important colour
in this website is the colour white. This colour has multiple purposes. The use
of white gives reader a open feeling, (Wysocki 2004, pg 143). White portrays
pureness, cleanliness, its the colour of perfection. I think the use of colour
white shows that its a trustworthy website. As from my experience, I try to
avoid websites that look like that a tornado of colours has hit their website.
The reason is simple; I feel I cannot trust a website that uses too much colour
especially if it has harsh colours like fluorescent pink or yellow. Major sites
like hotmail, facebook, twitter use blue and white combination for their
websites because it keeps the website simple, accessible trustable.
The use of images in this
website is minimal but it is very effective. It uses images in a powerful way.
It uses few images on their homepage. If you click on the learn more link for
Nivea body. It takes you to products that are used on the body. There is a very
captivating image which represent pureness. The model wear white undergarment,
which again links to the use to colour to portray the message of pureness. By
using a model with perfect skin tone, it attracts the women visiting their page
to learn more about the product they offer. This is effective because women
want perfect skin. The image is used to show an alternative angel. It uses
white dress code, blue background. The use of blue behind the model is used
again to emphasise its pureness, linking the colour blue now to heavenly image.
Again it is creating the image of common men’s (in this sense women) heaven on
earth. "Photographs are often used to bring a sense of immediacy and
'reality' to a layout" (Wysocki, 2004, pg132). Thus creating an appeal for
women to purchase their products, “advertisements…the product is more or less upstaged
by the visuals, the setting, the characters and so on.”(Goatly 2006, 141).
I think the text used in
this website is effective as its images and colours. Words on a webpage are
deliberately chosen. They are short and get straight to the point, especially
the heading. The point of having limited text on the webpage again links to
attracting viewer to your webpage. If a webpage has lots of text the viewer
finds it quite unappealing. The viewer wants to know as much about a product in
as less words as possible. When I clicked on one of the products, I see two
links one with overview of the product the other on how to apply the product.
These links contain informations about the product. They use very small amount
of text but they are very effective as well as informative. This is very good
technique used to give the viewer a chance to learn more about the product they
offering without having the viewer to actually buy the product. The site helps
viewer build confidence in trusting the Nivea brand.
Another important feature
of this website is that you don’t have to scroll too down to get to all the
information. Some websites you have to scroll down so much that it makes the
viewer very frustrated. Again this is in line with limited what the website
chose to portray to the viewer. Limiting the amount of details, text used in
the website makes it very user friendly.
Also the credibility of a
website is very important, as this is the final factor to convince the viewer
that this site is genuine. The whole purpose of this website is to attract
viewer to buy their product. This is website is used as another form of
advertising their product. So the credibility of the site is very important. "credibility
is important for Web users, since it is unclear who is behind information on
the Web and whether a page can be trusted" (Nielson, 2007). There are
links at the bottom of the page with contain information about the webpage
being the original webpage of the company, it also contains the registration
number aswell as contact details to contact the company representatives
directly.
I think this website is very successful in with their
goal of attracting people to their webpage so that they can later buy their
product. Shows sometimes simple can be more than enough and simplicity can be
used in a powerful way.
Wysocki, A.F. (2004).
The multiple media of texts: How onscreen and paper texts incorporate words,
images and other media. in C. Bazerman, & P. Prior, What writing
does and how it does it: An introduction to analysing texts and textual
practices (pp. 123-163). Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Eribaum.
Parker, R. (2012), The Meaning of Colors. Retrieves 1 June 2012: https://resources.oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/rreagan/Filemanager_Public_Files/meaningofcolors.htm.
Parker, R. (2012), The Meaning of Colors. Retrieves 1 June 2012: https://resources.oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/rreagan/Filemanager_Public_Files/meaningofcolors.htm.
Goatly, A. (2006).
Critical reading and writing. London: Routledge.
Nielson, J. (2007),
Writing for the web: Research on how users read on the web and how authors
should write their web pages. Retrieved 24 October 2011 from: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
Wysocki, A. F. (2004).
The multiple media of texts: How onscreen and paper texts incorporate words,
images and other media. In C. Bazerman and P. Prior, (Eds.) What writing does
and how it does it: An introduction to analyzing texts and textual practices,
pp.123–163, Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum.
