Week3A: Aesthetics, Design & Branding Pt. 1.

As I had mentioned in my first blog post, aesthetic is everything to me. So I'm excited to review the websites of 4 companies and decide what they're doing wrong, what they're doing right, and how aesthetic impacts a readers reaction upon visiting a site. 

I will review:

• http://apple.com
• http://www.ford.com/
• http://www.roverp6cars.com/
• http://tectorch.com

The Unaesthetic

Putting in the effort to make a beautiful, seamless website can be tedious but the result will be oh so rewarding. If your site is overloaded with images, the viewer might exit the page faster than you can say aesthetic. 

Roverp6cars

A few problems I found were;

• The site's background is covered with bulky images of unappealing junk-yard cars. 
• The font and mismatched colors make it hard for the reader to follow.
• The site is not well organized.

My suggestions to better improve this site would be to remove all of the unnecessary background images, this will help the user better to focus on your actual topic/products. I would stick to a similar font color palate when creating a site page. It's simply unappealing to mix three different colors in one small paragraph. And lastly, to further improve this site I would organize the site by product and information. Adding tabs for photos, contact information, product, and service. 

It's best to simplify when creating a site, people have short attention spans and you wont grab their attention by over-crowding them with information and images. Less is more.

TecTorch

This site is an example of being too simple. I know that sounds like a contradiction to what I said above about "less is more" while that is mostly true, you still need to entice the user with a clean layout and throw in a few images to keep the user interested. 

What I found to be unappealing;

• The site is extremely dated. 
• Unorganized
• Font and photo size

How I would remedy this is to add a clean homepage featuring their most popular products with an "about us" section and a drop down menu with options for each category of the products they sell, such as "New Products," "Welding Torches," and "Accessories." I would also not use such a small font, and add a few more images. 

The Aesthetically Pleasing

Apple

Apple's site is the perfect mix of simplicity and enticement. It is both beautiful and functional. 

At the top of the home page is a slide show of their newest product and update announcements. They have laid out a menu of all of their products to be easily found, and each of their product pages are extremely detailed from the imagery, to the features. You know exactly what you're getting with Apple and a user can get excited about purchasing a product without even seeing the product in person first.

Ford

Similar to Apple, Ford gets you excited about your purchase before you even see it in person. They use plenty of detailed images on their product pages, my favorite feature on the Ford site is their "Build & Price" option. It gives you the same in-person experience without the hassle. They also have a find a dealer tab making it a no brainer to find one closest to you. 

Aesthetic Impact

First impressions are extremely important, so as a brand trying to grab your customer- you need to attract them with the beauty of your site. As I mentioned above, people have short attention spans and are quick to make judgments off of what they see right off the bat. It can be challenging to really know what your users want to see, it takes a knowledge of marketing and an eye for detail. The things that will effect your site are layout, imagery, colors, and how easily they can navigate the page. 

The internet can at times get frustrating, if a link doesn't work or if something is difficult to find, it will turn a user off of your site and force them to look elsewhere. 

Simply put, the judgement of a website comes down to visuals and if the visuals are confusing or difficult for a user to focus on the information/product you're providing- you will lose that business.