Website Research

As part of our ancillary texts, we have chosen to create a website. At first, we had absolutely no idea how to do this so this is all a completely new concept. We wanted a website that stands out and suits the image of the band. This meant, colours, fonts and menus that match the style of music that the band play. I have looked at a few websites to see what kind of things are involved in creating one. I looked at Slash's, Cage The Elephant's and Beady Eye's websites. I looked at Beady Eye because they are an upcoming band similar to the band of our video so I thought a few elements could be similar. There was a big picture of the band, this was the main focus of the page, making the audience's attention be drawn to the picture and show what the band look like.

This is a screenshot of that particular websites homepage:

As

you can see, the picture of the band draws the attention straight away. This

shows everyone on the looking on the w

ebsite who is in the band and what clothes they wear. (This is important to the audience of music because people tend to dress the same way as the band they like, therefore if t

hey already do wear the same style of clothes as the band, they are likely to continue looking on the website.) There is also the huge title of the band in 'their' font. This is obviously to show the name of the band, but is also a way to relate to the band when seeing that font. For example, it could be used on a poster or something, and people would know that it was that band who's poster it was, ev

en if it didn't have the band name on. The screenshot also has tabs at the top as links to get to other pages on the site. Some of these seem important, and some not so. My plan is to find the more common and useful ones from 2 other examples to work out which ones are needed for use on our website. Also, the first options on the homepage that you see are a video clip, and a link to play their latest song. This could be because they are a ne

w ba

nd and want people to listen and watch them. This is a concept that we could use as our band is fairly new. Also as we are producing a video, this will need to be one of the main

attractions.

The second screenshot shows a news section. This is to tell the fans the latest news of tours, shows albums etc.

This is something that commonly occurs in band websites. This is a

technique that will surely be used in the creation of our own website.

There is also a link to Liam Gallagher's fashion website. Obviously none of us have our own fashion label, but is an idea that could

be used to promote

something else of ours, ie a digipak.

My third screenshot is of this bands 'soc

ial' page.

This is where people can click on a link, and find the band elsewhere such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. This is something that should definitely be incorporated with our website because our band have pages el

sewhere and would be handy to link people to them. It would help to become popular and to be part of the online social community.

The background colours seem to be fairly dull, but the fonts and menus slightly brighter. This could be to attract attention to the more important things. Plus it gives the page a good balance that does not look stra

nge.

The second website that I analysed was Slash's:

This website is very much a way of Slash joining the community and letting people join him, rather than promote himself. (As he does not need to.) The top option is to join the 'fanwall'. This is for people to join the website and get access to even more information. The homepage also shows the tabs at the top, similar to Beady Eye's website. However there are less options, this could be because Slash doesn't need to promote himself so much, or just because so many are not needed. The similar options are Home, News and Music. These seem to be more common than the other options. This is because it is important to get your music on there, and obviously a news page is needed as way for the band to communicate with fans. Even though there are less options at the top of the page, you can scroll down furthe

r than you can on the Beady Eye website.

The third website that I analysed was Cage The Elephant's. This is also a website with lots of pictures and is very easy to navigate. The whole thing is centered around them.

There are alot of aspects from these websites that we could use. The site must be easy to navigate. To do this, the links to other pages must be clearly visible, and must include a homepage, a page with info on the band, a page based on the music of the band, photos and videos and links to other internet pages including social network sites. The site must be a complete package with every aspect of the band that is needed to be shown shown.

This is a screenshot of my first draft homepage of my created website-

I have created tabs that have the options of home, news, music, photos, the band and events. They are made to look like spotlights with the word in the middle. I thought this suited the style of website for a band. I have a box with latest news for headlines as it were, then you can go to the news page to read properly. There is a box for new videos and one for photos so fans can see what has happened lately. There is a comments box for fans to write in and links to Facebook, Myspace and Youtube. This is so fans can easilly access these pages. The font is the signature font of the band and is used for all titles on the site.