This is my analysis of the website that I chose which is based on this fashion photographer from the UK James Nader.
The total look on the website that I’ve chosen is black, white & and silver which is quite suits the entire background. There is also use of orange in some of the text to bring in some colour. It is quite a medium sized page with basically three sections where on the left hand side it has the links to different pages, in the centre it has a brief description on James Nader's work and at the leftmost corner it displays contact details in bold.
I feel the visuals which is only really the image of the model is small and centered not taking up the entire page. I think one would browse through through the text on this page very quickly as it is in four different paragraphs and mainly focus on the image which is the highlight of the homepage.
My outlook on the website would surely be different if it were colored.
The text on the links section is quite small with an orange lining underneath which brings attention to the reader as otherwise it would not be noticeable at all, the text that describes the photographer's work is in small font hence readers don't notice it instantly, and the one which is of most notice (see screenshot) is the text on the very left hand corner which is bold and caps also in a larger font as it displays the photographer's name, designation and contact details and obviously the intention is to draw the readers' attention which is good advertising skills. It uses all the four colors of the website i.e. black, silver, grey and orange to keep it constant throughout.
Images
The photograph used on this website is a picture of a typical model as Wysocki mentions who is white, slender and healthy-looking. This is obviously to draw the readers’ attention and also especially because it is a fashion related website. The model’s hairdo is quite dramatic again because the website is on fashion photography and the total look has to be extravagant. But it is done in a quite subtle way and not too extreme.
The photograph used on this website is a picture of a typical model as Wysocki mentions who is white, slender and healthy-looking. This is obviously to draw the readers’ attention and also especially because it is a fashion related website. The model’s hairdo is quite dramatic again because the website is on fashion photography and the total look has to be extravagant. But it is done in a quite subtle way and not too extreme.
Layout of text
The text on this website is in full sentences. As mentioned by Nielsen n.d.; Farkas and Farkas (2002) we don't really read a webpage word to word. As the reader browses through the first few lines on James Nader, they automatically go on to the different links. We also don't notice any use of bullet points and highlighting.
Use of hyperlinks
As stated by Kiousis and McMillan (2002) that interactivity is widely used in online communication which engages readers and also increases interaction between the reader and the system. This is by adding hyperlinks in text but as you notice on the website that I have chosen there is no use of it all hence after reading the first few lines the natural tendency is to navigate the site through the links on the left hand side of the page. There is a bit of waste of word count on the homepage and no hypertext links which is exactly what readers want on a website i.e. "actionable content".
Purpose of text/Language used
As stated by Nielsen (2007) that the intro on the homepage has to focus on two main points which is "what" and "why". There is some focus of that in the text where it first focuses on who James Nader is and then towards the end it tells us that what we should expect to see in this website. Language used is fairly simple, easy to understand an also pronouns like "you" have been used at the end to add personal touch as it wants to develop a sense of bonding with the reader on the very first page. Also mentioned by Nielsen that the readers pay attention to the writing style and will notice if there are any typos if colours is spelt as colors which reduces the credibility of the site. The key to a successful site is using a consistent language as different styles may confuse readers. Overall the language should be linguistic friendly to attract more viewers.
The use of the brand "James Nader" has been at least three times one as the main heading, sub heading and then on the right hand corner along with contact details. This shows good brand imaging.
In conclusion this website could be of target to a teenager doing research on school assignment (mainly photography student) or even an adult who is perhaps trying to pursue their career in this industry so it can be quite versatile to match different age groups. The image of the the model will definitely attract all age groups as well as it is subtle but at the same time stands out because of the hairdo. Only drawback is the lack of hyperlinks and because of that it looks like it has a lot of information though it might have a short intro.
References
Warnick, B. (2006). Rhetoric on the web. InP. Messaris and L. Humphreys (Eds.),Digital Media; Transformations in Human Communication, pp. 139 – 146) New York: Lang.
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.
Nielson, J. (2007), Writing for the web: Research on how users read on the web and how authors should writetheir web pages. Retrieved 26 June, 2007 from:http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
