Unit 13: Assignment 2: E-Marketing & Website Design
In this assignment, I will explain the web-design usability and visual features used by different e-marketing businesses, I will do this by looking at different business’ websites and explaining how their user interface and visual features appeal to their target market and fit into their own branding as well as reflecting their own values.
To begin, we will discuss the importance of web design and how usability and visual features can impact a user’s opinion of the website. Web design in itself is extremely important and could make or break a business, especially one that operates wholly online. Web design encompasses many elements beyond what we, as a user, would see, some of these elements are;
There are many other elements incorporated into website design and it is understandably quite daunting for an entrepreneur to make a website for their business on their own, therefore web design companies can charge exorbitant rates for their services. With that being said for smaller website design companies who do not offer such a comprehensive service will be more affordable, the most affordable option in my opinion is using a web design service like Wix.com which supposedly allows you to drag and drop your visuals and develop your website yourself, they claim to offer a professional looking finish at an affordable monthly price or you can have a website without access to premium features or a dedicated domain name for free (meaning the URL will be website.wix.com instead of website.com), otherwise for a basic business website that features an “about” section, a product catalogue and contact information page (perhaps even with a web contact form if you’re really pushing the boat out) for £300 or more with ongoing maintenance fees. Some websites like Fiverr and UpWork will allow you to hire freelance web developers and web designers at more affordable rates but there isn’t typically maintenance rates unless you actually employ these individuals which I believe UpWork allows you to do.
Websites are programmed using HTML though you can integrate other programming languages such as Python, PHP, Java and C++. They are displayed in a browser using something called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which a website builder would define in a programme they’re using to build the website from scratch, one programme that allows you to build websites from scratch is Adobe Dreamweaver, the CSS is then integrated into the HTML before being displayed on a website, the CSS are formatted using different folders in the main project folder before a website is hosted on servers before going live.
SEO is pretty much making your website more appealing to search engine algorithms so that they place your website at the top of search results (or after sponsored search results in more popular search engines such as Google.com).
With that out of the way, we can begin to focus on actual website design instead of all the backbones involved with building a website because at this point, it’s not relevant. The most important elements in web design in terms of usability and visual functionality are;
We will explain first why the domain name is important. Let’s imagine that Facebook wouldn’t take legal action against a start-up company that are purely web based and sells stock photographs of only portraiture photos and decided their domain name should be www.facebook.com. The problem is, that domain name is already taken by a company called Facebook Inc. who need very little introduction as they host the largest social network. So, the stock photography company would have to use the domain name www.Facebook2.com, immediately, alarm bells ring and it doesn’t look good for Facebook2 as their integrity is called into question. It’s OK though, because Facebook Inc. are known to settle out of court and purchase any domain that threatens their brand to avoid any damages that could potentially be caused, Facebook2 would find they wouldn’t be out of pocket, put it that way. Other companies do this regularly too, one notable legal dispute was the software company taking legal action against a software developer called Mike Rowe whose website claimed the domain www.mikerowesoft.com, the guy was a seventeen year old student and there’s no guessing for who the bullies are (they’ve since said publicly they took Mike Rowe too seriously and the action they took was perhaps a little drastic) who took legal action over the domain name. It was Microsoft. It is safe to say Microsoft won the legal battle and now, if you visit Mike Rowe’s Software’s original website (mikerowesoft.com) you will be redirect to www.Microsoft.com instead. What this shows is how important a domain name is to a company.
The page layout of a webpage is extremely important too, there is nothing worse than a website that you cannot navigate because the layout is too cluttered or otherwise, non-functional. One company who knows about the importance of page layout (and content) is Alphabet (but when they were still Google) who own the search engine Google.com, in the beginning of their history, users would wait patiently on their landing page, which displayed the search box, for the rest of the page to load, unbeknownst to them, it had already finished loading. Google had the innovative idea to place their copyright statement at the bottom of their page to demonstrate that the page had fully loaded, this solved the problem and indicates how such a minor change can have a massive impact on usability, a too visually simple website may cause unwanted behaviours such as staring at a fully loaded web page.
Another example of a simple website is an invasive pop up I received recently for a web browser called Chedot, registered in Estonia. Their simple layout made me feel like it was thrown together and that in itself put me off, I wanted to examine how seedy the website it and I browsed the links around the page expecting them to be dead links or otherwise redirect me back to the homepage to my surprise, they had fully documented terms of service, contact information and uninstallation instructions. Had it not been for the poor use of the English language used in their terms of service as well as their registered address being in a country which I do not know the regulations around internet usage or the business laws of that country to ensure safe business practices, they may have had me download their browser. With that being said, I’m a diehard Chrome fan so I probably wouldn’t have downloaded the browser and because of their poor use of the English language, however, their professionality was called into question and cost them my trust when they may very well be a legitimate business with good business practices.
Simplicity isn’t always a bad thing, mind you, if we look at Amazon’s 1-click payment system, it is immediately apparent that this far more convenient for customers and actually benefits them however, it does require you to first fill in your default payment method (any major debit/credit card and now PayPal). However, even the convenient online payment system they used originally had its pitfalls; consumers weren’t used to buying things directly from the internet and would often need to call Amazon to be walked through the payment process and reassured continuously that it was safe. The reason the simplicity of their 1-click payment system is accepted is because Amazon already had a vast customer base who have a large amount of trust for them as a company. We will be discussing Amazon in greater detail later.
I talk about simplicity but all visual elements are really important with page layout being perhaps one of the most important, B. J. Fogg, a researcher, conducted a four year research study into how visual elements can affect the perceived credibility of a website and concluded that users will consider all visual elements presented to them to subconsciously assess the credibility of the website, I’d imagine it would be the same sort of credibility assessment we make when a person, claiming to be homeless, approaches us to ask for some change; it is true that we assess the credibility of most things, look at Ginsters all day breakfast sandwich compared to Tesco’s own brand all day breakfast sandwich; which one is more credible? Ginsters, right?.You’re wrong, well not so much wrong but mildly half-correct. You see, Ginsters is a Cornish company who sell Cornish pasties and other savoury products… However, they don’t make their products in Cornwall and I’m almost certain they don’t make many of their own products. I am certain they do not make their own sandwiches. Ginsters sandwiches are made in the exact same factories, with the exact same ingredients, by the exact same people and on the exact same production lines as Tesco own brand sandwiches, these factories aren’t even owned by Tesco or Ginsters and instead are owned by the Samworth Brothers, I know this because I used to make those sandwiches and let me tell you, I’ve never been so disgusted in all my life. It’s enough to put you off pre-packaged, processed foods for life but given that’s all students can afford… I’ll continue to be at risk of the bad things operatives do in high-stress, low-reward roles with employees who are more than likely on temporary contracts working for agencies with little regard for their future with their agency’s client… The less said about it the better I think. I’ll give you this nugget for free, however, there was a temporary worker who spat in a bucket of mayonnaise destined for 900 sandwiches. Personally, I’ll only take the risk if the pre-packaged sandwich is in the reduced section and I never open the sandwich to look at its contents.
My next point is in regards to content and content structure. Similar to the previous point, a group of researchers conducted a study to see whether or not the content contained over multiple health websites affected the users opinion of the overall credibility of one site over another. It was found, whilst observing fifteen women researching health websites in regards to an ailment they suffer from, that the layout and content of the page had the opposite effect of what you would typically see from a person looking at a website for shopping purposes. It was found that when the website’s design appealed to them visually and was easy to read, the website was considered to be less credible than one which doesn’t appeal to them visually and has large amounts of text with more advanced language and uses more technical vocabulary. In my opinion, this suggests that, as I can see no evidence the women in the study came from a medical background, if you are looking for advice in a field you’re not experienced in (for example, for me it could be roofing) and the content you find is too relatable, you may feel the author of the content is also inexperienced. If I wanted to repair a roof, I would look for diagrams and videos showing me what to do as opposed to text based manuals with very few pictures, as I wouldn’t understand the technical language used. I wouldn’t know what you’d call that thing you line the roof with before installing the tiles or how the tiles are fixed into place, I’d imagine not very well given the amount that seem to be blown off of roofs in heavy wind… If I found a manual for roofing repairs that I understood except for possibly something with a name along the lines of “Roofing for Dummies”, I’d be highly questionable of the expertise of the author.
Advertising plays a massive role in website design and in particular, which companies advertisers are willing to advertise alongside. A massive scandal recently involved YouTube and Google and has prompted a large amount of companies to stop advertising on them, analysts predict the advertising boycott will cost Google $750million. It was found that people were able to earn a revenue via Google Adsense by displaying adverts by Google Adwords on their sites, this is how the majority of online content creators (such as YouTubers and Bloggers and app creators) make revenue. The problem was, not everybody who was doing this were complimentary of the businesses advertising alongside them and Google wasn’t picky about who could and couldn’t use their service even though they had a seemingly solid terms of use policy. People were creating extremist content and Google were allowing adverts to be shown alongside this as well as other unacceptable forms of content, it looked bad on advertisers as to the common internet user, it isn’t always immediately clear who powers the advertising and therefore, could easily make the mistake in thinking the companies are approaching these extremist websites and those engaging in hate speech and paying them to advertise their business, products or services. This highlights how important it is for business, especially those who engage in regular online content creation, to be mindful of how their content can be perceived by advertisers, in other words, if you are going to earn a revenue online, it is important to ensure your content is advertiser-friendly.
Now, we are going to compare two businesses’ websites and explain the web design usability and visual features they use. I’ll also include a third business’ website to highlight commonalities between sector types, primary, secondary and tertiary. The two businesses we will be comparing are Boohoo, Holiday Inn and Acacia Mining, all of whom have offices in the UK but are global companies. Boohoo is a clothing/lifestyle brand, Holiday Inn who offer hotel accommodation at reasonable prices and Acacia Mining, a gold mining and exploration company that operates in Africa. On the following page is a screenshot of each of their websites. In the last assignment, we discussed Boohoo in great detail so for the purposes of this assignment, we will be looking at visual differences and similarities and how these appeal to their target audiences;
So, the first thing we notice is that the first two websites, Boohoo and Holiday Inn, are selling you something whereas the third website belonging to Acacia Mining doesn’t appear to be selling anything and in fact shows information about who they are as a company. In fact, nowhere on their site is there a checkout option or catalogue of products, that isn’t the purpose of their website. I’m sure they do have customers but if I’m entirely honest, I do not know how their customers are acquired but I am sure there are ways and means. So, what is the point of their website? Well, their target market is investors. Acacia Mining, as with the other two examples, are all publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange, Holiday Inn are owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) whose common stock is sold on the exchange as opposed to Holiday Inn’s. Below, for purposes of example, is a screenshot of IHG’s websites:
IHG’s sales website:
IHG’s website for investors:
From all of the screenshots we can see one thing is common, the top ribbon which is ever present as you scroll down the page, it keeps their logo in view and their tabs easily accessible, for Boohoo, I feel their top ribbon is too invasive as it covers more area than the other examples. Going back to Acacia Mining, which is targeting investors and comparing it to IHG’s website that is designed to target investors, we can see some distinct similarities between the two such as;
We can see from IHG’s sales website that it follows a very similar form to their Holiday Inn website with the distinction that Holiday Inn seems to be targeting families and those with children whereas, in my opinion, the IHG sales website targets couples and a more sophisticated audience. Below are screenshots to enable us to better assess the differences and similarities of IHG and Holiday Inn;
IHG:
Holiday Inn (scrolled down slightly):
We can see how the first thing we are presented with after the immediate branding is the booking portal, rumour has it that it is relatively quick but we don’t know for sure, Trivago on the other hand show off the efficiency of their booking system via their video advert, it takes just 30 seconds! Anyway, it is immediately obvious that IHG and Holiday Inn are trying to sell us temporary holiday accommodation, the same as Boohoo, well, not quite the same, Boohoo’s products are clothing and accessories and not hotel rooms, seen a screenshot of Boohoo’s website again below;
Boohoo and Holiday Inn both use a slideshow to showcase their main product offerings, for lack of a better term, in the above screenshot, Boohoo is targeting families or those with children and trying to imply that children who wear their clothes will be happy and possibly make friends with people who have the bad habit of whispering gossip about another person in the room. OK, perhaps that isn’t the image they’re going for but it really is subjective… Nonetheless, it is clear that both Boohoo and Holiday Inn are child friendly and promoting a feeling of welcoming and joy.
Above is a side by side comparison of the page layout (scaled down to 25%), they follow the same, easy to view, picture dense, gallery style format to exhibit their lifestyle brands, for the Holiday Inn, their lifestyle branding is that of fitness, relaxation and fun whereas for Boohoo, their lifestyle branding is that of trendsetting, stylish, happiness and sunshine. I feel Holiday Inn are trying a scattergun approach and targeting multiple types of people whereas Boohoo are trying to focus their targets on a more specific type of audience; I do feel Holiday Inn and Boohoo target women and those with children predominantly whereas IHG targets a more professional audience of both male and female and older age ranges to Holiday Inn and Boohoo. I’ve always associated Holiday Inn to be an inner city kind of holiday accommodation (though they also accommodate those travelling solely for business purposes too) rather than a seaside holiday accommodation provider like Haven caravan parks, for example. I think Boohoo reaches the beach scene/surfer style audiences better than Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn is better suited to more urban environments as a result of the images used, the colours and overall branding.
Holiday Inn features a more “solid state” website with direct hyperlinks to other pages in their top ribbon whereas Boohoo features a drop down list when one of their links in their top ribbon is highlighted, this allows for better navigation of Boohoo’s site and the style Holiday Inn opted for wouldn’t be effective because of the vast size of Boohoo’s clothing departments. Boohoo’s “inspire me” link is a dud and simply doesn’t work or at least this was the case at the time of writing, which is a shame but I assume this would take us to their blog and videos and clothing collections, this is where Boohoo connects with their audience outside of social media on a personal level. Holiday Inn lacks this feature, they have no need for a more personal relationship with their customers, Holiday Inn after all is a budget service and do not typically offer concierge or VIP services (although they can if you really want them to). IHG do host a blog on their website, it is worth noting but the parent company itself targets a more affluent market than Holiday Inn and therefore, the personal touch is required. Boohoo benefit from hosting a blog because it allows them to perpetuate their lifestyle brand so that it can be adopted by those reading their blog, this is also important for their social media outreach. It is my understanding that IHG, Holiday Inn and Boohoo are prevalent on social media with Boohoo being the most active.
In conclusion, it is clear that different businesses use their websites differently depending on who their target audience is, what we learn from the differences between those websites targeting investors and those targeting customers is that your target audience will directly impact everything from the layout to the style of your website and in reference to websites that target customers, depending on who your customers are will determine how you go about appealing to them in terms of the style of your website, style and use of language, use of pictures and even the colours you use to brand your website, plus a whole range of other factors.
Sources/Reference:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2015/02/11/understanding-the-full-impact-of-web-design-on-seo-branding-and-more/#740cc7df64fe – Impact of web design on SEO branding and more – Forbes
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=985776 – Study: Trust and Mistrust of Online Health Sites based on content elements.
http://landing.chedot.com/?utm_source=propeller&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=813193&subid=314529298273&zoneid=1116920 – Chedot Browser (untrusted)
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=765951&CFID=759862904&CFTOKEN=97813809 – Study on users subconsciously assessing the credibility of webpages based on visual elements.
https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/content/gb/en/support/meetings#scmisc=nav_meetings_hi&