Task 4 #1
I chose to compare the websites of the competing companies
Target and Wal-Mart. The grid structures
of their websites are very similar. Both
websites have what looks like approximately the first quarter of the width of
the page dedicated to a featured column.
For Target, this column contains the daily sales and for Wal-Mart, it is
used for navigational purposes so that the viewers can click on which
department they want to go see. It also
contains the current deals below the navigation tool. Both companies also have navigational and
search features horizontally along the top of their sites.
Besides for the top row and left column of the website, both
companies use the remaining space for the main ads. Target’s main space is constantly
changing. They have five different
advertisements for the different departments within the store. Sometimes the ad is up for about 3 seconds,
while other ads are up for about 10 seconds at a time. Wal-Mart on the other hand, chose to
highlight one department, babies right now, as their feature main advertisement
on the main page. Both sites below this
main visual have other, much smaller. 
Other design features that stand out to me about these two
websites are Target’s use of color. The
navigation tools along the top are in bright red, Target’s signature
color. Some of their main alternating
feature ads are bright and bold, while others are smaller and contain trapped
white space. Wal-Mart, on the other
hand, uses a more subtle blue color.
Their main ad is what really pops on the page but there is so much going
on in the ad that it seems very cluttered.
There is not one focal point.
Here are the two websites if you’d like to take a look:
Task 1
Here are twelve different fonts each with two words whose meaning is amplified with the font, and two words that seem to be contradicted by the choice of font.
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteI really like your comparison of the target and walmart websites. I love how both color and layout affect the impacts of the websites on their customers. The vibrant red the the contrast of white is used to immediately grab the attention of viewers, especially with their bulls eye logo. Walmart used the blue color and a subtle layout. Both webites have a similar layout as to where the advertisements are placed. You mentioned and I was never aware of this until now.
I also liked your font exercise. However some of your font effects were lost on your font chart. From my computer many of the fonts were similar. This is because blogspot journals can only support a few different font types, unlike microsoft word or any other word programs. A suggestion is that when you have something like this that is very font intensive, save your document as a pdf file so it will preserve the font effects. Take the bank gothic font for example. It is supposed to look like the font used in the Batman movies (recent ones). Other than that. great job!
-Mae-Lin
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ReplyDeleteHi Katie. I like how you compared Wal-Mart and Target because they are competitive companies that are very similar! The links being on top and in a horizontal form kept the two websites very organized. You explained how Wal-Mart should have used a better color than that light blue since Target had the flashy red. I wanted to point out to you that Wal-Mart used that color because it is their signature color (it is all over in the store, in commercials, ads, etc.). Another thing I wanted to point out was the moving images Target had. I agree with you and think that the moving images are better. It attracts a wider audience. While Wal-Mart may attract Mom's, Grandma's etc. for baby clothes, it does not attract others who may not have a young baby in their life. All in all, good analysis!
ReplyDeleteMoving onto your 2nd exercise, I had fun reading what you thought about each font. I also did this exercise and found it very interesting to actually sit down and write about what came to mind. However, my computer does not have all of the same fonts as yours does so I was not able to see all of them :( Good job though!
Erin :)
Hi everyone. Thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify, I do not necessarily think red/blue is better and I know that they are both the signature colors of the companies, I just thought they each make something different pop out on the page. Also, I changed the picture I used to show the fonts; I hope everyone can see all of them now.
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