DESIGN FOR WEB - FUNDAMENTAL WEB SESSION 03 - ANALYSIS & DISSECTION

WEBSITE ANALYSIS AND DISSECTION

For this web session we were asked to find some websites that we liked. We were told to find websites that we perceived to be good design whilst trying to have them in keeping with the website we want to produce.

The first website I looked at was for the Danish company RAINS. RAINS are a modern clothing company, specializing in fully waterproof attire. The reason I chose this website was because of its very simple layout and the use of a white background, especially how it works with the product photos. The website is clean, attractive and easy to navigate.

The second website that I chose was Harry’s. Harry’s is an American shaving company that specializes in a simple modern aesthetic. This design is not as simple or as basic as RAINS, however it is still structured, easy to navigate and attractive. Again the white background makes it look clean whilst also emphasizing and colour and imagery.

The next website I liked was the website for Savile Row tailors Norton & Sons. They have recently had a rebrand, trying to bring traditional bespoke tailoring into the modern world. The website is extremely basic but I chose it because I like the illustrative nature of the imagery.

In keeping with the illustrative aspect seen in the Norton & Sons website, I also looked at the Sid Mashburn website. I liked its unusual approach to product imagery, having the product as a sketch rather than a photograph. This is an aspect I want to use in the Jackets section of my website.

Another website I looked at was that of Patrik Ervell. Similarly to the RAINS website this is very simple and stripped back, using the white background to make it appear as if it is one big space. I also like the layout and position of the logo and the navigation bar.

I also chose to look at the RVLT website. This website also uses a lot of negative//white space, however, this was not the main reason I liked this design. I liked this design due to the extremely simple and formulaic grid system, where the website is split into equal rectangles.

The 31 Phillip Lim website is a combination of the RVLT website and the Patrik Ervell website. I liked this website due to its use of a structured and rigid grid but also because of the positions of the information and navigation bar.

The final website I looked at was that of clothing company Gubb & Mackie. This website was unlike the others in the way it was nearly all colour. Although it used only a few colours the spanned the whole page, however this was not the main reason for me choosing this website. I chose this website because it was different to anything I had encountered before and that interested me. The format and layout was unusual and challenged conventions.

BREAKDOWN & GRIDDING OF WEBSITES

In another part of this session we were asked to break our chosen websites down into their grids.

The websites I chose to dissect were the RAINS website, Harry’s website and the RVLT website.

The RAINS website has a very simple skeleton structure; a vertical navigation bar towards the top let, including the logo and buttons//links. The remaining space on the page is then split up equally. Each product has its own space and that space is the same throughout the website. The simplistic nature of the website draws all the focus onto the products.

Harry’s website is slightly more complicated and has a different layout. Where as the RAINS navigation bar was vertical and to the left, this is horizontally across the top with different information and links in different areas. The band photograph, that covers the whole width of the page, provides varying information, mostly imagery but again acts as a link. The final section of the website is very structured and gridded to not over complicate the design. There is more going on in this design and therefore the eye moves more and is not as focused.

The RVLT websit is an extremely structured and basic grid system. It is split into equal rectangle and then broken up by images overlapping and white space with single word links. This website is not as interesting as the others and is too simplistic to draw you in. the arrangement of the images and buttons//links is unusual as they are scattered across the page rather than in a single place making it more difficult to navigate around.  The lack of an obvious title//log also means that the first impress is ‘what is this?’.