FONT/TYPE FACES:
The font Arial is used in the links below is from the Typeface Arial which is coloured white and made bold in capitals. This somehow without having to make the font size bigger gives emphasis on what is new and already available. The even layout between each link also shows the cleanliness which doesn't make it harder for the viewer to read what they are looking for. This is bold and powerful for the viewers attention to draw to it straight away and know that its there for later preferences but its not powerful enough to take up the attention from the rest of the webpage. As acknowledged in (Wysocki, 2004 p.126) “letters have shape because of their typefaces. Because typefaces are a major visual strategy for a text’s composers to signal the genre into which the text is to fit” therefore the Arial font in bold would make the perfect style for a website like SKYTV that’s constantly advertising new promotions without wanting to come across as un-affordable.
COLOUR:
As stated in (Wysocki, 2004p.126) “ The size and colour of something, and its placement at top or left or bottom or right, or what it presents…help answer the question.” Looking at the colours used for the website you can immediately see it’s the three main colours (Dark blue, Red and Golden yellow) that are used on the SKY logo and plain white in the background being repeated around the headlines. The repeated colours used highlight important pages on the website so that the targeted audiences eyes can head directly to what they have logged on to find, making things easier. Also by keeping the same colours this shows simplicity, coolness along with excitement which many users may find comforting instead of distracting. For example, the picture of the up-coming band LMFAO and already known Red hot chili peppers next to a competition with a purple background and a bright yellow ‘ENTER NOW!’ distracts the viewer but still keeps to it’s main colours it can get viewers interested and want to find out more than what they had originally come in for. Making the targeted audience for the webpage either music fans or people who like different genres of television.
The three boxes above are evenly spaced out and are the same size which prevents too much info being written that could bore the viewer and make them lose interest. The headings above are still in the same font and are all in capitals except for MTV EMA competition because with the space given ‘competition’ in capitals might not have fitted well. Beneath the headings are package deals with hardly any paragraphing just enough information to suit the viewer’s desire and images of what SKYTV has to offer to those already subscribed to it. This is straight to the point and somehow allows a connection between the viewer and what is being presented.
The images shown are upcoming popular movies and shows that are due to air in the up-coming months. The shows being advertised here are what viewers of SKYTV had favoured during the time it aired and now the website has made a slideshow of a few of the popular genres that are premiering with it’s latest season. The different images being put underneath each other show equality that none are the focus of attention but are all the same. Like (Nielson, 2007) says “sites that were easy to scan or that illustrated concepts visually were strongly preferred to sites with dense text.” Looking at the images and how it only has the title of what the programme is called and the channel it airs on it’s obvious to see the SKYTV knows what the viewers like and has put it somewhere in their website visible for the audience to see. With the arrow pointing up it shows that not only does it’s advertise the four shows but it has more TV favourites so that the viewer doesn’t forget or miss out on what’s in store. The images of the main characters being placed in the middle looking directly at the viewer also shows no power difference involved and the point of view is one of equality. With the different colours of each programme the silver/grey border and blue outline keeps the images together without turning the website into something extreme nor keeping it plain and boring. Goodbyes are the days where viewers would see everything in black and white. In this day and age “you don’t generally expect to see anything” (Wysocki, 2004 p.132) plain anymore.
Overall, The SKYTV website allows the viewer to find what they need without being bombarded with too much information but enough to understand what it’s about and what they’re trying to sell which is what normal TV can not offer. But in a way this is a little distracting, though research has found that viewers may not like reading having half the home page on the website show “products and services” and it’s many links is not very appealing. At first glance everything’s eye catching until you scroll down and see many advertisements but it’s understandable because it’s there to find more customers through its tempting products. Though this occurs it doesn’t shorten the time you spend on checking the website out.
REFERENCES:
Nielson, J. (2007). Writing for the web: Research on how users read on the web and how authors should write their web pages. Retrieved 28 October, 2011 from:
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting
Wysocki, A.F. (2004). The multiple media of texts: How onscreen and paper texts incorporate words, images and other media. in C. Bazerman, & P. Prior, What writing does and how it does it: An introduction to analysing texts and textual practices (pp. 123-163). Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Eribaum.
