Wk3-A: Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

 

A Look at Designs

     Design is an important way to retain an interest in the information your website or posts are conveying. Visual language is at times an overlooked medium of communication and, unfortunately, that can cost a company in the long run. Effective and mindful design and branding can make your product or project go future. 

     The following two websites, I felt, were lacking in one area or another and will further explain that below. No ill intent is meant towards the creators and designers of these works, these are just my observations and opinions built upon those. 

Penny Juice

     Right upfront, the color choices for this website threw me off. While coherent they are oversaturated with little contrast, causing difficulty while I tried to read the information. When you hover over the red buttons on the pages they flip to a pure green; as this color is used nowhere else in the layout it is jarring to see suddenly. Also, despite having a Twitter they did not include it in the social media links in the top left of their footer with the Facebook emblem.

     While I do think this website was professionally done they may have followed the customer's lead more than was advisable for a visually appealing website. I think that finding a more coherent color palette would fix the issues pointed out besides adding the Twitter icon alongside the Facebook icon. For the most part, the site was easily navigable and user friendly. 

Gates N Fences

     Upon opening up Gates N Fences I was given more information at once than a home page should have. The various links strewn through the text make navigation difficult and the wall of buttons to the left are overwhelming at minimum. Only some of the images on the site have a copyright overlay on mouse hover giving it a very disjointed feeling.

     Overall, I think this website was made by a novice designer, they have the basics there but the execution is lacking. If they could change the navigation buttons to be dropdown or hover reacted lists that would help reduce how long the list of red is. A concise home page would be better as well; keeping the images and explanations where they are relevant would clean up the overall feeling from the website.

    Alternately, I chose the following two websites based on their strengths. Their modernism is something to watch to ensure that you are following any necessary trends in your industry. Aesthetic in design can change quickly. Keep an eye on competitors to make sure you are keeping up!

Apple

     I feel like no list of who's who in design can be complete sans Apple. Their sleek design with an eye for minimalism covers phone and website alike. Navigation is simple and easy to access, while images softly balance out large blocks of information. Color is well balanced over the site and draws the viewer's eye. 

     This website seems professionally done and expensive to boot. More difficult coding is used to have the navigation track as a header as you scroll down. Viewing this site reinforces the visual flaws of the previous two. A lot of things can be learned by studying Apple's design work.

Toyota

     In a similar vein to the Apple website, the Toyota website is clean and precise. The limited color palette extends over the entire site giving it a sense of cohesion. Navigation is simple and easy to access. At the bottom, they have neatly categorized articles spanning sales to maintenance and more to help their customers find what they need.

     I have no doubt that this website was professionally done. The Toyota website does a great job of sharing information cleanly. It is well put together with the car carousel navigation and ways to filter those. The bold image squares feel at home in the negative space. 

     Overall each website had more positives or negatives than I could condense into one blog post. Almost every website will have an aspect someone doesn't like; the challenge is properly utilizing and balancing the most loved things. Get used to the balance and your design will flourish!