Research Task - Website Analysis

1. Research Task - Website Analysis!
The National - americanmary.com
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The URL for The National’s
website comes from a song of
their first record: ‘American Mary’.
Frontman Matt Berninger states:
“We never thought of changing the
name, although we should have.”
This could be seen as bad
branding, as the rest of the
websites I will be looking at simply
use the artist’s name as the URL.!
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The main feature of The National’s homepage is a large image banner that cycles through the band’s current main
ventures: their most recent album and their tour documentary. Above this is a tab bar with links to other areas of the
website: News, Tour, Media, Releases, People, Forum, Shop, and Follow. Among these are places to consume
information about the band’s live appearances, a store to purchase merchandise, and several places to discuss the artist
with other fans. The interesting thing about this website design is that all of these different categories are located on the
same front page, and clicking on each tab simply jumps you to the relevant part of the page (rather than scrolling).!
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In the ‘News’ section of the website
there are various attractions that
would be of interest to fans of the
band, each with a rollover image
(that becomes clearer when
hovered over) and anchor text to
provide context to the images.!
!
The ‘Videos’ section of the website is
similarly designed, with a large grid of
square thumbnails (depicting live
shows, recording sessions and other
content) that fills the screen, prompting
the user to hover over each rollover
image in order to make it clearer.!
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The design of the website is centred around a ripped paper theme, suiting the indie genre of the band while maintaining
a clean black-on-white colour pallet for ease of reading (consumption). The rollover images are aesthetically pleasing
and there is a nice use of colour in the thumbnails. The website of course is linked in with social media, inviting the user
to connect with the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with small clickable glyphs in the top right of the front page.!
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2. Research Task - Website Analysis!
Adele - adele.com
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Adele’s website is very simple in nature. With no scrolling of any sort, the homepage instead shows only the
cover art for the artist’s latest much-anticipated record ’25’, with links to various places the album can be
purchased. Below this is a bar where users are directed to look at tour information for Adele. Essentially, the
front page of the website exists to sell the consumer either music or concert tickets simply through name and
image recognition alone, an easy feat for a musician with as much star power as Adele.!
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Once the ‘Enter Website’ hyperlink is
clicked the user is brought to another
minimalistically skinned page. As the
user scrolls through this page,
content like live performances and
photo shoots are presented in full-
screen, sending a clear message that
everything Adele does is deserving of
an entire screen to display it on.!
!
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The simple design of Adele’s website is (like The National’s) very aesthetically appealing and modern, suiting
the classy nature of the ‘Adele’ brand. Opting to hide fluff like social media links and search bars behind a
button in the top right, the designers of the website put the content front and centre.!
!
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3. Research Task - Website Analysis!
Taylor Swift - taylorswift.com
The style of Taylor Swift’s website is clear just from looking at the header, with the artist’s name in flashing
neon red lights and a cluttered tab bar of links, urging the user to ‘join the mailing list’, ‘buy 1989 now’,
‘connect with Taylor’ etc. This website is evidently aimed at a different audience to the previous two. While
The National and Adele are more advertised towards adults, Taylor Swift’s target audience is teenaged girls
who can handle a website that throws lots of information at them.!
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As one would expect, Swift’s website places a large emphasis on social media. With eight individual social
media glyphs and many hashtags and links scattered throughout the page, it’s clear that the message to
Taylor’s teenaged fans is ‘share me’. In the modern pop music world, artists achieve recognition and
popularity through hits, so the more traffic is directed to their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Apple Music,
Tumblr, and Instagram pages the more chance they have of becoming increasingly successful.!
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The website also advertises Swift’s
recent (slightly controversial) Grammy
wins, showing the emphasis placed on
winning awards to validate an artist’s
success in the industry.