What Makes A Good Website, A Good Website?

Today, we will talk about what makes a good website, good! Is it the color of the website? Is it the overall tone? What is it?! Well, to dive deep into this topic and gain some knowledge on what a good website it is (and a what a good website isn't), we will review the three websites: NIVEA.com, Dove.com, and Olay.com. These are all good skin care brands that have made a difference in the lives of women of all ages. But who is the best and who can learn from who? 

The List of Tasks

I asked three family members to complete the following tasks on the websites listed above to help me determine if these websites are user-friendly for their audiences. The tasks my family members completed are as follows:

1. Are you able to find a link and/or verbiage that asks you if you would like to be added to the company's email mailing list? 

2. Are you able to navigate through the company's various products? Moreover, is there an option somewhere on the page that you can click on to take you to a list of products and/or categories of products? 

3. Is there search box? 

4.  Is there an option to view the company's social media accounts? 

5. Are you able to contact the company directly? Moreover, is there an option where you can click or view the company's customer service phone number and/or company phone number or address? 

Results:

1. NIVEA

2 out of the three participants easily completed the tasks on NIVEA's website. The two participants explained that the site provided user-friendly navigation to the search bar, contact information, and the categories of the various products. However, the two participants did not find locating the social media accounts to be simple and didn't like that one had to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the homepage to locate the invitation to be apart of the email list. The third participant did not enjoy

navigating the website at all. This participant complained that although the search bar and contact information can be found on the homepage, the search bar and contact button was "too small" and written in font that was "hard to read unless you squint." Similarly, to the other participants, the third participant did not like the placement of the social media accounts and called the website "basic". 

Overall, each participant explained that it took them approximately 5-10 minutes to find all of the items that were listed on the task list because they were scrolling up and down the page to find all of the items. After this review, I asked each participant to grade the user-friendliness of NIVEA's website, the grade NIVEA received was an unanimous C.

2. Dove 

All three participants agreed that the navigation on Dove.com was much better than on NIVEA's website. They all explained that Dove's website looked more "friendly" and "appealing to the eye" for the use of softer blues and whites. In addition, they all enjoyed the various stories/articles that can be found when they scrolled down the homepage and it made each of them learn a little more about Dove as a company. 

They all explained that although Dove's homepage only features a search bar, email list invitation, and navigation to their various products on the top of the page, they enjoyed the ease of scrolling through the site. One of the participants

mentioned that he would have preferred the social media accounts and contact information be on the top of the page, because it would catch his eye and prompt him to leave a nice review on one of their social media accounts or contact the company itself with a review. 

Overall, all participants explained that it took them approximately 2-5 minutes to locate all of the tasks on the site (after reading the many articles on the page, of course!) The final grade for Dove was a B+. 

3. Olay 

Last but certainly not least, Olay was the best rated website amongst the three participants. All three participants applauded Olay for its website's user-friendliness by having an advertisement for free shipping and a pop-up advertisement for a live chat with a skin adviser. Each participant liked the personalized feel of the website and complimented how the site categorizes skin care products in words (for readers) and in pictures (for visual-loving individuals). In addition, All three participants enjoyed how the social media accounts were easy to see at the

bottom of the page and how it only took them 1-3 minutes to find all of the tasks on the list. Overall, Olay received a grade of A+.   

Conclusion

After speaking with the three participants and reviewing the three websites on my own, I can agree that Olay had the best website of them all. Olay's website was very inviting and informative. The website yearned for its customers to buy and made the buying process easy and fun. 

Although Olay was the best site, I do have to say that Dove does a pretty good job at their website layout as well. Dove really wants to spread their message of love and acceptance to all on their homepage, which is very refreshing and nice to see. For me, that message alone makes me want to buy Dove products more! Finally, by reviewing Olay and Dove, NIVEA has a lot to learn about user-friendliness and ensuring that their website is welcoming and fun for their customers. 

Synergy: How Does It All Come Together?

Synergy is defined on Dictionary.com as, "The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc". Thus in advertisements, synergy is reached when an ad's text, image, and message all align and make sense to the target audience or viewer. In today's entry, we are going to review five advertisements that have attempted to accomplish synergy. We will evaluate the text, image, and message and confirm if the brand or company succeeded or failed.

1. DKNY

DKNY is a luxury brand that specializes in women's clothing, shoes, handbags, and fragance. Surprisingly, this advertisement doesn't "advertise" any of these items. However, the ad does a decent job at synergy. The ad equally uses images and text to guide the audience's eye to the primary phrase on the ad, "Be Delicious" and then the eye is lead to the model and the images of the green apples. In the first image, groups the freshly washed apples together to help the eye focus on texture and detail. With this, the first image achieves unity and could easily be a standalone ad. Even if the ad did not include "Be Delicious" and only had the the DKNY logo, it would still be an effective ad for the brand due to texture and unity. The second image has no text, which if it was standalone, would be confusing for a viewer. The image might be perceived as an ad for a television show or for makeup. Thus, if the second image was a standalone ad, I would suggest added text to help the image "make sense".



2. Clinique 


This advertisement byClinique is primarly focused on text, which is very different than the model-based ads Clinique tends to clinge to. Yet, the text in this ad captures the viewers interest and causes the viewer to read the text and see why Clinique thinks its a fact that eating antioxidants will not save one's skin. In addition, the text in this ad somewhat overshadows the image of the fruit on the fork and the bottle of product. However, it can be seen that Clinique attempted to succeed at synergy by allowing the text and image to be the same size and to use colors that are soft in their tone and pleasing to the eye. If the ad did not have an image, I believe that it would be still be successful. It would be seen more so as PSA. However, if the ad did not include the text, a viewer would be completely confused on what message Clinique was attempting to deliver.




3. Estee Lauder 

This advertisment by Estee Lauder is similar to the previous ad by DKNY where it equally represents text and images. Yet, this ad seems to fade the text to the background and focuses its lighting on the model and the three bottles of product. Therefore, similar to our previous ads, if the text was not there, the ad would be still be successful and the viewer would be able to connect with it. Having all four images in the same lighting and standing out above the text shows proximity and overall unity.





4. Bath & Body Works 


One of my favorite brands, Bath and Body Works does a pretty good job of placing text and images together. Because Bath and Body Works is such a well known brand, the items in the ad speak for themselves. Yet, if the single phrase "Happy Holidays" was the only text in the ad, the viewer would easily understand that the ad was welcoming the holiday season. If this phrase was absent from the the ad and there was no accompaning text, the ad would look incomplete and there would be no sense of unity. Thus, Bath and Body Works did a great job by creating synergy in their ad by allowing the the images and text to work together to be effective.




5. Dove                        

Dove is a brand that creates ads that are geared to display that all women are created equal and that all women, no matter the size, age, or race are beautiful. This ad by Dove uses a simple unity of text and an image to provide unity to the viewer. If the ad did not have text, it would still be effective. If the ad did not have the image, it would still be effective. Overall, Dove truly knows how to make an ad that represents synergy to the highest degree!





References

Synergy. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2018, from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/synergy