Website analysis

In this post I will be analysing three regional magazine’s websites in order to work out the common codes and conventions that they all follow. This will allow me to have a good insight into the ways in which professional magazines use components of a website to attract their target audience. This will allow me to work out the best way to design my website so that it will relate and appeal to my target audience. 

Coast Magazine

Coast magazine prides itself on being ‘the only magazine exclusively cover the coastline of the British Isles’. This means that they will have to attract a wide variety of readers who are interested in these Coastal regions of the UK.

This is the homepage of the Coast magazine website. The masthead on this webpage allows the website to easily relate to the printed copy of the magazine. This is because the same masthead is used on both, however the colours of it will vary on the different issues of the magazine. This masthead should stereotypically appeal to a younger audience. This is because it comes across as informal and can be seen as kind of ‘fun’. I can infer this from the use of all lowercase letters, which will not be used in a formal style masthead. The fact that this can be seen as ‘fun’ will help a young audience to relate to this website and magazine. However, this will not usually deter an older audience from reading this magazine, this means that Coasts target audience shouldn’t be limited to  people of a certain age. 

This website also uses a lot of images on the homepage. This will attract peoples attention and displays the sort of content the magazine includes without the audience having to read anything to discover this information. This will appeal to a large audience but again is another way in which young people can be attracted to the website. This is because young people stereotypically don’t like a lot of reading as it is generally not seen as ‘fun’. However, the use of images will allow them to relate to the magazine as they get a clear image of what the magazine is about without them having to work to gather this information. This is good at attracting this audience because they stereotypically will prefer visual representation over text used to describe the same thing. The main image on the homepage shows boats docked outside a coastal town or village, with a series of headlands in the background. This will instantly show the audience that this magazine is about things coastal which allows the magazine to relate to its target audience. This image shows an aspect of coastal living which will be important to a lot of the target audience. This is because traditionally boats have been an important form of transports especially because we are an island nation. Boats have been used for hundreds of years for a variety of different uses. Nowadays one of the more popular uses for the kind of boats featured in the image is for recreational uses with activities such as fishing or boat trips around the coastline. As this magazine is a magazine included in the lifestyle genre this kind of image is important as it allows people to have an insight about life in these areas and what kind of activities the people who live in these areas get up to. This is important for the magazine as it allows them to attract their target audience. 

The layout and the navigation of this magazine website is a lot more interesting than on other forms of websites. This is because its uses a tiled from of navigation instead of the more common and simple navigation bars seen on most websites. This again will allow this website to appeal to a younger audience on a subject which will not stereotypically appeal to them. This involves them suing the images on the homepage to navigate the website in oder to find certain articles and stories relating to the images they are linked to. This can be seen as ‘fun’ when compared to a simple navigation bar as it uses images rather than simple buttons which will attract a young audience as they will stereotypically find this appealing. However, to get to other sections of the site they use a combination of a navigation bar and a drop down menu. 

This menu allows the audience to easily find article and stories which will appeal to them. This is because they have set out the stories into different categories and have put them in their own section on this menu. This will attract a large audience to the site and the magazine as they will be able to easily find out whether or not there are article which they are interested in. This will reduce frustration as there is clear navigation whereas on some sites navigation is so poor and complicated that the audience will often get frustrated and will often give up without finding what they were looking for. This is much more typical with an older audience as they are often a lot less experienced when it comes to technology as they didn’t have the sorts of technology which we have now in modern society. this makes it harder for them to use the technology to find what they want meaning that if the navigation isn’t simple they will simply get confused or lost and will often just give up. This will then make them less likely to read the magazine as they have got frustrated with the company and will often choose something else. 

This site has many different pages. One of these pages is the ‘places’ page. This page looks like this:

As you can see the style of the website continues through to this page and has a very similar style to the homepage as the images layout and navigation is almost identical. This will often appeal to the audience because they feel a site is more professional if it follows the same theme throughout and they will have a good idea of how to continue to navigate the site as they have had experience with the previous pages they have used. The only real difference between the two pages except from the image is the colours used. On the homepage the only colour used in the body of the site is the colour white. The colour white connotes perfection which may be used to suggest the this site is perfect for people looking for a regional lifestyle magazine like this, therefore they may gain an advantage over their competitors. However, on the page shown above the colour green is the most common colour used on the body of the page. The colour green is one of the most restful colours to the human eye which is important to a magazine of this genre because if the colour used  is restful it connotes that the lifestyle they are portraying through a lifestyle magazine is restful, it should attract their target audience. This will stereotypically appeal to an older audience more than a younger one as a restful lifestyle is more appealing to an older audience as a young audience will stereotypically prefer a more exciting and adventurous lifestyle. As Hall said in 1904, “Youth must have excitement”. The colour green also connotes nature which allows the colours to relate with the theme behind the page as the page is about places in coastal areas.

The main image on this page features a picture of a camper van with a story about popular ‘campervan breaks’. This story will attract the magazines target audience because it is a regional lifestyle magazine which is designed to give the readers and insight into what life is like in these areas. This story will stereotypically appeal to people who don’t live in these areas but who are interested in them as it will give them a good idea of what the areas are like and what places they could visit to get a clear idea of what life is like in these areas.  

 Again this page follows the same style as the other two pages which I have previously analysed which again makes the site look more professional. However, on this page the colour orange is used in stead of green. The colour orange connotes energy and happiness. This colour is very good at relating to theme of the page as the page is about activities which are meant to be fun and exciting. This is important for people reading this magazine to get an insight into the sort of things they can do and expect in areas around the coast of the UK. This allows them to attract an audience outside of these areas of the UK meaning they have a larger customer base. 

This page unlike the others which I have analysed don’t follow the same theme. This is because this is not designed to display any articles so that there is no need for sophisticated tile navigation because there is not enough content on this page to require it. Instead this page is used to give the audience the option to subscribe to the magazine. 

Cornwall Today

This is a regional lifestyle magazine based in Cornwall. This magazine should appeal anyone who is interested in the Cornish area or culture or anyone who lives in this region. The homepage of this site is showed in the image above. Again this site uses a combination of a navigation bar and a tile navigation system which should appeal to their target audience and should be easy for everyone to navigate so shouldn’t cause any confusion or frustration. The difference with the way this one is laid out compared to the other one is that a lot more information is included in each tile. This will give the audience a clear image about what each article is about but this may not appeal to a young audience. Unlike Coast magazine there is a small description of each article underneath its image in their tile, which may not appeal to a young audience as they stereotypically don’t like doing a lot of reading and prefer visuals. This is because images are seen as more fun than a lot of text and as Hedge said ‘youth as fun’ which suggests that anything which can be seen as fun should appeal to a young audience. 

This masthead is also very good at relating to the magazine to the website as this masthead is identical to the one used on the print version of the magazine but on the magazines it can be in different colours depending on the issue of the magazine. This masthead should be good at appealing to a wide variety of people as it can be seen as informal and fun, as well as being slightly more formal than mastheads featured on other magazine website such as Coasts magazine, which I analysed earlier. This masthead can be seen as informal because the ‘tagline’ is in all lowercase letters which is featured above the name of the magazine. Most magazines which are designed to come across as formal magazine because that is what appeal to their readers, will often choose to use either full caps of at least one capital letter at the start of each word. This means that this could appeal to a young audience because this can be seen as fun. This comes across as slightly formal because the first part of the name is in full capitals. The main colour used on this masthead is the colour black. The colour black connote power. This may be used to suggest that this magazine is a powerful magazine intros genre of magazine which may give it an advantage over its competitors. 

The main colour except from white used on the body of the website is the colour grey. The colour grey is a mixture of white and black which connote perfection and power. This may be used to suggest that this magazine is the perfect magazine for people who want a lifestyle based in Cornwall. Other colours featured on the homepage includes blue and orange. The colour blue represents the sea, which is a very important part of Cornish life as the whole county is surrounded by the sea and the sea has been a very important part of life in Cornwall throughout history and even today in modern society. A lot of the industries in Cornwall have relied on the sea throughout history scubas the fishing industry which is still strong today with events like the Newquay Fish Festival still taking place.The colour orange connotes energy and happiness. These are important themes for a lifestyle magazine. This is because anyone interested in life in these regions will be interested in the excitement around areas like this with key events and fun activities in these areas. With fun and excitement will come energy and happiness. 

The layout of the homepage is very busy which will attract different people for different reasons. It may attract a young audience beaches it is busy it may be seen as fun. This will stereotypically appeal to a young audience because as Hebdige said ‘youth as fun’. This means that anything which can be seen as fun should appeal to a young audience. However, the amount of text on the homepage may deter a young audience from reading this magazine. This is because a young audience don’t stereotypically find a lot of text appealing because they often see reading as ‘boring’ and therefore prefer a magazine website with a lot of visuals and images. 

There are many images used on the homepage and every one of them represents life in Cornwall. They show a variety of different things which are key to life in Cornwall. They show a variety of things that would appeal to many different people. One of the images shows the inside of a home by the coast. This kind of article would appeal to people designing their homes by the sea and people who are interested in moving to an area such as this. A way in which they have chosen to relate the site to the printed version of the magazine is by using an image of the cover in the position which attracts peoples eye first. This may be used to encourage people to purchase the printed version of the magazine. This would appeal to an older audience most likely because they will stereotypically prefer reading a physical printed version rather than a downloadable digital version.

This drop down menu layout is similar to the one used on Coast magazines website but it includes a lot more detail. This will make it even easier for people to find an article which interests them as the categories are a lot more specific. This should appeal to everyone because there should be not time wasted trying to get to something interesting for the reader. This makes the website come across as more professional making them more likely to purchase the magazine because they don’t become frustrated with the company. Another way in which this homepage for this magazine’s website is similar to Coast magazines website is that it features a piece of advertising in the top right corner. This will probably make the use of a website financially viable because they don’t make money from people viewing the website and because of the website fewer people will probably purchase the magazine. They will make money through advertising which means that any money that may be lost from the purchase of the magazine is made back through the advertising. 

Like with Coast Magazines site the design and theme continues through to the feature pages which display the article of the magazine. This makes the magazine’s site seem more professional and would stereotypically appeal to the target audience as a constant theme helps them relate better to the site. By using the same theme and design the navigation of the site should become easier for the audience as they would have had experience in oder to get to the page they wanted so they would be able to easily navigate the site as nothing would have changed. This limits the confusion and stress caused by navigating the site. 

Another similarity that this site has to Coast magazines, is the use of a subscription page. This allows people viewing the website to easily subscribe so that they can receive the magazine every time a new issue comes out. This means they are more likely to get more people to purchase their magazine. 

Cornwall Life Magazine

This magazine is another regional magazine based in the Cornish region and is a magazine in the lifestyle genre. The homepage of the site is shown above. Again this site like the other two which i have analysed uses a combination of tiles, navigation bar and drop down menus. The homepage features a bunch of images which are relevant to Cornish life. This helps the magazine to relate to it’s target audience, as this is the kind of content which will appeal to them and attract them to this magazine website. The images on this site come across as more relevant than other images featured on other sites as they seem more relevant and there is something in the images that should appeal to everyone thus not limiting their target audience. The drop down menus on this site are more complicated and sophisticated than the ones featured not the other two sites. This looks like this:

These drop down menus are more specific to each category and allows the user to easily select sub categories within the category which appeals to them. Therefore, they won’t waste time searching for pages which aren’t what they are interested in. However, some people especially older people may find this navigation too complicated and may be frustrated and simply give up setting the magazine in a bad light meaning they are less likely to purchase the magazine. 

The masthead with this magazine is very simple and doesn’t really give much away about the kinds of people they are trying to attract. Again the only colour used on it is the colour black which connotes power, which suggests that they also feel that they are a strong force in the regional lifestyle magazine industry.

The style of this magazine also continues throughout the pages and the navigation remains the same. This again makes the site look more professional and should limit confusion. 

Like the other magazines this one has a link to a subscription page but this takes you to an external website which makes them come across as unprofessional.