R & P Post 23: Planning my web pages

Artist websites are extremely important promotion platforms, as they are essentially a hub for all elements of their marketing campaign, and they use cross-media convergence to direct the consumer (arguably, the prosumer) to a number of different features, such as social media platforms, videos & photos amongst others. The site in itself can be accessed via technologically-converged platforms such as smartphones and tablets.

We will be using website creation site Wix.com to make our websites, and we have had an early attempt at planning our page, inserting a banner, navigation bar and social media platforms.

Our basic early layout for the website

Originally, I had created a flat plan and an analysis based on my research into a number of websites, and included various possible widgets and tools:

Some of these pages and features, plus their reference points are listed below:

-Daya:

Daya's website keeps a very simple, clean & sleek design, with a semi-transparet header with navbar and social media links. I feel that it strikes a good balance immediately between promotion (of her debut album) and interactivity (via the Spotify/iTunes widget). We will want to follow a similar structure for our own site.

Another feature I like from Daya's website is the ability to RSVP and also to upgrade a ticket to an upcoming tour event, which offers both social interaction and
interactivity gratifications.


-Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez has a number of useful features on her website which I would like to incorporate into our own eventual website. The addition of a fan forum for the community of so-called "Selenators" to congregate and talk about the artist is a brilliant way to gratify the audience's needs for social interaction and interactivity.

Another feature which I really like is the revolving picture at the top of the homepage, which immediately and effectively promotes Gomez, her latest work and her merchandise.


-Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is another very useful website to reference. Her About page included heartfelt messages to fans and her own personal inspirations and experiences. We could use this to create a similar bio page for fans on GiGi's website.


Her merchandise store also offers a huge range of products, and is both simple to navigate, and has a clear layout on the product page, including useful info on price, size and colour. You can also share products on social media, potentially bringing in more website traffic as a result.

-Little Mix

Little Mix's website was out-of-the-ordinary in including a fun, interactive feature on its site in the form of the 'Hair Quiz'. Something similar on our site, to allow for an interactive experience, would be a great addition.


Having collected several references, we can deduce the pages which we want our website to include are:

-Homepage
-About/Bio
-Photos/Gallery
-News
-Tour
-Merchandise Store
-Quiz/Games/Interactivity
-Social media links (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube)

It has been extremely useful gathering reference points, and planning my website pages, as we can now begin to conceptualise our own website pages using conventions & inspiration from a number of existing websites of similar artists