Nonetheless, I wanted to analyse something, keep up with the market, so a site whose branding I was familiar with was the Robinsons Tastebuddys. True, by name, you probably can't picture it, but if I provide you with a picture, you'll know which branding scheme I'm on about.
Yep, those pastel cartoon characters. They actually use this advert for a cutscene after loading. It is the same one we see on TV, so recognition of the product, of the brand should be attained pretty soon.
I liked the way they used a preloader for their site disguised as a movie-like teaser poster. The wording 'The Adventure Begins' reminded me of a technique I discovered (at bottom of that post) whilst designing my Identity site. By being a little mysterious, it creates intrigue in the hope of securing the users attention for the time needed to load.
So, onto the actual site which won the FWA of the Day. It's a mini-game centred piece, which straight away you presume to be a crowd pleaser for the kids, kindly providing them with some games. Being a little more astute though, the branded Robinsons products are placed within the cutscenes, so it's definitely got a hidden marketing agenda - why else would they make the site?!
Something important to note however is that, 9 times out of 10, ask someone who Robinson market towards, and the response will be children, or the parents of children at least. Indeed, on print and TV, going by the colourful visuals, I'd say Robinsons are currently very much kid-centric. This website in fact uses the domain name raisethemonrobinsons.com/buddies/ so the target audience is pretty clear. However, (and it's quite a big however) the website won't fully achieve it's goal in apeasing children, in my opinion. The games involved are actually quite advanced. Beyond the nice visuals, I doubt many 8 year olds would return to the site. They aren't your usual quick 30 second games that the liked of CBBC and Nikelodeon load their sites with.
When you get into TastebuddyLand you are shown the nice, picturesque, cutesy garden. You then get the option of meeting the characters, or playing the first game. (Any additional content is only gained by unlocking the first, quite arduous game.) I perceived a visual connection for the 'home' setting to be very much like an Aardman set. Notably like one in a Spice Girls video!
Whilst playing the first game (which struck me as being quite Pikmin inspired) I actually found myself thinking when will this game be over? The instructions which introduced it were a little confusing, as in, there was quite a lot to read, and I didn't get the gist straight away on launching the game. Kids are therefore even less likely to be fully informed, reading the information, as they just want to play it, not learn about it.
The second game was then even more challenging, for me, a 20 year old. It took me three goes to succeed. Each time you lost, it put you right back to the start of that three level mini-game (this time being like that Space Invader game we all played on the Nokia 3310) This resetting back to the start will probably deter the short attention spanned user, meaning they never get to see all of the site. (Obviously I persevered, in the name of research/analysis!)
In terms of content management, the content is set out around the 'home' garden scene. Once you complete a task, it draws a trail to the next game. In this respect it is easy to follow and all legible.
If I were to change anything, it would be to turn down the length and complexity of each game. True, I might be well past it now and these games a doddle for youngsters, but still, not all children will get past the first 15 seconds of game one. (CBBC's website will no doubt achieve another hit very shortly after.) Visually the site is very nice, the cut scene animations and the garden scene in particular will have the kids lapping it up. It just seems to over estimate it's audience's talents, that's all. (And I don't mean to be patronising when I say that. I admittedly struggled too!)
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