The Body Shop pride themselves on natural and ethical products. As a result, their visual identity reflects a natural theme.
The colours are vivid, fresh and mostly, non artificial. Green is the predominant hue on the site, this having direct associations with nature.
Furthermore, the site is predominantly image based, and quite reasonably sized images at that. These instantly draw the eye and sell the products much quicker than textual information.
--
Navigation is served by a typical horizontal bar across the top of the page. There are two levels of navigation, one for wider Body Shop services, whilst the lower bar, coloured in a bright green bar serve the sales for the site.
The Spry menus allow much easier categorising and locating of content, whilst also limiting the amount of clicking required. There is an alternate search box which will aid users who cannot immediately locate what they are looking for, this ultimately accommodating the range of user inputs.
Interestingly, whilst most sites nowadays are expanding their footer's real estate, the Body Shop have opted for a fairly minimal option, which features links that could be deemed surplus: careers, terms and conditions. This may be simply the trappings of an older design, as once a user reaches the bottom of a page it is now customary to offer a repeated set of links to maintain interest in the site.
--
Elsewhere in the site, away from their online shop, I found a hover effect I particularly liked.
As with the front page, a price tag or speech bubble seems to be employed on the site. What relevance this has for the inners of the site I cannot really ascertain, but I like the innovative ways in which sites now provide additional information through the use of hovers.
I will try and incorporate this in the Footworks site.
--
Meanwhile, I am a little unsure of the colour choices within the site.
The fresh green seems a natural choice, yet inside, they use a bright turquoise colour alongside. The harmony of these colours isn't quite right. Contrasting colours can be used to effect, yet it just seems a little jarring at first, here.
--
In terms of interactivity, it would seem a little shoehorned if the site was trying to offer something really flashy. After all, the site is trying to inform about and sell natural products.
Consequently, the site uses a slightly more enhanced version of a gallery to impart information, with added interactive elements.
A soft glowing hover effect is executed when the mouse goes over the small photograph clipping. Upon clicking, this then reveals more information.
I like this, as it includes the natural styling of the parent site, informs in a slightly different manner and would be something I could implement and achieve.
The user would likely be interested by the alternate presentation, and the option, for instance, to see the lip stick on the model of their choosing, gives a visual representation that would appeal to a female audience. Everything fades on and off the screen and appears aesthetically pleasing.
I will likely consider doing an interactive piece of this kind for Footworks. It provides something interesting to "play" with, whilst simultaneously providing information.
--
Overall, I like the Body Shop for it's maintaining of a natural theme, the aesthetically pleasing interactive piece and experimental use of hover effects. Lessons have been learnt about footers and colour schemes.
@
No comments:
Post a Comment