The website hits you immediately as being different. The content sits atop a real life backdrop.
The homepage actually appears a little cluttered compared with the rest of the site. You almost don't want to read the smaller body text in light of the graphics, photographs and links. This is something that needs to be considered. Contrastingly, I like on the homepage the large text in the background. It is easy to tell what the content is about as you always notice it and read it.
The site at large is spacious, clean and visually informative. White-space clearly works well here. Greens and oranges provide suitable highlighters atop the subtle gradient backgrounds.
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Importantly, Nintendo focus on images as the main draw point on their pages. They show people participating in the activities and having fun.
The content is laid out in the centre of the page with a nice, clear heading. The contrast provided by bright green or orange on subtle gradiented white is good. Again, you almost don't want to read the body text in light of the distracting colours and images around.
Instead, as a user, I was much more inclined to read the larger, more stylised text that they sometimes used. Keywords highlighted provide emphasis on phrases that will likely appeal to the user also.
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The navigation links are duplicated around the main page.
You can find out about the Wii Fit activities by clicking on the traditional text link, following the graphic (which admittedly is ambiguous and could cause undue confusion), or selecting the person in the photograph performing the titled activity. This means that people manage to find their way inside the site easily.
However, the multiple links do create a little anxiety at first when you realise they could each lead to more unique content. With a site that feels well spaced and calming through its presentation, information anxiety is unfavourable.
Importantly, the separate navigation categories that users can choose are not always noticeable being grey. Orange has been used elsewhere as a highlighter and works much better.
Video demonstrations are coupled with a graphic. This works well for better forming an idea of what is behind the link.
The videos themselves reinforce the television adverts and the visual identity of the site. It is clean, spacious with the in-game music used. The simplicity that makes the main site good, works here too. These again are great at explaining and demonstrating the product.
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Lastly, the footer isn't quite the norm on Wii Fit, but it's uniqueness I like. Featuring just four categories, with an icon and more detailed text, other Nintendo products are introduced.
I think rather than overloading the footer with lots of links, these select choices are a feasible option. The depth of the footer matches Clarks, yet rather than offering all links into the site, here we learn about the most useful ones.
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In all, I like Nintendo for it's prioritising of images, the white-spaciousness, the back drop image, the larger body text which you feel more inclined to read and the alternate footer.
Contrast is an important lesson learnt for hyperlinks, so that they are legible, along with including too much content and thereby creating information anxiety.
These three alternate websites have provided useful pointers to take forward and certainly inspired some design ideas.
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