Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Daniel Kelly's Website Analysis
Website being analyzed: www.ran.org
In order to do an analysis of the design/layout and functions of the RAN (Rainforest Action Network) website, it is firstly important to understand the main goals of the website. As this will help us to understand why the visual features have been chosen and what they are aiming to achieve..
RAN is an activist corporation that works to prevent large corporations from destroying the worlds rainforests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life. They campaign to the large corporations themselves in the attempt to push them to balance their profits and find more environmentally friendly ways to achieve their goals. Their ultimate goal is to end deforestation as they believe it is "destructive, outdated and unnecessary" (Rainforest Action Network, n.d.).
Therefore the RAN websites goals are to firstly introduce RAN to people. Secondly, to educate people about all of the problems that natural systems such as rainforests face. Thirdly to make people feel sorry for the forests and natural inhabitants and finally to get people to help stop it. Primarily by way of donation, and secondly by encouraging people to do something to help stop it.
As a result the designers of the RAN website have produced the website in a way that aims to achieve RAN's goals. Firstly when we look at the webpage as a whole our eyes are immediately drawn to the main image of the Black Panther. As (Wysocki, 2004. pg 132) states, "photographs are often used to bring a sense of immediacy and "reality" to a layout". Therefore it is safe to assume that this particular close-up image of the Panther zoning in on something, is telling the viewers immediately that RAN is an action network that does not waste time. They are using the Panther as a symbol of who they are and also what they are protecting, so therefore this image achieves an enormous amount straight away. We are then reassured that this assumption is correct by the title they give with the image, "Environmentalism with teeth". The word 'teeth' again tells us that this network has backbone and will not hesitate to stand up to large corporations.
Moving on, as we expand our visuals to the rest of the page there are more very interesting techniques used to achieve the websites goals. The webpage has a hierarchy which firstly pulls the viewers eyes to the image to urgently provide the viewer with a sense of understanding, and secondly pulls our eyes to the subtitles below. We read, "Learn more", "About RAN", and "Donate". These subtitles are very important aspects to the webpage as they both provide the viewer with immediate options and by giving these options they will hopefully entice the viewer to learn more about RAN, learn about the problems our worlds environment is facing and donate money to help stop these problems. If successful the RAN has simply achieved their list of goals for this website.
Now, their are other techniques used to reinforce the methods stated in the previous paragraphs. (Parkes, n.d.) discusses the usage of different colours and the mood they will achieve in visual communication. The designers of the RAN website have thought about the moods they want for the viewers and applied colours to their website to achieve these moods. As (Parkes, n.d.) states, the colour green (which is the dominant colour on the webpage) is used to entice the moods of "growth, fertility, health, cheerfulness, vegetation, money, signifies life, new growth, energy and faith". It can be clear to us now that all of these moods signify the personality and goals of RAN as their ultimate goal is to sustain life of the environment and its natural inhabitants. (Parkes, n.d.) also states that the colour red is used to entice the moods of, "warmth, urgency, passion, heat, blood, excitement, danger and hostility. Used as an accent colour, it can promote expectations and quick decision making". This knowledge therefore provides obvious reasoning for why the designers have applied the colour red to the donation buttons. This is because it makes the viewer feel excited and passionate and without the viewer knowing the designers have successfully made them feel expected to click the button and donate their money.
Lastly the website uses a large range of links on their page which direct the viewer to other areas of the entire website. This has been done so that the viewer can locate any information they want easily, as the home page acts as a contents page of a book. Also by only linking the viewer to other areas of the RAN website, the viewers are kept within the grip of the RAN and therefore they increase the likelihood of achieving their goals.
All of these methods stated are not used at all by coincidence, as (Goatly, 2000. pg 24) discusses, "These graphical devises...are with the widespread use of word processors, within reach of most of us". This is because designers have actually thought long and hard about how they can achieve goals through visual communication. This can clearly be seen within the RAN website as the designers have applied a lot of theory to their work and it will definitely help to achieve desired results.
In order to do an analysis of the design/layout and functions of the RAN (Rainforest Action Network) website, it is firstly important to understand the main goals of the website. As this will help us to understand why the visual features have been chosen and what they are aiming to achieve..
RAN is an activist corporation that works to prevent large corporations from destroying the worlds rainforests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life. They campaign to the large corporations themselves in the attempt to push them to balance their profits and find more environmentally friendly ways to achieve their goals. Their ultimate goal is to end deforestation as they believe it is "destructive, outdated and unnecessary" (Rainforest Action Network, n.d.).
Therefore the RAN websites goals are to firstly introduce RAN to people. Secondly, to educate people about all of the problems that natural systems such as rainforests face. Thirdly to make people feel sorry for the forests and natural inhabitants and finally to get people to help stop it. Primarily by way of donation, and secondly by encouraging people to do something to help stop it.
As a result the designers of the RAN website have produced the website in a way that aims to achieve RAN's goals. Firstly when we look at the webpage as a whole our eyes are immediately drawn to the main image of the Black Panther. As (Wysocki, 2004. pg 132) states, "photographs are often used to bring a sense of immediacy and "reality" to a layout". Therefore it is safe to assume that this particular close-up image of the Panther zoning in on something, is telling the viewers immediately that RAN is an action network that does not waste time. They are using the Panther as a symbol of who they are and also what they are protecting, so therefore this image achieves an enormous amount straight away. We are then reassured that this assumption is correct by the title they give with the image, "Environmentalism with teeth". The word 'teeth' again tells us that this network has backbone and will not hesitate to stand up to large corporations.
Moving on, as we expand our visuals to the rest of the page there are more very interesting techniques used to achieve the websites goals. The webpage has a hierarchy which firstly pulls the viewers eyes to the image to urgently provide the viewer with a sense of understanding, and secondly pulls our eyes to the subtitles below. We read, "Learn more", "About RAN", and "Donate". These subtitles are very important aspects to the webpage as they both provide the viewer with immediate options and by giving these options they will hopefully entice the viewer to learn more about RAN, learn about the problems our worlds environment is facing and donate money to help stop these problems. If successful the RAN has simply achieved their list of goals for this website.
Now, their are other techniques used to reinforce the methods stated in the previous paragraphs. (Parkes, n.d.) discusses the usage of different colours and the mood they will achieve in visual communication. The designers of the RAN website have thought about the moods they want for the viewers and applied colours to their website to achieve these moods. As (Parkes, n.d.) states, the colour green (which is the dominant colour on the webpage) is used to entice the moods of "growth, fertility, health, cheerfulness, vegetation, money, signifies life, new growth, energy and faith". It can be clear to us now that all of these moods signify the personality and goals of RAN as their ultimate goal is to sustain life of the environment and its natural inhabitants. (Parkes, n.d.) also states that the colour red is used to entice the moods of, "warmth, urgency, passion, heat, blood, excitement, danger and hostility. Used as an accent colour, it can promote expectations and quick decision making". This knowledge therefore provides obvious reasoning for why the designers have applied the colour red to the donation buttons. This is because it makes the viewer feel excited and passionate and without the viewer knowing the designers have successfully made them feel expected to click the button and donate their money.
Lastly the website uses a large range of links on their page which direct the viewer to other areas of the entire website. This has been done so that the viewer can locate any information they want easily, as the home page acts as a contents page of a book. Also by only linking the viewer to other areas of the RAN website, the viewers are kept within the grip of the RAN and therefore they increase the likelihood of achieving their goals.
All of these methods stated are not used at all by coincidence, as (Goatly, 2000. pg 24) discusses, "These graphical devises...are with the widespread use of word processors, within reach of most of us". This is because designers have actually thought long and hard about how they can achieve goals through visual communication. This can clearly be seen within the RAN website as the designers have applied a lot of theory to their work and it will definitely help to achieve desired results.
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