BRITISH HIGH STREET & ONLINE RETAILERS
To start off my research, I have looked at the designs of the websites for British High Street fashion shops and online retailers. From these websites, I can get an overall feel of each shops style of clothing, who their target audience is. I can look at their logo and website design and compare it to what I have found already for Peacocks. Some designs may be useful to be influenced by when creating designs for Peacocks, where some may not be working well in my opinion.
This is the Peacocks website, which I am not a fan of! I think there is too much going on and too many colours used, which make it look really busy and only really draws your attention to the sale. This is something we have noticed throughout all of the Peacocks methods of promotions we have looked at, that even before going in to administration, they always seemed to focus on just advertising their sales making them look a bit like a jumble sale. We want to get Peacocks known for being good quality, good fashion clothes and cheap prices, and then they won't always have to advertise that there is a sale on.
The shops I have been looking at are for the same kind of audience as who we want to be shopping in Peacocks. The main points are: VALUE CLOTHING & AFFORDABLE FASHION
HIGH STREET
1.
URBAN OUTFITTERS
This website design is clean and simple, without too much information, and so looks easy to use. The bright colours and shaped border make it look fresh and young, appealing to the target audience. All the information isn't trapped into one page, the arrows mean you can scroll across the images, and you can scroll the page down for more information. I really like this set up and might try this when we create a website.
TOPSHOP
There is a lot going on here which suggests that there is a lot of content to look through, which could be quite exciting. The top part with the most important information is kept simple to mean that people can easily find what they need to. This design doesn't stand out to me as much as the others, but Topshop already has a loyal customer base and good reputation to rely on.
MISS SELFRIDGE
I think I prefer the website designs with less on them and a clean white background compared to this. I also think a few images, such as on the Urban Outfitters website is better, as it gives the customer a quick look into a few of the ranges that are available. Making the sale easy to find may attract customers to spend money but I think it lowers the quality of the page.
NEW LOOK
I like how the top bar with the information is black, compared to the white background of the page; I think this is a good contrast, and separates the most important information. I think the top part works well with the black and white image and the easy to get to links, but I don't like how this is contrasted with a small section of pastel images and block colour. The bottom part of the page looks like it doesn't belong with the top.
NEXT
I'm not sure I like this website design, and I think it is because there is too much going on. The black background and all the text boxes might make things easy to find but I don't think it looks very stylish. On the other hand, Next has a slightly older target audience than say Topshop, so this style may be more appropriate to their customers. I don't think this style would suit what we are going for with the Peacocks website.
RIVER ISLAND
I think this is the best website design I have seen so far. As someone who doesn't shop at River Island, this stylish, colourful but neat at the same time website would make me consider having a look through. There is a lot of information and a lot of images but the way they have been organised symmetrically keeps everything under control. All the images give you a quick insight in to what their style is like, but the contrast between larger and smaller images means that you don't feel overwhelmed by all the information. By keeping the text and boxes to blacks and greys, you aren't distracted from the images. I would like to try making a website with a similar structure.
DOROTHY PERKINS
I think the top part of this website design is fine, as it is simple and neat, but I think the image covering the whole page might be a bit too big, and it might have worked better with more smaller images. I like the idea of having arrows showing alternative images. I think it is important to show the best clothes quickly to keep customers interested.
INTERNACIONALE
This website is quite unusual because you can't actually buy the clothes it is just information about the shop. It is very different from the others, as it is mainly black and has a patterned background. I don't think it has been designed very well, such as all the different colours and fonts that don't work well together, but I think it is interesting as it is so different from the other websites. Maybe if the typography, layout and colour scheme were thought about a bit better this would work.
H&M
This is another example of a clean, simple website design, that is easy to get around, and contains lots of images to easily give the customer an idea of the type of clothes they can find. This is so simple but works really well.
FOREVER 21
There is a lot going on here but weirdly it still works. I like how the typography is equally important for getting an idea of what the shop's style is, and works well with the image, which isn't something I have seen in the other websites. I think if there was a bit less information this would work really well. I would like to try creating a website where the type is as important as the images like this.
MATALAN
Matalan is similar to Peacocks in terms of price range and quality of clothing, however, I don't think they are trying to attract the younger customers as Peacocks are trying to. There is nothing wrong with this website design but at the same time there is nothing that makes it stand out or make the brand seem more fashionable that others.
ONLINE
AX PARIS
I like the colour scheme that has been used here, and the top of the page with the links works really well. However, I think there is a bit too much going on, and it looks more like a newsletter where lots of information is being given to read through, rather than a website design that helps the customers find what they are looking for.
FASHION UNION
I don't know much about this company but their website is set out well and I like how they have displayed a lot of their clothes in this image, but it is still set out neatly and isn't too much. This would convince me to look further into this site, despite not knowing about the brand and their reputation.
MISSGUIDED
I really like the missguided logo as it represents what the brand is about. I shop on this website quite a lot and I think it is because their easy to use website means I can find what I am looking for straight away. Also, there always seems to be an offer advertised, (like this 10%) which keeps you interested, so I think this would be a good thing to include. I think the header bit at the top could be a bit more simplistic to keep this page looking neat.
ASOS
Asos is very successful and as its an online shop only, its important its website is perfect. Everything is really easy to find, and having the information running down the side of the page makes it tempting to just have a quick look at what is available. Asos not only have a website, but a magazine, blog, and lots of other features to keep customers interested and show them how to style their pieces. I think this adds to their success. The simplistic colour scheme for the layout means that the images can be bright and bold and capture your attention and make you want to look further. This is a good example of a successful website design that I will look at further when designing myself.
OWN THE RUNWAY
I think this is a relatively new clothes website. It is nothing spectacular, but I quite like how all of their information is on the same page so that everything is easy to find. The design is quite basic and doesn't really stand out.
