Website Planning and Construction
In order to help raise the profile of the band and contribute to the accessibility of the group during the marketing campaign we have produced a website accessible to the fans and the public.
Each Page of the website has been designed very specifically to tie in with the desired themes of the group as well as to make them as appealing as possible. Below I have highlighted each stage of the planning and design process as well as the constructions that have taken place. We used the website design program 'WIX' to construct our actual website domain and area. This program allowed us to achieve the exact plan that we desired after doing some further research into the program to uncover the various features it had to offer. As you can see further down during the construction stage this was highly beneficial.
Immediately below is the very first designs that we came up with on how exactly we wanted our website to be layed out. Although it lacks any aesthetic color plans we wanted to stick to the them of our crisp,bold, black and white color scheme. Each page has each feature clearly labeled as well as some of the content that each of these shall include.
Home Page
The first homepage design seen here includes various feature to make it appeal to our fans. After studying the Arctic Monkeys website which we took a huge amount of inspiration from for our own, we wanted to make the home page very bold and clear so that a user/ fan can clearly see links to each area of the website, and make it easier for them to locate the link that they desire. One of the most important features that we came up with is the countdown clock, which makes it into the first actual construction of the website. We thought that this interactive moving feature would really bring the home screen to life.
As you can see below not all of the original design made it into the first construction of our website. First of all we kept the top menu bar almost exactly the same as can be seen above. We also included the countdown bar in the same location, However we decided after playing around with different ideas to scrap the side pictures and use one of our best posters as the background for the hole website, this picture as seen below is black and white edited so it sets the tone and the encoded theme for the rest of the website. We also decided to add more information to that of just the band and tried to turn it into more of a news feed similar to that of the arctic monkeys which can also be seen below as a comparison.
Arctic Monkeys News feed style home page...
Band Page
The second page of our website is titled the band page. On this page we wanted to give a little bit of background information about the band and there personal life. We did so as we felt that it would give an insight in to there lives and make a personal connection with fans as we are a new fresh group starting out.
As you can see we originally planned a very basic page with info and in depth background on the personal lives of the band. We also wanted to carry over the same menu bar and countdown clock to make this a constant throughout the website.
However we quickly realized during the construction of the website that this would not be enough to fill up the page, therefore to the right of the bold biography box we have added a live link to our instagram page which displays any of the current pictures that the group are uploading. This is also comes with a URL touch link which allows you to jump straight to the instagram website if so desired.
Gallery Page
Next up we have the gallery page which on paper was always going to be the most simple page on the website as we wanted the images to speak for themselves. We have achieved this by keeping the page extremely simple with just the slide show of images in the middle of the page with the same background and menu bar at the top. This as can be seen below was not on the original first draft draw up however we felt that it would be too bare without this. We therefore added these features to fit the theme of the rest of the website whilst also adding more depth to the page.
Here we can see the gallery webpage as it stands after the first construction. It really conveys the crisp structure of the hole 'Encoded brand' as such. We also plan to add many more pictures and images into the gallery than there is as it stands. This will take place after another photo shoot which we have planned in the near future.
UK Tour Page
The next page on our original plan was that advertising our first UK tour to promote our debut album 'Open Spaces' and the first chosen single 'Call me Ishmael'. At the group meeting we discussed this as being one of our crucial pages and that we wanted to make it stand out. We did this by linking the album in with the countdown clock which is present throughout the website counting down to the release date of the album. When asking people there opinion on the website first construction this was one of there favorite features (see website feedback post).
Only a couple of fundamental changes were made from the original plan to the first construction. Once again we added the standard menu bar at the top of the page to accompany the title and countdown. Also we added the video announcing the Tour which is really now the focal point of the page. It also plays automatically when you navigate onto the page so it draws the viewers attention in straight away which is a real benefit, almost acting as an automated advert system. The video can also be found on the home page further down the news feed style area.
Contact Us page
This was the final page that we planned in the original meeting and draft. It consisted of an area by which members of the public could get in direct contact with the band and make us feel a very like able and approachable act. This is important when starting out as a new music act as it helps to gather support quickly, backing this up with our accessibility on social media we believe it will help to kicks start the group on the right foot with the fans,
The original plan was pretty basic on paper but the structure once again coupled with the crisp and professional finish using the wix software help to create another very easy using stylish looking page. The only changes were the adding of the top menu bar and the countdown clock. As you can see below the final style was very effective.
After completing these parts of the website we felt that it was necessary to add some more pages to the website in order to make it complete. After researching some other websites as well as our older research pages we decided that we needed to add a page of information on the album and also a shop/ merchandise area on the site.
Album Page
We decided to insert a page specifically on 'Open Spaces'. We felt that it was such a big part of the project that it needed it's own area specifically on the website for fans to access. As I said earlier we also linked it in with the countdown clock which was an extremely popular feature with some of the early feedback we received. After researching further into album pages on various websites we found that it was a popular feature throughout many artists websites. For example, the Kasabian website which can be seen below, has a page dedicated to all of there albums.
Although we took inspiration from including the album page we did not want to base the design of the page around any of these pages as we wanted to make it completely unique and themed with the rest of the website. This was the following design that we eventually made and came up with. As you can see its sits with our theme, including a picture of the album cover as well as some bold information about the album and its release.
Shop Page
The second and final page we decided to add was our shop and merchandise page. We found that this was an ever present theme throughout every website that we visited. We therefore decided that it was essential to incorporate this into our site. Some examples of inspiration can be seen below as the merch section of size records website and the shop section for kings of leon site.
Once again we wanted to source our own design into the page rather than taking any design inspiration from current sites. The other key factor to consider is that we are going to add plenty more merchandise once produced to the section as the current supply is very minimal and we will certainly be improving this as soon as possible.
Home Page
The first homepage design seen here includes various feature to make it appeal to our fans. After studying the Arctic Monkeys website which we took a huge amount of inspiration from for our own, we wanted to make the home page very bold and clear so that a user/ fan can clearly see links to each area of the website, and make it easier for them to locate the link that they desire. One of the most important features that we came up with is the countdown clock, which makes it into the first actual construction of the website. We thought that this interactive moving feature would really bring the home screen to life.
As you can see below not all of the original design made it into the first construction of our website. First of all we kept the top menu bar almost exactly the same as can be seen above. We also included the countdown bar in the same location, However we decided after playing around with different ideas to scrap the side pictures and use one of our best posters as the background for the hole website, this picture as seen below is black and white edited so it sets the tone and the encoded theme for the rest of the website. We also decided to add more information to that of just the band and tried to turn it into more of a news feed similar to that of the arctic monkeys which can also be seen below as a comparison.
Arctic Monkeys News feed style home page...
Band Page
The second page of our website is titled the band page. On this page we wanted to give a little bit of background information about the band and there personal life. We did so as we felt that it would give an insight in to there lives and make a personal connection with fans as we are a new fresh group starting out.
As you can see we originally planned a very basic page with info and in depth background on the personal lives of the band. We also wanted to carry over the same menu bar and countdown clock to make this a constant throughout the website.
However we quickly realized during the construction of the website that this would not be enough to fill up the page, therefore to the right of the bold biography box we have added a live link to our instagram page which displays any of the current pictures that the group are uploading. This is also comes with a URL touch link which allows you to jump straight to the instagram website if so desired.
Gallery Page
Next up we have the gallery page which on paper was always going to be the most simple page on the website as we wanted the images to speak for themselves. We have achieved this by keeping the page extremely simple with just the slide show of images in the middle of the page with the same background and menu bar at the top. This as can be seen below was not on the original first draft draw up however we felt that it would be too bare without this. We therefore added these features to fit the theme of the rest of the website whilst also adding more depth to the page.
Here we can see the gallery webpage as it stands after the first construction. It really conveys the crisp structure of the hole 'Encoded brand' as such. We also plan to add many more pictures and images into the gallery than there is as it stands. This will take place after another photo shoot which we have planned in the near future.
UK Tour Page
The next page on our original plan was that advertising our first UK tour to promote our debut album 'Open Spaces' and the first chosen single 'Call me Ishmael'. At the group meeting we discussed this as being one of our crucial pages and that we wanted to make it stand out. We did this by linking the album in with the countdown clock which is present throughout the website counting down to the release date of the album. When asking people there opinion on the website first construction this was one of there favorite features (see website feedback post).
Only a couple of fundamental changes were made from the original plan to the first construction. Once again we added the standard menu bar at the top of the page to accompany the title and countdown. Also we added the video announcing the Tour which is really now the focal point of the page. It also plays automatically when you navigate onto the page so it draws the viewers attention in straight away which is a real benefit, almost acting as an automated advert system. The video can also be found on the home page further down the news feed style area.
Contact Us page
This was the final page that we planned in the original meeting and draft. It consisted of an area by which members of the public could get in direct contact with the band and make us feel a very like able and approachable act. This is important when starting out as a new music act as it helps to gather support quickly, backing this up with our accessibility on social media we believe it will help to kicks start the group on the right foot with the fans,
After completing these parts of the website we felt that it was necessary to add some more pages to the website in order to make it complete. After researching some other websites as well as our older research pages we decided that we needed to add a page of information on the album and also a shop/ merchandise area on the site.
Album Page
We decided to insert a page specifically on 'Open Spaces'. We felt that it was such a big part of the project that it needed it's own area specifically on the website for fans to access. As I said earlier we also linked it in with the countdown clock which was an extremely popular feature with some of the early feedback we received. After researching further into album pages on various websites we found that it was a popular feature throughout many artists websites. For example, the Kasabian website which can be seen below, has a page dedicated to all of there albums.
Although we took inspiration from including the album page we did not want to base the design of the page around any of these pages as we wanted to make it completely unique and themed with the rest of the website. This was the following design that we eventually made and came up with. As you can see its sits with our theme, including a picture of the album cover as well as some bold information about the album and its release.
Shop Page
The second and final page we decided to add was our shop and merchandise page. We found that this was an ever present theme throughout every website that we visited. We therefore decided that it was essential to incorporate this into our site. Some examples of inspiration can be seen below as the merch section of size records website and the shop section for kings of leon site.
Once again we wanted to source our own design into the page rather than taking any design inspiration from current sites. The other key factor to consider is that we are going to add plenty more merchandise once produced to the section as the current supply is very minimal and we will certainly be improving this as soon as possible.