Week 3 - Part A - Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

JamiLin

I totally went down a rabbit whole on JamiLin's site. What a mess! Who the heck is JamiLin? I would have loved it had she told us right away. "I am a 59 year-old woman selling products to make you look younger. I'm also into new age stuff: you name it. Crystals, veganism, meditation, feng shui." Her website could use a little Feng Shui. But then I started clicking around. She's a crack up! Her YouTube videos pull you right in. Then you come to realize that funky horrible website just sucked you in for way longer than you intended. Heck I was clicking on all the wrinkle creams wondering if I too could eliminate my turkey neck with ingredients found in my own kitchen. Oh! Don't use hemorrhoid cream on your face. And on Facebook? She posted 12 times in the last 24 hours. Perhaps this site really works for her? This is not the face of anyone using a professional web designer. This lady proudly states she made it herself.

As for the whole CRAPHTED part. You name it, she violated it. Well except maybe concept. She pulled off the happy new age hippy chick vibe 100%. She has a site map but many of the links are broken. Once you leave the homepage, it's hard to find your way back there. The colors are all over the place, but hey, maybe she meant to do that. One of her services is to color your chakra. 

To improve this site, I think I would:

• Split it into 3 or more different domains.

1. Skin care/anti-aging
   
2. Feng Shui design garden design,  and interior design consultation
3. All the other stuff including: chakra balancing, astrology and spiritual consults, and crystals

• Have a thorough site map on each page and fix all broken links.

• Have an "about me" page that tells how all her specialties tell a story about personal empowerment and provide links to the other sites. 
• Modernize each site with unifying color schemes, a branded logo, larger more legible font (all one font except perhaps the logo or title), an unifying template for each page in each site.
  
• Have a clear purpose for each site with a call to action. 
• Have good social media links, because she is quite active on several social media sites but its hard to figure out how to get there. 
• One thing I would NOT change is JamiLin's quirkiness. That is her brand.
  

In the end, I hated her website, but LOVED JamiLin! What a spirit!

MGBD Parts & Services

I think I got a migraine looking at this website. Ow! Freakin bright red text! I wasn't quite sure where to click first. What is a Rover? Looks like an old English car. Where do I click first? Alignment is all off. Some text is underlined and looks like links but it's not clickable. No page looks the same in terms of layout ("repetition" in CRAPHTED) so it is easy to get lost. Did I say my eyes hurt? 

My husband was looking over my shoulder. He is a car enthusiast. He made a point that enthusiasts don't need a fancy site and they will happily wade through the clutter to find what they need. In a sense, this company is an online junkyard for Rover parts. Their site plays the part.

Interestingly enough it got much better after leaving the landing page. I would say "home page" however the link that says "home" does not bring you to the landing page. The "home page" which is not the "home page" gets much better in organization, but the font is so small. Again underlined text makes you think it's a link when it's not. thankfully much of the bright red text is gone and your eyes can take a rest with a gray background.

Personally, I would spend the time to update the whole website and KonMari it. Organize and neatly "fold your shirts." A junkyard CAN be unjunked. 

Specifically, a whole redesign might involve the following

• Any page that has more than two short paragraphs, edit and cut it down.
• Consolidate links into the following at the top:

1. About (About the owners, history, events, press)
   
2. Online store (Parts, cars, literature, etc)
3. Services (Inspection, repair, appraisals)
   
4. Gallery
5. Contact

• All the other miscellany can go in a list of links at the bottom. This would be things like privacy policy, cancellation policy, terms and conditions, etc.)
• Unify and redesign each page so that you can find your way around and not get lost. Make each page look like you're on the same website and not on different site.
• Make text colors easy on the eyes. Don't underline text that is not a link.
  

Car aficionados don't have to endure the agony of a virtual dig through a trash heap.
A website can spark joy.

Headhunters Hair Styling

This website is simple but nicely done. It is simple enough that I suspect the owners did it themselves. I didn't identify too many issues, but if I were to offer constructive suggestions, they would be the following:

• I am not crazy about their color choices but neither was it garish. 
• The page was easy to navigate, although several of the pages seemed slow to load. 
• You get a clear sense of the company (staid and middle age) and who works there, however I would have tried to play up their beachy vibe in a better color selection and a dash of surfer language to attract the younger crowd as well. 
• Perhaps their target market is not the younger demographic, but if that were the case I would have chosen different pictures for the gallery. 

They had links to social media sites. Unfortunately, their Yelp link had some bad reviews. I've seen other beauty salons with bad reviews and the stylist answered the complaints by saying to please come back and let us make it right. Headhunters never replied one to the reviews.   All-in-all this was not a bad site.

Apple.com

It doesn't get much better than this. Apple's site has a bunch of information. Layers and layers of information. Despite all the layers you always know where you are. You can find what you're looking for, but if you were to get lost, then at the bottom of each page is a comprehensive list of site links and a site map. The graphics are beautiful and fast-loading. The style of the site is new and familiar all at once. That combination of familiar and cutting-edge is one of the keys to successful branding. There's a reason that Apple is top of their game and great products combined with first-class marketing is key. The one thing lacking is any link to social media. Perhaps their strategy is to keep people on their site until they buy.