development - site layout

I have created an ideal layout for the site, this is where I will place certain aspects of the website. Now I will create some graphic mock-ups to this layout.

research: existing site layouts

All the sites have navigation underneath the title bar, with all but two, including ShopTo, having secondary navigation down the left hand side.

ShopTo is also very heavy with its promotions, running down both sides of the page. Most of the other sites only have 1 side of promotions, or they are placed above the main content in the center of the page.

Only ShopTo and Zavvi have promotional background images, these are a good promotional tool, but add extra page file size, and as the images are clickable links they can be frustrating if the user accidentally clicks on the image.

ShopTo

research: existing site layouts 2

HMV


LoveFilm


Play


TheHut


Zavvi

research: existing site layouts 1

I have been looking at existing websites, and have taken note of the layouts used in each of them.

Amazon


eBuyer


Game


Gameplay


Gamestation

research: existing websites

Online shops like ShopTo are very popular in the modern day, as the ease and quickness of purchasing online is often more appealing to a gamer than visiting a store in town. Because of this, I feel it is important to take note of these sites and see what they do similarly and differently to ShopTo, which can help influence what to include in my redesign.

Amazon

Play.com

eBuyer

theHut

Zavvi

LoveFilm

GamePlay

Game

GameStation

HMV

independent project

For this project we have been tasked with creating some work for a client of our choice. We get to choose all the aspects of the project, and focus the work on an aspect of digital media of which we want to further ourselves in.

My idea is to re-brand a current website. The site I have chosen is ShopTo, an e-commerce site which sells video games and peripherals. The site is popular amongst gamers in the UK as it offers cheap products with free 1st class delivery, however, the site looks a bit amateur, with lots of flashing gifs running down the sides of the page with no real organization. The main page, especially, is very long and has too much content for a homepage, the user has to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find contact information.

The graphics used, although not too bad, also don't look too savvy, something which many websites have presently. The way in which I would redesign this page would be to condense content visible on the screen, and make the entire page more streamlined and look more professional.