Current Promotional Websites - Studio Brief 04 - OUGD504

To gain a better perspective on the current online promotional material means looking at how record labels go about creating websites for artists, this meaning the wireframes, grids, type choices, image placement, user interactivity and more importantly the overall user experience of the sites. This will enable a better experience through my own promotional website for Mount Kimbie in terms of usability but may differ from the target market of the usual 'MK' listeners.


Eton Messy:

Eton Messy are a trio of DJ/promoters who surfaced in 2011 by uploading videos to youtube which filled a niche, a popular one at that. Now they pay host to some of the best line ups in the UK, and have become a largely respected record label.

Very recently, they released a compilation CD of tracks they have promoted or released through their label, the website endorses this as soon as you click on the link:

This pop-up/overlay appears on each page after a certain amount of time, featuring the 'buy now' link which redirects you to an iTunes download, a video promoting the music on the compilation and finally social media links for sharing.

The site itself is well-thought out, however, on older hardware like mine (2010 Macbook) some of the animated elements of the page fail to load quick enough and considerably slow the overall experience down. This is a serious consideration which should be accounted for when the target market is as universal as this.

xxxy:

Contrastively, this xxxy website uses a minimal grid and sparingly used images to communicate the music. This is something of which could hugely benefit a music site, as the focal point is the music and not the content in terms of image and video. Of course, there has to be some aspect of image and video incorporated into the website, but it is quite often obtrusive to the user and therefore renders it unnecessary to communicate the given message: the music.


SBTRKT:

With SBTRKT (p.Subtract), their clever use of the album artwork on the very first page is a great idea as the artwork is very effective and appealing. With a smooth scrolling parallax effect when scrolling, the user is greeted with the newest album release along with links to various platforms to which the reader can choose. I really love the layered parallax scrolling as it adds to the effectiveness and user interaction aspect of the website. The UX of the site was never hindered by anything, legibility was never clouded by any animations or distracting elements, the use of album colours throughout the site's palette is something that will go well with Mount Kimbie, with their bold and colourful collage style album cover.

'Contact' is shown as an overlay on top of the home page, not deterring the user from the point they were scrolled to before clicking on the contact link. This is good for functionality and is also friendly to the user as it will reduce frustration when browsing through the site. There's nothing worse than being redirected to a new tab or window where you click on a link, so this is something I wish to implement into my own designs.

Bonobo:

The bonobo site has a lot going on, and is somewhat distracting whilst navigating through the various pages on the website. This is due to the use of a static background, something of which can be fixed by using more of a flat interface for the user to easily see any important links and page elements which instantly eradicates any need to add container colour as they ave in this example with what looks like a 80%* transparency which further increases illegibility. The only aspect of the homepage that promotes the latest album is in the bottom right hand corner, the rest of the site consisted of tour dates and other relevant and current information.