Web Hunt Reflection + Thirds Grid Analysis

Web Hunt Reflection

The above image is a screenshot of my homepage montage of various local and national sites for the lovely country of Sweden.

Color Palette

I organized my homepage montage from cool colors, to neutral colors, to warm colors.  The colors go from black, dark blue, green, light greenish blue, white/ gray, yellow, peach, pink, and finally red.  I noticed that there is a a significantly large number of neutral and cool toned websites.  I also noticed that for the most part, color was used simply to add a pleasing aesthetic and to draw attention to certain areas.  It was used to break up space and make everything seem more organized. Color is used very differently than it is in the United States.  In the United States, colors are used to promote a certain brand or concept. In Sweden, I noticed that colors and color themes are used to make the site look nice and organized.  I noticed that pops of color and pastels are very common. The colors don’t particularly portray a nationalistic theme, nor are they ever muted. As I said before, it seems the colors were chosen based off the product or service each site sells, or simply because it looks nice.

Content Modality 

Looking at a Swedish site is extremely interesting.  The amount of content is very interesting.  There is a really balanced ratio of text to visual content.  There is not an overwhelming amount of information given to the audience at once.  Every single site I visited was extremely organized and very relaxed.  Every image and text were combined together and positively affected the flow of the and feel of the website.  Each website was incredibly organized and easy to navigate because of the text and visual and color combinations.  These sites were very high context in which there isn’t a lot of context needed to navigate the site.  It had a high uncertainty avoidance because it was so organized.

What Have I Learned?

While there was a wide array of colors utilized throughout the Swedish national and local sites, the commonality between all of the sites I found is within the organization of the website itself.  There is a lot of attention to detail to make them user friendly and easy to navigate.  Every single site had a very similar format.  Every single site was aesthetically pleasing and utilized neutral color palettes with pops of color, combined with basic texts and beautiful images.

Conclusion

After finding over 30 local, multinational, and national sites I have been able to narrow down not only some key features that have helped me learn about my assigned country, but also idiosyncratic cultural differences between by own experienced culture and my assigned culture. Overall, the national and local websites I found had very stark similarities.  The sites all are extremely organized and share neutral color palettes with pops of color, they are never overwhelming and are very conscious about spacing and the density of information.  It is actually not very difficult to find sites. Looking through all these sites has made me wish more websites took Sweden’s approach to web page formatting and design.

Thirds Grid Analysis

This is the thirds grid for a clothing company in Sweden called Halens.  The content modality of Halens is very typical of what I’ve seen so far in Swedish websites.  It is extremely organized and not overwhelming. There is not a very large density of information on the page.  It has basic and minimal text.  There is only one visual.  The color palette is mostly neutral with pops of color.  The ratio of text and visual was very different, which is not uncommon in Swedish websites.  The text was very basic, while the image seemed to be the first thing you notice.

This is a thirds grid for a travel site in Sweden.  This continues the similar modality of a very basic format with a conscious effort to decrease the amount of overwhelming information.  It also is a very stylish website.  There is not a very dense amount of information on the site.  The ratio of text to visual is very unequal.  There is a larger amount of image and only a basic amount of text.

This is my thirds grid for a national news site in Sweden.  This continues the theme of neutral color palette with a pop of color.  It also continues a similar format and organization.  The page does not have a very high density of information. But, at the same time, the page is organized in such a way that one can easily access the information without being met with an overwhelming amount of text and visuals.  This brings me next to the ratio of text to visual on this particular site.  This site has an uneven ratio of text to visual information.  There is very minimal text, with a very large image.  However, the image and the visual flow well together to convey the fact that this is indeed a news site.  The modality of the site is very interesting.  The site’s text is very basic and not very elaborate.  If you want more information click the appropriate areas.  The images are used to confirm the text.  It is very organized without an overwhelming amount of content on the page.

I chose these specific slides because I feel they summarize the main themes found among all of the local and national sites I have analyzed.  Every single site I looked at shared commonalities with one, or all three of these sites.  Overall, while the sites did not have a very high density of information, this does not mean there was a lacking in information.  All of the websites have a very unequal ratio of text to images.  The image is usually the attention grabber that gives support to the text on the page.  The modality was very consistent.  Every website was extremely organized.  There is never a lot of text, and usually a visual to support it.  The information was very basic while still being user friendly.  The websites were very nice to look at.

February 28, 2017March 7, 2017 by krispoli849 Categories: Comm 380 1 Comment