Website Research

1. Website Research

2. The main page that us, as an audience, are met with gives a large image of the band
members, the other examples of bands I have chosen to compare WOTE to also have a
band image to display the members of the band and a chosen pose/posture/format to
suit their idea of their image. In this case, WOTE being an alternative/pop/folk/rock
band by doing covers of a variety of songs, they have chosen a casual stance while
looking rather different due to the paint thrown across them on their clothes and rubbed
on their faces. In addition to using the traditional menu at the top of the page.
Walk Off The Earth – Our Chosen Band

3. The website’s main page
also features a small
notification of the band’s
new album and where it
can be purchased from in
order to notify fans of their
new work and exactly
where to get it. This is
shortly followed by social
media section with the
band’s most recent posts
and links to their social
media accounts on twitter,
YoutTube and facebook.

4. As we scroll a little further down the main page of the website we can see a small section
dedicated to their latest news, a common feature of most band websites as it allows the
fans to engage in the band’s latest engagements while notifying them of any activity that
the band has been engaged in, such as new albums, songs or in this case a holiday
themed movie. Further down the page we find a tour date list, yet another feature found
on the main page of other websites due it’s highly valuable advertisements of the band’s
upcoming tours and their locations.

5. This page shows WOTE’s store where their merchandise and clothing (mainly) can be
purchased. This shows just a small section of what they offer but confers to the trend
presented by more mainstream band websites by the production of their own
merchandise to sell to fans. The store has brow quite quickly within the last year,
suggesting it is fairly popular and therefore a good income for the band.

6. Here is the ‘about’ section or ‘bio’ for Walk off The Earth. The page is kept simple with a
grey background and grey text giving a simple look to the page, the text, in my opinion,
should however be white or the background should be white. Simply for the ease of
reading, having two similar colours is more difficult to read due to it being harder to
distinguish, especially at lower screen brightness. The bio is kept simple and to the
point, describing the band progress over the years and in comparison to some other
sites, is reasonably short. They also supply another image of the band, which not all
websites do but some do choose to, this band being one of those.

7. Maroon 5
Maroon 5 does have tour dates on this section of the main page, however, it hasn’t been
able to format the page correctly for a few weeks now. When the dates are presented it
shows a trend in pop bands websites as, similarly to WOTE, they display their our dates
on their first page. While we would typically expect an image of the band to be the first
thing we see it is understandable why they would prefer their tour dates. As this is a
mainstream band, they may be more focused on revenue as they have already developed
their image.

8. Below this section, they have a news section. It is much larger in comparison to WOTE’s
and displays more activities. As Maroon 5 is a more popular band, it is natural to see
them more engaged due to their increased popularity and renown and therefore it is not
a surprise to see a larger news section within their website.
As for the layout, their chosen format appears to be mixed colours with a dark
background. This is clearly a personal choice but in comparison to WOTE’s it is a much
heavier option. WOTE’s background is much lighter and gives a much happier
impression of the band. The colour scheme used by Maroon 5 makes them appear much
more serious and less ‘optimistic’.

9. The band has also fleshed out their bio much more than WOTE. Delving deep into the
history, successes and failures. As we can see, the layout is also much simpler using the
colours from before of sticking to black and white, simply switching it around to have a
white background for the text. This makes the band look more professional in a sense by
the simplicity yet ‘proper’ design of the page by keeping it to the point and easy to read.

10. Maroon 5 offer more merchandise in a greater variety of forms than WOTE do. They
offer clothes as well as books, accessories and posters in comparison to WOTE who offer
clothes with a few additional accessories. It is more common amongst more mainstream
bands to offer large varieties of merchandise and I’m sure one day when WOTE are
popular enough, they too will be offering a larger variety of apparel and band items. The
page stays as simple as the others with a white black and red colour scheme. A popular
choice among bands, WOTE also using a white(ish) background with grey text and a red
band title.

11. Walk The Moon
Walk The Moon are similar to WOTE in their individualism. Using bright, attractive
colours in their web page to gain the attention of the user immediately. Their band
image is the first item to be seen, and, just as WOTE do, they use a slightly different
image to present their band, one member having his head partially opened. Again
similarly to WOTE they have their album(s) displayed close by, slightly closer in their
case as the option to purchase it is directly to the left and right of the image

12. The band has a lot of similarities to WOTE in the layout of their main page as the next
thing they display is their update list. While the list is longer than WOTE’s, it provides
the same information on the band’s activity and any offers or tours currently on or
upcoming. Unlike some other websites, they provide their Instagram account with some
of the posts on the right side of the page, emphasising the promotion of social media.

13. Further down we find another similar part to WOTE’s web design as the tour dates are
set up in a very similar format to Walk off The Earth’s. The layout in fact being almost
identical. Emphasising the conformity to typical looks amongst similarly themed bands.
The band also has various images from ‘behind the scenes’ and a few videos of their live
performances down the page, helping to promote the bands image.

14. Walk The Moon has a very long biography giving a rich history of the band as well as it’s
members. There are also a few quotes from the members inserted increasing the
attachment to the audience by making it more ‘genuine’ by applying evidence of their
experiences. While this is the only website I had come across to insert quotes, it still
follows the same idea as other websites by having the bands own opinion of their
progress ad success. This band also included more photos than some other sites and it is
clear where WOTE have gathered some of their own ideas. The format is similar to
Maroon 5 with the darker colour scheme as well which is quite different from the
colours used on their main page.
The image to the left shows a few band
pictures which were inserted further down
the biography page.

15. Walk The Moon offer the most
merchandise out of the others we’ve looked
at. Selling clothes of all types, watches,
coats, hats and posters. WOTE have clearly
looked for inspiration elsewhere for their
merchandise and it will be interesting to
see what they include in theirs to see if they
have found any inspiration here. The
menus are easy to navigate and are more
efficient than other sites due to the large
box layout (top left) rather than the
traditional text layout menu on one side of
the page.

16. Overview of selection bars
All websites have a similar setup to one-another, some providing more functionality
than others but all have the essentials of news, about, a store and how to contact them
either by social media or a direct ‘contact’ option. WTOE are the only site who chose to
put their social media links below their main image. The more mainstream bands
appear to have them located either above or below their main title for quick, easy access.
Perhaps emphasising their more up-to-date nature as social media becomes and ever
expanding part of the general publics lives.