Selling a product or service can be as easy as the click of a mouse or the flip of a remote if one can convey information efficiently and quickly through good use of context, graphics, and color. Like the Nike commercials on television try to promote Nike products, the NBA web site, http://www.nba.com/, tries to promote the National Basketball Association. ESPN Sports and the NBA created this commercial site on the computer to get people interested in NBA basketball and provide updated information with the same intent as other sports commercial sites on the World Wide Web. They want to gain recognition so their product will grow.
I am part of the population that is interested in the NBA and I am exposed to and frequently use the internet to gain information and knowledge; therefore, I am part of the NBA's target audience. In addition, I frequently become involved with the NBA by purchasing tickets, clothing, souvenirs, and other items the NBA has to offer. I like to keep up with players and statistics and I am a big fan of certain players. Commercial sites for the NBA advertise teams, players, games, statistics, and even material items to get people like me involved in the NBA. In comparison to other commercial sports sites, the NBA site should receive a good rating because it presents viewers with good context, graphics, and color.
In order to make a choice, people usually use slogans or sayings to help them to make a decision. When someone sees a interesting phrase or symbol, it usually sticks with them. For example, people seem to think of Nike products when they hear or see the phrase"Just Do It". A commercial's objective is to convince people that what they have to offer is the best. Commercials must be efficient at selling their product by keeping their target population interested in what they have to offer. In order for people to choose to view a web site over other web sites, it must have good context. Context is the way information is presented to the viewer. It should be presented to the viewer in an organized and non confusing manner to help the user move through the site easily and to keep the user's attention and interest. All information relating to one topic should be put under specific headings, which could lead to other links that elaborate on the topic. This will ensure that the reader will not find an overabundance of information on one page, which could help the user understand the topic and will allow the viewer to choose the topics of interest. The content should be grammatically correct and should correlate to the overall theme of the site. In order to keep their target audience interested in the topics, they muct create an interesting and easy web site to follow by using context, color and graphics.
First of all, the NBA web site does a better than average job of providing the user with good context. The home page shows the overall theme, while subheadings link the user to many different topics relating to the NBA. For example, the subheading "Team's Store" leads to a page that advertises clothing and souvenirs one can order from the NBA. Each link tries to use as few words as possible to get the concept across. Under the subheading "Teams" the link uses organized charts, instead of paragraphs to organize information. Some other sports sites lack subheadings; instead, they include highlighted links within paragraphs of information. Some sport commercial sites and NBA home pages include too many topics. For example, some sites attempted to cover every sport on one link. If the user was trying to look up a score for a basketball game, it would seem cumbersome and frustrating to have to look through hockey, golf, baseball, and other sports results as well. The NBA site focuses on one sport, which helps the user get to the needed information quickly.
In addition to having good context, sites should have good color and graphics to further increase the attractiveness of the commercial site. A web site without eye-catching images and color make the site seem dull or uninteresting. By using good color combinations, the creator can make the site more readable. This could help the reader scan through the page quickly and easily. In order to make the pages most efficient, the graphics and images should appear quickly because people may become impatient when a link to a site takes a long time to load onto the screen. By making images clickable, it makes it easier for users to find the links they wish to visit. Images should always be sized to the page to prevent people from having to resize the page. Resizing a page only adds extra work for the user. Graphics and backgrounds should relate to the theme and information on the page. For example, a sports site promoting the NBA would not want footballs all over the pages. Backgrounds should not be intrusive, but should allow the user to read the pages easily by providing good color combinations. For example, if the words on the pages are dark, then the background should be light. One may want to avoid fluorescent colors while making web pages because they may be difficult to read and may give the viewer a headache.
Although this web page may do a less than perfect job with graphics and color, it does a better than average job compared to others. The pages of this site display relevant images and background material. Pictures show NBA players and action shots, while NBA emblems, such as "I Love This Game," cover empty space. The home page uses the texture of a basketball on half the page as a background. The words are readable, but it would be more helpful if even more of the paragraphs were in bold print. It would be better if some of the pages had a different background too. For example, The "Fan Fare" page, which has recently been changed, used black print, while using dark blue stripes as a background. On some parts of the page, the lines crossed through the words, making them hard to read. Clickable portraits can enable the user to become more interested in the site by making it easier for them to go to other links. Clickable links seem to be more attractive to the user than boring words. This would also allow the users to find links easier by looking at pistures of what they want to find. Other commercial sites have clickable portraits and other graphics that make it easier to access information. The NBA web site requires one to click on vivid words to access a link. Instead of making player portraits clickable on the "Fan's Fare" page, the creators made certain words within the paragraphs clickable. A user may not see these clickable words, but may see pictures that may look like interesting links. To keep users interests, the images are displayed quickly through this web site in comparison to other sites of this nature. This can keep the user from skipping links due to time constraints. The creator of a web page must also use popular NBA colors to allow the user to associate different colors to the NBA, just as people associate Nike with "Just do it". When people see different these colors, they may think of the NBA. Primary and secondary colors are easy to read and are not distracting to the eye. The Primary and secondary colors used were commonly found on jerseys, emblems, and other items associated with the NBA. Other sites used bright colors , which would seem to distract the viewer. Sometimes bright colors can give one a headache and discourage from from continuing to look at the site..
In conclusion, both the NBA and ESPN sports have produced an efficient web site in comparison to other commercial web sites with the same objectives. This web site should receive a higher rating than most commercial sports web sites due to it's context, color, and graphics. Advertising on the world wide web can be as easy as the click of a mouse or the flip of a remote; however, attractiveness can be found in the creator's ability to create a web site with these three things.
Works Cited:
Apple Computer, Inc. "Apple Support and Information Web". http://www.info.apple.com/ This web site's purpose is to display a lot of information. It is intended to be very informative to the viewer. It may need more graphics and mayby some background material to make it a little more appealing.
Downtown Digital. "Dr. Fellowbug's Laboratory of Fun and Horror." http://www.dtd.com/bug/ I really like the graphics of this site, but I was not clear on it's whole purpose. The links were neat, but after a while the pictures and the abundance of space left between each annoyed me.
Fringeware Inc. "Fringeware Inc." http://www.fringeware.com/ I liked the idea of this site. I liked how they used their graphics, but sometimes the wording is really hard to read. When they put white letters on gr Uay, I did not even attempt to read the information. I think their use of graphics are used to portray a child's type of writing, maybe saying anyone can use Fringeware.
Power Computing Corporation. "Power Computing." http://www.powercc.com/ This site needs more graphics to get the viewer's attention. It tries to advertise for the corporation and is easy to follow and understand. It is readable and has good quality pictures.
Starwave Corporation. "NBA.Com." http://www.nba.com This site is the one I evaluated!
Texas Union. "Texas Union Microcenter." http://www.mc.utexas.edu/ This sit e tries to give us information regarding the microcenter in the union. It is well organized, but it is not very visually appealing.
VIBE Magazine. "Vibe Vidio." http://pathfinder.com/vibe/vibevideo/docs/genra/meta.html This site is for personal entertainment only and is not for commercial use. It needs more color and graphics to make it more appealing to the eye.