Research into teen websites

16/09/10

I have begun researching websites aimed at teenagers in order to see what other websites do to attract a teenage audience, and also to try to judge whether certain things work or not regarding website design. The first website that I decided to research is the website linked to the teenage magazine Bliss (http://www.mybliss.co.uk/home). The magazine and website are aimed at a target audience of teenage girls; the colour scheme uses colours such as pink, black, white and purple. The pink used conforms to the stereotypical view of girls.
The website is easy to use, but almost every page is very full of links. The homepage itself has two links to horoscopes, and two links to the same competition. I didn't like this as I felt it was wasting space, and I think when I design my website I want to avoid having too many links to the same place on my homepage. There are links to the main features/interviews near the top of the page cycling on a form of slideshow to switch focus periodically to each of the features.
The main navigation is at the top of the page, beneath the logo and an advertisement for the latest issue of the magazine, and each part of the navigation highlights in its own individual colour when it is hovered over, bringing up a drop down menu beneath it. The links that are part of the navigation are in a bold font and are written in capital letters, making them stand out more.
The images used are all of celebrities, this would be easy to do in my own website, but this would probably involve infringing copyright so it's best if I don't. I could however use pictures that I take of friends etc. and use them as the stars of the programmes on my channel.
The website provides a link or advertisement to the magazine on every page.
Some elements of the layout that I found interesting were the opinion poll of a question about a celebrity on the right hand side, and the 'most viewed' links beneath it. I found the opinion poll interesting because I thought it was a good way of increasing interactivity in the site and involving the audience in discussion. I found the 'most viewed' links interesting because I hadn't thought before of what effect calling attention to the most popular aspects of the site would have. I liked it because it made the most popular things on the website more easy to find.