Analysis of Website Convention (The Killers) and there functions

By James Forbes

Banner/ logo The banner is placed predictably in the top left corner beside

the menu bar, however denoting a larger text size and a unique style resembling lit bulb lights makes it look more interesting and noticeable. This style is done to connotes to the audience the band’s illustriousness as it looks like the sort of lights you’d see on the stage where the band is performing.

As the banner would be one of the first conventions of a site the audience would notice first it serves as a clue to which band the site is dedicated to; the audience would be able to instantly recognize it as the killers banner since they are an established band.

The Banner also provides a link back to the homepage.

Background The background used for the website can scroll

sideways, and denotes a deserted wasteland with various objects like a coach, building walls, graves etc, that act as links to different pages of the site. This style of navigation is quite creative, and may have been done to connote to the audience the wild and free personality of the band and there music.

The audience is expected to find what it is they are looking for; this suggests that the audience is interested and keen on ‘The Killer’ content that they are willing to spend time searching, instead of just going to another site that provides them with what they want without the need to search. It also suggests that the website is intuitive or the audience is smart enough to be able to find what it is they are looking for easily.

If the audience find it difficult to find the right objects that links to the space they want to go they can just use the conventional menu bar at the top.

Font style/ size/ colour The site has a consistent font colour of yellow.

The sites use a ‘Times New Roman’ font style for News link on the menu bar that shows a timeline of what the band is, has and will be up to, whether there on tour or creating a new album etc, this font style is very formal and is used to connote to the audience that the band is very serious about the activities there doing, and to show that the activities are official.

They also use a ‘Arial’ font style for just about everything else. This style is less informal, which connotes the band is more relaxed.

Menu Bar The menu bar is intuitive so the audience are

able to navigate the website easily, and it never changes shape or mores to another spot on the page, so the audience are never left stranded on the page to get frustrated because they can’t get to where they want to go. The menu bars also has a simple rollover effect that highlights the link of whatever the audience seems to be hovering over, so the audience knows what options they are about the use.

Hyperlinks This website provides links to ITunes and

Amazon so that the audience can purchase their music.

Also provides links to other website related to the killers such as ‘http://www.bandstores.co.uk/shop/killers/’, this site allows the audience to purchase merchandise like clothes, bags and toothbrush.

Images On the website it has a

page dedicated to images of the band. There is a rollover effect put on the images so they change from the black and white colour to real colour when the mouse is hovering over the image as shown in the screenshot. This allows the audience to get images of the band that they could use for posters, backgrounds, wall paper etc.

Music On this website they have a page

for their music. The music has been categorised according to the albums, and are provided links to ITunes, Amazon, or and there official store website ‘http://thekillersvictims-store.sparkart.net/store’, if the audience wish to make a purchase. However you can’t play music on the site so the audience couldn’t listen to a particular song. This is a huge flaw to the site because if the audience wants to listen to their music they’ll have to go to another website. They lose the advantage sound brings as they can engage the audience with their music, which will entice them to make purchase and keep them on the site.

Video On this website the music videos don’t work

so like the problem with the music, they cant engage the audience with their music in order to keep them on the site.

Suitable URL The URL is a key convention of a website and usually has

the band name or record label in it. It allows the audience to first get on to the website. If the audience didn't already know the URL then they could Google it by searching the killers or variation of this and a link to the website would come up, however if the URL is completely different and the audience would find it harder to find the website.

If this URL was already taken then the recording artist would have to pay to get and use it.

URL: http://www.thekillersmusic.com/html5

News Feeds This allows the audience to keep up to date

with what’s new about the killers and makes them feel a part of the band.

Memberships The audience have the

opportunity to register to become members where they will get, private message boards and chat, exclusive content like video and photos, victims profile page, and pre-sale ticketing opportunities. This makes the audience feel apart of the band, because there getting content related to there favourite to them that un-members cant get.