Concept and Overview
The overall concept for the website South with G, is a tourism blog for the South Australian southern coastline. The website displays personal photograph and reviews on cafes, restaurants, and activities with an overall millennial’s perspective. The perspective of a millennial on tourism is unique as supported by research conducted, it was concluded tourism blogs were created un-organically and very much the same. In saying this, I made it apparent to create a niche that appealed to a younger audience. The target segment of South with G includes young adults with a keen eye for photography, the outdoors and adventure. How is South with G different? The niche element to the website is its organic flow, large images and small blog posts. This was made with the intention that the time poor segment can quickly skim read and still provide the reader with all the information much faster. The use of colour, font and language made for an easy read and gave it a minimalistic and organic non-clustered atheistic appealing to young adults.
Visual Communication and Design
Photography was an important element to the website’s identity, the visual aid of photography helped immerse the audience in the locations discussed within the blog posts. The theme of the website was clean, minimalistic and organic. The intent of using the pastel blue and white backdrop, allowed the photographs to become the focal point. By using softer colours in the background, alike the colours within a majority of the landscape photography. This allowed the photos to still stand out. However, still keeping an organic and non-clustered aesthetic. The rule of thirds was used in multiple spaces on the website, the largest being the photographs in the “Explore” post, see Figure One. This section of the website is the most photograph heavy, due to the number of locations discussed in the post. It was decided this format was to be used to aesthetically and practically display the images. The use of larger header images above the blog posts, were intended to not only immerse the reader in the location see Figure Three. But also, to hopefully catch the eye of viewers who is merely skimming the page into reading the content. The final use of design was incorporated with the knowledge of the golden ratio, see Figure Two. It can be said the golden ratio assists in a more balanced appearance of a webpage because of the familiarity of the proportions seen in nature, historic buildings and many pieces of art Novoseltseva, E, n.d). This was important for the visual communication of ideas, not one post had an identical design. This generated interest in the page, instead of all the posts being symmetrically the same. Photograph placement and text differed depending on, the number of images generated, locations mentioned in each post and what design would fit each format. An example mentioned being the rule of thirds for a gallery of images.
User Interface Design
The intention primarily for the website was to be extremely user-friendly. The implication of using soft minimalistic colours, photography and a blog style format were used, see Figure Four. This simplistic approach was illustrated due to the time poor generation in which the website’s segment belongs. It was important for the website to stay to its format and that is of blog style. The user-friendly blog format allowed for all the content of the website to be
easily accessed via the home page, see Figure Four. The use of menus allows users to quickly find a particular article they are interested in, with one click. The website utilizes four widgets see Figure Five, two of those being links to the website’s external social media accounts. This was an important feature as the relationship between all three, concluded to be important in generating traffic to one another as discussed below. The second widget is a map of Adelaide. This was implemented, so that users knew exactly where the blog was situated. It could be used to find points of interest mentioned in the blog posts. The final widget, being a gallery of the websites affiliated Instagram account’s most recent posts. This was important to connect both the accounts together to generate activity between both. The layout of the page was organic and had a simplistic flow. The header image embeds an image of the coastline, which is at the fore front of the purpose of the website see Figure Four.
User Experience Design across Digital Platforms
The use of external digital platforms enabled reach to a broader audience and connect companies to the website see Figure Eight and Seven. The use of Instagram and Twitter enabled reaching new audiences. After posting a photo to Instagram and tagging “Fudd’s” the account received a mention in their story and gained three followers see Figure Nine. This method of interface allowed a consistent and loyal following. By receiving more of a following base, rather than the odd like on an individual photo. Utilizing hashtags, in research, brought traffic to the Instagram quite heavily. However, it was concluded this increased like on the individual photos, and not necessarily gaining followers. In my opinion I wouldn’t find hashtags to be the most influential in increasing website traffic flow, nor constant traffic on the Instagram account. This defined the importance of utilizing tags more so than hashtags to generate traffic. Twitter was utilized at a slightly less active rate than Instagram. Personally, I found it harder to generate a following on Twitter and through research discovered that for monthly users Instagram sufficiently greater than Twitter (Jackson, D, 2019). In saying this, Twitter was utilized to share photograph and to tweet when a post on the website went live.
Audience Metrics
In regards to Instagram, I concluded an approximately 50% or larger increase in profile visits, when tagging restaurant accounts. I also concluded a dramatic increase, when referring the following to the website link in the Instagram bio see Figure Six. When utilizing hashtags, it was concluded a slight variance with reach, this also was dependent on which hashtags were used. For example, the use of #ocean and #beach saw a much greater reach.
When using both hashtags as seen on the Instagram analytics graph, the post on the 28th of may receive a 264 reach see Figure Ten. This displayed the importance of utilizing these interfaces. In regards to Twitter, observations of the data collected can make many inferences. The impressions on tweets grew at a consistent rate, an assumption can be made that the introduction of more hashtags could be a major influence of these results. The profile visits slowly decreased, this could have been an indicator of not investing as much time in developing a following on this platform opposed to Instagram see Figure Eleven. Personally, it was much easier to develop a following on Instagram, as the businesses visited were not account holders on Twitter. Thus, finding it hard to generate a following through the re-tweets or re-posts of business etc. In regards to WordPress, it can be concluded that after making the first blog post traffic began visiting the website. The first viewer being on the 23rd of May, after posting regularly I saw an increase of visitors and views to an average of 3.25 views per day, over the eight-day sample period see Figure Twelve. A major increase in website visitors can be seen on the 30th of May, this can be concluded due to a post directing the accounts Instagram followers to the website see Figure Twelve. This highlighted the importance of connecting the several affiliated platforms together.
Future Directions and Development
To improve the continued trend of growth of the website, several implementations would include. Increased active use of the affiliated Instagram and Twitter accounts. Keeping Instagram and Twitter posts to being every two days saw a substantial gain in following and likes, due to consistency. It is important to retain the following base created, by keeping the content interesting and current. Another addition would be opposed to only using still static images, to create videography. This could be implemented not only in the existing platforms. However, introduce a YouTube channel or create Instagram TV videos etc. I believe staying true to the intended audience from commencement is important, and keeping it true to my personal aesthetic. The forward vision for the site is to be filled with reviews and photography on different restaurants, cafes etc. The implementation of more “explore” posts regarding day trips on a budget would be an example of a more cost relatable segment specific post. Therefore, more specifically targeted at the demographic and generate more specific interest in posts for the website. The design currently is minimalist and simplistic which it was concluded in student feedback works quite well. However, implementing more photography and videography to the website would give a higher interest factor and less static page. Especially because of the segment generation, less reading and more photographs and video content would be more appealing. This can be concluded due to the time poor generation in which the target segment fits.
References List
Jackson, D, 2019, Twitter vs. Instagram: Which is Best for Your Brand, date viewed 01-06-2019 <https://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-vs-instagram/>
Novoseltseva, E, n.d. Twitter vs Instagram: Which Is Best For Your Brand, date viewed 04-06-2019 <http://apiumhib.com/tech-blog-barcelona/golden-ratio-in-web-design/>
Website
https://www.instagram.com/southwithg_/
@georgiaread1999
WORD COUNT – 1657 (excluding reference list)
SOUTH WITH G 