Elle Website Analysis

Elle's website has clean and colourful design that follows the design of their magazines. The main heading on their home page is 'elleuk.com', which isn't their masthead from the magazine, but because the font is the same, the audience can still recognise the company name. The grid layout of the website allows the audience it easily navigate around the site so it isn't limited to one specific intelligence of audience. Similar to Vogue, their home page is in a news feed style, so it always changes with the new stories that are uploaded. Featuring mainly links and imagery on the home page, the audience isn't overloaded with information and is less likely to get confused.

The website features bright colours that also feature on the magazine as colours of the masthead and text. I think the design of this website is more relatable to the magazine than Vogue's because of this. However, the use of colour does suggest that the target audience is younger and of a lower class than Vogues. The layout is still very simple so that most of the attention is on the images and photography. It uses a blue border to separate the different stories, which isn't very conventional to use on websites. 

The navigation bar is along the top of the page under the heading with links that show the audience different stories from the website. The font used for the links is complimentary to the font used for the masthead which makes it stand out. Different colours are used for the small arrows next to each link to separate the text. In terms of my own website, my navigation bar won't include as many links as Vogue's because my magazine isn't as popular and therefore won't have as much content.

Like Vogue, Elle hasn't included any moving image of audio content to allow audience activity or interaction. Other than a drop-down menu when the mouse hovers over a link, there isn't any animated features. When I create my own website, I will have to make sure it has interactive features so that it doesn't look old fashioned compared to similar websites.

In terms of the stories, Elle have included topics that it's audience will be interested in. For example, the screen shot on the left shows a make up tutorial that shows the audience how they can have 'The Classic Flick' in 'The Liner Lesson, No 1'. There is a 'Watch it' button that allows the audience to view a video of the tutorial which creates audience interaction.

The photography and stories used on the website also suggests that the audience is younger than Vogue's. This is because younger people are more likely to watch make up tutorials than the older generation. Also, the styling of the models and photography doesn't have as much of a classy appearance.

In terms of my own web stories, I will have to base them mainly around local and regional subjects, but because it is also a fashion magazine, I will be able to include fashion stories and make up tutorials.

One thing that has become very important for up to date websites is the ability to view them on a range of devices. To do this, they have three different views; desktop, tablet and mobile. They all still need to be designed around the style of the website so that they are all recognisable as the same company. By having this responsive feature, it makes it easier for the audience to view the website when ever they please and stay up to date on the go on their mobile or tablet.

On the right is a screen shot from my Samsung mobile to show the mobile view of Elle's website. The mobile view looks very similar to Vogue's in terms of the positioning of images and text. By comparing this view to the desktop view, the design is very different. If it didn't include the masthead and the same stories, the audience wouldn't know that it was the same the website.

As a conclusion, I think Elle's website is a good design that is easy for the audience to navigate. In terms of a design model, I think Vogue's design is better to follow because it is similar to style I would like to use in my products. I like the layout of the news feed style home page, but I don't think this will work for my website because I won't have enough content. However, I have been inspired from the stories and use of colour and photography from Elle's website.