Analysis of BMW and AU

Questions: To improve and evaluate written communication skills in multimedia To improve and evaluate analytical skills in multimedia and the ability to write a critical analysis, and produce an on-screen presentation. Answers: Introduction Interactive media is a way of communication which depends upon the input of users and the output of program. Types of interactive media include the website, video games and social media. Also, the participation of the users/audience is a must element in interactive media (Rob cover, 2006).Genre is such concept which can be linked up with music, books, literature or any kind of entertainment. So as to categorize different mediums and sub mediums in it, Genre is being used by the people. As a result, the likes and dislikes of the people are identified for building a better understanding of genre. So it is needed that there should be a proper study done on the genre of a particular website is done. Also Genre makes certain that which particular kind of people are attracted towards a particular web site (stamatatos kanaris, 2009). For the companies to have their own website the purpose of it depends on who are the target audience for them. Moreover, some of the websites are made so that it can attract good number of buyers whereas some so that they can provide its practical information. The goal of the selected website of BMW is that it has excellent drop drown menu, the navigation mapping, the search box, header with information following with the footer note. With the contrasting graphics, this web page has proper images of different models of the cars on its cover page. This is the purpose of choosing this website. URL, a uniform resource locator provides an approach so that the user can locate it onto the web directly. Also it is the system of hypertext which is on the internet. So as to access the resources and its information the protocol is used which URL contains. There are two parts to it; the first is it recognizes that which protocol is to be used. The second part of URL identifies either the internet protocol address or the name of domain to find the location of the particular resources of the website. As for the website of BMW/au the URL is https://www.bmw.com.au/en/index.html by this user can locate the webpage directly. Key features to the website: A website is created for the ease of its users in having the assistance for the features and prcised information about the product. For the website to be made successful for the ease of its users, the key features of the website BMW/AU are as follows: The page structure has some particularities in the design. Page layout has the design which deals with the visual elements included in the web page. Such command need to be kept in mind as the HTML are written such angle brackets. Most of the HTML tags have / backslash in the end of the tags. Moreover, these tags have attributes to some detailed information. These are to be kept in mind so as to understand the basic web page structure. This official site of BMW has the same elements. Also, it is to be kept in mind that a website shall work well only if the page structure matches with the expectation of its users (Patrick J. lynch and Sarah Horton, 2011). Content should be easy to scan, as the users usually dont read the whole information they rather skim the content. Appropriate use of heads, sub-heads and bullets makes it easy for the users to go through for quick discovery of what they are actually looking for. Use of proper images helps the users to take up things easy to understand. Instead of long paragraphs, small quotes are to be used. The search box enables to search within the website. This search box helps the users to navigate and go through the content exactly. In this webpage the contents are easy to identify, moreover the search box helps the users by searching for the exact key word, and they are willing to seek information for. The navigation of the website is self-explanatory, so as to get to know about the website layout and seek the information needed. As in the website of BMW the users can directly go on to the options and get to know about the various models of cars, jobs available, used cars and so on. Various navigation methods used are: Horizontal and Vertical navigation The horizontal and vertical navigation is most common technique of navigating a web site which is opted by many of sites. Separating from each of the row, these text and icons are placed horizontally on the web page. Breadcrumb navigation This is such a navigation method which allows to users the track which they use to define or track their location onto the website. The breadcrumb consists of both text as well as graphics arranged in the horizontal and vertical manner: Homesectionsub sectionsub-sub section. Moreover, the GPS application software uses this technique of navigation. In the below shown figure the breadcrumb trail in the page indicates the Home menu as it is the most common location available for the web page (Patrick lynch and Sarah Horton,2011). Way finding is described as the elements of environment building which allows to navigate in between the spaces provided (Kevin Lynch, 1960). According to the term explained, way finding has four main elements: Orientation: which describes that where the user is right now in the title. Decision for route making: this gives information about the way to navigate the web page throughout. Mental mapping: This gives the understanding and predictions about the user. What will be there next selection on the web page and track about where the user is at. Closure: This component explains about the ways in which the user can recognize weather one is at right place or not. This is explained by these four components. Basically for categorizing the sections and sub sections, this is the main reason for introducing drop-down menus. These are arranged vertically or horizontally (Nielsen, 2009). Page headers and footers The header consists of heading and the logo of the company. As in the right corner BMW has its logo on the header note (BMW/au official site). Also here the common information regarding the website is stated with the contact information. The site navigation is also done from the header note of the web page. In this header (as shown in the figure) it has the logo, compare and pricing, information about the used and desired vehicles. These are the essential menus which users can find in the header part of the website. The footer is at the bottom of the web page. This consists of the copyright notice, contact information and various important links to quickly access. Just as the same of header, footer also contains the common information (Bio informative web development, n.d.). As shown in the following figure of footer the important information for the contact, quick links, the legal information are mentioned to assist the navigation of users. It is necessary that the type setting in such a manner which shall be readable by the users. Also, it makes complex different fonts are used in the same website. Official website of BMW has more elaborating styles which actually proves this style is more attractive for users to scan the content. An easy to read fonts is always way better decision. For print purpose, serif fonts are mostly used while for online web designs San serif fonts are most appropriate. Whereas, bold or highlights help users to scan with more ease. Graphics and color A graphic design indicates clear and logical thinking (Edward Tufte). As far as the graphics and color is concerned, the way this website has its background and content contrasting. This is the basic, yet most beneficial task. Most contrasting colors are to be combined so that the content is highly noticeable to the users. While it makes complicated for the users to understand when proper contrasting with graphics is not done (Clarke, 2004). Clearer and highly designed picture attracts customers the most. They also leave a quick memory about the product. In the webpage various models of cars have been provided with highly designed graphics of different models of the cars. Moreover, it lowers the costs incurred in publishing it in papers rather than introducing the graphics on the web page. On the official webpage the graphics of different models of cars has been given. This attracts the users as well as helps users get more detailed information. Conclusion Properly placing the things in order helps the users in seeking materialistic information about the webpage. Official website of BMW has done the same. The Genre makes certain that which particular kind of people are attracted towards a particular web site. The font size of the content plays an important part according to its background. Moreover, the navigation plays the most important part of the web page as it not only does help the users in seeking the relevant information but also helps various search engines like Google to go to the website more efficiently References: Stamatoes, E., Kanaris, I., (2009), learning to recognize webpages genres, viewed on: 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306457309000491. Nielsen, J., (2009), mega menus work well for site navigation, viewed on: 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mega-menus-work-well/. Bio informative web development, (n.d.), Introducing HTML5 footer, header, nav, article, section and aside elements, viewed on: 7 January, 2017, Available at: https://www.cellbiol.com/bioinformatics_web_development/chapter-3-your-first-web-page-learning-html-and-css/introducing-html5-footer-header-nav-article-section-and-aside-elements/. Clarke, C., (2014), 6 Reasons Graphic Design is More Important to Your Business than You Think, viewed on: 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://www.business2community.com/branding/6-reasons-graphic-design-important-business-think-0928602#TbB33pSsr4mPHH85.97. Cover, R., (2016), audience inter/active, new media and society, vol.8, no.1, pp.138-158. Lynch, P., Horton, S., (2011), Web style guide, viewed on 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://webstyleguide.com/. BMW group Australia, (2016), viewed on: 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://www.bmw.com.au/en/index.html. Berger, C., (2009), the image of the city, viewed on: 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://segd.org/image-city. Chapman, C., (2011), color theory for designers: part 1: the meaning of color, viewed on: 7 January, 2017, online available at: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/.