JB HI-FI is a store that
sells a large variety of electronics, hardware and electronic accessories such
as, CD’s DVD’s. The store chain was established in Melbourne Australia and
since then they have opened stores all over Australia and New Zealand. Their New
Zealand site is www.JBHIFI.co.nz. This is
where they present their online catalogue and sales using techniques to attract
the consumers’ eye. I will be writing about how JB HI-FI uses “text”, “colour”
and “layout” to draw attention to their products and their sales while
providing the reader with the option to scan easily and look for additional
details if necessary while keeping the layout simple and effective.Text:
JB HI-FI uses larger fonts specifically for the price and sales of their products so that children can take notice of the sales as well. This opens up a larger potential audience. Wysocki, A. States that the use of larger fonts is generally used in children’s stories. Nielsen, J. (2005). further supports this by stating lower literacy readers Don't scan text, they must read each word individually. Furthermore Nielsen, J. states that people with lower-literacy are “satisfice” with what they read as reading deeper may be too hard or too time consuming.
While JB HI-FI use larger fonts for specific information such as price, they use smaller fonts for more detailed information about each individual product with the initial important information in bold for easier scanning. JB HI-FI do this because smaller text is generally in adult level novels and also academic texts. An adult is more used to reading the fine print about a product Wysocki, A. F. (2004).
JB HI-FI uses a mix of both
'san-serif' and decorative style fonts. The 'san-serif' style text is used for
descriptive purposes. This clears the clutter for the reader so they can access
the important information in the text easily. The decorative faced font is used
in areas JB HI-FI want to draw attention to such as the sales and the initial
title information. Both these are used in a way to make the readers eyes focus
on the information JB HI-FI want to focus on.
Colour:The main colours for JB HI-FIs website are black, red, white and yellow. The black is used for the descriptive text and the names of the products. Red is used for the percent off of the sales. Parkes states that Red promotes images and makes them stand out more, making them perfect to use to catch your eye for sales.. White is used for the boxes the products are sitting in as contrast to the yellow background. White can help promote surrounding colours to make them more visible also; white can indicate simplicity to electronic products which is what the current sale is about, Audio products. And finally yellow, the colour JB HI-FI is known for and the dominant background colour. Yellow promotes mental activity and attracts attention as it is the colour most visible to the human eye. The use of white and yellow specifically creates a visual contrast which can make elements attract strong attention to themselves (Wysocki, 2004).
Layout:
The layout the website is
focussed towards the centre. Upon entering the site your eyes immediately focus
at the centre of the page where the title of the sale is located. While
scrolling down the page you can see the sales they have and a few of the
products they have for sale. This is done effectively as the yellow boarder
focuses your eyes towards the centre and the white enhances the colours to make
reading the sales and seeing the products easier. The far background is black
which makes your eyes focus on the much more stand out yellow and white colours
as the dark edges makes it so your eyes attention is “directed towards the
centre” (Wysoki 2004).
Conclusion:
www.JBHIFI.co.nz is a well-designed
and organised site. This is necessary as there is plenty of competition in this
market. After the initial over-saturation of colours upon entering the website
it draws focus to the centre where their sales are located. The colours that
they use are done specifically so they have an easy on the eye contrast and to
make their products and important information stand out more. They use the text
in a way to make it easier for the reader to scan their prices and sale tags
and so the reader can look further to see the specific details. The overall
layout of the page works well with the colours as the layout is located at the centre
of the page where the colours focus the eye towards. Overall, this is done in a
way that is not noticeable to the reader initially and is effective in all
aspects.
Reference List:
JB HI-FI. (2013) Retrived
from: http://www.jbhifi.co.nz/
Nielsen, J. (2005). Lower-Literacy Users: Writing for a Broad Consumer
Audience, Retrieved from: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/writing-for-lower-literacy-users/
Posadas,
S (2004). The Meaning of Colours. Sibragraphics. Retrieved from:
http://www.sibagraphics.com/colour.php
Wysocki,
A. F. (2004). The multiple media of texts: How onscreen and paper texts
incorporate
words, images, and other media. In C. Bazerman and P. Prior, (Eds.) What
writing
does and how it does it: An introduction to analyzing texts and textual
practices,
p. 132, Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Eribaum. Retrieved 24th
May,
2011.
