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Website Design

Website design and creation is one of the vital tools that is used by organization to market its services and products. A website should cover all the services and products handled by an organization. It should also be easy to navigate. There are a number of features that must be included in an ideal website. An organization intending to prepare a website or to improve the existing website must therefore have some indices to base on when finding out whether the proposed website or the existing website serves the right purpose or not. One of the main functions of a website is to presents all the activities related to an organization. This means that the website should be design in a manner that it can accommodate all the features and activities. The website should also be designed in a systematic manner. It should be easy to use and should be design such that those features which are very important appear conspicuously. Another element is that a website should be appealing to look. Reed Music is a school that is developing and advancing highly as far as music courses are concerned. The school offers short music courses. The school also teaches courses such as piano, guitar, drum, vocal singing, and music sheet reading. Currently, the director of the school has decided to establish a web site to facilitate dissemination of online information to customers. In the past, the school has been using paper-based brochures. Lead by Simon Cowell, the director of the school, Reed Music intends to come up with an easily navigable set of web pages that have a consistent look and feel. The institution also wants to come up with pages that would give a list of all offered courses, and at the same time classify them into relevant categories with pictures and short description.

Factors to consider

In order for the Reed Music School to come up with the best and competitive website, Reed Music needs to first analyze the websites of various organizations so that it can some ideas from such websites. From this, Reed Music would get the framework and at the same time determine where to improve. Analyzing the competitor’s website will also enable the Reed Music produced a better web site. Reed’s competitors include Tech Music School London, Bimm Bristol, the Institute, and the London Music school. These competitors have their respective website with unique navigation, colour scheme, graphics and performance. Each of these websites are described below.

Tech Music School - London

www.techmusicschool.co.uk

The Tech Music School web site is presented in the figure below

A website is another tool for advertising an organizational products or services. Consequently, like advert, a website should have three major elements. These include ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos labels how the website is legitimate and trustworthy. Ethos is based on the fact that the target customers are more likely to get persuaded by a website that can be trusted. Ethos is represented by aspects such as the mission or vision of the company. The Tech Music School London did not include its motto or the vision. The logo of the school is also conspicuously presented. The logo states “Want to work in the Music Industry? Get connected with our one-year diploma!” It is good for a website to have a logo but a logo should have fact-based appeal. The logo above is general and is not so convincing. However, concerning the impression of the web page, it is apparent that it has a nice basic idea, eye-catching graphics. The website is relatively comprehensive and covers virtually all the aspects of an ideal website. Anyone using the website can easily find all the information he or she wants. For example, a new person who wants to know more about the organization can just click the button “About”, on the other hand, a person looking for the courses can just get them by clicking the button for courses.

One thing that is not good about the website is the shading and coloring. The website uses black color in more than ¾ of the website. Pathos is another significant tool that should be considered when designing a website. It is used to elicit emotional responses. It is apparent that the Tech Music School Music utilized pathos very well. The statement which states that “Tech Music School London is an established market leader in popular music education, delivering professional, real world training for performers, producers, songwriters and business entrepreneur..” clearly elicit emotional response to any person navigating through the website. The last weakness is the font size. The website did not organize the font sizes very well.

Based on the analysis above, the Reed Music School would need to make sure that the font sizes and colors are done appropriately. It also needs to make sure that the ethos, logos and pathos are adhered to accordingly.

Bimm Bristol

http://www.bimm.co.uk/bristol

Bimm Bristol is another institution offering music courses. It has a comprehensive and descriptive website shown below.

Compared to Tech Music School, it is apparent that the Bimm Bristol put into consideration a number of requirements to make its web site more appealing, detail and comprehensive. The Bimm Bristol website is much easier to navigate through. In fact any person who is just going through the website will know from the first glance what the Bimm Bristol offers. All the courses offered are conspicuously presented in the left side of the web site. The services offered include the use of guitar, bass, drums, vocal, songwriting, music business, event management, music production, summer schools and additional place describing the course specifications. More importantly, the website designed the application button colorfully and conspicuously. All the other sections are skillfully designed and have been structured in a logical manner. Compared to the Tech Music School, Bimm Bristol website offer a much better, website which is easy to navigate and is more appealing. This means that if the Reed Music School intends to create a website, it will need to rely more on the Bimm Briston School website. It virtually possess all the elements of a good website, which include the ethos, logos and pathos.

The Institute

www.icmp.co.uk

The Institute is another institution that offers music. It has a relatively good website as shown below.

Like the previous two websites, the Institute has basic elements such as: Home, About, Courses, Events, News, Tutors, Student Life and Contact. These are actually the basic elements that a standard website must have. However, compared to Bimm Bristol School, it is clear that the website is not easy to navigate. The designers did not put stress on key aspects as those in the Bimm Bristol School. For example, the button “APPLY” is not clear in the above website. This button is very crucial because the goal of all these institution is to attract the new applicants. This means that the application button is very important as far as the website is concerned. However, the Institute did not place the “APPLY” button in the most appropriate position and in the catchy manner. This means that when the Reed Music School is designing its website, it needs to avoid this weakness. It is also clear that the website is not partitioned well and this prevents or limits navigation. By learning from these weaknesses, the Reed Music School is more likely to produce an outstanding website.

The London Music School

www.tlms.co.uk

The London Music School is another school offering music. To facilitate the coverage and advertisement of its services and products, the London Music School has designed the website shown in the diagram below.

(The London Music School)

Just from the screenshot above, it is easy to tell what the London Music School offers. However, using pictures alone is not enough to convince the potential applicant about the school. However, there are a number of unique elements that worth noting as far as the London Music School website is concerned. The first thing concerns the pathos. The pathos for the school is “....Tomorrow’s music Today.” This is good as it tells the potential applicant that the school is determined to nurture current music. However, the website is not designed in a structural manner. In fact someone may confuse the website for a webpage.

Based on the four websites above, Reeds Music School can design the best website ever. For example, it should ensure that the website is segmented and subdivided like the one for Bimm Bristol School. The Reeds Music School should also try to include appropriate ethos, logos and pathos. For the pathos, the Reed Music School can borrow from the London Music School. The Reed Music School should also take note of the use of coloring and shadows. It should bear in mind that dark colors are dull and are not attractive (Music Education Excellence 1). It should adopt coloring system similar to that of Bimm Bristol School.

Developing interactive applications on a web server

An interactive application on a web server is another key element that a web designer needs to have in mind. Interactive application can be developed from WebSocket or using CGI. This work will describe how a web designer can develop interactive applications on a web server. Some of the steps are listed below.

The first step entails creating the directory structure. This is followed by creating a Gradle build file. The next thing is to create message that the web designer worth to pass. This is followed by creating a message-handling controller. This is followed by configuring the message. This is followed by creating the directory structure, making the application executable, building an executable JAR, running the service and testing the service.

Works Cited

"ICMP." ICMP. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. <http://www.icmp.co.uk>.

"Modern Music Courses in London | Tech Music School." Tech Music School RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. <http://www.techmusicschool.co.uk>.

"Music Education Excellence." BIMM Bristol Music College. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. <http://www.bimm.co.uk/bristol>.

Nguyen, D. T. (2013). Course Handbook Unit 19: Web Site Design. London.

"WordPress.org." WordPress › Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. <http://wordpress.org/>.

"Web Hosting from GoDaddy | Always Up. Always Fast.." GoDaddy. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2014.<http://uk.godaddy.com/hosting/web-hosting.aspx?gclid=CJeW5Z3Bnr4CFWTlwgodTn8AVw&isc=hos1af02&cvosrc=ppc.google.+hosting%20service%20+providers&matchtype=b&ef_id=Uzmo1gAAAAPV3SXE:20140509091