Snow Patrol Official Wesite

We analysed and discussed the features of Snow Patrol official website to spot weather they conformed to the general question, 'what makes a good website?' which we had done market research on and got results from the public.

http://www.snowpatrol.com/

Snow Patrol.com

Personally I feel that Snow Patrols official website is very effective and successful as it holds all the features of a good website. I came to this conclusion by taking suggestions from the online question I posted which was accessible to everyone use uses Yahoo Answers to comment. I also gathered opinions from my classmates, friends and family. 

Text

Firstly, when you enter the website you are greeted by an enormous white font situated on a black background saying, SNOW PATROL (shown above). This grabs your attention very quickly and the contrasting colours used make the text stand out dramatically. 

Music

Next to this text sits a red snow flake, a symbol commonly associated with the band, and the words, 'AUDIO PLAYER' with a play button. Even if you had never visited the bands website before, you would know from the use of the play button that you have access to listen to music from the site. As shown from the picture to the right, when the play button is pressed, a separate window opens giving the viewer access to browse through the bands albums and songs. From my question posted online about what makes a good website, the ability the play music on the site with ease was a big factor. One person said, "your website should also have your songs playing or some sort of play button to be able to play your songs. (people are lazy, they don't want to then search all over the internet looking for your music. make it easy for them and you)." 

Headings
Right underneath the main 'title' of the website sits a row of headings taking you to each page on the website. The text appears white but hovering the cursor over the link, the text turns red. Red, as well as black and white, is the focus colour of this website therefore it creates a theme which runs through the website making it look very tidy and professional. In the picture below, it shows the effect of the text changing colour when the cursor in over a word (gallery).

Backgrounds
The image used as a background for the website is a picture taken from one of Snow Patrols concerts. It involves the massive crowd and has been edited red which continues the colour scheme throughout the website. 

There is another background to this website. Along the side of the main page there is an enlarged and blurred image of trees and branches. This fits in with the style of their music and compliments a lot of the themes which run through their songs for example; loneliness, gloomy, sadness, darkness...

Links
This website is a brilliant example for showing links the viewer. At the bottom of the page there are several links to various other sites and how you can link the two. By making Myspace, Twitter, bebo, Facebook and Youtube accessible the the viewers of this site they are putting themselves at an advantage because by clicking on each of these links it takes you to the the bands related page. For example, by clicking on the Facebook link, it will take you straight to Snow Patrols offical Facebook page. 

Latest

The Snow Patrol website features a 'Latest' column which is a must have feature on an artists' website simply to allow the fans to keep up to date with what is going on with the band and any up coming promotions or concerts.