Genre Analysis
Report: Waterproofing
Introduction
This
is a strange genre to analyze, mostly because it can’t be defined as one simple
thing. I have broken up the genre into basically two different genres. Because
the product I’ve chosen incorporates two types of products, I had to broaden
the sites I analyzed into two categories. The first is waterproofing spray and
the second is book protectors. These two categories may seem entirely
unrelated, but in reality they both do the same thing. They both protect something
important to the consumer. In this report I will discuss the implications as to
what goes into sites like this and how they are interpreted by site visitors.
Who’s Reading This?
These
sites can be broken up into two types. While they all concern a protection of
some kind, there are some major differences.
The
first ones I’ve chosen to look at are sites that sold some type of spray to
make something waterproof. The main audience for these sites would be people
who are outdoorsy. The two I looked at the most were the Trek 7 site and the
Waterproof-Paper site. We’ll call these the outdoors sites. Most of these
sprays are used for waterproofing tents, boots, or some kind of outdoor gear.
The most effective of these sites that I researched was the Trek 7 site, which
primarily markets Aqua Armor. It is definitely audience specific, catering only
to those who camp, hunt, fish, or some other outdoor activity.
The
second category of sites I looked at were book covers or protectors of some
kind. We’ll call these the bookworm sites. The one I will focus most on in this
analysis is the Book Mate Store. The primary candidate to look at these sites
would be a student or an avid reader. A secondary audience might be parents or
even teachers.
On a
side note, one of the sites I chose to look at, Waterproof-Paper, caters to
both the outdoorsy type as well as the student or parent. This site has all
kinds of waterproof items, such as waterproof bags and cases for electronic
devices, not to mention, I think it is the most user-friendly.
What’s in these sites?
Obviously,
as the audience varies in these sites, so does the content. In the outdoors
sites, the content is generally promoting sales. They are advertising how well
their product works, so that people will believe in it. They also usually
provide pictures to prove their point. In the Trek 7 site, there are pictures
that show fabric treated with their product and fabric that wasn’t. The one
that was treated with their product is obviously in better condition. Pictures
have great impact on the reader of a site. Because readers online want quick,
easy results, this is a great way to market their product.
The
bookworm sites are similar in the sense that they are also talking up their
products so that they can market them, but I don’t think their content meshes
together as well as the outdoors sites. The writing style on all of these sites
is similar because they are all advertising a product. They have a very
enthusiastic voice and they talk directly to the site visitor, using “you” and
various commands, making the reader feel important.
How do they put it all together?
The layout
and design of all of these sites are vastly different, so I’ll just go over a
couple of them. In my opinion, the most well designed site I’ve looked at is
the Waterproof-Paper site.
·
The
types of products they offer are easily identifiable right on the home page.
·
No
matter what product the visitor was searching for, it can be easily found
either through the links lining the left side of the page or the ones on the
top with pictures.
·
Some
of the graphics aren’t very descriptive, but most of them are pretty
self-explanatory.
·
The
color scheme in this site as well as the Aqua Armor one are well-suited for the
audience and make the site easy to decipher.
We
can also look at the Book Mate Store site. This one is much less user-friendly
than the Waterproof-Paper one, but there is still much to be learned from it.
·
At a first glance, this site looks like it
would be easy to navigate, but when you read the links on the left side, it’s
obvious that it’s going to take a bit more thinking to figure it out.
·
Let’s face it, we’re lazy when we surf the
web.
·
The color scheme is rather boring and the
pictures of the product really aren’t too flattering.
·
One nice thing I found on this site was
the step by step instructions on how to use these book covers. It has helpful
pictures too, but they aren’t of very good quality.
These
flaws may have something to do with the evolution of the genre. Because there
is so much available online now, print is going out of style, making their
products less marketable.
Technologically savvy? I think not.
None
of the sites I looked at had any real interactive elements. They all use
graphics to market their product, but I have yet to find any video or anything
interactive.
One
feature that they all offer is a way to pay for their products online, meaning
they must have some technology that allows for payment over the internet.
As
far as I can tell, none of the sites require a certain software, other than a
traditional web browser like Mozilla Firefox, or heaven forbid, Internet
Explorer.
These site creaters don’t seem to be
evolving too much.
I
really don’t think sites like this will be evolving much, except for maybe incorporating
some videos. I think the step by step
instruction page on the Book Mate Store site would make for a nice video.
Like
I said earlier, the loss of print documents being moved to the web is narrowing
the bookworm genre, making it tough for those sites to evolve. The
waterproofing sites on the other hand, will probably continue to evolve and
become more technologically savvy. There will always be people who have the
desire to travel and do things outdoors. These sites will have to continue to
cater to those people as well as the ever-expanding world of technology in
whatever way they can.
Conclusion
After
reviewing a lot of these types of sites, I decided that in general, they just
aren’t very good. The best one to look at by far is the Trek 7 one, but even
that one has its flaws. Let’s face it though, we could find a flaw on almost
every website if we tried hard enough.
Overall
I think it was a good experience to look at all of these sites, even if they
weren’t perfect. This is a genre that needs some work. It is still in the
process of establishing who they are and what they do. I still learned a great
deal about how I would like to design my own site.
Bibliography
Book-Looks
http://www.book-looks.com/
Book
Mate Store
http://www.bookmatestore.com/vinyl-book-cover.htm
Trek
7
Waterproof-Paper
http://www.waterproof-paper.com/