Prompt:
When beginning a web design project, it's a good idea to research other sites that have similar goals and objectives as the site that you plan to build. In other words, you need to check out your competitors (direct or indirect) to find both good and bad ideas, and to find ways to differentiate yourself. You may also choose to do inspirational research, finding sites (or other media) that have effective color palettes, navigational schemes, grid structures, etc.
Find and analyze one or two sites that are similar in nature to your final project site. For example, if doing a website for a cafe, find other cafe/restaurant sites to analyze.
Analyze your chosen site(s). What are the site's communication objectives? How is information structured on the site(s)? What content is emphasized? Is there a theme? How do the design elements function to reveal the theme(s) and objective(s)? Describe what you've learned about designing your final project site based on this competitor/idea research.
The site I am creating for my Final Project is a site called Sparkle Moon. It is a fansite for the series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, a live-action drama based on the anime and manga Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon that aired on Japanese TV in 2003 and 2004 (and also includes two DVD-only episodes that were released in 2004 and 2005). I first had the idea for it about two years ago, and bought the domain for it back in December 2009, along with the one for my site Myu Corner, a site dedicated to the Sailor Moon stage musicals that ran from 1993 to 2005. I had gotten into these parts of the Sailor Moon metaseries in 2006 (PGSM) and 2007 (SeraMyu) respectively. I only had vague ideas of what I wanted to do with the sites back then - only that they were both going to be info pages, since informational websites seem to be what I am good at. The goal of Myu Corner eventually became a focus on providing info on the omake segments, something that I did not feel was covered enough on other SeraMyu fansites, as well as providing guides to the musicals (complete with trivia) and reviews. Sparkle Moon's goal became tied to providing transcripts of the episodes, which there was a need for since the fansite Shingetsu-PGSM, which had originally been the only fansite with PGSM episode transcripts (and thus a big help to the many PGSM fandubs being made around 2006), had disappeared from the Internet.
I originally opened both sites as Blogger blogs with custom domains. However, I didn't like not being able to do much with the layout, or being limited to only 5 pages. (This was before Blogger introduced the Template Designer, and also when stand-alone pages were only available via Blogger in Draft). So after some calls and some money spent, I transferred the hosting of my sites to GoDaddy, where I had bought my domains. The HTML version of Myu Corner debuted in early 2010 (around March or April). Sparkle Moon, on the other hand, has remained idle and never had a HTML version as of yet.
But no longer. Now Sparkle Moon will make its HTML debut - FINALLY!!
Anyway, this post is about analyzing one or two sites that are similar to my planned one. So here goes!
ANALYSIS
KIRARI-PGSM
The first site I would like to analyze is Kirari-PGSM. This is the only major PGSM general fansite that is still being updated regularly (the others haven't been updated since 2006 or so), so once Sparkle Moon is up, Kirari-PGSM will be a major competitor. Primarily, it will be a competitor in terms of information and possibly in terms of creative content as well (since it also has a fanart page and has a large fanfiction section).
The information on Kirari-PGSM is organized into four sections, contained in a sidebar: Info, Media, FanWorks, and Fun. The Info section includes all the site's information pages (Basic Info, Overall Plot, Character Guide, Cast Guide, Episode Guide, Attacks Guide, Buying Guide, and Wiki). The Media section seems to be the primary one and includes the Galleries, Music, Video Clips, Acts Download, and Music Videos (AMVs) sections. The FanWorks section contains fan-made works and has the most sections: Avatars/Icons, Fan Art, Fan Fiction, Cosplay, Desktops, Pixels, Signatures, and Submissions. The last section, "Fun," is the smallest and contains the Games, Quizzes, TCGs, and Win a Award sections. There is also a secondary navigation area below the header with main links like Home, Site, Credits, etc.
Kirari-PGSM's communication objective is primarily PGSM image-related. On its Site page, webmistress Kali states: "This site was originally created to archive my fan works of the series and as a sort of mini-shrine to the imagery in PGSM." However, it has become a major information source as well, with an episode guide, character guide, and even a small wiki.
Image and media content seems to be emphasized on Kirari-PGSM, which makes sense since its original purpose was to celebrate the "imagery" of PGSM. It has a large image gallery, downloads of all the PGSM episodes, a video clips section, a detailed section on the PGSM music, an AMV page, and lots of image content in the "FanWorks" section, including desktop backgrounds, forum signatures, and avatars.
I'm not sure what the theme of Kirari-PGSM would be. They seem to be image-themed, but they have a lot of info too. So I'm not sure.
The design elements reveal a desire for a site to be clean, usable, and simple - which is what I want my site to be like too. I'm not a huge fan of the ads on the right, but at least they are well-distanced from the content. I'm not sure how I like three-column layouts - and the right column doesn't even show up in the wiki anyway so maybe it's ok. The images are definitely given prominence with the large headers and the amount of image-related content in the site sections (as seen in the navigation sidebar). So I think that even though the site has a lot of info, images are still priority.
What have I learned about designing my site from this site?
I have learned that making a nice, clean layout - even with a lot of info content - is possible. Of course, I could've learned that from any site, I guess. I guess I learned that Kali's totally hand-coded site will be a stiff competitor, meaning that to compete with her I need to make my site worth remembering. I shouldn't have to worry too much about competition from her with my character guides and actor info because her character guides are not as detailed as mine (based on the ones I've written) and I intend to include more actor info than she gives. I might have to worry about her wiki. And I have to remember to follow her Terms of Use if I use anything from her site, because she's very strict about them.
SHINGETSU-PGSM
Remember how I mentioned that site with transcripts that went down? Well, Lisa of Three-lights.net owns it now, and she's rebuilding it. She's not going to re-design it -- just going to rebuild it back to the way it was. So, while some of its info may remain circa 2004, the transcripts will certainly be back. In fact, the ones that were up before are up again. And that means I will definitely have this site to compete with in that regard.
It's hard to determine this site's objectives since not all of the site is back up yet. But the transcripts were always a big part of that site, especially since no other site had them. So I think that was their big draw, and that's something I'll have to deal with.
The site is still in the rebuilding process, but all the links are visible (even though many of them are dummy links at the moment). The content is primarily contained in 5 sections - The Basics, The Story, Nihon Corner, The Album, and Miscellaneous. The home page also contains a 6th section called "Special Places." The "story" section is the largest because it contains the transcripts, as well as screencaps, synopses, and translations of the episode previews given on the series' two official sites.
The transcripts were the most emphasized content on this site, though now it's hard to tell as the site is in rebuild mode. There is also an emphasis on works that were translated by the webmasters, such as magazine interviews. In short, content created by the webmasters was clearly the focus.
The theme seems to be a simple layout with simple colors and design, with only the header getting some special detail. As for content theme, I'm not sure.
The design elements don't tell me much about the theme at all, but that may be because the site is mostly under construction.
What have I learned about designing my site from this site?
Not much, actually - except that if Lisa ever finishes the transcript section, I might be in trouble. But as I'm going to try to include both transcripts of TV-Nihon's subs and the subs done by the fan translation group Miss Dream, I should get ahead of her there. Not that I will have all those up for this project, of course. But eventually, I will.
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In conclusion, I have high hopes for Sparkle Moon -- if I can really commit myself to it, that is. And the two sites analyzed above are only the two sites I think will be my biggest PGSM-related competition. There are many other sites, like Moonkitty.net, The Oracle, and BSSM-LA, which will likely be my competition as well. We'll just have to wait and see how that goes. I sincerely pray that this project meets with success!
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