Fifth Blog Entry
For this blog post, I decided to look at the Hard Rock Cafe's website. The first thing I noticed is that the page is centered and it has a dark color palette with black and greys like the Hard Rock style usually has. The site looks like a three column grid and the primary navigation is in a dark grey line that is very clear and easy to see. The primary navigation includes a secondary navigation that appears as a cascading menu up, and although I'm not a fan of cascading menus, I think it serves the purpose because there is a lot of information for this site. I like that this site is consistent all throughout and they keep the same style and look all over the place. When clicking a different link the different information displays on the bottom. Some colors change like for the shop the background turns white yet the size of the size remains the same and this makes it easier for the users. I really think they did a great job by chosing the black and grey palette yet mixing it with a bit of colored patters and bright touches. The site also uses a lot of gradients that help resemble like the lights from a stage and that works very well with the Hard Rock idea. The font is also kept consistent throughout the site and it is the typical Hard Rock font, which makes it easy for the visitors to identify the franchise and the style.
I think it's also interesting how they included the different changing pictures in order to keep the site visual and more interactive. A really nice feature that I think is super cool is the 360º tour of the Cafés in different parts of the world. It makes it fun to see how there are different places aroudn the world that look similar or different but still keep the Hard Rock feel. If the purpose of the site is to keep the visitiors interested and show them how Hard Rock is availabe to them worldwide, including this virtual tour was a smart idea. Also, for each different city they include the address, hours of operation, telephone numbers and contact information. This way, everyone can get to Hard Rock Cafés all around the world and they can find all the information they need in the site right away. This site really shows how a lot of information can be arranged in order to still make it easy to navigate and relatively fast to find the information one is looking for. The primary navigation bar is there the whole time and one can always go back to it and look for more links if necessary.
Even for the Hotels, the colors remain the same and we keep getting this dark images with light from specific sources to imitate the spotlight. I think that for the Hard Rock site it was very important to really focus in trying to keep the feel and style of the Cafés that is known worldwide. I really enjoy navigating this site and you can stay on it for a long time which I believe is another purpose of the site. By including all these information about artitst and memorabilia, those music fans can find there is a lot to look at and it will keep them interested.
I think it's also interesting how they included the different changing pictures in order to keep the site visual and more interactive. A really nice feature that I think is super cool is the 360º tour of the Cafés in different parts of the world. It makes it fun to see how there are different places aroudn the world that look similar or different but still keep the Hard Rock feel. If the purpose of the site is to keep the visitiors interested and show them how Hard Rock is availabe to them worldwide, including this virtual tour was a smart idea. Also, for each different city they include the address, hours of operation, telephone numbers and contact information. This way, everyone can get to Hard Rock Cafés all around the world and they can find all the information they need in the site right away. This site really shows how a lot of information can be arranged in order to still make it easy to navigate and relatively fast to find the information one is looking for. The primary navigation bar is there the whole time and one can always go back to it and look for more links if necessary.
Even for the Hotels, the colors remain the same and we keep getting this dark images with light from specific sources to imitate the spotlight. I think that for the Hard Rock site it was very important to really focus in trying to keep the feel and style of the Cafés that is known worldwide. I really enjoy navigating this site and you can stay on it for a long time which I believe is another purpose of the site. By including all these information about artitst and memorabilia, those music fans can find there is a lot to look at and it will keep them interested.