Having been fortunate enough to collect some primary research in Leeds, photographing the window displays of The Body Shop, this inspired me to carry out some further research on the internet. I wanted to find out more about their brand as well as look at their website and see if I found it inspirational at all.
Below is what the home page looks like. Clearly labelled with links along the top for the user to navigate around the site, with use of grass in the background to illustrate that they are environmentally friendly and in touch with nature. I could perhaps take inspiration from this by photographing sugar and having it as a border on my web page. I also love how the photograph of the earth which was featured on the window display has also been used here, reinforcing 'we're different because of our values'. I also think the brightly coloured boxes below that header image capture the user's attention and encourage you to click and find more. The use of the small map and the speech bubble adds a slightly more fun element to the website, as they don't want it to be too serious, even though their ethical values are. This is because it wouldn't encourage the user to go any further in the site in some cases, as they may feel overwhelmed by the information.
I also love how the website has been designed with the green strip along the top and bottom, almost framing the information in the centre. The white space around the edge accentuates their 'clean' values and also allows the eye to be drawn to the centre of the page rather than feeling as though you aren't able to focus very well on one thing at a time. The tabs down the left hand side are well organised and clearly labelled making the navigation especially easy. I also love the design of their logo and think I could design something along the same lines to portray sugar cane.
When I clicked on the link for 'Support community fairtrade' I reached the page below. I found this extremely inspirational and really love how the map has been used to pin point all of the areas around the world which they are involved with. Rather than using the same image to represent each place they have also been creative in the way that they have used thumbnail images to give the user an insight in to each subject matter.
For example, when I clicked on Guatemala this page appears. The image on the thumbnail of the aloe plant is also featured in the header image at the top. This provides the website with consistency and also allows the user to make connections easily in their head, making it a memorable experience.
Once again, they have used the same concept for shea butter, but I also noticed as well that they altered the colour they had used for the background too. This allows each page to be individual and almost colour coded. Colour coding is something that I used during my work experience too, as the pitch I was working on involved using a specific colour palette, using specific colours. For example, blue for commercial use.
Once again this is another variation of presentation. The imagery also coordinates with the colour used in the header here, allowing it to be visually intriguing and striking. I will certainly be taking inspiration from this site when designing my own.
I then clicked on a link which took me to The Body Shop Foundation. This inspired me to perhaps design a website where I could either set up a sponsor page for the people who collect the sugar cane for us initially. When I initially found the images of the workers on the internet, illustrated on a separate post, I thought then about incorporating some kind of charitable page. Rather than asking for money though, I thought I could just make people aware of how they could fund raise instead. As I think there would be a lot of complications with setting up a web page allowing the user to donate. This is a complication I could avoid.
This page caught my eye too, as the image used in the background relates closely to my subject of sugar cane too. I could quite easily use one of my images blogged as primary research to have as a background image in the same way this is used. I am not sure though whether this would look right, I would have to experiment and see.
I quite like how photography has been used to demonstrate to the user how you can get involved and volunteer for example. The different ways of volunteering are clearly labelled in a pale green typeface making it easy to follow.
Key Research
By simply clicking on an info graphic link on the home page of the website I reached a page which explains all about how sugar cane is used to create organic alcohol. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this, as I keep discovering more and more uses for sugar cane found within well known businesses.
"The organic alcohol we use comes from sugarcane that's organically grown. Ripe sugarcane is cut by hand, then fed through a grinder to extract the juice. The juice is left to ferment for 24 hours and then heated over a fire to distil the alcohol."
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