"Anthro. Conventional or Not?"

The Anthropologie website to me is in many ways a very conventional site. It is
interesting to me how the conventions of creating a website have developed over time, which actually has not been that much time, and now there are do’s and don’ts to creating a good website. In the beginning of website design the main idea for creating a website was to make it as easy to use as possible. With the development of this idea there have now become certain norms of website design that people try to adhere to. The websites that stray away do so in ways that hopefully do not make the site less user friendly.
The Anthropologie website in many ways is a very conventional site. It has most of its menu icons functioning as drop-down buttons, which previously I was unaware to be one fundamental website convention. All of the buttons in the menu also look similar which allows the user to know without clicking that they all function with the same purpose. At the top of the home page there is a row of menu icons, which lead the reader to other information about the product. On the bottom of the home page it gives a row of similar looking boxes but only a bit smaller which are all menu buttons for contacting the company. One convention that the Dibbern website says is a commonality is underlining the words in the menu buttons. The Anthropologie website does not follow this convention but in my opinion I do not think that it makes it less user friendly.
Every website as well as every piece of writing has a focal point. To me if the focal point is hard to find or is not clearly evident, it makes the writing or the website much less organized and focused. The focal point on the Anthropologie website is the product. This makes a lot of sense, as this is the reason for the site, to sell the product. Even more so than the overall product, right now it appears to me that the focal point is more focused on new things for the season. We are coming into spring and the home page displays new apparel for spring. Also, the menu button that is a different color than the others is the one with the title, “new for the season”. The site is trying to draw the reader’s attention in this direction.
To me the website is very conventional and user friendly. For someone not so computer savvy, it makes the site much more appealing. It is in many ways very simple, each page does not display more than one or two items, which to me is beneficial because it does not overwhelm the user.

The Culture of "Anthro"

One website that I often visit is the website for the popular retailer, and my
current employer Anthropologie. Upon analyzing the website for Anthropologie, which is
something I have never really paid much attention to previously, I have noticed that
Anthropologie does a great job at applying a central rule for website design taken from
the Adobe website. “Get to know your audience and design for them.” I am a firm
believer after having worked for the company for a while that it does indeed know its
audience and makes it a priority to design for them whether it is in the store, catalog or
the website.
The Anthropologie clientele are the more affluent members of society as most of the prices for apparel as well as home decor fall in line with those of Nordstrom or specialized boutique’s that in Colorado one would find in North Cherry Creek. For example this yellow jacket is $228 which I would venture to say most of American society would consider this a lot of money for one article of clothing like this one.
The company also targets women between the ages of 28-43. This is applicable because the apparel would be probably too expensive for the younger crowd but too young looking for the old. I find it interesting however that the models for the clothing do not look like they fall within this age range. To me they appear much younger which could be a sales technique. It just seems to be a bit of a contradiction to have young models advertising the clothing when the target audience is older. Another trait for the Anthropologie clientele is that she is eclectic. She likes the new and latest thing different from anywhere else.
She also is targeted as an English speaker, as one can quickly notice that the entire website is in English and that the clientele is veered toward the American woman. There are no stores in Europe because the apparel is much like stuff that one can find in Europe. There is no market there. However, because the store is only in the States the website allows for accessibility all over the world.
I would say that overall the website is easy to navigate but there are some references that some would not understand from just eyeballing the site. For example one of the icons on the home page is for “the skinny”. To anyone not familiar with the Anthropologie clothing this is probably a foreign term. However, it refers to a style of jean specific to Anthropologie. There are few things like this on the site but to one unfamiliar with the company it would take trial and error to figure out some of the specific terminology.
To me the company does a great job identifying who its audience is and appealing to her needs with a colorful, visual website which makes it easy to shop and find what she wants from the comfort of her home.