Website for soap: Layout Research

I am going to analyse the 'Skins' website in order to gain some ideas and knowledge of how we could possibly present the layout for our own website. Here, I have provided a print screen of the 'Skins' homepage by putting the image into Paint, saving it, then uploading it.

The 'Skins' homepage shows a brightly coloured, information packed page set against a grey background.

The main photo at the top of the screen is dulled down and not as bright as the ones on the rest of the page. It shows two female characters; Effy and Naomi, the former in the foreground, the later in the background. Both have their mouths wide open as if the photo has been taken while they were laughing. This conveys youth and the fun that teenagers have with eachother which appeals to its young audience. Effy is wearing a red checked shirt which is very fashionable with both boys and girls at the moment and has smudged black make-up around her eyes. This shows the viewers her edgy and fuss-free character, while the pearl necklace around her neck shows her classy taste on how she likes to look. Her loose natural looking long curly hair also shows that she is a sort of go-with-the-flow kind of girl. Naomi seems to be wearing a black and white T-shirt and has a chunky silver bracelet around her wrist. This photo alone says alot about these two characters , and anyone who has not seen the programme before can definetly find out that Effy has a cheekiness to her, just by looking at the photo.

The background shows jagged rough writing in pencil that I cannot quite make out on lined paper. There is broken glass across this. This conveys that the characters like drinking, but at the same time, attend school , but do not exactly put effort in to be academic. This shows to the audience their ruthless and humorous behavior and perhaps, this is why the small paper-torn notice in the corner of the photo says 'Adult content alert! You must be 18 to proceed'.

Furthur down the page, there are videos of clips from previous episode, where viewers can vote on how much they like it. There is a competition for viewers for a chance to be an editor for 'Skins'.

The web page seems very friendly to its audience which is appealing because it reminds us that the stars themselves are as normal as the audience are. This may be an approach that our group would want to try.

There is also a video of the beginning of series four. I think this is a good idea, as it is being generous with the audience and reeling them in before the new series has even begun.

By researching this web-page, I have gained in ideas and my understanding about website- layout has grown. I will take this information back to the group where we will find it very useful research for our own website.