Before I begin the wireframing process for my own Apollo site, I felt it was most beneficial to me to research some existent Apollo websites to see what layout they have and what typefaces they have used to help me find my style and see what is successful and what isn’t.
The first site I looked at used a white blue and orange colour scheme with a sans serif typeface. there are also three different sizes and weights used for the typeface as well which makes it easy to read and differentiate between the main body text, which is a regular weight black typeface, The headings, which are a larger, heavy weight orange typeface, and the subheadings, which are bold weight typeface in black.
The type also does not stretch the entire way across the screen which makes it perfect for scanning, as well as the inclusion of lists and large pictures to make the information less dense and therefore a more enjoyable read for the user.
Although this site is successful in terms of the typeface, colours and information, I don’t personally like the style of this site and I would want to make mine more eye-catching in an attempt to make it more of an experience as if they were actually at nasa at the time of the Apollo crafts, instead of just reading about them.
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/apollo-11-crew
The next site I looked at was much more eye-catching to me with instantly led me to want to navigate the site more than the first website.
The dark charcoal background reminds me of going into the darkness of space, whilst the contrast of the white text works perfectly and is very easy to read. The use of the large, full screen pictures as titles work extremely well in my opinion as they help break up the page into sections whilst also really drawing the users attention to the next section.
the only colour used for the type is white which in my opinion is very successful as it is simple yet effective. The headings are in a larger, heavy weight sans serif type whilst the main body text is in a smaller, normal weight sans serif type face. I think that any other colour included in the type colour scheme would have been too much and wouldn’t have worked as well. Colour doesn’t need to be included in the type due to the use of the large photos which bring colour to the site and brighten it up.
The use of lists throughout the site is also very successful in helping the user to be able to scan the text whilst still making sure they get all the important information. it is also a good way to make sure your site isn’t so information-dense which is then at risk of becoming uninteresting for the user to scroll through.
This site was definitely more my style as I was much more engaged while scrolling through it and found myself wanting to gather the Apollo information from this site instead of from the first site, even though they contain the same information.
Despite this I am still going to attempt to make my site a more immersive experience that seamlessly guides the user through each section instead of just the average scrolling of a website.
Contextual research is so useful at the start of every project to help find your style and gain inspiration to see what you like and what you don’t like as your original idea may not be as successful as it could be without researching what’s already out there and therefore discovering the gap in the market.