Web Animation and Interactivity

The New Golf

In the next few blog posts I will be writing about 5 different adverts which are clever in how they get their points across to the viewer, I will be explaining about the use of visuals and colour, how the interface is used, the feedback, the psychology behind it, how the advert grabs the viewers attention and the technology used in it.

For this advert there is only really one colour that is used, this colour is grey apart from the logo of the company which is blue. The use of grey for the roads is appropriate considering that most roads are that colour, it gives the sense of realism towards this. The use of fonts is also a interesting factor, the font used if simple and clear so it is easy to understand, if people know about Volkswagen before they might even recognise the font used as theirs.

This advert can be compared to some form of mini game, a pass timer. It encourages the viewer to play along as if they were playing a game, the objective is to form a route for the car to pass through in the allotted time given (30 seconds) upon failing this you would have to restart again until you did it correctly, obviously the viewer may lose interest if they fail 2 or more times, but the idea is fairly simple. From the start it includes an animated arrow at the top telling the viewer where to start and then another animated arrow at the bottom to where the viewer is supposed to end up.

For this advert it asks you to complete a simple task of forming a road for the car to pass through, each square has a different piece of road for you to use, the viewer must rotate these pieces in order to correctly link the road together, if however the user does not complete this in the 30 second allotted time limit then the advert pops up with the typical “Try again” solution which then the user would attempt to construct the road once more.

In this advert it says “The new Golf. A drive less ordinary.” This works well with the obstacle which is the advert where the user has to navigate through some form of maze, as just having a straight, normal road would be pointless to what the slogan says and that the fact that it says “A drive less ordinary.” As well as that fact you can literally make any road and doesn't have to follow the objective in connecting to the end is a good as it goes well with the slogan.

In this advert to grab the viewers attention it challenges you in a way to see if you can actually link the road together and complete it, as viewers our natural instinct it to accept this in a way to prove to ourselves that we can actually do this a complete it to prove to ourselves that it is simple enough.

This advert it very adaptable when using a PC, it fits onto the screen and works how it should work, when compared to loading it on a touch screen device the page loaded up but the advert didn't, this leaves me to believe that adverts which involve swiping or clicking will probably not work, it seems best to use a PC when adverts are involved using interactivity.  

Gatorade Push Toy

The visuals in this Gatorade advert is quite clever as the colours they have chosen to use is the colour orange as it is the colour that someone that would associate Gatorade with. The font they use as well is also good as it is clear and easy for people to read, the phrase it uses “Out of energy?” is used really clever as the sentence is flickering which is reference to maybe a light bulb which is low on power and would flicker when low, and the use of the word energy is clever also as energy refers back to what I previously said about power.

This advert is very simple with telling you what to do as there is only one real thing that the viewer can do which is to push the button, upon pushing the button the little bottle of Gatorade begins to fill up and at the same time the figure above that then begins to stand upright in the form of different sporting gestures such as a tennis serve or maybe a skateboarder, but once the user comes off the button then the bottle starts to condense and also the figurine then begins to collapse

In this advert there is another simple task, like in most interactive adverts. All the user has to do is push one button and then everything then works automatically and then if they user comes off the button the figurine then deflates in stature, this is then a continuous process and there isn’t anything that the user can change.

The message that this advert sends out is that if you’re feeling run down or haven’t got any energy left for whatever reasons the a bottle of Gatorade can be the cure for this and give you the energy that you might need, the sentence at the end help with this as it says “Go further.” Which in some cases means push yourself after you’ve drank a bottle of Gatorade. Someone that hasn’t had Gatorade before and viewing this for the first time might be enticed by this and may well go out and purchase a bottle in order for them to experience it. 

The main audience for this kind of advert for an energy drink might be targeted at sporty/athletic people who might need an energy drink, this advert would appeal to them as from the start it states in a sentence “Out of energy?” someone who does a lot of exercise might think to themselves “Yes I do.” And then purchase this drink based on what they saw in this advert as the figure seemed to have sprung into life after having a bottle of Gatorade.

Having looked at this advert on my computer it works fine, the interactions were smooth and easy to use., once you try and use a mobile phone which is touch screen based that when it starts to get difficult as the problems I had were the page would eventually load up but not the advert, and having looked through the internet I found comments from people saying adverts that involve clicking or swiping on touch screen devices never normally work. 

NHS Beer Goggles

This advert uses colour in a clever way as the advert is about teenagers going on holiday, drinking and generally having fun. The use of having the sun in the background as a warm colour gives the impression of a fun holiday in the sun and a warm place. The font used is also another simple one for the viewer to read, it explains the essential things that you would need when going on a holiday as a teenager which are your passport, tickets and condoms and then a brief phrase which says “Condom, essential wear.” This tells the viewer out of the three which might be most important in order to protect themselves.

There really is only one interactive part for this advert which is the sliders at the bottom of the advert which allow the viewer to see the changes when they slide the cursor from either side. It encourages both men and woman to use the sliders to see the outcomes. It appeals to a male audience so they can use the sliders until the woman becomes somewhat attractive and the same would be for a female audience, they would use the sliders until the man would seem attractive.

There are some good points to this advert, one of those could be the advert plays automatically regardless of the viewer clicking on the sliders, this would be a benefit for the viewer as at the start of the advert there are quite unattractive people during the start which aren’t that nice to look at, the advert playing automatically is some form of a positive, but still displays an important message to the viewer, which is to drink responsibly.  

The message that this advert is trying to portray is when one a holiday as a teenager or with friends then you remember to pack the essential equipment, such as passports, tickets and condoms. It proves the point that when people drink their judgement is clouded; the advert provides a perfect example of this that someone who you think isn’t attractive then after drinking heavily they then turn into someone attractive.

In this advert it uses sex appeal to try and entice its viewers, for a male audience it portrays an overweight woman turning into an attractive one once you use the sliders and vice versa for a female audience, it uses an overweight man who ends up being attractive upon using the sliders. It also gives the perception that if you drink then someone who is not that attractive may end up being attractive due to the amount of alcohol in your system.

When viewing this advert on a computer it runs smoothly, and is very easy to use. When you start to use this on a touch screen device such as a mobile phone it isn’t such that great, again the page does end up loading, but the advert doesn’t.

Malteser – Typo Crash

This advert uses a variety of different colours as it uses the logos and brands of different types of alcohol such as Jack Daniels and Bacardi. The use of different types of fonts used in this advert as well makes it quite unique and different from other adverts which portray the same, if not similar message to its viewers, the fonts are carefully take from different brands of alcohol and meshed together in order to create a message within them.

The advert uses a different way to get its audience to interact with it, it uses an animated drinks mixer which has a phrase next to it which reads “Mix Your Drink.” as from the start there isn't any real message within the advert, this is in an attempt to get the user to click it, thus appears another message which has been carefully designed from different types of brands of alcohol. There are around five or so messages until you reach the end of the advert.

For this advert it there are only really one correct input and one incorrect one, the correct one being that the viewer should click on the animated drinks mixer in order to progress onto the next hidden message until they eventually reach the last one the a final message is shown. The incorrect one would be the viewer not clicking on the drinks mixer and then not finding out what the message says. Although the advert doesn’t start until the drinks mixer is click there should be an alternative to starting it possible making it automatic after a certain time has passed.

The psychology behind this advert is very cleverly done as the viewer think from the start that all they are doing is mixing a few drinks and that there isn’t any real harm to that, but is there? Once the user has click the drinks mixer for the first time then a message appears using words taken from different alcohol brands and put together like some form of collage. The advert uses messages such as “Whiplash.” & “Skull Fracture.” Give off the impression that these aren’t ordinary messages, but warning of what the consequences are from excessive drinking and also mixing drinks which should be mixed. Finally after all the messages/warnings have been shown which reads “Don’t Drink and Drive.” This is then when the viewer discovers what this advert is about. Overall I think this advert does succeed in portraying this message as it tells the user the outcomes of drinking whilst driving.

This advert from the start makes the user believe that all they are doing is harmlessly mixing a few drinks until they start mixing, they then have similar messages appear, and the viewer then clicks on the drinks mixer again which showcases messages such as “Paraplegia.” and “Liver Rupture.” Which aren’t the kind of messages the viewer would want to find, until the end where it is revealed it is an advert for drink driving. 

When viewing this advert on a PC it works fine, the animations aren’t delayed and it runs smoothly, but once you compare it to a mobile device such as a touch screen phone then that’s where it is let down as the actual page does load up after a certain amount of time has passed, but the advert itself doesn’t then load up with the page.

Mercedes SLS AMG – Pedal

At the start of this advert is portrays the image that the setting is somewhere high in the mountain roads which contain long straight roads perfect for fast/sport cars. The first car we see is silver or grey colours Porsche driving along a long road, this could be viewed as possibly dull because of the colour choice. But once you get the car which is the main attraction for this advert we see it is the colour red, which in some terms red is the colour for something being fast. The use of text and different fonts in this advert is quite useful as well, the text in the box at the top of the advert is plain and simple which is easy for the user to read and the same can be said for the text at the end of the advert

From the start of the advert it tries to get the viewer to interact as at the start it asks the user to click on the pedal located on the bottom right on the advert which starts the process off, once the viewer has done this then the viewer sees the silver Porsche almost disappear into the background due to how fast the user is going. The advert is pretty simple in how the features work, all the viewer has to do is click on the accelerator and then the rest of the advert then follows like clockwork.

The two main inputs for this advert that I can see are one for correct and the other for being incorrect, the correct one being that the viewer would watch the advert and follow the instructions on screen such as clicking on the accelerator pedal which would then lead to the user being taken to another screen and presented with the new Mercedes. The incorrect one would be that the user views the advert but doesn’t actually click on the accelerator pedal, but the advert corrects this by taking the viewer to the same screen as if they were to click the accelerator pedal.

At the start of the advert it tells the viewer to “Experience the fastest sports car from Stuttgart.” So from the viewer’s perspective they would think that is the first car they would see, wrong. Once you progress through the advert you are then shown a second car, one which is considerably faster than the one you previously saw, so in that case the advert does succeed in portraying a message which is the Mercedes is the fastest sports car from Stuttgart.

This advert might be more inclined to be intended for a male audience as sporty/fast cars would appeal to a male audience rather to a female one, the advert tells the viewer they are about to witness the fastest sports car to come out of Stuttgart when as a matter of fact they are slightly mislead and eventually shown this fast sports car.

When watching this advert on a computer or a laptop it runs well, all the features work and there are no points in which the advert is delayed, when you compare this on other devices then that’s where it start to not work, an example of this could be when you test it out on a mobile touch screen device such as a phone is when it doesn’t necessarily work.