Website Analysis

The website I have chosen to analyse is http://www.topshop.com/.

The Topshop website makes it avalibale for you to buy and view clothes from the clothes store Topshop online. It also offers fashion tips and advice and shows you the latest fashion trends off the cat walk.

"Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts" (Nelson) The website is structured with hypertext. Links to all products are displayed on the left handside of of all pages. In the middle of the homepage is a slide show of the latst trends. Without the hyperlinks to ther pages on the website the homepage would be quite empty. The website is non linear as following the links you can hop around all the pages on the website and all other websites associated with the company. There is links to blogs written on the site and fashion advice. However after looking at Sonia Livingstone's theories I realise that reading on the internet is really not reading at all. The wbsite has few articles but through hyperlinks there is no order to the pages.

This site is aimed at women who are interested in the latest fashion trends. The clothes are affordable and the many ranges means that women of all ages are catered for. The site is broken down into different links displying different type of clothing avaliable. The pages are easy to access and bright and colourful with many images of clothes. Every page shows all hyperlinks avaliable so it is easy to navigate your own way through the site. This site would be easy to find as the company Topshop is a popular brand. They also avertise their website in their stores.

The website only caters for womens clothes but their is a seperate site specialising in mens clothes. The websites purpose is primarily for consummerism. Trust is put in the website to deliver the product within the time it states. Also when a product is out of stock then people genuinely believe that the product is not able to purchase at that time.

The term produsage is not applicable to this website as the only people able to make changes to this website are Topshop themselves. This website is open so anyone can access it. However only the U.K and America are the only countries that Topshop deliver too. The only language avaliable on the website is English and so it narrows down the amount of users accessing it.

The question bears though with over a hundred stores does the website need to exist or is it just keeping up to date with technology. It is easy touse the website as you can buy clothes without having to leave the house. People use the website to browse for clothes but they also use it to look at the latest fashions and listen to the latest podcasts.