Hierarchy and positioning of corporate design elements on a website, example 1 ,,Ling’s cars”

Unfortunately, there are many corporate websites online that are inconsistent, unorganized and unfocused. In this post I will analyze the weirdest website I found on the web, Ling’s cars.com. According to theory of design there are some key elements that every corporate website should have.

Consistency with Printed Presentation
Quality Content
Website Architecture, Navigation and Sitemap
Call-to-Actions buttons
Analytics

In this example I will mostly analyze the hierarchy and position of corporate design elements on a website. In other words, the presentation and content such as: logo, corporate colors, typography, graphic elements, standardization and trust building. So, let’s start:

Subject: Website

Element: Hierarchy and positioning of corporate design elements on a website

Company: LING’S CARS http://www.lingscars.com/

About the company: This website looks so confusing to me. I really don’t understand how can someone get through it. The company, Ling’s cars from England, is still very successful at cars leasing. In 2010, it had earned an impressive £35 million, and the site had 100,000 visitors. The owner and founder of this company, Ling Valentine, is the winner of the first prize at the IT Congress of the UK Businessman for the Most Successful Businessman in the field of IT Communications.

Reason I decided to analyze: I would not dare to click on any button on this page because of the fear that my computer would explode momentarily. This page is full of all kinds of flashing things, like: flashing lights and arrows, popping and waving of numerous animations and various surprises. Opening this page is really a challenge. There is no indication of where to start with search. I noticed a banner that is flashing and calling for action, and it has a self-printed message: “Click me now or else you’re doomed !!!” Yet, in some ways its range of persuasive techniques in design affects thousands of visitors to buy a car from this website. Some believe that the great sales success has come because she broke all the possible rules of design.

However, the theory of design teach us that first we have to learn the rules, so then we can judge them, change them and break them, only if there is a need for it. I think here the greatest success was achieved because it is different from the majority, it is kind of funny and because the complete page actually reflected the personality of the owner, that many people like very much.

ANALYSIS OF THE BASIC WEBSITE ELEMENTS:

Logo: The logo consists the link of a company website, painted with a gradient fill between light to dark blue. Followed by illustration which is a trademark of the Rolling stones group (juicy, red, female lips with the tongue out), which has been modified and there is the flag of England on the thong.

Tag line: It said: ,,UK CONTRACTS HERE CARS FROM LING VALENTINE ”

I believe that Ling has decided to use such of logo because it is kind of funny and provocative.

Corporate colors: When creating a web page, colors are of a great importance. When you have less colors it is easier to achieve the page’s consistency. Online we can find a large number of tools that can help us choose a color palette for our website such is, for example:

http://paletton.com/#uid=1000u0kllllaFw0g0qFqFg0w0aF

On the Ling’s cars website, there is no standard color palette. Here you can see all the possible colors that exist in this world, which is very confusing, and it looks like a spam. But it reflects the variegated character of the owner.

Typography: It is desirable to select one font for the website design to keep the consistency. It is not even advisable to use multiple styles of the same family, because they leave a sense of indifference, and it is difficult to follow the quotes. Even if we decide to use more fonts we have to use them in a consistent way. For example, one for the title, the second for the subtitle and the third for the body text. At the Ling’s cars website image speaks more than the words, this is totally inadmissible. She is trying to attract attention in a totally wrong way.

Graphic elements: Ling’s cars website has come into history as the most overloaded with various graphic elements website in the world. This is something you should not do in any case. You need to pick some of the most important content, messages, and goals, and present them with quality videos, pictures, or text that will encourage a visitor to action. It should attract visitors’ attention and intrigue them to continue in the simple and informal way and not in such a confusing way.

Standardization: Standardization on the Ling’s cars website does not exist. Standardization implies: page dividing, layout of interactive buttons and other interactive elements, hierarchy of typographic elements, image position, specific method of processing, banner size, … These elements can not be noticed in the attached examples.

Building trust: It means: professionally providing online experiences, answering key questions of visitors, providing consumer transparency, demonstrating consistency, business success, personality, …

Is this enough to build trust? Ling’s Cars is wasting a lot of energy to brag about prices, interviews, statements, etc. She is trying to build the credibility, but rewards and positive articles in tabloids can not satisfy the needs of potential buyers. It’s nice to be proud of yourself and your own success and share positive emotions, but only in case you are doing this in a humble way.