Simulated Client project - Talk to FRANK campaign

I am going to acknowledge Ashley for this research because it he who this site before me but I feel that this would be the ideal example of yet another young adult/student base website. You have all no doubt heard about the 'talk to frank' campaign. The campaign is based around drugs and if you haven't heard of it then maybe this advert will give you a brief idea on what its about:



Like the previous website that I analysed the designers have kept to the same theme as the TV advert. On first impressions of the site I did not realise that they have kept the interactivity and static information separate. The designers have created a interactive basement (like the advert) and users can select a category where showing different parts of 'How cocaine can affect you?' Each chosen section has a separate interactive part that the user can participate in whether it being seeing the effects of cocaine with your heart or how your image could change the more addicted you get. I did find some of the interactive parts used overpowering and quite extreme but this just proves that it attracts my target audience (me being that age)

Overall I like the interact basement mainly it hits the main issue of the website, how cocaine can affect your life. This is something that I am taking into consideration for my site as initially I was going to go for the 'humorous' approach but having looked a few sites maybe I could combine the two, like the 'NHS make a video' interactive piece; that way I will be getting the main message across but with some humorous interactive parts added it will keep the users interested.

The Layout

The general navigation of the site is quite simple and user friendly however some of the flash buttons were not very clear and it took me a while to realise that the static content was behind the basement application. Every piece has been clearly labelled for the user to easily navigate round. The buttons are clearly the black and white icons. I feel having done this was quite a conscious choice because the designers have used a mixture of pastel and bright colours for the background and so having chosen the buttons to be black and white makes them stand out but also stick to the colour theme of the logo; this is something that I did not notice at first but the more I looked at the site and the more I looked at the buttons it began to remind me of the logo.

This site is clearly aim for people who need help and what I like about the pages throughout the site is that they continuously provide help sources i.e. text, phone, email etc even the buttons represent help in some form. Having done this shows that this campaign wants to help, not to just provide information.

Something that I found very interesting was that they tried to get users to contribute to the site i.e. people who have had experience with cocaine, giving readers a 'real' life story rather then just an interactive room (something to consider for my project)

Overall the FRANK website gives out a very strong message with the use of strong and in some cases overpowering interactive pieces but, also incorporating real life stories giving the site a more realistic/serious image. Having looked at these two site it now shows me that perhaps powerful and straight to the point imagery is the more effective way to pursue my website design.