Victorias's Secret Website

What is Victoria's Secret to an awesome website?

Think about this...what your favorite store is, your favorite flavor of ice cream, or your favorite pair of shoes. Now ask yourself this question: why are these your favorites? These are your favorites because they meet your specific criteria as to what is a good store, flavor, shoe, etc. Every day we judge things, consciously or subconsciously, based on different sets of criteria. The Victoria's Secret website, just like shoes and ice cream, is judged by all those who visit it. Victoria's Secret is a well known clothing store that has many different locations, along with Victoriassecret.com, that customers can shop at. Victoriassecret.com is a great example of a commercial website because it meets four criteria: visual attractiveness, ease of navigation, security when making a purchase, and it offers to keep customers updated.

Visual attractiveness is very important to me when evaluating websites. A website that is not visually intriguing is simply boring. The first thing I notice is whether or not something catches my eye. Websites, however, can sometimes catch my eye in a bad way. For example, a website that has colors that are too bright, or a chaotic website with too much on the page, is visually unappealing to me. These examples would, without a doubt, be very eye-catching, but not appealing. Bright colors and chaos usually result in a headache, so I do not linger on websites that possess those characteristics. Therefore, I could not even say if these particular websites are "good" or "bad" because I am immediately turned away by the visual unattractiveness. A good website is one that uses simple colors, and that also uses images wisely. Simple colors and pictures, used appropriately, make for a much better website because you can look at them for an extended period of time.

The Victoria's Secret website caught my eye because it captures that feel of the store through excellent use of colors and pictures. The colors are not too extreme, which makes it easier to look at for a long period of time. Simple shades: a deep red, white, and light pink are prominently used throughout the website. Each hue selected by Victoriassecret.com is very effective because it makes the text easier to read. For example, the deep red background is used to off-set white writing, whereas the white background is used to make the black writing stand out. In my opinion, less is definitely more in this case. Also, other than on the main page, there really is not an excess amount of pictures. There are only enough pictures to entice customers to purchase something. For example, if customers are looking at the shoe page the only pictures they will see are ones of shoes. If they have a specific pair in mind they can choose to enlarge the picture, or even see it on a model. These pictures are helpful when making a decision because the customer can actually see the merchandise on, and all experienced shoppers know that you can never tell if you really like something until you see it on. The brilliant use of color, font, and pictures makes the Victoria's Secret website visually attractive to all those who visit it. In order for a merchandising website to be effective, it must also be easy to navigate. If customers cannot find what they are looking for easily, they will most likely get frustrated and try to find what they are looking for somewhere else. The Victoria's Secret website, however, is very easy to navigate. Customers can find what they are looking for with no trouble at all. From the main page customers can choose between: bras, panties, sleepwear, clothing, shoes, swim, beauty, sales, gifts, and PINK. If these customers have an account they can also choose to sign-in. Customers can also narrow their search, which makes it easier to find exactly what they want. For example, when a customer first visits the Victoria's Secret website they may already know that they want a sweater. After arriving at the main page, that customer would start by choosing "clothing." Customers would then look at the left of the page and see the sweater category. When they click on the sweater category, however, twenty pages of sweaters