If sports fanatics can’t get enough of
their team, where do they go? They would most likely visit their teams website
in order to further get involved. It is essential for a sports team’s official
website to be a suitable place for any crazed sports fan, because the webpage
makes it possible for a fan to access anything that has do to with their
favorite team at any time. The fans are essential to the success and prosperity
of the organization; the team therefore must provide for their fans and
consumers. A very efficient and successful way to provide for the fans is by
bestowing a website that allows one to purchase tickets, watch highlights and
videos, buy team merchandise, and keep them up to date with trade rumors,
injuries, games, and other news.
The
main of many businesses is to make income and one of the best ways to lure
customers and keep the business alive is to have a good website. Anyone can
tell a lot about a company or organization just by looking at their website. It
is a way for a business to reach out to customers and possible clients without
them actually visiting your store or you talking to them. A user should be able
to log on a website and should be able to know everything about a business. As
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, stated, “for us, our most important
stakeholder is not our stockholders, it is our customers. We’re in business to
serve the needs and desire of our core customer base.” There have been many
examples of sports teams having to relocate because of their lack of income due
to a weak fan base. For example, the Phoenix Coyotes, a professional hockey
team, is in danger of being relocated because it isn’t making enough money. If
customers are happy then tickets sales go up. The number one goal of sports
organizations should be to please their fans (customers) because at the end of
the day they are the ones that bring in income. The Phoenix Suns have been a
successful basketball team that pleases its fans and most of it has to do with
its website. The Phoenix Suns website therefore successfully uses splendid
graphic design and a user-friendly page to aid to the needs of the user.
The Phoenix Sun’s webpage layout is
decorated with the team’s colors of orange and purple. The main background of
the page is orange, a successful way to make the audience know they are on the
Sun’s webpage rather than another. The orange clearly differentiates the team
from others and thus avoids confusion for the reader. When first logging onto
the page, your eyes are greeted by a very busy and clustered home page. A
massive display reel of pictures appears along with a link attached to it,
dominating the entire picture plane of the webpage. Click on the photo and it
shall link you to the story or article it corresponds with, a simple interface
that homepage browsers and search engines such as yahoo use also, this makes it
very familiar and easy to understand and use. Above this imagery is another
reel for the teams recent scores and upcoming games, it is placed in an
effective area, and is clearly displayed. When a person is logging onto the
webpage, most likely they are looking for info on the team, such as scores,
news, and other information; having the scores laid out where they are is a
very efficient place for the reader.
Unfortunately, the webpage is plagued
with advertisements, the negative aspect that comes with it being a webpage for
a sports team. Another area where the webpage falls short is with its very
clustered and busy layout and organization. There are a lot of things being thrown
at you to catch your attention; this is very bad because it is very
overwhelming. This overwhelming factor detours a lot of readers, whereas a more
simplistic and clean approach would hail to be much more successful
aesthetically and functionally. The webpage’s
graphical design does not agree with design semantics, semantics being that the
design should easily communicate with the intentions of the consumer or user.
On
the other hand, there still remains a strong point which lies in the tabs on
the top section of the website. The tabs are clearly laid out on the very top
of the page, easily accessible and clearly spelled out in bold font. Hovering
the mouse over one of the tabs reveals more specific links that correspond to
the topic of the tab. The user interface is strong at points but is weakened by
the busy layout of the page. Taking notice of great websites, one notices that
it is very easy to find what you need while also enabling you to discover new
things at a very fast rate. Not much effort is needed when browsing the
website, something the Sun’s website lacks. When scrolling through the site it
is very deceiving and strenuous on the eyes, very threatening to the reader. A
person of any age should be able to navigate the website very easily without
any frustration. This is the area of
needed improvement for the Phoenix Sun’s website, cleaning up the flustered
page and focusing on the user interaction’s and interfaces.
The Phoenix Suns website does a great job
making it clear that its audience are those who are fans of basketball or most
importantly the Phoenix Suns. The toolbar at the top of the homepage has a tab
called “Fan Zone” that dedicates itself to interacting with its fans. This
section of the webpage is very fan oriented, making it accessible for the user
to buy merchandise, register into an interactive game, and connect with other
fans via Facebook or Twitter.
As a
whole the Phoenix Suns website succeeds in delivering its fans with an
effective way to browse and search anything Phoenix Suns despite its small
drawbacks. At first glance the homepage
may seem a little overwhelming, but it is clear that this website’s main
purpose is to serve its fans with useful and easily accessible content. After
processing the websites eye-popping homepage everything from there on out is
smooth riding. The user can log in and within a few minutes manage to find the
information they needed to and continue on with their day or spend hours
engaging in its endless fan forums or team news. So at the end of the day every
type of fan is satisfied whether it be a die hard fan or one who is just
getting into the groove.
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