The role of graphic design on the Internet is significant because the internet becomes an essential communication way for people. Almost every business has their own website on Internet which designed by graphic designer. In addition, more people browse the news through internet instead of newspapers via websites or apps created by graphic designers. This article would like to discuss the relations between the internet and graphic design, especially how some websites’ graphic design has evolved as time goes by and its impacts on consumers.
To begin with, graphic design is essential for the Internet-related businesses because website design can help businesses develop and make users more involved. Anderson (2017) suggest that many businesses have gone wrong when it comes to hiring graphic designers with a mindset that it is a job that anyone can easily perform. However, excellent graphic design that matches the content requires real professionals who understand the client’s needs and it may even affect the business’s survival rate (Anderson 2017, 20).
A good design can help a business to develop its brand, expand its profits, and become more notable via clients. For e-businesses, because all of their service or products are provided online, graphic design becomes more crucial for them to stand out. One creative director says that graphic design ‘gives businesses a face, a character almost, and a personality that people can respond to’ (Anderson 2017, 22), and that fits perfectly in the situation of e-businesses.
Li (1998) researched on three American newspapers to discover the link between graphic use and website design, discovering that there are certain patterns when it comes to the arrangement of graphics for traditional media. Unlike other websites, graphics of online newspaper mainly appear on the head page of its website (Li 1998, 361). Meanwhile, the graphic use of printed newspaper and that of Internet newspaper are not drastically different – both tend to use small graphics rather than large ones (Li 1998, 361). Such results can be quite unexpected, for most of us expect that technology and the Internet have changed the way media presents to the public. However, the study reveal that the core arrangement of online newspapers is gradually changing from audience expectation to an interactive environment – that the audiences are more involved in a digital world which enables them to interact and affect the process of production more than before (Li 1998, 362).
What is more, graphic design also has an important role in web-based environment for instructions or processes, which is the key in using a certain website. Graphic design is becoming more and more important in presenting ideas and showing instructions in a web-based environment. Unlike books or newspapers where graphics only exists on covers or illustration pages and text is the major role, the internet requires its information to stand out as much as possible.
In instructional education, one researcher discovered that graphic design can be used in real-times trainings and courses with drawings, flow-charts, and animated objects (Armstrong 2007, 5). In her research, she listed some examples of an employee certification process’s instruction that was enhanced by graphic design. Two cases that it mentioned are quite notable. The first example allowed the artist to link the responsibilities on the left with graphics on the right, making the motion of ‘selecting the responsibilities’ more approachable and easy to understand for its users (see fig. 1). Another example that represents the impact of graphic design on the information technology is the animated graphics of a circle that runs endlessly which shows vividly how a feedback cycle works (Armstrong 2007, 8). What is more, the colors of the circle changes as the arrow rolls across each phase, showing the motion and allowing viewers to deepen their understanding on the process (see fig. 2).
There are many elements of graphic design on websites that have major impacts on consumer perceptions, their willingness to browse the site, and the return rate to the website (Cyr, Head and Larios 2009, 1). In order to attract more customers, maximize their profits, and promote their services or products, businesses are constantly looking for effective website design (Cebi 2013, 1030).
Amazon.com is now an online e-commerce marketplace where consumers can purchase merchants and ship them to a certain address. There are more than 10,000 SKUs in Amazon.com and consumers can find their desired products through the front page. This requires appropriate graphic design to help navigate consumers and display other products they might be interested in.
The very first version of Amazon .com (1999) was a presentation of an online bookstore (see fig.3). Similar to other earlier websites, Amazon started off with an HTML text based design for its website. We can see that the logo was old, and there was literally no graphic design besides the picture of the logo. However, from the very beginning, Amazon sticks to its motto ‘put your customers first’(Cooper 2016). Despite the form of design and graphic use that have changed over the years, Amazon’s website has always been designed to satisfy and attract its customers.
After the very first version, another earlier web page design of Amazon.com is as below (see fig 4). This version of graphic design had many deficiencies. The front page mainly contains two colors – white and blue – which make the website look simple yet plain. However, choosing marine blue as its major color scheme has certain benefits for Amazon. According to a study, the North American culture tends to view the color blue positively in terms of aesthetic, affective, functional, and harmony (Cyr, Head and Larios 2009, 12). That is possible