When given the task, me and the team I was put with immediately looked at the site and its various social medias as to get an idea of audience and stylings of the company. From there, our team would then discuss with each other what work needs to be done and who should be responsible for which tasks.
Upon opening the site, we were greeted by an almost immediate pop up telling us about offers. While offers are an important thing to highlight on a website, they should have their own section, instead of being immediately pushed into the customers face, as that may cause annoyance.
Once the pop up was closed, the site itself showcased a very clear summer theming with orange being the main colour scheme. The fonts used also seem to be a very clear sans-serif, a normal but respectable choice. The biggest problem in the design was the composition, being very compact and random, overwhelming the readers. This can result in a customer becoming lost in all the menus.
Lastly their tagline is “The best place to buy decking supplies, materials and timber online!” and “Make your Garden Smile!” While not the main area to focus on, perhaps a new tagline could be looked into. After all, a tagline can attract the right people if used correctly and can also help when cultivating a recognisable style. Of course, this depends on how everyone else feels about this choice.
Overall, this resulted in quite a poor first impression. The cluttered composition and layout gives the impression of an older site that has not been updated recently. This can also make it harder to narrow down what exactly to design as there is no clear identity past the logo and a few mascots. Despite that, an understanding of what styling was there was gained.
After the website, we checked through their social media, to ascertain what audience they wish to cultivate and attract. The results after looking were very interesting, yet confusing. While most posts lean towards a more corporate style, a few posts and videos in-between them, chase trends and are styled after more relevant events. A big example would be the instagram post of an ai generated toy of an eDecks worker.
This means that while their wish is to market themselves to an older generation, they still desire to attract a younger market. After discussion with my team, we decided to focus on the older market, as adults are more likely to buy decking materials for their own house and decking, rather than a younger generation who may not be interested in decking, or potentially couldn’t afford to start a project like this.
Overall, our team discussed our findings and acknowledged the messy composition and unclear audience. We decided to split certain tasks between each other that could help with gaining a new audience targeted, specifically the older generations, who would be around the ages being around 30s-50s.
References
eDecks (2009) eDecks. Available at: https://www.edecks.co.uk/home (Accessed on 29/4/2025).