Category: Assignment #4

3. Question 3

Visit the St. Clair College website. Analyze it strictly from a visual marketing strategy perspective targeting:

Local domestic high school students. You are to provide three strategic visual enhancement recommendations. For each recommendation:

a) Clearly identify the issue or missed opportunity (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)

b) Propose a specific visual improvement (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)

c) Explain why it would improve recruitment effectiveness (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)

d) Connect it to student psychology and digital behaviour (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)

St.Clair Homepage Splashboard

St.Clair used a picture of their Chatham campus as their main feature on their home page. The Chatham campus is an older campus and isn’t as visually impressive as the others. To a local highschool student I may not even know St.Clair  had multiple campuses and this image would be my first impression. The Chatham campus looks like a high school compared to the main and windsor campuses

I would change the image to either show the new additions to the main campus or the main downtown campus. The main campus additions are fairly new and impressive, The building looks very new and modern. The Windsor campus also comes off as more impressive because of its location and size. The building is on the waterfront of Windsor overlooking Detroit and stands hundreds of feet tall. Either of these images would give the local high school student a far more compelling and interesting reason to engage with the st.calir website by making them excited about possibly going there.

These changes would improve recruitment effectiveness because the content of the images is more engaging. You’re displaying something people can actually get excited about. To a highschool student the Chatham campus looks like another highschool and im sure that the last place they want to go back too.

St.Clair Homepage Program Availability

St.Clair displays their programs in one long list that users can scroll up and down on with no organisation of category. Displayed next to each program is a small dot explaining whether the program is open, closed or waitlisted. The problem with this system is that the dots are really small on the page and in order to use the page you must scroll it. But when you scroll all the dots merge into one colour because they’re in a sequential list. This makes the already annoying to navigate list even harder to understand.

The solution to this problem would be either to enlarge the icons or attach the colour to the font of the text. In its current format it is small and not clearly displayed. Another fix for this page would be to separate programs into categories to make it easier to find programs than one long list.

Local high school students are used to the world of social media where scrolling is constant and no time is spent on posts they don’t like. IF this behaviour translates to the web this page could become incomprehensible to a quick paced highschool aged brain. In order to scan the page you need to scroll but when you scroll it obscures the program’s availability. Making this page easier to navigate would greatly benefit recruitment. This page is directly tied to people choosing programs and deciding if they want to go to St.Clair or not. Making it easier to navigate would only benefit them and the people using the page.

St.Clair Virtual Tour Video

When you open the St.Clair virtual tour page a video immediately pops up showing drone footage of all the St.Clair properties. The problem with the video is that it is clearly a low resolution, the image is visibly blocky and blurry. I have wired the ethernet at 100gp up and down, reloaded the page several times in different browsers and on vpn and each time it played the same blurry video. THeres even a point on the video where it seems to jump in resolution randomly then drop abc down again. These instances happened at the same time in each replay and didn’t seem to be related to my wifi connection.

The solution to this is either to remaster the video so it’s at an acceptable resolution for modern content or remove it completely. The poor image quality especially on a professional education website will be shellshock to a local highschooler. They have grown up in the age of on demand video streaming and 1080p content being the standard. Blurry and low resolution content will be an immediate red flag to them. The poor quality will take away the context and meaningfulness of the image making it useless.

Because the video is displayed so prominently St.Clair is making it part of their recruitment process. In its current form it’s a kink in the system and not conveying what it reads too. Instead of showing off impressive shots, the poor quality undermines  the true purpose of the visual content.

2. Question 2

This is a multi-part question. Please create a visual post for your blog on a topic specific to your business and answer the questions below. You will create a visual-first blog post for your business website. This involves critical thinking. What is important to your business and visitors? This is not a written article with an image added. This must be:

• Image-led

• Message-driven

• Minimal text

• Strategically intentional

The image(s) must carry the meaning. You may use:

• Photography

• Original graphics

• Screenshots

• Edited visuals

• Multi-image carousel format

• Before/after comparison

• Visual storytelling sequence

• Etc.

The key requirement – If the text was removed, the visual would still communicate the core message. Please pay attention to what was discussed in class. Ensure that you include a link to the blog post in your answer. Do not forget that this needs to be included in your hardcopy. I am marking what you hand in with your hardcopy

but also need to see the digital version on your blog. If it is not online for me to view (in addition to the hardcopy), I cannot mark this question. (4 Marks)

Remove Ride Anxiety

If they’re ready for the adventure, make sure they’re ready for the fall. Remove the risk with proper safety gear.

Question 2a (8 Marks)

Why did you choose the specific image(s)?

Your explanation must include:

a) Business relevance

b) Target audience alignment

c) Image intent

d) Why this visual works better than alternative visual approaches

I chose this pacific images because it conveys a story than i can use to promote products my brand will sell. The first image shows a young kid in anguish after falling off their bike wearing no safety protection. The kid is visibly upset and so are the parents seeing their kid in this state. The images convey the negatives of not having safety gear by playing on parents’ emotional triggers. Any parent hates to see when their kid is injured and upset. I want to evoke that emotion to convince them to make a purchase.

The second image shows a young child and parent happily riding together but this time the kid is wearing safety gear. Both the kid and parent are visibly enjoying the ride and the young kid looks confident and happy on his bicycle. This image is showing the benefits to parents of purchasing safety equipment for their kids. Both them and their kids will feel more comfortable on their rides knowing they are safe.

Both images feature bicycles and bicycle gear prominently in both photos, my business sells and reviews bicycles. I aligned these images with my target audience of parents aged riders by using imagery that included the parents’ reactions to the kids being hurt, This communicates the parents perspective on the situation. The parents are the ones who would be purchasing the product for their kids. The images work better than alternative visuals structures because it conveys a clear before and after conveying both the negatives of not having the product and the positives of owning it.

Question 2b (8 Marks)

Explain in detail how the image(s) strengthens the post from a digital marketing perspective.

You may reference:

• Attention economy

• Scroll behavior

• Visual hierarchy

• Brand perception

• Trust building

• Emotional triggers

• Information processing

• Conversion influence

Be analytical. This is not a design reflection. This is marketing reasoning.

From a digital marketing perspective these images strengthen the post through brand perception, emotional triggers and information processing. The images were selected to enhance the content and help communicate a story to the viewer. The visuals are not supplemental; they are key parts of the content structure.

This post aligns my brand with prioritizing youth bicycle safety. THis aligns with our friendly tone and community oriented values. We want to create an image of a bike shop that really cares. By campaigning for safety our customers will associate our brand with family values.

Secondly, these images make great use of emotional triggers to convey a stronger message. By showing an injured child being cared for by his parents, they were invoking a memory in every parent’s mind of their experience comforting their crying child. Parents hate to see their kids cry and will actively try to prevent it. By triggering these emotions I’m making my target audience more likely to engage with my content. By using images with meaningful content to my target audience they are more likely to remember my content in the long term.

I’m using two images in contrast from each other to convey a story. People can absorb the key message of the content faster through the analysis of those images than they would if they had to read about it. The images are processed nearly instantly and tell a more impactful story than written content would. The images use emotions and facial expression to express a before and after story showing the reasons to buy the product both before and after purchase.

1. Question 1

Visuals are not decoration. They are communication tools. Provide three strategic reasons why visuals are essential to effective web content. For each reason:

• Clearly explain the concept

• Provide a real-world example (not generic statements)

Marks are awarded for depth, not surface-level answers. (6 Marks)

Visuals are key communication tools in any form of content. Images are more than just decoration; they are strategic tools that can be used for strong audience engagement, immediate communication and, defining content relevance. Images are a vital tool in content creation on the web.

Images create strong audience engagement. Im pages are a more compelling and faster form of storytelling than traditional written content. Brains can almost instantaneously scan and comprehend an image far faster than it takes to read any text. The use of a compelling or emotional image for example a picture of a man who lost his home in a natural disaster looking at the wreckage. The emotion and intensity of such an image conveys a stronger message than any paragraph could. Audiences will view this picture and be attracted by its emotional triggers that are conveyed instantly.

The human brain is wired to recognize symbols using relevant visuals in web content helps add understanding and context to your written content. Images are descriptive and efficient tools of communication. For example beauty products use visuals to convey benefits of their products to their consumers. By showing people with perfect and clear skin they communicate these benefits far more effectively than describing the chemical changes their product creates.

Visual imagery communicates the context of the content it is paired with. Visuals can help audiences understand the content before having to dedicate their time to it. For example if someone is looking for exact mechanic advice in their specific car to do maintenance. A picture of the exact place the person is working on will immediately communicate to them that the content is relevant to what they’re searching for.