Website Research: Tim Burton and Werner Herzog

Since I am in the process of creating my website, I decided to look for inspiration by visiting the websites of two famous filmmakers, Tim Burton & Werner Herzog. In this post, I will focus on comparing the technical aspects of both sites, the solutions used, readability and functionality. This will help me understand what an ideal artist's website should look like and what I need to pay attention to when creating my website.I will pay special attention to colors and typography, navigation, usability/user-friendliness, links and mobile view.

At first, I will try to analyze the Tim Burton website.Unfortunately, this site is not the best example of a professional website of a filmmaker, which can be seen immediately after entering it. The first thing that catches our eye is a strange and oversized header with the director's name and surname and links to further subpages. Perhaps the Headline background fits Burton's non-standard work, but the text itself is too small and placed in the wrong place. The rest of the content on the page appears only when we scroll down, which gives the impression that the page is stuck or has problems with loading.

When we scroll down the page, we can see more information about Burton's film projects, exhibitions and books. Additionally, we can see photos that seem to be added randomly.I have to admit that the website's graphics disappointed me a little bit, because it's look 

not look very professional or inviting.

I then navigated to the top navigation bar, which has the following sections: News, Merchandise, Exhibitions, Film Projects, and About. It's very easy to use and the links function correctly.These subpages look better graphically than the title page, but they still appear only a second after you scroll down, which quickly becomes extremely irritating.

The About page contains a lot of information about Burton and, in my opinion, is well made in terms of graphics and content.The Film Project website only contains photos of his film posters and production dates, which may be disappointing for anyone looking for more information about his projects.

Unfortunately, the Exhibitions tab does not work as it should, because you cannot enter it and when you click on it, only a list of his exhibitions is displayed. Luckily, we can select the exhibition we are interested in from this list and check information about it. Subsequent Merchandise and News tabs work smoothly and flawlessly and look good graphically.

Unfortunately, there is no Contact tab on Tim Burton's website, However, at Footer we have an email address to which fans can send emails and links to his Facebook and Instagram. He has 2.1 million Instagram followers and 4.9 million Facebook followers. Despite posting hundreds of posts on Facebook, where he is more active, he only has 26 posts on Instagram, but his account there has more likes.

Then I checked the website of the mobile phone and, surprisingly, it looked better graphically than the version for a computer browser. Photos and texts were better suited to the mobile view, but there was again a problem with the text being displayed with some delay after scrolling down. Additionally, there are no buttons to scroll up after reading the page.

Using this website was generally a disappointing experience. The home page is simple, even primitive, and is irritating because the text is displayed with a delay after scrolling down. Moreover, in the Film Projects tab you will not find any information, only photos of film posters. This website did not meet my expectations and I will probably never visit it again.

The Werner Herzog website was another website I visited. After entering it, we see the Header bar and the director's photo on the entire page. The home page here has a mostly white background, only the Header has a black background. This site has an unusual structure, as most of the information is located on the main page and links are placed in Header; such as Home, News, Biography, Works, Photos, Press or Contact, instead of sending us to subpages, they send us to the different parts of the main page. In turn, the WH Foundation and Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin tabs are links to other websites related to Herzog's projects.   

As Herzog is an German living in Munich and Los Angeles, his website is bilingual, English and German. A large part of his projects were created in Germany, which is why they have German names, and when viewing his portfolio, you get the impression that the website is German-language. The footer contains information about copyright and a link to the regulations in two languages, intended to protect the artist's work, along with the copyright symbol.

As I mentioned earlier, tabs in the Header take us to the section of the main page that describes a particular section. There we will also find a "button" that will redirect us to a subpage where we have more information that interests us. Subpages, just like the main page, have a white background and a minimalist but tasteful design. In the Biography tab we have a short description and a subpage with a longer and more comprehensive history of his life.

'News' takes us to the list of his ongoing projects in the form of tabs, which, when clicked, displays more information about the project. The 'Works' and 'Photos' tabs work in a similar way, except that instead of tabs we have large red buttons that direct us to subpages where we can find more information.

The next two tabs, 'WH Foundation' and 'Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin', are links to other websites related to Herzog, the first of them is the website of the foundation named after him and the second is the website of the Museum of German Cinematography, with which the director has been closely connected for years.

The last two tabs, 'Press' and 'Contact', give us the only opportunity to contact the director, because the website does not contain any links to social media. Their appearance follows the same simple design as the rest of the website.

The mobile view of Werner Herzog's website is very similar to the desktop website. At the beginning we can see the Header with the site's logo, under it there is a photo of the director, and by scrolling down we have access to the entire content of the site with buttons for subpages, just like on the computer version. In my opinion, the website runs very smoothly and looks good graphically. This way of creating a website fits better into the mobile view, making browsing simple and pleasant, so I will definitely visit it again in the future.

After comparing the two websites, I have to admit that Werner Herzog's website left a stronger impression on me. Even though both sites have a similar design, Tim Burton's website is made much worse and after seeing the home page there is no desire to explore it further. It contains not enough information, and the graphic design is also far from perfect.

Herzog's side looks much better in this duel, its only drawback is the frequently used German language, which I really hate because I had huge problems with it in high school. After analysing both websites to get inspiration for my own, I made the decision to include a button that would take users to subpages that featured my films in the portfolio. Similarly to the Burton website, I will add links to social media and a contact form as on the Herzog website. And I will definitely use a different web design, because I didn't really like white layouts.

After comparing the two websites' mobile views, I have to say that Herzog's website is better. Burton's website appears better on mobile devices than it does on desktops, but the information quality remains low and the home page is incomplete. I will try to avoid the mistakes they make when designing my website so that it runs smoothly and looks good to users.

I learned a lot about website design and operation from this research, which I will try to apply when designing my own web. I will try to use some of the ideas used on these pages in my work, for example buttons for subpages with videos or a contact form. It was a good experience that will be useful to me in the future.

References

Burton, T. (n.d.). TIM BURTON. [online] TIM BURTON. Available at: https://www.timburton.com/ [Accessed 9 Nov. 2023].

Herzog, W. (2023). Werner Herzog Film. [online] www.wernerherzog.com. Available at: https://www.wernerherzog.com/ [Accessed 9 Nov. 2023].