After reviewing Dunkin Doughnuts and Starbucks’ websites, I have come to the conclusion that coffee web pages do everything they can to make you want to drink something frothy and high in calories.

Before entering the sites, I had anticipated pages full of artsy logos, bohemian color palettes, and sleek fonts.  (Just due to the stereotypical target audience)  I have to admit; I thought Starbucks would have all of these aspects.  Instead, I found a rather bland color palette, without too many artsy attributes.

The Starbucks layout has to be the least pleasing to me.  I personally do not like it when video clips are rather large and take over the page.  It seems extremely overwhelming.  I don’t mind large photos, but videos are no good to me.

As an avid coffee drinker, the site did not woo me.  It appeared very wordy when it came the pull down tabs at the top.  It seemed when I was browsing around, I never really got anywhere; it seemed as if I was going in a circle and their was no real direction.

As far as Dunkin Doughnuts, I like this website for a couple of reasons.  The flow to me seems like it actually has a meaning and makes sense.  The large photo on this page is aesthetically pleasing.  (Not like the large video clip on Starbucks)  I also personally like it when shapes play a big role in a web page.  And they happen to use a bunch of squares and rectangles to solidify the information.  I also really enjoy the color palette.  Dunkin Doughnut’s orange, brown, and fuchsia colors compliment one another perfectly.

This site also guided me the way the consumer wanted.  I went through the menu, viewed a bunch of different items, and then headed right to the online shop to see what they had for sale.  Dunkin Doughnuts is business that wants to make money, a profit, and that’s exactly what I was about to do.

All in all, I believe that something as specific as coffee should have the right balance.  There should be photos to get the attention of the audience, with enticing colors, and most importantly the information should be descriptive, yet concise.