The main reason for this text is to explain to pretty much anyone of Harry Potter books and also the author who wrote them, J.K. Rowling. The author of the text does this in a very simple way by using information that will give the readers a greater desire to read the books and learn more about them. The text is trying to give insight to the books, and show some of the ideas that helped create them.
As I was looking at the website I realized two things right away. One, the fact that this site was for many different people in many different countries, whereas most of the websites I have been to, have been geared towards English speakers like myself. The second thing that I realized was that the website was for all ages, young and old alike.
When you go to the J.K. Rowling website you are faced with the options of six different languages. English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese. This tells me that the author is trying to persuade a lot more than English speakers to read the books, but also shows that the author wants more people to know more about J.K. Rowling. It shows that more people should know or might want to know about J.K. Rowling when you see that it has a whole link devoted to her biography.
Basically what told me that the website was directed to every single person in the world regardless of age, was the option of looking at the website in a text only version, or you can go through the website in its regular graphical form. Because there are these options, it tells me that the author is trying to use the graphical/visual version for the younger audience, while there is also a text only version for the older or maybe even more mature audiences. There may also be a text version because some people don’t have computers with the capacity to view the graphical version of the website. The author wants to make sure that no audience members are excluded.The home page of the graphic/visual version of the website gives a view of a desk littered with many different items you might find on any random desk around the world. There is a keyboard, a cell phone, what looks to be a journal, a newspaper, empty gum wrappers, and many other different items.
When you roll over many of the items on the desk, they light up and turn into links that take you to the different pages of the website. The author of the website uses a version of icons in the way that you can almost tell what kind of page each link will take you to. This pulls on your emotions to try and get you to view every different page to see what it has in common with the links.
The front page of the text only version starts with the title that says “Everything you might want to know.” This is obviously an overstatement because there is no way that the author could put everything everyone may want to know into the site because they don’t know exactly what people want to see. They have an overall idea of what most people would like, but they cannot realistically please everyone. I don’t think the title is very well thought out because when you scroll down and look at the information given on the page you are not given very much and leaves the audience wondering, was that ALL I wanted to know?
In the graphic/visual version, the author of the website makes different comments here and there that only people who have read the movies or seen the books would understand. For example, there is a help tab in the bottom right hand corner that says this “ As you move your cursor over the objects, some will turn into Portkeys that will transport you to other areas of the site. Every so often, you will discover a Dark Mark. This is a SPOILER WARNING and relates to information contained in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” It then shows the symbol of the Dark Mark which is a skull with snake coming out of its mouth.
The first thing that only those who are familiar with Harry Potter would understand is the word Portkeys. Basically this means the same thing as a link, in the book a Portkey was a magical item, it can be anything that took the characters in the book to a specific predetermined destination. The second thing was the Dark Mark, this being the symbol for the villains in the books. The author uses the symbol in the website to tell people not to look at that specific page if you do not want to receive revealing information regarding the sixth Harry Potter book.I believe that the author may be walking a fine line here by using these phrases or words that only people who have read the books would understand. I think that the author runs the risk of pushing certain members of the intended audience away by using words they don’t know or could give them hints to the books if they are planning on reading them. On the other hand, it almost gives those people who do understand their meaning, a sense of pride and satisfaction because they know something. By using these specific words I believe the author may lose some people but make others happy. Then again, this site is directed first towards those that have read the books, and second to those who might want to read the books.
In the text only version the author uses contrast very well by having a completely black background with only two other colors. The main part of the text is yellow and in a big font so that it is easy to read, and the links to the different pages are blue. This makes the reading of the pages easier and gives very little to distract the audience.
The overall voice or tone of both versions of the website are somewhat hard to see because most of the written words are informational while the graphics are more for fun. I would say though that the tone and feeling of the website is very laid back. I believe that it kind of has to be laid back because the whole idea of Harry Potter is to have fun. When it goes into the biography of J.K. Rowling, the tone is more formal, giving the feeling of professionalism to J.K. Rowling.
When looking at the kairos of the site and whether or not it is up to date I see two specific examples that tell me it is not. One is the fact that the site was last updated in 2006, the other is that the last book that it talks about is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince, which is the sixth of seven books. This would have and will turn many many people away from the site once they realize they will not be able to read anything recent. The reason the site has not been updated is likely because there have been other websites made that are attracting the majority of the audience. This would give very little incentive for J.K. Rowling to have the website updated.Overall, I believe that the author hit the targeted audience right on, and met the needs of the majority of people. The only thing that will turn people away is the fact that the site is not up to date. I believe only those who want to know more about J.K. Rowling and how she came up with the idea of the Harry Potter books will stay and read the different parts of the sites.
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