Homepage

The Starbucks homepage serves as a springboard into different aspects of Starbucks.com.  Diving further into the site is an exploratory process for the reader, therefore the homepage provides helpful snippets of information to catch the eye and mind.  These snippets are textual and pictorial, and there is a nice balance between the use of both.  The text and images emphasize coffee in many ways: the purchase of coffee, gift cards, home brewing, rewards programs, and more.  Overall, the text values coffee and coffee related items as a perishable commodity.  Readers probably share this value, as Starbucks is first and foremost a coffee beverage company.  However, readers probably value understanding more about the Starbucks corporate attitude on a variety of subjects.  The homepage recognizes this value by including a nav bar that directs readers to Coffee, Menu, Coffeehouse, Responsibility, Card, and Shop subpages.  Through design, text, images, and video, the Starbucks homepage invites the reader to explore Starbucks’ digital identity.  

The homepage is encyclopedic in nature because it shares small glimpses of information.  Yet, the homepage is also procedural and participatory, though in a much smaller degree.  The homepage features social media links to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.  These links invite readers to share what they find interesting on the website with their friends, tweet about it, and follow the company on social media networks.  This allows readers to participate in a digital relationship with the company.  In turn, the company grows its base of “friends,” fans, and general PR reach.  The homepage is has procedural  functions as well; the search bar and “Find a Store” options are examples of such.  The site is minimally spatial.  Design aspects of the site have set spatial settings for the reader to navigate the text through, such as the nav bar, location of images, and the blog at the bottom of the page.

The homepage features the presence of “Newest Blog Posts” at the bottom left of the homepage.  Featuring a few blog posts on the homepage does not clinch my argument that the blog is just a simple mundane piece of the greater Starbucks digital identity and not a separate blog entity.  It is quite reasonable and normal for this to be featured on the front page.  However, this is the beginning of a trend.  Starbucks will continue to feature the blog in a similar manner and almost exact location on other significant subpages.  This, I believe, does dilute the importance of the blog and keeps the blog ‘reigned in’ from growing into something larger or personal that is outside Starbucks’ wishes.  Essentially, this trend subjugates the blog.