Monday 2 March 2020

Exploring how Zoella utilises thumbnails to maximise UX


  • A range of bold, pastel colours instantly communicates a bright and happy narrative, and also constructs a particular target audience. A stereotypical mode of address??
  • A range of tittles, utilising a bold and straightforward lexis, indicating a young, working class target audience
  • Often feature a brand name, further anchored through the MES of the product and its packaging
  • Collaborations with other you-tubers, drawing in pre-existing audiences
  • MES of face. Stereotypically British, 'English rose', 
  • Hyper expressive facial expressions, a direct mode of address, demonstrating her personality. Dramatisation. A proairetic code indicating the exciting contents. A Disney princess smile? Helps to target young target audience
  • Tilting her head to only capture her 'good side', a hyperreal construction is formed
  • Each thumbnail encodes a proairetic code, suggesting the contents of the video 
  • Zoella often uses a theatrical and exaggerated mode of address with her expression. A superlative or hyperbolic mode of address
  • Head is often tilted to the side, to give the illusion of approachability, attractiveness...  
  • Uniform use of colour: bright, vibrant colour, further anchored through high key lighting and post production editing
  • Uniform utilisation of generic codes and conventions, creates a clearly recognisable brand identity for her target audience
  • Use of makeup, reinforces brand identity and hegemonic social values 
  • Titles! Big bright bold colours and text. Once more a generic paradigm of the vlog, but also clearly indicates a young target audience
  • Zoella is often holding and presenting commodities, encoding the the dominant ideological perspective of consumerism
  • Clear and easily identifiable use of the Z-line, anchoring and positioning her target audience
  • Zoella continually uses these genre conventions in order to maximise her clicks and her revenue
Thanks R block and T block for this excellent analysis!