Need Input on Our New Web Design

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Permalink Reply by ashan jay on July 28, 2009 at 7:07pm

Design A, is well packed and from the pictures seems to be providing lot of information to viewers. But the color theme makes the site dull. (I havent seen the actual working site) regardless I would change the colors to a more complimentary as oppose to a single color gradient theme. Having circles in the three spots again makes the design lose its creative feel. It just doesnt look good in there.

In the design B, The rings or the circles are very distracting. This is not 90s webdesigning anymore. It has that template look, like it was made from a MS word or publisher template that comes with the software. Once again I would add more life with colors and get rid of the arbitrary circles. These circles might be a key component of your company but the way they are placed in the site takes away whats left of the creative design.

If you are trying for a minimalistic website design I would suggest losing the circles in the sides and getting rid of the horizontal bars under header, or reduce their opacity.

I hope these feedbacks are taken in a constructive way and are never intended to draw back what you have going on.

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AshanJay Designs : Graphic Design | Website Design | 3D Rendering & Architecture

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Neal on July 29, 2009 at 5:54am

I don't use templates when I have a client that needs web-design. The cookie cutter approach is not fair to brands that are trying to speak to specific buyer personas and be original, not to mention that a simple right click and "view page source" will reveal that your site(s) is template-based and they could be doing the same thing your doing for nothing more than an investment in wordpress. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I feel that website design should be just as unique as the individual it represents. I would advise pairing your designer up with a good programmer and creating something that really speaks to your audience and highlights your creative marketing and branding skills.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Ball on August 25, 2009 at 8:42am

Thanks for taking the time last month to give us a bit of input on our redesign project. We followed some advice, ignored other suggestions and this is what we came up with. Thought you would like to see the final version.

http://www.roundpeg.biz.

It is better because of your input!

Lorraine

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Permalink Reply by Ben McCann on August 26, 2009 at 12:04am

I like the new design... looks great. don't you just love wordpress :o)

From a "non-designer" perspective ( although you know my talents lorraine ) some people's comments were way out of touch with the mainstream client which you are trying to attract. If someone is looking for high end, totally customized, expensive costly design, that really wont do anything but look pretty, but have no ROI making ability... then they might pay the high priced design firms in town.

At the end of the day, the average Joe Business owner wants something sharp, crisp, user-friendly, brand consistent, he doesn't care if a template is used or not... if it's a good template and can be modified, then so be it... most of his clients and prospects really don't know the difference, nor do they care.

Some people put too much empahsis on the design aspect of the overall MARKETING package. Look and feel are important, but so is access to information, no body that I know has said, I am doing business with you Ben because your website is soooo cool, you must be really good at health insurance and Life Insurance, and Retirement Planning.

And.. no one has said, we are not doing business with you because your website was obviously built on a customized wordpress template, you cheap ass bastard you must be a terrible Insurance and Financial Professional because your Design isn't custom enough. ... again, sometimes designers get a little TOO picky and emphasis is in the wrong place and loses people.

Your web design fits your target market and what you do... great job :o)

Ben

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Permalink Reply by Admin Smaller Indiana on August 26, 2009 at 9:45am

Thanks Ben,

We chose to use a template, because it show cases what we do for clients. We love to push the envelop and make the template really fit the needs of the client. The advantage is a professoinal looking site, which doesnt' cost a fortune to develop. The other benefit to this project, is taht we got to test a number of new plug ins, which we will now build as standard into client sites.

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Permalink Reply by Robby Slaughter on August 26, 2009 at 9:48am

It's actually neat how the link to the original template is at the bottom of the page. That way, someone can see where you got the template and how you updated it to make it your own!

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Permalink Reply by Ben McCann on August 26, 2009 at 9:38pm

what kind of plug ins did you find work the best? -- Ben

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Permalink Reply by Robby Slaughter on August 26, 2009 at 9:37am

Congrats, Lorraine and the Roundpeg crew!

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Permalink Reply by John Uhri on September 8, 2009 at 9:57am

Lorraine, I know this is a bit late, but congratulations on the new site design.

I posted some thoughts about your site design and Robby's comments in my post The Knowledge Gap and Website Design.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Ball on September 8, 2009 at 10:29am

Thx for using us as an example in your very well written post. Enjoyed the discussion on "getting ready for work"

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