Website redesign for open public crit

scott8933 · July 12, 2009, 05:23:04 AM

I'm not getting much in the way of opinions from other sites, so I'll throw this to the collective here - I'm looking for opinions on my redesigned website.

Not much in the way of TG2 content (come clips that have some sky backgrounds, but nothing with TG front and center).

Mainly I'm just looking for opinions on the general design and navagatibility. Its still quite skeletal, with some pieces left over from the last version - but you'll get the general direction of it. Plus the Free Fonts section is rapidly getting populated as I make a mad dash to get that part finished (seems to be the most popular section so far!).

Anyway, any and every opinion is welcome. Brutal or not - I've got thick skin, so no worries if you hate it. Just let me know why you hate it, or what you think works, etc. Any opinion is great!!

Thanks all!
Scott

here tis:
www.scott-ulrich.com

FrankB · July 12, 2009, 07:27:24 AM

I had a look at your site. You have some cool content on there, but two things about the design can be improved, I think.
1 - Whenever you navigate from the front page to a sub page, you'll always have to a. look around and discover how you can return, and b. cannot navigate to other pages from a subpage, because there is no menu. Your visitors will always have to return to the main page to navigate to other sections.
2 - The main page design itself, I think, doesn't honor the quality work you do. I think that design, fonts and font effects on the start page should be replaced by something more clean and stylish, but it's not possible for me to put my finger on it exactly, or make substantial recommendations. Maybe you cold steal a couple of design principles form the apple webpages, which I find clean, stylish and easy to use, while probably also relatively easy to produce.

Cheers,
Frank

Henry Blewer · July 12, 2009, 08:47:54 AM

I would have your demo reel on the main page. The quick time blank white is distracting from your message.
You need navigation menus on all your pages. These could have some cool effects added.
The clips and storyboard page has pictures which are really too small. They also do not really advertise what they are about.

If you do a lot of video, consider using a television screen. Put a remote on one side of it. The viewer can then check out different channels of content. Interaction is really important. Otherwise the viewer gets bored quickly. You have 3 seconds to get someones attention. If they become indifferent to what you are selling, they move on. It takes about 4 seconds for this to occur.

I think you have real potential to make your site better. Your work speaks well of your skill.

neuspadrin · July 12, 2009, 09:11:09 AM

It feels... powerpointish... and boxy... which is easy to do when you design it in photoshop as image slices and pretty much leave it at that. you need more graphically happy cool looking stuff. Also with colors, almost all of it is very bright feeling colors which steals the users attention from actual content. Perhaps using a more neutral color set for the background, and maybe using those bright colors as the font color of important areas or headers. Also on some pages the links arn't there and you can't really tell except by hovering hover and checking if the mouse changes. As for video, perhaps turning them into a flash player would be better for keeping them in browser as almost everyone will have have a flash player, but some don't have mp4 (like me...).

If you want, I've got quite a bit of free time at night/weekends, I could help you with your redesign (as ajax/css/html/php/anything web technology is what I've done for jobs for awhile).

Only thing I'm not good at is mocking up a website. But since you're good with graphics, perhaps you could design it, and tell me things you like it other websites, and then I can get it to happen (within reason, some websites have crazy stuff thats only possible in timeframes with teams of people working)

scott8933 · July 12, 2009, 02:18:38 PM

That confirms one of my main concerns - that any one "endpoint" requires too many click-throughs to get there.

The "clips" section is a holdover from the previous design, and is slated for the next big redo as soon as I can get the print and font areas populated.

Yes, it presently look like what it is: something that I just used illustrator slices and brought into dreamweaver. I had two criteria going in though: no Flash, and maximum browser compatibility (down to handheld devices like a Mylo/PSP/Iphone). Also...uh, I don't know Flash! Add to the notes: disguise this better!

I agree - it would be stronger if the Demo Reel went into that black hole at the front page. Guess I'm going to have to force myself to learn/use ShadowBox. Seems like the best way to go.

Maybe then add the "constants", the buttons from the front, off to the side then, so at least navigation is always in the same place, instead of all over the place like it is now. I also agree on that point, that its confusing and makes the whole thing disjointed.

Re color palette - I've had iterations with more muted palettes, even just white over black. My work has always had a bit of an abrasive quality, so this one seemed to mesh in my mind better. If more feedback on that is negative, I'll reconsider. But just to bear in mind, a certain level of "in your face" was the effect I was going for.

Thanks everyone!

scott8933 · July 12, 2009, 02:23:12 PM

Quote from: neuspadrin on July 12, 2009, 09:11:09 AM
As for video, perhaps turning them into a flash player would be better for keeping them in browser as almost everyone will have have a flash player, but some don't have mp4 (like me...).

This is an interesting point: As one of my goals is maximum compatibility, and you do this way more than me, do you think that it would be better to go with all Flash players over the QT players I have now?

I just do broadcast and graphics, so I assumed that Flash wasn't as common as you get down to the handheld stuff. But if the reverse is true, then I'll re-encode the whole mess to Flash. Seems like I need to learn it at some point anyway.

Damn, I was saving those brain cells for something like Nuke! I really don't have too many spare ones left at this point.

neuspadrin · July 12, 2009, 02:35:49 PM

Making things compatible across everything is always hard to do. Handhelds is where the most problem comes in. The problem with making things work on it is you strip out everything just to make it work on certain very limited environments. If you are targeting handhelds the other problem with the current design is with all images load time on 3g is probably not the best. The nice thing with CSS and javascript is you can target certain platforms and serve content accordingly. Like if they came to the website on a handheld, you could serve them a stripped down lightweight version of your website using css media type handheld while users who use computers get media type screen. Also if you wanted a print version, theres media type print.

CSS is amazing stuff

You can also do a mix of the two, giving you all choices for the video

Make a flash player for the videos in browser, and then have a "download .mp4" link right next to it. Also many handhelds are slowly getting more function flash and such (i <3 my n810). Also you can use javascript and such to detect if they have flash, and display alternate content if they don't.

dwilson · July 12, 2009, 02:48:52 PM

I would definetly have flash video as your main video format. And Neuspadrin's suggestion is a good idea.

Quote from: neuspadrin on July 12, 2009, 02:35:49 PM
Make a flash player for the videos in browser, and then have a "download .mp4" link right next to it.

Also, the homepage is not aligned the same as the other pages (in IE7). The margins are different.

Jack · July 12, 2009, 05:20:57 PM

you worked on stardust? that's cool! I liked that movie!

Henry Blewer · July 12, 2009, 06:25:04 PM

Flash video would be the way to go. If someone does not have it, usually they are directed to where to find it. I don't know if Flash does this, or if the code needs to be added to the site.

scott8933 · July 13, 2009, 12:16:15 AM

Only worked on the commercials and trailer for it. I don't do features - just the marketing of them. I'd love to get into the production side, but there isn't as much need for graphic designers. The closest I've come were a few main title sequences and some prop designs.

Quote from: wetbanana on July 12, 2009, 05:20:57 PM
you worked on stardust? that's cool! I liked that movie!

Henry Blewer · July 13, 2009, 08:09:01 AM

Rumor has it that Foundation Imaging may be working on a new Star Trek series soon. This is complete hearsay, but I heard it is supposed to take place about 100 years after STNG.

scott8933 · July 13, 2009, 03:12:19 PM

That would be pretty cool, if Berman or Braga aren't involved.

The only series I every really liked was Deep Space 9 - because it actually allowed for story arcs and interesting characters.

Because it seemed like the ugly stepchild, the writers appeared to have more freedom to step outside the usual constraints of Start Trek rules (mainly, which I guess is partly the network's doing - that each episode be allowed to be "stand alone" so they could air them in syndication in whatever order they pleased).

With Voyager being the opposite end of the spectrum - so many constraints on that show that they resorted to basically playing every episode in the Holodeck and ending with some form of Deus Ex Machina to wrap things up in the last five minutes.

Sorry... Did I just reveal myself as a Star Trek nerd and inadvertantly set off a Star Trek thread? Oh well.

For the record, I think Garak was one of the most interesting characters ever created in SciFi, and that episode where he finds himself conflicted over whether to destroy the Shape Shifter planet or not was some of the finest acting I've seen in the genre. And proof that SciFi is really given the short stick when it comes time to hand out Emmy's - even Comedy gets a better break. Edward Robinson is really a great actor. "Do you Feel Lucky, Punk?"

Tangled-Universe · July 13, 2009, 03:17:41 PM

That was indeed a great episode and scene in DS9

100 years after TNG, sounds awesome

Martin

FrankB · July 14, 2009, 07:04:25 AM

a new series would be awesome, hopefully it doesn't suffer the same fate like the last one.
On that note, the last series was my favourite, with their season long overarching stories since season 3. Such a shame they have stopped it, when it was starting to really get into gear!

I found DS9 the least interesting one. Yes it had a lot of freedom for the story, but in the end it wasn't as exciting as Voyager or Enterprise. Of course I understand everyone has their own preferences on this matter. :-)

Frank