Comments? Feedback?
Well, my business/creative website development plods along … 🙂 … sweet-but-overbooked web guy has sent me an update night. His e-mails with the link and his remarks appear to have been sent at 4:00 a.m., which is why I just can't browbeat the guy. He is doing what he can …
I wondered if anyone had any comments about the design / layout. Sometimes I don't see everything. This is particularly true since I actually pretty much love what he has done so far and have no changes to ask for (except for a few adjustments to the splash page).
Splash page – I've asked for the splash page to JUST be the flash element and the choices between business and creative. In other words, none of the content in the lower half of the screen. I've asked for the font to change for the word creative. I really like the words floating in behind for the mouse-over but I think they should slow down.
Next Layer – when the reader clicks on either business or creative, they will get a page that looks like this, only with real content. 🙂 As this is a mock-up of the actual future page, the buttons don't all work. He is going to increase the size of the logo in the upper left.
Thoughts? Feedback?
FYI – part of what makes this guy so valuable, and a big reason why I'm putting up with these delays, is that he has already written, from scratch, a content management system to work behind the scenes. So once this is finished, I'll be able to update it myself as I would a blog. I'll be able to manage a newsletter, e-mail distribution, etc. as well as just regular content. Which is extremely valuable.
I've been told that, in most things, you can get two out of three. Good, fast or cheap. You can get things fast and cheap, but they won't be very good. You can get things good and fast, but they won't be cheap. In my case, I'm getting good and cheap … just not very fast!
10. January 2007 at 12:27 pm :
I like very much – but absolutely with you on the background words.
Hey, words – slow down. You makin me dizzy!
10. January 2007 at 12:34 pm :
Venus,
I like your site a lot. A couple of comments:
I like the splash page and my advice is to keep a little bit of explanatory text at the bottom. If you remove it, it will be harder to figure out what you are all about and many people don't go beyond a click or two to find out. The word cloud behind "business" and "creative" is nice visually, but moving so fast that it's hard to read. If you didn't have the words at the bottom I wouldn't know what you do (and what you do seems very cool).
The "next layer" is a good layout. I like it visually but think it would be easier to read if the copy was not so dense. It's hard with the filler copy to know how it will be, but if you have a lot of text there, in big chunks, it will be hard for people to scan. Unfortunately these days people scan more than they read.
Very nice site!
10. January 2007 at 12:39 pm :
Argh. Vox just ate my whole comment!
2nd try:
I like your site, in fact I think it's great. Two things: I would keep some explanatory copy on the splash page so people can quickly grok what you do. The floating words are nice, but don't help to explain that. It doesn't have to be a lot, but I wouldn't ditch it altogether. Second: the "next layer" is also very nice. I like the layout a lot. The only worry I have is that the latin copy seems quite dense and if your real copy is like that it will be hard for people to scan. Unfortunately, today people scan – they don't read – you could help them by adding header titles that can easily guide them to the text they want and add also some more line space so the paragraphs don't look as heavy.
Nice site!
10. January 2007 at 8:31 pm :
This is terrific feedback and really helpful – thanks!