waffles — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:37:31 +0000

I'm not sure if I would go with unfinished about the circles. It looks way too scattered for me.

Megan — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:05:38 +0000

So they don't have their logo in vector format??? That's a big problem, but unfortunately it happens all the time. Clients have their logo made by somebody and either lose contact with the designer or just lose the source files. So what happens when they want a website, a new letter head, a new sign out front, or some T-shirts printed? They either end up with something that looks like crap or they're out of luck. I also know a lot of us have spend time trying to re-create a client's logo in a format we can use. So, clients: get your logo in vector format and designers: make sure they have it! In fact, send them the logo in a bunch of different formats just in case. And give it to them in a couple of different media (direct by email or whatever, but also on a CD). Make sure they know what the different formats are for. I think in this case it would be fairly easy to re-create it in a vector format.

I like this design much better. Did the clients really like the circles there? I don't mind the effect but it's looking a little unfinished to me for some reason but I'm not sure why. I'm also not sure how you could code that without putting it all in an image. It would be tough to get those in individual divs with actual text in them. Fun with positioning, maybe

The main body text is great in this version! Exactly what visitors and search engines need to see. You could also in a catchy header for extra "pull". I still don't like the mission statement there but I guess the client must have insisted on that. I'd almost rather see a photo of the head of the company or something there to add a personal touch, maybe with a shorter paraphrase of the mission statement.

P.S. sorry I haven't responded to your wordpress questions yet - I mean to, but it's been a busy week! I'm actually better at responding to forum posts!

Brooke — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:17:24 +0000

Megan.

Thank you so much! This critique is what I needed. So here are my comments back:

Megan;212481 wrote: I think I like the first one better. The header area is much more interesting and less boxy.
AGREED!

I think the logo should be much bigger and sharper.
Yeah - that's what they have...

Try letting it overlapp the grey area. the photo to the right isn't really great quality.
Yeah - that's what they have...

think something of the inside of the plant might be more effective too.
Going to do that in other pages!

navigation comments..
I agree with everything you said past this point...

So because of what you, another proofer I have and the client have said, here's what I have come up with. Please tell me honestly!
http://www.cataluna.com/clients/park/mainD001b.gif

Megan — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 18:35:47 +0000

I think I like the first one better. The header area is much more interesting and less boxy. I think the logo should be much bigger and sharper. Try letting it overlapp the grey area. the photo to the right isn't really great quality. You could probably go out and get a better one with a digital camera. I think something of the inside of the plant might be more effective too.

I don't really like the pink colour used for the navigation. I'm not quite sure what would work better there - either grey or the darker red. I also think that the to navigation bars should possibly be switched around. I think the more important one should go on the left side (as it is on the second example). I do like the top menu on the second example, so maybe you could incorporate that idea.

I was confused for awhile about what this company actually does. The right side boxes seem to say that but they are in an area that is usually considered to be unimportant. People who have some experience on the web will have learned that the right side area is for the less important information. So they may visually ignore it. I think those should be a set of bullet points or something in the central content area. Also be careful about the different sizes of text in those boxes. It looks really disjointed when every bit is different.

Overall the site could be more customer-centric. It's meant to sell something so it needs to communicate more effectively I think. Putting the company's mission statement on the home page is a key example of this.

Brooke — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:03:58 +0000

Here is a second version...thoughts?
http://www.cataluna.com/clients/park/mainC001b.gif