Preserved Topic: Designing a site you aren't really interested in. (Page 1 of 1)

Here's the story:

I have to redesign http://www.tricitygolf.com

Not only do I have to redesign it, this will be one of the media sites I am responsible for - my company has a network of local web portals... so I'm stuck with this one.

I don't play golf.

I don't watch golf.

How, as an artist, am I going to come up with a great design that golfers love and that I am enthused about? I'm not completely caught off guard, as I got a chance to design a golf course web site - http://clearcreekgolf.com. It was pretty fun, I suppose. But this project is a lot more serious.

Anyway, my question is twofold:

1. Got any ideas for what a designer is to do when they get projects so far removed from their own interest that it escapes thier innate creative abilities?

2. Got any ideas for TriCityGolf.com? I like http://www.golfcourse.com/, http://www.wgv.com/, and especially http://www.ireland.com/sports/golf/.

Well, Meta, I decided to just sit down, drink a bunch of coffee, and help you out. I even worked in Illustrator 9 (shudder) for you. Here ya go!
http://www.goelectronica.com/enharmonic/images/tricitygolf.gif

This is just a bit of responsive thinking out loud...

One of my first actions, is to solicit an idea from the client about what kind of site they want (ambience? favorite color? data-functionality? related sites that they like?)

If they don't have a clue, I grab the biggest search engine I can find and just look at a few hundred other sites with the same topic. I bookmark the ones that stand out in my mind.

Then I go back through the bookmarked "samples" to realize what commonality sparked my interest. Then I make a site which is my own version of the elements which appealed to me.

If my circumstance allows, I will make 2 or 3 versions of the site for the client to choose from. Or I'll combine the clients favorite parts of each version.

Finally, I just sit in a corner and whimper because I have such limited skills, and so little time to learn.

...swept out through the cracks beneath the door...

Well, you could always try just biting the bullet and (shudder!) go out and play a game or two of golf. Golf courses are usually really pretty places, nicely clipped grasses with hardly any people. I always thought of golf as an excuse to grab a couple of hours in a private park. I think GREEN is one of your primary design metaphors, and there's some interesting curves to be played with. Mainly, it's the variations of greens that is the coolest, with splashes of blue interspersed.

I'd look at other gold websites, of course, but also spend some time with a couple of games like golf games like Links LS, they've already dealt with the issue of how to display GOLF as a digital metaphor. Look for idea there.

Hmm, looking at the sites listed here, I think I like Metahedron's the best. I think it's kind of tacky to try doing this all with a grass texture, most folks playing golf don't deal with individual grass blades, the overall feeling is big fields of green, with nice neat edges and rich, varied shades. (AND nice, smooth curves. Lots to work with.)

Your pal, -doc-

I think Doc's definitely on the right track with his advice, and I'd go a little further and say to try really playing with the green. Find some weird green and throw it in there with something else and see how they react. They may hate it, they may love and let you run with it. You do need to know some more about your client though, like who's their target audience? What sites do they love/hate? Are they conservative or kinda out there? Find out something about what they're looking for and it makes it a lot easier to hit that mark, or ideally surpass it...

Chris

an interesting bit of schitzophrenia going on there meta....

call me old school, but I've never understood anyone that could design a site (or any peice of marketing material, for that matter) that didn't have a firm understanding of what it was they were touting...

I agree with Doc, go to a golf course. Talk to golfers; see what they want in a site. The real world is what we're trying to represent, so I say tailor it to the audience that you are trying to nab. For instance, I'm working on the graphical development of a law firm here in Denver, and one of my difficulties was getting over my intense hatrad of lawyers. How did I do it? I talked to several of the partners in the firm, and I didn't talk about law whatsoever. I got to know what they wanted to see when they thought of law, what they wanted to think when they saw a law firms marketing materials. From that, I developed the symbology that is going to be driving all of their marketing endeavors.

So, yes, go to a golf course. Find out how golfers think. Watch golf on TV and try to stay awake. Talk to the old golfers, the young golfers, and everyone in between. Don't get caught in the common mistake of "I'm a designer, I do what is pretty," instead of "I'm a designer; I evoke emotion from pictures."

Well, I had invested so much time in the interface, and since my boss liked it, I went with it. I'm having some browser compat issues, but otherwise I'm all go. Thanks a great deal for your help and comments. They will certainly benefit me in the future!

http://www.tricitygolf.com/new



[This message has been edited by Metahedron (edited 27-12-2000).]