Topic: I need some direction... (Page 1 of 1)

Ok - most of you have seen it when I first put it up. I haven't done nearly as much as I wanted to on it in the last year...
www.annbeckett.com

I seriously have to get cracking on the redesign... I'm limited in my coding experience, but have been having reasonable luck with Dreamweaver (god bless the WYSIWYG!). I want so much to go to CSS, but don't have time to learn it all myself before I get this up... I'll have to see how to do it with Dreamweaver... it would be better that way....

Let me tell you where I want to go with this, and can someone please offer some suggestions about possible structure and navigation?

I want to go simple and streamlined... I did the rollovers on the front page mostly because I could, rather than because we needed them... But they do put the page on the heavy side... We'll re-work the logo, she doesn't really have one, I just needed something there.... I'll be using a neutral palette, with minimal design effects (I just need to figure out what those will be...)

I've been after Ann to re-write a lot of the content. She wants the site presented from a first person, rather than 3rd person perspective, in the way of a story. She's really busy, so my delay isn't causing her much grief... She'll re-do the resume information, and the artist's statement as probably the same document, and I want her to write out some more descriptive comments for each piece of sculpture.

She's changed her focus of the site from a sole business, to something more like a hobby. Still doing commissions, but not to live on anymore - it's too much like work, and that's not what she liked about art...

What I'd like to do is divide the site into 2 sections, sculpture and illustrations/drawings. I'm stumped on navigation. With only a couple of other sections to the site, your usual menu bar across or down just doesn't seem right to me... I want something fairly simple, that will carry across to all the other pages on the site...

Anyway, that's a lot of rambling on... I know there are portions of this site uncomplete, and I hope to have much more complete when I reload the new version, and so do away with all those "Under Construction" signs. Go ahead and give me criticisms about the site as is, and if you feel the spirit moves you, make a suggestion or 2 about where you would like to see a site like this go. We're moving to a bigger server space too (eventually), so image compression/quality won't be as much of a problem...

I've been turning this over in my head for months, and inspiration just seems to be eluding me... I just need a kick in the pants to get me going...

Have a go at it! (wait, let me go get my armor!) Be honest, but try not to be brutal...

(Edited by bodhi23 on 04-26-2004 13:34)

I must say, bodhi, that's a rather tall order you've given us...

OK, you need some direction, eh? "Simple and streamlined"? Well, I'll just toss some ideas at you and maybe that will help get the creative process started.

While this certainly goes for all websites, it is especially true for the "simple and streamlined" type: your content will dictate what your website will look like. If you have a solid grasp on the content, function will follow naturally, and once you have a clear understanding of the function, everything else will start falling into place. I guess that's primarily what I wanted to say: focus on the content--bells and whistles will only take away from the effect. Everything else is pretty much going to be elaborations on this theme.

Now, since you want to point up the content (the art, I'm assuming), you want to take away anything that might detract from that. The huge logo (the hand and ball thing) comes to mind as something that could be made much smaller and less distracting. You also don't have a link to the artwork in the menu. Yes, I realize that you've got the thumbs front-and-center, but the first thing people see at the top is the menu. Not to mention the fact that those thumbnails are only available on the home page. When you redesign, you'll definitely want to take that into account--the artwork needs to be more than just an incidental part of the site, it needs to be the site. Hmm... yeah, you should definitely mull that over and see what you can come up with. Think of ways you can incorporate the artwork into every area of the site (maybe using miniature versions of the pieces as icons--just an idea).

On the "simple and streamlined" front, consider carefully your use of color. Anything but black or white as a background injects something extra into the design. Personally, I've always loved the purity of white--not only does it not interfere, but it makes whatever colors you do use on it that much more striking.

Um, yeah, I hope that's enough to get you started. I was just kind of brainstorming here... hope it helped.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | Keeper of the Juicy Bits

Suho nailed it on the head there, the purple background has to go if you want streamlined, it is just way too much and really takes the focus away from the content.

My attention is also constantly being directed towards the hand, which causes me to have trouble when trying to look at the content. Even now I couldn't tell you much about the site, other than there is a cool hand holding a globe, and I tried to pay attention to the rest of the page.

uh-huh. Ok...

"tall order" indeed, Master Suho!

I didn't want to go with pure white, but more like an antique white color... and I'm thinking either black or dark dark brown for the text - haven't decided yet.

The thumbnails on the front page are actually links to the pages with the artwork on them... bigger pictures, several views of the sculpture... Not an obvious navigation scheme, but I thought it was cool when I decided to do it... It's one of the reasons I'm stuck on the whole thing.

Ann first wanted something dark, and rich as a color scheme, but we've graduated to a lighter, less invasive scheme...

Complaints about the logo were heard the first review around, by this time, I don't like it much either, but didn't feel like messing with it in the current design.

I guess I'm gonna have to do a mock up to start with and give you guys something more to chew on. I'll see what I can do this weekend.

As for the content, if I could get it written all in advance, that'd be great. Ann is currently in school full time and hasn't had a lot of spare time to rewrite stuff for me. I'm probably going to have to build the site around some lipsum. I have a general idea of the structure, but the navigation is a sticking point... I can't figure out how to make it obvious, but unobtrusive.

I'm thinking about a header line, with the site name and then some small links across the top... Let me fool with it some and I'll put up a mock page. We probably won't use a "logo" in the next incarnation...

Thanks for your input - if you don't mind checking back here in another couple of days, I'll show you where I think I want to go with it... we can go from there!


Cell Sweet Cell

(Edited by bodhi23 on 04-27-2004 07:35)

I hate to say things like this because it is very general, but I find it to be very true much of the time. There are exceptions.

If you do not receive your content package while you are doing the basic design phase you are going to fail. The content plays a major major role in your design. You need to know where you are going with the site at all times! Without having defined content you are going to eventually suffer with a whole lot of scope creep. It can be very very bad.

I want to discuss the exceptions a bit. When you start off a project you are normally not going to have the content, but you must, must, have a very good idea of what you are going to be designing for, normally you will spend some time onsite talking with the people in the company, getting a feel for what they do, take a look at all of their current printed materials, their advirtising brouchures, etc, etc. If you do a good deal of work at this you might be able to slip by without having the content package.

<sidenote number="1">
The content package is all of the text for the site, along with all logos and graphics that will be used and included in the site. The content package is definately not just the text, much of it is going to be images and the like. If you are receiving just text from the company your job gets a whole lot harder.
</sidenote>

<sidenote number="2">
When I mention company I am actually talking about who ever your client is. Much of the diction can be modified to fit your current specs.
</sidenote>

If you are still having issues with the logo which is basically the company identity you are going to have a whole lot of issues with the site design in general. A logo is a huge deal, and it needs to be gotten right. Not being satisfied with an issue as basic (read complex) as the sends me signals that you are going to have a whole lot of trouble with your design. And you are not going to be satisfied with the final product.

The site feels very much like "I threw this together and it looked cool" and it doesn't feel like it has an identity.

For this I recommend before you start to throw something together you sit down and think about the project, instead of working on the project. The grade school basics of asking the following questions "Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why?" is still very important. You need to jot down answers to these questions before you go ahead and start designing. These questions will really let you get a handle on your design, it will help you pick out colors based on the answers, it will lead you towards the theme of the site, it will really help to jump start the whole process, and it will be tough. If it is really easy you are not thinking about the questions enough.

For example:

Who: Ann Becket, and artist who specializes in sculpture and illustration, she is a student, who performs her work for fun as a hobby, and also accepts commision. Her personality is that of a ____ and her interests outside of art is ____.
What: Design Ann Becket a website.
Where: AnnBeckett.com
When: The project is slated to take a month to complete.
How: I am planning on using dreamweaver's WYSIWYG editor mixed with some of Ann's prominent art work.
Why: Ann wants this website to further her exposure, allowing more people to view her work as well as to inform people of her ability to accept commisions. This site is also design to allow Ann and outlet to spread some of her philosophical ideas and provide some information about techniques she uses and some of the influences to her work.

The above is a basic list that I have gotten from just reading your two posts. There is much more information that is needed here, the "Who" and the "Why" tend to be the most important elements, but without the other's you are still missing required information that you should have written down somewhere.

I am sorry to take this back to the basics, but the confusions you are having should not exist if you follow this basic methodology. It is not fool proof and it does require a whole lot of work on your part. But the question you are asking is not one that can or should be answered by anyone other than the designer(s). Even those answers you get can not be totally correct, we are not you and we are not in your head.

Hmm...

Well, I do have the majority of the content. I do have most of the photos that represent the art, and I have a basic idea of where the design needs to go. I had answered most of the questions you asked.

The first site really was thrown together - at the time, Ann was trying to make a living from her artwork, and needed the online exposure to help sell herself.

She has since decided not to use her art as her sole means of support. So now we go in a new direction. Since I don't want to make the same mistake twice, I'm actually starting "with the basics".

I do need her to re-write a few things for me, but I don't think that her actual words will make too much difference in where I put them in the site. We've already had several discussions about the content and what we need, so I have a general idea, even though I don't have all the words yet. The images are the most important part, and I've got about 97% of those...

Keep it comin' - I'm working on it. Time is at a premium these days, but I am listening and taking notes! Thanks for your excellent observations WarMage!