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09-10-2006, 18:33
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#1 (permalink) |
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 5
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Web Mockup: Suggestions?
Hi all, I've decided to bite but bullet and post a redesign here for review. This is a rough 1st draft. The middle picture will be fading from one to another with flash and the top and bottom bars will cover the entire width. I am not sure if I want to have it a fixed width or scaling yet. I have recently dumped table based layouts in favor of pure CSS but somehow I find myself still designing tablely. It's kind of bland right now but the flash might fix that. They deal almost exclusively with gov. contractors so this is the look they were going for, real simple and professional. They had fairly solid guidelines as to what they wanted so it's not "all me" as far as the look goes. Well here it is: mockup-v1.jpg And here is their current site: http://mnemonics-inc.com Appreciate your thoughts! Thanks! |
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09-10-2006, 19:05
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#2 (permalink) |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Belfast, Ireland
Posts: 416
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it's an improvement! did all the govt. officials sit down once upon a time and agree that blue and dark grey were professional looking? seems to be typical of the industry. it's not stunning, but it will serve the purpose well. I think more colours would give these people heart attacks! |
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09-10-2006, 23:11
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#3 (permalink) |
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Zły
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 1,920
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It doesn't matter what the old website looks like, you are doing a new design for them. And currently it sucks. Two logos on the homepage wtf? also why not make the latest news more prominent it looks like that content would be important to the user. By looking at this design, this coming from another designer, it tells me that you are new in the field or just taking a piss and didn't bother to spend too much time on this. Right now you are proving a "rip off" site (not as in stealing someones else design but cashing in for a shitty work) for your client. Basically it could be done better design wise. |
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09-10-2006, 23:17
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#4 (permalink) | |
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i'm done, son
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 12,262
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It could be done better (though it is an improvement) as adras says. I agree that 2 logos seems pointless. It looks too much like a phpNuke skin or something and that menu is overly complex. You don't need all the site's navigation in one spot. Quote:
(Defense/security industry...go to my personal site and "About" to see who I work for) |
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10-10-2006, 04:09
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#5 (permalink) | |||||
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 5
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First off I think I need to qualify a few things. This mockup is to show to the owner to present the idea of how the site could possibly look, not nearly a production design. Because of that, I did several things to it for that presentation only which would not be found on the finished site (for example the wrong breadcrumbs on the home page and the nav being highlighted twice). Quote:
I changed the logo from the original (the one in the middle with comma and ,inc) because it's ugly. I did not want to completely drop their overly complex logo in the presentation mockup because it might bring complaints so I put it in a place I can change on the finished site after initial reactions from the client. Quote:
The client knows their target market well and news items were not near the top of the list of priorities. Having the news taking up as much space as it is was already pushing it. Do you think that is something potential defense clients would want to read about? Really I'm asking! Quote:
You are right, as I said in my description I have not spent a lot of time on this yet. Thats why it is a first draft. Quote:
What would you do? If you don't like it, can you please give me an idea which you would apply to it to improve it? Thats what I'm really looking for! Quote:
I tried to have them run the tier 1 navigation across the bottom edge of the header, maybe with popup menus. They did not warm to the idea much and liked the left side nav more, which they think the target audience would understand and be more comfortable with. Any idea how can I reduce the navigation complexity? Some of those links have dozens of subpages. There are requirements with this site that had to be met which you could not know about, but I hope my choices make more sense now that I have explained them a bit. I could go all "Web 2.0" over the design, which I was thinking of doing as an alternate, but this is not really what they asked for. What do you think? Should I round all the corners, boost the gradients contrast and give it a cool 3d shiny look or stick with the flat boring design they requested? Can I put a nice bright orange or green highlight color in there and not have them flip out? I think this is a dilemma you must all face from time to time, do what I like or do what the client asks for... I appreciate your suggestions for improvement! |
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10-10-2006, 09:44
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#6 (permalink) |
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Zły
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 1,920
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[quote=AK10What would you do? If you don't like it, can you please give me an idea which you would apply to it to improve it? Thats what I'm really looking for![/QUOTE] This sort of thing is called design consultation and they don't come by for free. |
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