ZoomConcept Reviews
Minor Problem Slider Speed
The frontpage slider speed seemed VERY slow to me. The little feature image under it was moving faster than the slider and I found that distracting.Minor Problem on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 I'm guessing your client wants the phone number bigger than life? if you could make that a little smaller, I think it would help your design. Positive Feature on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 I really like this space, maybe your client doesn't understand that white space doesn't necessarily have to be white? New Idea A little unfinished
I'm not sure if the logo was fully given to you or if you have any leeway to change it. The SDS part looks a little out of place. I would pull some gradients or a thin stroke or something to make it fit with the web 2.0 look to the background of it. Resource: http://www.dezinerfolio.com/2007/03/14/ultimate-web-20-gradients-free-downloadSummary:
More white space? That simply makes no sense to me! There is plenty of white and grey and place for you eyes to rest on this site! I can't offer you help with "more" of what you've already done well here!! Perhaps if you added a soft texture it would help set off the background from the content boxes and make it more clear where all the white space is?
Your screen shots don't show the footer, but I think the footer needs just a hair more tweaking. It doesn't seem quite finished to me yet.
This is a well laid out, easy to navigate, clean site. I hope you don't have to redesign it for your client!!
-
Summary:
The design is beautiful. The principal message shines through and the actionable element (the phone number) is very clear.
But your question really is about your client's feedback. So in that regard your strategy is all wrong.
here are my strategies:
Set up your client for success early: - establish professional authority - set ground rules early and be adamant - know your client's aesthetic - do a design brief! - Identify stakeholders - always show when final/highest stake holder present - interpret rather than take feedback literally
Establish professional authority: They hired YOU, they saw your portfolio, your design sensibility, your references, etc. . You MUST project confidence and authority for the good of your client (and your sanity). You know what is best. You earn this by learning about your client's business deeply (really, do it) and talking to them in their lingo to establish that you understand their needs. Then strike a confident "I'll take it from here" attitude. They will feel in good hands and will trust your final judgment.
Identify stakeholders. Ask your client identify stakeholders (anyone who will have anything to say about the design) And then ask who will be the ultimate decision maker (a person, a sub-committee, or a general vote) Make sure all all aware of this (included in written proposal for example) Try rally hard to make sure you involve all in all parts of the process.
set the ground rules early everything from when you get paid to what happens to missed appointments and the rules below must be laid out in a take it or leave it fashion. EARLY!!!!
5-5-5 requirement. know your client's aesthetic! I have a 5-5-5 requirement that EACH stake holder must provide:
5 examples of websites that are either competition or similar to them(regardless of good and bad design)
5 websites that they like (ANY SITE or FEATURE even)
5 websites they don't (hardest).
The above covers these tenets: - My client does not know design - My client does not know/ has not thought about what they want - My client does not know his trusted assistant loves pink
Also, keep an ear out when you review these sites with them. Are their choices visual? verbal? or business related? "I love the elegance of the deep red over those pinks" Vs "Those pinks make the sale promos stand out" vs "the sales promos just pop!" In the first they are all about the design, in the last one they might not even see the design, they just see that their competitors sales are high because the promos "pop". This is particularly true when what they have given you as site they like as aesthetically horrible. Now you know where they are coming from!
do a design breif really brief. two paragraph tops. keep in mind the step before. What is the overriding purpose?(make the call a phone number, order a pizza, get a report, collect emails) what are secondary aims. what is necessary but secondary info. What is the design strategy? i.e.: We are trying to communicate clean, breathable, positive, sustainable, airy. A highly structured layout and a monochromatic palette of whites and grays that allow mostly green and blue imagery to shine through and convey the message
always show to the final/highest stake holder you must have established this early, now it might be to late.
interpret rather than take feedback literally this is really (at this point) the answer to your question. The client does not like what you have done. Something is bothering them, but they can't seem to communicate with you, so they are trying to use YOUR lingo. That is when "make it pop", "make it bigger/smaller", "make it red", etc come in.
They are really saying: this is more important, or this is not important and is cluttering my main message, or this does not look at all like my grandmothers retirement home website -- that you do not know I like so much but that I will try and make you do by giving you very vague direction.
My best recommendation? be creative..try to introduce some of the things I told you above. ask for sample websites, review against the brief.
-
Andy E commented:Very nice review!
-
Emma Simpson commented:Wow. Thank you so much for such a throrough review.
This is actually a design by a colleague and he has managed the client doing all that we usually do which is to get approval at every stage of the project from all who are required to sign it off including the highest stake holder. It's been live for a while and this has been a fairly last minute bit of feedback relating to the secretary's thoughts.
I personally felt the white space issue wasn't a problem. Certainly not to the point of needing a redesign when such an issue should have been raised earlier if there had been a problem.
However, in the interests of having happy clients and wanting them to feel listened to and also that they would pay by the hour for any extra work undertaken, I thought it worth posting up here just to get a wider range of opinion and I know if there is an issue, it will certainly get pointed out on CF n:)
Thanks again Alex for your time and I'm certainly going to take on board some of your ideas for how I next deal with a client.
-
Summary:
What your client may be asking for in terms of white space and what I see as beneficial to the design may be two different things, but here are my thoughts.
Overall, the use of white space is good. There is ample space in the header and between the nav bar and body. Where I see inadequate white space is in the body margins.
You have about a 30 pixel margin between the copy and border. Because this site is so text rich, 30 px's is not adequate in my opinion. A margin of this size with this much text makes for hard reading. A margin of about 50 pixels will improve readability significantly.
I ran a few lines of body copy through MS Word's word count tool. The lines I looked at averaged 91.5 characters per line. This is a bit long for on screen reading and reduces readability. That's two strikes against readability.
The solution may be quite simple.
If you increase your padding to 50 pixels, that would lower the character count to around 85/line by my estimate. Increasing the padding to 60 pixels (doubling where it started) will bring the character count down to 80/line. Most studies I have seen place optimal character count for on screen reading at 55 – 75/line.
On the other hand, even though the margins in the sidebar are only 20 pixels, they look fine to me because the lines are so much shorter.
Minor Problem on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 On the right hand side we have some pictures that are clearly of SDS products and actually reflect their services. So why this cheesy business people pic? I appreciate the need to communicate their value, but this isn't a great pic! I know I'm being picky here.... 2 Could this not go beneath the slider? -
Andy E commented:
Agreed. Move it up in the design.
Serious Problem on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 I'm presuming the logo isn't your work, it kinda sucks and looks really web 2.0. Not a big fan at all, but again I'm assuming this isn't your work, if it is.... :P Positive Feature on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 Could the header be bigger, bolder, more grabbing? It's almost the same size as the text beneath so in this place the visual weight isn't great, your header is the main point and should have the greater emphasis 2 Further, why is the site so narrow? 780px wide?! What's going on there? Even terribly old computers will have screens that can display a website 1000px wide. USE your space you have available to you. Further, widening your website will also give it a shorter length, so again less user scrolling, and less of a cluttered feel. There is absolutely no reason why this site should be 780px wide, it's a bizarre width! And if you're thinking about netbooks, or mobile devices, then use media queries to adjust the content to suit them. Most people these days use decent sized screens....this site just looks oddly thin. The odd look is compounded further by you 100% width footer. New Idea on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 The slider is great, very visual, very informative 2 The visual weight here is spot on but I feel the SM icons don't sit comfortably. They're big, and they're rubbish icons too, that gloss is pretty tacky if I'm honest. I'd try to find some smaller, more subtle icons. 3 Why is this all on the homepage? This could easily all go on their "about" page. The homepage should concentrate on highlighting their core services, not paragraphs of waffle. If people want to read more about the company/services, they will click through. Moving this off the homepage not only reduces the need for the user to scroll, but it would also help you massively in tidying up the page, de-cluttering it and having that extra whitespace the client has asked for. Home pages for businesses like this just are not the ideal place for long copy. Summary:
Hi Emma
Generally a good design! It's bizarrely thin though, and you have copy on the homepage that would be better off elsewhere.....fixing those two major issues would help the page reduce its clutter and look a little more spaced out, as your client has asked.
-
Michael Gunner commented:P.S Please ignore the "Minor Problem" / "Serious Problem" tags, they weren't working properly.
-
Emma Simpson commented:
Thanks Michael. Appreciate the feedback :)
-
Minor Problem on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11841 1 This looks a little big in proportion to the rest of the text. 2 This text looks a little small 3 These look a little small Minor Problem on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11960 1 Ratio of two text sizes not right... Think the sub text is too small. Positive Feature on http://www.southdownssolar.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=11960 1 Like this panel ... very clear and simple ... well laid out. Summary:
On the whole I like this. And I like the way it is spaced. White space not a problem at all!
My problem is the header. You have a good strong footer and then a wimpy little header that blends in with the rest of the page. Could you make it bit stronger?
For me Tim's comments on readability are spot on ... it is the ratio of the different sizes of text that don't work for me. I know from previous reviews of your work that you are a bit of typography whizz ... so I'm sure you can sort this out (:
Wondering if that is what the client is really not sure about ... often non-deisign thinking people can't really put into words what they find wrong about a design! You have to delve deeper!
I don't like the underlined links ... that might just be my personal gripe ... i think they look dated.
On the whole I really like this ... it is clean and well excuted. So just try a few different version with slightly different font sizes and play around with the header a little and I think you will be there... have confidence ... girl done good.
-
Emma Simpson commented:
Thank you Lisa, Appreciate the feedback :)
-
Thanks Angie for your feedback - really appreciate it :) I hope I can pass on the comments and that a redesign won't be needed