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Concept Reviews
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Excellent! No changes needed now the contrast issues have been fixed. A near faultless design.
You may want to align the search in the footer with the tab social bookmarking tab above it but I'm just being picky!
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I think the overall feel of the design seems very 'bulletproof.'
Minor tweaks: I assume the large box is for scrolling/sliding content. Maybe change the navigation squares to circles or something softer. The site already is very rigid in box shapes.
Colors/Feel: The color scheme is very pleasing and inviting as a religious site should be.
Navigation: Easy/clear navigation and layout (top, middle, bottom) to any necessary information.
Header: Very pleasing, appropriate whitespace, explains clearly the purpose of the site: "One Church, Multiple Locations". Clear navigation, visible logo...
Search box: I agree with the previous comment to align the footer search box with the tab of social icons or vice versa (basically aligning it with the above columns)
All in all great job!
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Nate Hamilton commented:Thanks for the review here David, very confirming. i'll play around with the softer scrolling buttons, thanks again!
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The tweaks to the navigation color and social media section look great. I also like the square edges for the location links better than the rounded corners. I liked the hashes you had in the blue, but I guess it is cleaner without them. Here are a few other thoughts:
- To accommodate the navigation visibility concern when the user is reading the body text, perhaps you could also place the 4 links in the light gray bar either left aligned or right aligned to the social media icons. This would allow users to make a quick click to another page after they are finished reading rather than scroll up to the very top and wouldn't intrude on the aesthetics of the site.
- I'm sure you have placed the social media icons to the right to balance the Gather Connect Serve text, but I think it may be better to left align these since it seems likely that the left column will never fill with as much text as on the right. In other words, the text on the right will always dictate the length of the page and thus the text will always be that close to the icons. If you move them to the left, there will be more white space on top of these icons. Not a must, but something to think about.
- I'd still like to see some color added to the body text, whether it be to the horizontal lines surrounding the quote, the read more link, or the Welcome title.
- You may want to select a lighter gray, closer to white, for the color of the location navigation links. They are a little tough to read.
Other than those small things to consider, you're in great shape. I look forward to seeing the live site!
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Nate Hamilton commented:
Thanks Andy, I appreciate the feedback. I'll keep your feedback in mind here on my next revisions.
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Nate, this is certainly a solid design, and a huge improvement over the current site. There's a lot of things I like about it, and just a couple things I don't.
Probably the biggest thing I don't like is the web 2.0 style feel - maybe it's just the diagonal lines. That stuff is done to death. But on the other hand, it's not like your audience necessarily needs some bleeding edge original style, so I don't think it's bad either. I will say it's well executed anyhow.
So here's my more specific thoughts...(See notes).
...actually after making all of my notes, I realized it's not the web 2.0 style that really bothers me, it's the "distant" tone and feel of the page. Something about it just doesn't feel personal enough for a church site.
I'm sure you're slider content will help with that, assuming you use lots of images of people and things that reflect community. But knowing what I know about Church, and that it's purpose is really about people and community, I just feel like this design is really more appropriate for something less personal, and more corporate, or a product.
I'm being pretty critical because I know you are a good designer, and also I know how hard churches have to work to overcome image and PR barriers as is. (fyi, our churches website badly needs help in a similar way. I've seen some really great stuff recently at http://www.churchbeauty.com. And also, I know in a church it can be design by committee.)
Notes Added to Images View
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1Slider...good focal point
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2images
Are you planning to use images in here? I would suggest trying some images in the backgrounds of these boxes. Overall the page feels a bit "cold" to me, mostly on account of a) use of cool color pallete, and b) little use of images with people. Putting some images in here may help with that.
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3Nav bar
Nice and simple. I would suggest adding a spot for locations up here also.
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4Logo colors
The logo tones don't quite seem to match the blues used on the page backgrounds.
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5highlighting events
Excellent. I think this may be one of the best features of this home page. I know church members always are looking for info on the events, and this looks like a great way to highlight that info.
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6social media links
Like your incorporation of the social media links - very easy to find, and not obnoxious.
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7alignment
This portion does not appear to be left aligned with the rest of your page (sticks out left too much).
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Nate Hamilton commented:
Hey Joel, thanks for your rockin' review here, very helpful. This is definitely one of the harder designs that I have been trying to put together. The design has morphed quite a bit and I am actually also trying a very different version of the one I posted here. You hit it on the head when you talked about design by committee which is definitely one of the harder obstacles to overcome here. I will be posting another version of this soon and would love for you to let me know your thoughts. I'll keep you updated. I still think we need to get together for coffee at some point, it would be good to put a face to the voice :). Keep in touch, thanks again!
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Joel Glovier commented:Yeah, seriously. Let's shoot for some time this summer. Maybe a Saturday morning?
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Nate Hamilton commented:
That sounds good, I'll give you a holler when things slow down for me. Thanks again Joel!
Wow, quite the review, thanks for the positive feedback! Good call on the search box, I'll tidy that up. Thanks again!