Burkman Yoga Site Redesign

Hi there Ariel,

In some ways this improves on the original site but also I feel it has lost something too.

The original site whilst the design could be improved upon works in that it feels so personal. The picture is lovely and engaging. She looks friendly and approachable and everything is written from a first person perspective. i.e: "I passionately love yoga and teach from my heart, using asana to support deeper connections within ourselves and within our community." etc - this is powerful stuff. The new blurb feels too remote, removed and bland in comparison.

The new picture is great but I want to see her looking directly at the viewer and connecting with us in the way the original site does. She looks so lovely - I want to learn with her but the new picture makes her look less approachable and a bit scary.

I di like what you've done with the typography on the header and logo although I'm not sure about that background and the legibility of the type is being lost against it.

The navigation isn't good - it would be better to do the traditional horizontal nav across the top as it will be easier to work consistently across the site and is easier to use.

All in all a good start but right now I'm preferring the original site in terms of useability and function although this has the starts of the possibility of a better design.

I like your basic concept. Background and soft monochromatic color palette are nice. But it feels unfinished.

There are too many nav options. I should be able to read them at a glance. But since there are so many, and they are so tight, I find myself not reading them at all. And once you add the missing letter in Retreats, it's going to look like one long word. Try breaking out some "utility nav". Maybe About, Contact and Testimonials could be a separate set of nav above your phone number.

The label Links doesn't mean anything. Is it yoga resources, lifestyle resources, links to what? Be more clear.

I would create calls to action... some sort of engagement boxes...maybe 3 across the bottom of the light area. One with a class/instruction photo with text that says Join a class today! Maybe one for retreats that's similar. And one that illustrates the DVD and urges users to buy one.

It's a good start, but you need more so people DO something, look beyond the picture.

First of all, really nice site. The serene look and feel of it really complement the content very nicely.

I would second the comment about having too many navigation links. I think that the overclutter there detracts from the beauty and simplicity of the rest of your site. Another option might be to reorganize the links or create drop down categories that the links could fit into.

And while I like the subtleness of the headings, you may want to boost the contrast between type and background a bit because it's a little hard to read in their current state. (maybe because of the thin hairlines in the font).

But really a nice looking site overall, good job!

Well right away I like v5 better.

In the not-v5 one (which I will call v1 for now) the main menu items are just... out there. The lack of clean lines makes me feel disconnected.

v5 fixes that with a well-defined but not-overpowering main menu. Then you use the space better to place the stories, and the headings "a little note.." and "on the press" look dynamite. You've clearly delineated the places on the page for me, organized it for my eyes.

That yoga pose intimidates me! If I'm a beginning yoga practicioner (I am, actually), I see that pose and know (or think) that the poser (is it the site owner?) is super-advanced, and worry that I'm not going to be able to keep up in her classes. But if she teaches master-classes, this is a good image.

She's one strong lady. Don't bet against her in an arm-wrestling match.

Hey.. couple of quick points to fine tune: I like the color, maybe customize the colors of the Twitter, FB, Digg etc icons to the beige of the site. The ladies' buttocks have been faded off to the background too quick. I would remove that and keep the figure clean. I would bring the size of the girl to 80% and shift her up a bit so I can see her hands. If there was a possibility to choose another photo from the shoot, I'd like to see the feet a more. Home page - menu fonts are way too big. You could probably be creative using different sizes and overlapping them and varying their opacity levels .. The logo can be given a soft drop shadow of a dark desaturated red (overlay mode) to make it pop off the white background.

I love the concept, with minor tweaking you could have an awesome site! Other than the notes I've added the bigest complant I have is "What should I do next"?

Do you want the user to buy DVD's? Sign up for a workshop? call / visit?

Just something to think about I hope this helps!