-
Homepage
What works
The blue section in the header of the homepage does a good job of drawing the users attention via color, visual weight and visual hierarchy. The wavy pattern in the background also adds visual intrest. You could possibly use this pattern in gray scale in the footer of the page to add consistency and visual intrest.
Image also help draw the users attention.
Calls to action are very clear (and very orange) these are hard to miss. Consider toning down the orange just a bit (just personal preference...)
What needs improvement
Consider reversing the logo in white out of a darker background. Right now the logo gets lost because there isn't much visual contrast between the two.
Consider simplifying the blue area. Its pretty busy, has a lot of copy and images that could possibly overwhelm & confuse the user. Remember that users scan most of the time instead of reading all the copy - making things brief ensures they get the gist and if they want to learn more they can click into a detail page.
Consider making the secondary headers on your pages blue instead of black - this would soften up the harshness and make the copy feel more on brand with the color scheme.
Interior Pages
What Works
The interior page with no main graphic in the blue area is very visually appealing. The 'page not found' title in the blue area gives the page title visual distinction and separates it from the page. Consider using this model for the rest of your interior pages and including a main image in the white area.
- The design of the interior pages feel very well aligned and the design is obviously based on a grid. The proportionality of the sidebar to the main content feels appropriate as well. Good job!
What needs improvement
The gun image on the interior page feels cramped. Consider making the image smaller and getting rid of the 'breaking outside the box' effect. This effect is much more successful when used with ample whitespace.
Typography feels clear and balanced although this could be pushed a bit more. The second level headers (products and services) could have more of a size difference from the body text. Using secondary colors would also help as well.
Consider adding a 'back to top' link in the footer or the bottom of the page. These pages are rather long in terms of content.
Other Random Items
- Just a thought, but the logo has a barcode in it... I'm wondering what what it would look like if you use this design element in other places. Perhaps small barcode-ish dividers in other areas of the page (between items of the sidebar) or as a pattern in the footer. Might be a good way to reinforce the branding elements. Give it a try... could be cool or could look horrible.
Overall Thoughts
Overall I think this design is great and could be much better with just a few small tweaks to highlight the content and visual hierarchy. Let me know if you have any questions about my critique or need any clarification.
-
-
Niki Brown commented:Agreed Aurimas - Especially with the simplifying the text into bullet points. If there's a lot of keywords for SEO in that text surely they could be translated into bullet points.
-
-
Horizons Inc commented:Niki - thanks for your insight :) Very very helpful. Sometimes you get so close to a project you lose sight of some of the basics... We're trying to balance between SEO recommendations, marketing recommendations, personal preference and corporate momentum - I'm glad we got this close! We're going to try all your recommendations out as we start testing - the site is almost live actually but we're MVT junkies :)
-
Niki Brown commented:
Hey no problem! Let me know if you have any other questions. I'd love to get a peek at the design after changes are made!
Niki
Camcode-Home-1.jpg
-
1
Not enough contrast
Consider reversing the logo in white out of a darker background
-
2
Simplify
There's a lot going on in this area - consider simplifying.
-
3
Color Scheme
Consider making headers (h1, h2, h3) blue instead of black to go with the sites color scheme better.
-
4
Texture
Consider adding the wave texture in the footer, or a barcode texture
Products-1.1.jpg
-
1
Cramped
This area feels cramped. Perhaps you could make the blue area smaller and include the image in the white main content area. The 'breaking out of the box' effect generally works better in conjunction with ample whitespace.
-
2
Back to top?
Consider adding a back to top link.
-
3
Too orange?
I would tone down the orange a bit. It's almost a bit to jarring.
Blog-Layout.jpg
-
1
Nice
This white header reversed out of blue feels nice in terms of white space and visual hierarchy. Consider using this as a template for the interior page headers.
Good review. I would also like to comment on the homepage design - I believe the blue area up top is really good. It's busy, but I understand the need to pitch your main lines of products. It is well spaced, nice typography, etc. My main concern is with the text below the blue box.
You are telling a story there - from start to finish. Why not illustrate it? Such a large block of text will not be read by people. So unless it's all for SEO value, I'd break it down into bullet points, illustrations, arrows, graphs, and charts. A visual story that is "chunked" into pieces that are easy to visually process is 100% better than just a block of text. And I know companies love to talk about themselves but the web is not where you should be doing this. :)
Since my comments don't warrant a full review and a design review has already been posted I will just do this as a comment. I hope this helps!