Pick Your Favourite
This is the first feedback request for Project Pathfinder, an experiment in accessing the wisdom of the crowd in our website design process.
The Big Question: Which home page design do you like better – Design 1, 2, 3 or 4? Click each for a larger view.
Ignore content and images. Focus on first impressions of design, layout and colours.
The Details: If you feel like giving more feedback, tell us why, which elements work (in any design), which don’t, what you would change, etc.
The Timeline: Feedback comments requested by 7:00 am Pacific Time on Friday, Sep. 23rd so we can update our designers.
Please post your comments below. Thanks.
Design #1
Design #2
Design #3
Design #4
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m past your Sept 23rd deadline, but will comment nonetheless. I prefer designs 1 & 3 – both indicate to me that the company is progressive and interested in stimulating two-way dialouge: this is a characteristic I’ve noticed in other social media sites. The other two designs fall flat for me – I have to work too hard to determine the WIFM. Best of luck.
Darren
Wow, some great feedback everyone! Muchos gracias to all.
Just wanted to let you know that a response to everyone’s feedback has been posted at http://relevancepath.com/response-1-home-page-designs/.
Have a look and, of course, feel free to comment. We’ll notify you when the next round of designs and feedback request is posted. Keep your ideas coming…
JP
#1 has potential. I’m not crazy for the choice of font though (mixing narrow non-serif with serif)… those use in #3 and #4 are my preferred.
Also, the top two set of buttons could use more contrast in my opinion. Maybe use the colors from your logo as background for them.
By far I like #1 JP!
Hi Guys,
We like 1- and the idea of stripping down the amount of text. Mostly what I like is simple, easy to navigate, who are ya, what do ya do? Also, if I’m thinking about hiring you I like to see evidence of your work, what types of clients do you like to work with, what do they say about you and why did they hire you. I usually try to decide if there is a fit before I contact someone. We don’t really like to read too much white on black, small font, or serif fonts.
Have fun!
C&K
Hey, that’s great feedback, thanks. There seems to be a consensus on ease of navigation and clarity of message. I’m also with you on the white text on black background thing. It’s just hard on my eyes and makes me think I’m reading a fan site for Metallica or something. We’re going to try to factor all that in to our decisions.
Keith
Bluntly:
Too much text on all of ‘em. What does Inbound do? Why is it good at it?
A friend of mine runs this company in Denver: http://www.factionmedia.com/
That’s who you’re ultimately competing with, if not in this market then on the web.
wg
My friend Will told me he wasn’t sure if we wanted his blunt opinion posted to this blog so he sent it to me in an email. I told him we want as much honest feedback as we can get so I posted it here. It’s kind of nice when people pat you on the back but what really helps is when they tell you when something sucks. Keep it coming!
Hi JP!
I like 2 – it grabs my eye immediately. I like the contrast also.
Please keep in mind that I’m a sales expert not a marketing expert and I come from the perspective of getting the attention of the RIGHT PEOPLE and telling them WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR.
I choose #2 for the following three reasons:
1) I think the image slider at the top in green stands out more and white text on the darker green background stands out more than black text on a light green background
2) I think it’s a simpler cleaner design with more focus that makes people think you are a bigger, more successful company that has focus and can bring valuable expertise to customer Vs. a very busy site which screams I’m a small company struggling to survive so I’ll take anything I can get.
2b) DITTO for navigation menus – This design has single navigation bar which says the same as above.
3) The news is right there on the left side and is less likely to be missed by visitors and the white text on the black background stands out more.
I do have one question about colours. I have been told that darker colours appeal to men better and that the muted colours appeal to women better.
Without knowing who your target marketing is I can’t provide an opinion about colours.
Good Luck!
Craig
P.S. Call my cell phone (+.1.403.874.2998 or 866.744.7904) if you want more imput
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback, we’re getting some ideas about the designs, and not necessarily what we were expecting. And that’s good.
We’re going to extend the timeline for response on this request for another day. JP and I will do a quick blog post in the next day or two with a summary and let everyone know where we’re going next.
Thanks again and have a good weekend.
Keith
2
What a fun idea, getting feedback on the website look and feel. If I’m not too late, here’s my 2 cents worth.
Well, I like 1 and 2 for different reasons. Like the layout for 1 best, like the background colours for 2. Not sure I like the smiling lady face…could be more interesting, what’s wrong with your face? You are the best thing behind your business, show them who you are! I love the little social media icons popping out of a folder – very clever.
I would like to see your company brand/log come across a bit stronger, more present…everything else is very smart and catchy.
2 and 4 – I find that your logo and business name pops out better on both. #2 my favorite. I also like the simplicity of finding the information. Perhaps the logos of your clients on #2 don’t need to be so large.
Tough to decide, they all have merit, put me down for option #1
I like #3 best. It is more dynamic to the eye because of the curve of your green bands. It was the one design where my eyes found the information I would look for the fastest.
Not sure about the cartoon box with all the logos inside… a bit too cartoon in my opinion to convey that you are experts and professionals. Maybe a picture of you guys (nice black and white that shows the face of the professional that will take care of your – faceless – internet needs), or some other relevant graphic.
i like 2. simple and you know where to look
My vote is for #1 or #3. They both have clean design and allow for placement of key information.
I like 1 & 3. This could be specific to my aims, though, because far more often than not I am trying to cut through home page info to get to a particular function in the web sites I use. This means that I like the clearly marked category tabs up front… and if those don’t work I can scroll down to the quicklinks.
#4. Colours draw you in and maintain interest while not cluttering the layout. Important important content blocks and navigation are clearly visible.
I like design #1 & #4.
Overall good design on both of these, but my feeling is there’s too much going on also – I’d be looking to simplify some more…
Great to hear that you guys are working together. Have fun!
I like designs 2 and 3. The layouts segment the information and I don’t have to search through a wall of white…
Design # 4 – boxy with pleasing white space to the eye!
#1. Only suggestion would be to boost up the size of the body text. (16px?)
As a side note, if you want to continue using Wordpress, I would suggest using the Canvas framework rather than Thesis:
http://www.woothemes.com/2011/05/canvas/
Off-the-shelf Canvas looks super basic, but it’s very flexible. Here’s the showcase: http://showcase.woothemes.com/category/canvas/
Let me know if you’re interested and I can get you a discount code.
Good luck with the new site!
Thanks Scott. RE: Thesis….this is just temporary until the new site goes up. Then Thesis gets blown away. It was just an easy framework for a non-programmer like me with a lot of support. Had a quick look at Woo and it looks good!
I like design 2. Good layout and visually easy
These are the first four design concepts. I have my favourite, but not gonna share until you do!
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