Freckles and Handsome

This is a site announcing the wedding of a couple from Florida that was obviously intended to be fun and lighthearted. The navigation is at the top, but that page is flat, so it just bounces you down to the corresponding section. It is easy to understand and hits the high points and important information in the narrative that they have crafted. The content is fun and appropriately cute, but I feel like the type and some of the images get a little large in some areas. The sections are divided by color change and yellow headlines, which help keep the hierarchy in a static layout. The images are primarily photos and fun icons, and I feel like there are just enough of both. The whole site is done in yellow and green, and while I like the decision to only use two colors, I think I would have tried to find a less jarring shade of green for the background. I think the functionality of having the rsvp right at the bottom is nice, and overall I think this was a great alternate version to the typical paper invitation.

Heath Waller Creative

This is the personal site of a web designer based in Canada and Australia. I really enjoyed the illustrations and collage styles that she brought into each page, and the subtle ways she found to keep the theme on the more text based areas. Her only navigation is at the top of the page, and it is simple and clean, very appropriate for a personal site. The architecture isn’t extremely deep, so this single level works well for her. The labels are clear and concise, and the overall structure is consistent. I really liked the border detail and the fun way the images were spread throughout the site, especially when her portfolio page features various fruit illustrations upon rollover. It adds a lot of personality and a whimsical touch to her work. The images are colorful but dusty enough in their tones that they don’t really compete with the content, and the type is only a few select colors. My favorite little detail is under the work section, on the individual pages where each project is layed out. She created a little icon set that informs the viewer of her role in the project. It is straightforward but eye catching, and gives the user a quick overview of how deeply she was involved.

Brindisa Restaurants

Brindisa is a group of restaurants and markets that sell gourmet Spanish food in the UK. I was initially drawn to this design for its typography, and the interesting use of color throughout the site. It is also packed with functionality, and provides multiple ways to view information. The main navigation is located at the top, and upon selection the various tabs open into different sub navs. Each sub nav is in list form at the left, and also in boxes with images in the content of the page. I love the callouts that are always at the top of the page as well, making it easy for the user to purchase items and to make reservations. The architecture is deep but the user can always find their way with a consistent format and navigation. The type is interesting and fun to interact with at first, but I think an additional treatment would have broken up the pace a bit as the bold headlines get old and almost tiring after spending a good amount of time browsing the site. The colors of the type make sense, but on the homepage they are too much. I think I would try bringing them in on rollover only, so there wouldn’t be so much color at any given time.

The entire site is very structured and very box driven. I think some of the boxes make sense, especially where the content is clickable or directing the user to another page. In other places I think the structure could have been pushed a bit more, with more overlapping images or less grid-like layouts. The imagery is totally photos, but I think the decision to primarily use close-up crops was good and gives a nice feeling to the site in general, especially with the subject matter of food.

Overall I think this site uses some great type and interesting images, but gets tiring too quickly and could use another layer of design elements to hold view interest for a longer amount of time.

True Tea

True Tea is the website for a bottled tea beverage created by a lawyer and a banker who source their tea leaves from all over the world. I absolutely love the illustrative quality of this site, it feels very homegrown and natural but fun at the same time. Even the scroll bar is hand drawn, and I appreciate this attention to detail. The navigation of this website is a simple row of four image boxes found in the middle of the page. Its large, its central, and it immediately draws my attention after I spend time interacting with the main image on the home page. I love how icons are used within the first page, and the color change upon selection is nice and subtle. The second page features the various locations of the tea leaves, and while I enjoy the map, I wish there was some way to select the specific tea and then learn about the location, rather than being forced to go through the teas one at a time according to where they are from. The biography page and the quiz are fun and light, and overall help this website to be very enjoyable to interact with. The only content I felt was lacking was a store locator or some indication of where the tea could be purchased. Overall the content, layout, type and color were appropriate for the subject matter, and gave the brand a natural, down to earth feel while injecting a bit of fun and humor to what could have been a very serious product. I loved the illustration and the icon work, and I think there was just the right amount of elements on the page and too many more would have resulted in clutter.

Philadelphia Mural Arts

I was drawn to this site with its large high quality images that take up the entire top of the page. It seems very appropriate for a mural arts website to have huge photographs, but the transparent overlays and the content box headers just above the fold help bring it to the next level. The main nav is very obvious at the top of the page, and I really like the way it expands into different color drop downs that fill various shaped spaces below it. When the list items in the main nav are selected it brings up an entirely different page layout, which seems confusing at first with two additional navigational areas. I think the designers of this site understood that it was extremely layered and could get difficult to understand, as they included a trail back to the home page at the top of each content box. The footer also acts as an additional way to view various pages, bringing the count to 4 total navigation bars on some pages. Whew.

The architecture is obviously very structured and the content is very deep. You can definitely find any page at any time, as there are so many ways to navigate the content. The type seems to start the hierarchy, but I think it’s the color changes and various boxes and bars that really help designate what is important. I think the labeling is clear, but could be simplified even more. If it were up to me, I think I would also reduce the number of options for navigation, it is just too many options at some points.

As mentioned, the imagery is great, with big and bold photos really reflecting exactly what a mural is all about. I think its just about right, as too many more images would compete and leave the site feeling cluttered. The colors have been pushed to the limit, I think that even one more would have been too many, but the current selection works just fine. Its nice that each page has a different color, its just another way of letting the user know that the content has changed.

Overall the site seems to be very appropriate for the content, and has a great feel about it. The content seems almost overwhelming, however, with so many options for navigation. I’m not convinced that they are all entirely necessary, but the structure and grid system of the site keep it from being confusing.

Basil Thai Restaurant

Basil Thai is a restaurant with multiple locations in North and South Carolina. Their website caught my eye with a simple look and a very intuitive flow of information that appropriately almost reads like a menu. The navigation is on the left, and at times opens into a subset navigation menu. I think this works only because of our natural tendency to view a page from left to right. The content is very light as well, which helps this type of layout to work. Im not sure If I like the inset scroll, it isn’t really necessary and I think the content could just flow the length of the page and utilized the browser scroll bar. The nav wording seems clear, but it would be hard to go wrong with such minimal content. I do appreciate the very visible downloadable pdf versions of each menu, and the ability to change the location to compare each restaurant’s menu. The structure is very simple and all housed in one horizontal box. Its not groundbreaking, but it works well for organizing menu items and lists of information. The images are very iconic, but very typical and straightforward. I think more interesting illustrations could add a lot to the site, especially if they broke out of the box a bit more. My eye definitely goes to the green navigation bar first, and the color also helps it to stand out as the most important element on a very white page. The page title grabs my attention next, followed by the imagery and the subheads. Overall I think the site allows the user to quickly and efficiently view the most necessary information, but is lacking in the details and could use more compelling imagery.

Theme Magazine

Theme magazine is a publication that features a collection of stories that are centered around varying topics for each issue. The target audience is creative people who enjoy stories that are well-written, well-designed, and have a global perspective. The main navigation at the top is clear and consistent, and I think it does a great job of featuring the main components of the magazine. When one of the main items is selected, a left side navigation appears. This goes into more detail, with popular posts and rss feed items for the page as well. I like how the magazine index is organized by country, but the story page is organized by topic. It gives the user multiple ways to view the content but in a subliminal way. The navigation at the top of the page is stays the same throughout, with a simple color change when selected, while the side nav changes with the page.

The architecture of the pages in general is fairly simple, but it seems to have a great depth of content that one would expect to find in a magazine. The type is organized not only by size, but by color and position. Overall it retains an editorial feel, but also seems to fit on the web. The layout is very grid based, but the structure is necessary for such a great amount of content. It stays fairly consistent, with opening headline, byline, and main image followed by body content. The main nav has the most weight on the page along with the featured image. I think I might bring a bit more attention to the headline as well, but for the most part the hierarchy is working well.

I think I gravitated to this site simply because it handles a lot of content well. There isn’t much art or illustration to speak of besides photographs, however. Some sort of iconography or simple vector images would really add another level to what is a really great basic layout. I think that the choice to go simple was great as far as the color scheme, it allows for varying content and diverse full color images without any conflict or vibration.

Overall I think that the site is very functional and simple, with very clean type that makes it easy to use. The most useful areas to me are the popular stories section and the multiple menus for navigation.