Project #2_Roughs

[recordd]

Hi Everyone!
My name is Danielle Record and here are my two roughs for Project #2! We were asked to re-design a bad designed website. My website that was chosen is Creative Kids Learning Center @ http://www.creativekidscenter.net/index.html. This site is for a child care center based out of Missouri. The site design is awful! It is not really related to kids, child care, etc., the layout/links are unorganized, no titles for each page, and it is not very welcoming or personalized towards future parents. I could go on and on. When I researched this site more I found out that they have another index page @ http://www.creativekidscenter.net/index1.html and they have a site for each location, as well. Craziness!
When I chose this site for one of my three sites, I had so many ideas going through my head for this one. My goals are to definitely organize their content, navigation, create one page for all 3 of their locations (with info./links for each, basically so they only have one site for all), photos, forms, etc. I also want to make it more personalized, related and interactive towards parents & children. When I think of daycare's, I think of bright & cheery rainbow colors, so I went with this color scheme for both roughs.
For my 2nd Rough, I got a creative idea from this site (http://creativekidsberlin.com/) which inspired me to create it. So, I asked my daughters to help, I asked them to cut out any designs that they wanted using colorful construction paper so I could use it as my background. They loved it For Rough 1, I decided to use the white background for a clean look and bright color theme. This site @ http://www.websitesfordaycares.com/dayc ... plates.php, inspired me for this design. This site has several daycare templates to chose from. I am looking forward to this preliminary critique and ALL suggestions are welcome! I cannot wait to view all of your inspiring & talented designs also! Please let me know what you think! Thank you so much!

[paula_b]

Hi Danielle!
Great job on your roughs! I really like rough 1, it is very pleasing to the eye. Clean, simple and easy navigation. The only thing that I can suggest is using the same color on your header font as the index page. The blue pops out more than the red and is easier to read. On rough 2, I like it but it seems a little muddy. Maybe if the text boxes had a bit more opacity, it would be a little easier to read. I love the font choice for your header and sub-headers in rough 2! They're both well put together, and the color schemes are perfect!

[dboudinot]

Great roughs Danielle,

I think your color choices are great on both, and you really hit your target audience. I like your second design a little more than your first. I like the balance and the navigation a lot. Raising the opacity like Paula suggested maybe a good idea to make it a little easier to read but I am a sucker for transparency which is apparent in my own work. The first design falls a little flat for me in comparison with the second. I don't stay as interested to because of the white background, but it is still a good clean design, and I am sure either one will turn out very good. Nice Work!

[aslychsm]

Oh man, that was a sad website you chose to redesign, but I love your direction with the two roughs! Your color choices were spot on, nice soft, pastel colors really correlate back to children. Both designs are very neat and organized, which I think is important when trying to convince parents to enroll their children there. Overall, they're both good choices. My vote is on the second rough. Letting the background subtly show through was a great idea, and having the children change based on page is very cool. I think that "Creative Kids Learning Center" could be a bit bigger, and instead of having one big navigation panel, maybe try dividing them into individual buttons, that way it doesn't look like there is all that extra white space.

[lingling_chen]

Hi Danielle
Your roughs are much much better than the original website, good job! I like your rough#2 better, I will check it back for your final.

Lingling

[paula_b]

Okay, with the changes that you've made, I have to go with rough 2. It's really good!

[Sierragirlnv]

Hi Danielle,

I like the second layout hands down. I like that you integrated actual "kid artwork" into the design. I think it is visually well organized and effectively communicates to the audience what the site is about. The image that you used maybe if you put that in front of the opaque boxes it might look better but that's the only suggestion I have.

Sierragirlnv

[georgia_novotny]

Hi Danielle,
I really like your roughs, they are both creative and fun ideas.
I like the "rough 1" designs as its very legible and readable.
I can see where and understand the navigation is in the first second.
The color scheme is good and I like the gradient.
The overall composition welcomes the viewer in with fun colors and photos of happy kids.

The think you should add some of your kids cut outs from the second layout to the rough 1 design.

Their logo with their names is too small and hard to read.
Maybe you should consider putting it in a better place in regards to hierarchy.

Hope that helps, good job!
Georgia

[rrodriguez]

Danielle Record, I like layout 1 with the buttons horizontal. I just find it easier to navigate through knowing the buttons are on the top. However, i like the cutout shapes you used for layout 2, such a cleaver and neat way to bring a personal touch to the site. I would suggest blending the two elements together. Maybe make the shapes background the background for layout 1. But I also like the white background when reading the content. And I like that you brought all three locations together in one website. The way they have it now is totally confusing. You are doing is justice with your layout. Good start.

[TsukimizuDC]

Danielle,

I really love your roughs. They really grab the attention not only to me, but also to your target audience. I'm leaning to the second rough more than the first because of the background and how you used two different images of kids on the top of the page. The only problem that I have with rough 1 is the gradient is a little busy and I can't make out some of the header and navigation bar. The one thing that you should work with for rough 2 is to make the type a little bigger because I couldn't see it as clearly.

Great job!