Project 2 Preliminary Roughs

[dboudinot]

Hi everyone,

I am Dominique Boudinot, and this is preliminary critique for project 2. For this project, we were asked to redesign a bad website. The website I am redesigning is the Sierra Safari Zoo website http://www.sierrasafarizoo.org/default.html. The biggest problem I have with the website is the color scheme, which is terrible, so I played with different color combinations to try to create two different feels for my roughs.

My first design is very stylized with basic shapes, which I found was pretty common in zoo websites that involved any African animals. I may want to try to incorporate actual photos of animals on the homepage later, but for right now I kept it cleaner because adding actual photos to the homepage made it too busy. I am also considering using gradients rather than solid blocks of color which will make the design less stylized, but may create a nicer flow, so I am going back and forth.

For my second design, I decided to use actual animals with pops of colors and gray boxes which allow the animals to stand out especially if the animals are brightly colored like the tiger I used in my information page or the peacock I may use on another page. I will probably add more color to these roughs especially in the text headlines as long as I can find a good color that will remain legible, thus far the most legible has been straight black and white, so if I can't get good color on my text, I'll probably just add more animal pictures.

Let me know what you think; I am very open to suggestions right now.

[aslychsm]

Those are both really good designs! I'm pretty sure I'd recognize that they were for a zoo, even if the title wasn't there. I think that either of these would be successful for this project, but I'm more fond of the first design. The silhouettes were a great idea, there's a lot for the eyes to wander through, and the colors scream "safari". The thing I would play around with is your navigation bar, I feel like it would be more unified if it was in the same spot as on your home page. And I definitely think you should play around with gradients, it would give the whole layout a little more dimension. Good job!

[lingling_chen]

Hi, Dominique

You sure did an excellent job on your roughs. I like them all. Good color choices,navigation,and alignment.neat and creative.

Lingling

[paula_b]

Hi Dominique!
Wow! I really like both of your roughs. They are clean and easily navigated. I'm leaning more towards rough 1, the colors, silhouettes and overall composition is really nice. If I had to change anything on it, it would be rescaling the standing monkey or to move it so that the feet and/or tail bleed off the page.This may create the feeling of depth. Good job!

p.s. I'm stealing the silhouette idea on the navigation!

[Sierragirlnv]

Hi Dominique,
I like the first layout the best it has a African feeling to it and it looks great! The black silhouettes look great as well. The second layout distracts me with the "floating" tiger on the page...haha. I am not sure about the bubbles that you put the type in but mess with it a little and I think it really is a great idea!

Sierragirlnv

[georgia_novotny]

Hi Dominique,
I really like what you did for your rough ideas.
Very creative and they both look so much better for a redesign of the sierra safari zoo.
I too think their website is horrible and picked it as one of my three for redesign.

I like both your designs but prefer "rough 1" with the landscape and silhouetted animals.
I love the artistic feel it gives off with the illustrations.
I would change the colors around the lion or change the color of the animal silhouettes to be colors.

The black lion blends in the with the color hues/values of the landscape.
In terms of hierarchy all the animals should stand out first over the landscapes.
I would put the navigation on the top of the design as it is more user friendly and easier to find. But where you put it is readable and you find it in the first 3 seconds so it’s not that big of a deal just personal preference.

Hope that helps, great job!
Georgia

[recordd]

Hi Dominique!
Great job on both of your roughs! I think both of them scream "safari" & "zoo", even without the page title I would know that. Perfection! I absolutely love the navigation pieces that move to the link of what page you are on, nice touch that is unique and very creative. Both designs are organized, clean, contain easy navigation, and are very creative. I think I like the silhouette one the best because your color scheme and overall design goes perfect with the logo and name of the zoo. One suggestion that I have is to maybe change your navigation on the about us page to the same as the homepage and keep the same background, as well.

[rrodriguez]

Dominique Boudinot, I'm really diggin both layouts but for different reasons. Layout 1, I love the bubbles on the home page because it makes it free flowing, and gives it a fun feel. I'm diggin the color scheme also. The dark reds and yellow make it look exciting. I'm thinking the buttons will work better on the top rather than the bottom, just to be consistent with the other pages which will have buttons on top. Layout 2, I'm diggin the cutouts of the animals a lot because it's bringing the actual animals into the website. I suggest merging these two elements together. It would look hot. You've done an awesome job

[TsukimizuDC]

Dominique,

Great concepts! Both roughs flow beautifully and it screams "safari". It reminds of the movie Blended. I'm really liking the first rough because of the silhouettes that you put into the design. The only problem that I'm having is the type. On parts of the rough, I can't read it. I like the second rough, but the images of the animals doesn't give the same excitement as the first one does.

Go with rough 1, my vote! Awesome job!

[Instructor]

Got some good looking designs, here.

I really like your first design. The use of color is very strong. It has a both a simplicity and a depth to it that are really fantastic. I also like the use of contrast, without the harshness of a straight black and white combination. I don't even think you'll need pictures of the animals as design elements (you'll need some for page content, though). The silhouettes work fine in the design. In fact, I prefer them to the photos in the second design.

Typographically, it's very strong as well. Good use of serif type throughout. It creates a sense of warmth and invitation. The navigation is well placed, large, and easy to use. I especially like the little lion as the placeholder to tell you what page you're on. It fits with the zoo's branding and history. The call to action buttons on the home page really work well also.

The colors really make me feel the heat of a hot savannah in Africa.

I also like the changeup on the logo placement in the inner page.

The only things I think that need fixing is to use a less bold bodycopy on the inner pages and expand the left and right margins on your text boxes on your inner page.

Very nice work!