GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

The company I chose for project two is Aces Flight School which trains pilots to fly general aviation aircraft towards obtaining a specific license.

http://www.aceflightschool.com/

The purpose of this site is to sell or aid in selling flight and ground instruction hours. However the site will also serve as a membership hub to schedule flights and pay bills, provide reference materials, and allow customers to contact the company by any means.

The general target audience for aviation and Aces in particular are 30+ year old males with income higher then 80,000. (While plenty other demographics are available the demographic will be the largest).

Design one speaks to the younger side and lower income portion of the demographic with an fun loving design that says "flying can be fun and affordable".
Design two use minimalistic gold design elements situated high above an image of the Sierra Nevada's aiming for a higher income target audience.

Hi Harper:

I think both designs are a step up from the actual website, but your design 2 takes the cake for me.

I think you achieved your goal with that 1st design. It definitely feels fun and affordable. It is a little confusing how the navigation works, based on just seeing a .jpg, but I think it's because you had to capture a still shot of an otherwise interactive site.

There is not a single thing I would want to change about your 2nd design. It totally gives me the feeling like "This is going to cost a lot of money, and I don't care. I still want it." Nice work!!

Heya,

In the first design, I'm having trouble with the navigation, What's "Diamond DA20 and DA40"? And why are they part of the navigation?

Your second design is definitely the stronger of the two. The gold color of the logo and the text box are working well. I also really like the idea of the background image being the view of the Sierras from the sky. I would definitely go with this one.

WOW. Your second design is beautiful! I love how you used asymmetry and superposition of elements. I wouldn't change a thing, it is a great improvement compared to the original website you chose to work with!

The Red section with Diamond DA20 and DA40 is a submenu under the category Aircraft that would be visible when moused over. Sorry, it made sense in my head.

BreeAnn wrote:Heya,

In the first design, I'm having trouble with the navigation, What's "Diamond DA20 and DA40"? And why are they part of the navigation?

Your second design is definitely the stronger of the two. The gold color of the logo and the text box are working well. I also really like the idea of the background image being the view of the Sierras from the sky. I would definitely go with this one.

I like both designs but I am leaning towards your second one. There is not much I would change but the image of the plane needs to be the whole plane. I have been around planes for 55 years and it took me a second to figure out what it was. It looks like the Katana they use and I would show the whole plane since it is a cool looking airplane. I like the simplicity and the layout of the website.

After looking at your website designs, it make me want to call pops and go flying.

Great job!
MK

Hi Harper,
Both of your designs look good, in my opinion, the second design is better.
The second design has an image with much more of an impact than the first design.

My advice is to move the sub text (e.g. "pilots license types") and move it to be above the image, rather than within the image,
and also to create dividers between the navigation buttons, to make it easier to distinguish the buttons.

Wow! These are both a great improvement on the original. Yikes!

The second design is particularly strong. A great use of minimalism. It uses white space to highlight the objects in the composition, and yet, they don't lose unity. The background image looking down on the ground is well chosen. I especially love the way the plane breaks out of it on the home page. It gives a great sense of motion and sells the viewer on breaking free and soaring, which is good for a flight school . The tab Ace of Spades logo as a common element works too. In fact I like the overall color selections. Gold and white work well together and also get out of the way and let the photos do the talking. The navigation is also easy to find and use and the inner page is easy to read.

Watch your bottom margin on the inner page, though. Otherwise, it's looking good.

Great work!

I definitely feel like the second design is better out of the two, I really like the color choices with the gold, and how it has a transparency in the body copy box so you can still see through to the background. I also like the remake of the logo on the second design, it looks cleaner than the black one in your first design- the edges are a bit rough on the black one.

I also like that the body copy box is offset to the right, but I feel like it's almost a little too offset and leaves too much negative space between the text and the license types text and the navigation.

Cool! I feel you have taken a very boring and matter of fact website and given it a sense of adventure and excitement. Good job in appealing to the different possible demographics or target audience.

I like both for different reasons which is what you are going for. If you choose the top design consider getting rid of the bottom set of images that fall behind the mountains (unless it's meant to be scrolled on or grabbed or something) as I feel it takes away from the ridge line and may not be necessary.