1st roughs for project 2 for prelim critique

[georgia_novotny]

Hi Everyone,
I picked a national zoo for the website I wanted to redesign.
I got the 3rd oldest in the country...The Buffalo Zoo in Buffalo NY.

Their website is at the following link:
http://buffalozoo.org

These designs are roughs and will be changed quite a bit to give it more of a artist/designer feel.
I think they are simple and give a basic idea of what direction I plan on taking with my redesign for their website.
I spent more time on one versus the other, which is obvious.
I plan on reworking the one I didn't work on very much.
Possibly this weekend and putting something up again since the one design is very simple.
I really wish I had more time as I am sure a lot of you do too
I just wanted to get something up!

I Look forward to hearing feedback.
Thanks
Georgia

[paula_b]

Hi Georgia!
Nice roughs! I'm leaning towards the 2nd redesign. The colors are great and match the logo perfectly. The only suggestion that I have is to do something different with the print that borders your main image. The blue leopard print distracts from the image. Maybe a different texture completely would be less dominating. Also a neutral color may let the patterns in your images pop out more. Good start!

[aslychsm]

These are both exciting and interesting to look at, but in different ways. I love your color choices in the second rough, they all balance each other and work well together. But I really like all the photos you used on your first design, and how they create textures and visual interest. What I really want to see is a melting pot of both. I think that by combining the photos and animal print of the first, with the color choices of the second, would really improve the overall final. But I think you've started off on the right track, and I'm excited to see what you come up with!

[Sierragirlnv]

Hi Georgia,

I think I like the first layout best because what is a zoo all about...the animals! I do think the cheetah print is a little excessive. I like how you chose playful color choices because I think the audience is children and families. I think if you took away a little and added some more simplicity to the design it will benefit greatly.

Sierragirlnv

[recordd]

Hi Georgia!
Great start on both of your designs! Rough #1, has a good layout going on, I like your idea of placing images next to each link, the news & events section is a nice touch, and the rotating images section to the right will be eye catching. I'm leaning more towards rough #2 though, I like your color scheme that you have going on. I think the blue, green and white all go well together. The images that you placed at the bottom of the page is a nice touch. I think they add character to the page, their visually interesting and they would work great as links to those pages. Suggestions that I would make are to create a footer for contact & location information, I would remove all of the underlining from your type, and on the meet our animals page I would make your main image a little smaller, slide it to the right a bit, then place your secondary navigation vertically on the left side.

[mlauc]

Hi Georgia,
Both designs are a great improvement from the original. I am leaning toward the 2nd rough because I can see this structure adapting well to different screens sizes and I really like the color palette. Great job!

[rrodriguez]

Georgia, I like the layout with the photos of the animals already in place because the color choices make it pop. Show casing the animals in circles look more playful and fun. The buttons and arrows let the view know exactly where you're going or want to go. I would play with a bolder type for the headline. It's coming together pretty well

[dboudinot]

Hi Georgia,

Fun zoo Websites! I like the first design; it's a little crazy, but I am a fan of the prominent animal images. I would balance the top bar a little better and tone down the blue cheetah print, but overall I think the design is really strong. Yay for a fellow zoo re-designer! Nice work!

[Instructor]

Hm. I think I like your second design better.

You have to be very careful here though. The first one is awfully cluttered and I don't want to see the second one succumb to the same clutter. I like most of the colors, though I would remove the blues. Do the background in a dark tan or forest green. Also, make sure you don't use underlined type on the real thing. Underlined type means links to most people and you don't want to cause mass panic by having your users frantically clicking everywhere.

I like the structure of your navigation and that the home page nav is comprised of nothing but big call to action buttons.

I'm not sold on the black outlines. I say dump 'em.

I'd also make sure the logo tab was a little more tab like. Maybe with a drop shadow?

All is all, a good start. I like what I see.

[wendy_boddy]

both designs are a great start to improving their site. I'm leaning towards the redesign 2, but once al the imagery and copy is in there it will be easier to compare as there is a lot of info on both. I think the homepage of the first one is cool okay now i'm not sure which one i like better. Okay i'm leaning towards the second now, but i would allow the logo and title of the page be on the same colored background. the separation between white and green throws my eye a little.

good job


wendy