GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

For my website redesign I went with renorock.net, a company that supplies people with landscaping materials (they do not do the landscaping, you do). I had a really hard time choosing what colors I wanted for everything but I’m ok with what I have. I ditched their purple blue color for the headings, but I still wanted to stay with their branding colors so I used their orange trucks (with grey blue color of their name) as a reference.

Sticking with their earth theme I choose browns for the ascents and navigation. For the first design, there will be a circle animations around the navigation images when you rollover, in my rough I’m showing the “still” version for them all. And for my second I was thinking pebbles rolling out to form the box, but I don’t know if I’ll stick with that.

I completely changed the layout of their navigation, so it’s less visually cluttered and there aren’t unnecessary tabs. Now there are five main tabs; home, products (with a drop down; when your selected on a page it will be their grey blue), delivery, faqs, and idea gallery. I added idea gallery, since they only supply the materials, I wanted to heavily carter to the do it yourself community out there and give them ideas. I also changed the way their information is laid out so there’s less wasted space and scrolling. Out of the two I thought I would like the rock nav better but I actually really like the circle navigation one better. I think it looks and feels more professional.

I like the second one the best because of all the circles, but not for the icons up top. If you change those I think it'll look better.

So I'm not crazy about that orange... the flintstones rock things has some cool potential, maybe render a background similar? with a nice sky or something?

I like the second design better but the orange is kind of blinding. It looks a little plain too. I enjoy the circular icons for the materials but the home page is just.. blah. Maybe work on your color scheme and use of space. Great start though

I think the layout and illustration for inner circles for the first one is awesome. I like your color choice for bright orange not so much. It doesnt work and overpowers everything on the page.

I like the flintstones vibe that these give me. I enjoy the second one a little more simply because of the illustration. I would actually bring the banner from the first one and use it one the second one. The only thing that doesnt seem to work for me is the pop up menus, they seem kind of rough to me.

Second one is more interesting to look at. I like the rock on the left and I can hover it!

What do I think?

I think I like your first design better. I actually don't mind the orange. It works with the theme and it is part of their branding. I like the Flinstones iconography in the navigation. It both visually sells what each page is about and adds a touch of whimsy to the layout. Needless to say, it'll be super easy to navigate the site. The font choices work well and are easy to read both in the navigation and the bodycopy. The layout's working pretty decently, particularly on the home page.

What these really need is more and larger photos. Feel free to scavenge photos from other sources if need be. Sell us on their services with photographs. Lose the frame around the logo and make the logo larger against that orange background. If you're going to use the trucks as inspiration, well then, use the trucks as inspiration. I'd also lose the boxes under the buttons. Just have 'em be circles with labels underneath. The only box you need to have is your drop down navigation. Everything else can be done with alignment and implication. Also, watch your bottom margin on your drop down menu and the distance between the descriptor and the label on your rock catalog.

Good effort!

I'm not a huge fan of the orange either, but its their branding colors guys. Which I can't change and they would want it everywhere on the web page.

I like the 2nd design, those rocks are eye-catching and fun! I understand that the orange is their thing, but how about using a picture of one of their orange trucks then make the background of the website a complimentary color? That orange really takes away from the product.