In this edition, we'll be having a look at two websites. These two sites are what I like to call "Traditional Business" websites. These businesses are not based on
internet alone like many e-business sites we do, but are traditional everyday businesses that have store-fronts and showrooms. With that in mind, a slightly different approach had to be taken; we weren't creating "image" or "identity" of companies from scratch, but had to work with existing and established image that they have previously laboured to create in material world.When creating any website, a designer must look at drive of site. What does client want to accomplish with their website? Do they want to emulate their storefront and be able to accommodate online sales, or do they simply want to create an online presence that effectively acts like a brochure... informing and enticing viewer, with goal of bringing customer into their stores?
The two sites that we'll cover were created with aim of creating an online presence. The two companies are local businesses that are quite comfortable with doing business in a traditional fashion. They simply wanted to have an informative website that could tell potential customers what they had to offer, as well as make their pitch as to why they were best company to deal with... and hopefully as a result, gain that customers business.
The two companies are: 1) Gray Office Furnishings - http://www.grayofficefurnishings.com 2) Place-Crete Systems Ltd. - http://www.place-crete.com
RESEARCH Before making any design decisions, a bit of research was needed. We had to find out as much as we could about business - what clients needs were, their audience, their competition, their budget, and everything in-between. Once we had this information, it had to be edited down to some key points. Here are some of key points about Gray Office Furnishings and Place-Crete Systems:
a) They were both localized businesses operating in a traditional fashion, including offices, showrooms, customer interaction, etc. This was important to consider because it was something that they knew could not be replaced with a website... they needed to continue offering face-to-face customer service that they were use to providing. As a result, their websites are used as a tool or aid to assist with their customer service rather than replace it.
b) They both had physical items to showcase; Gray Office had different styles of furniture, and Place-Crete had on-location images of their quality workmanship. Once again, this is important to consider because it meant that we had more than text to work with. In other words, we had framework to create a captivating, visually pleasing site that is more "image heavy" than most pure e-business sites. This is something that most designers really enjoy, and it gives us a chance to flex more of our creative muscles. It is not appropriate to have an "image heavy" site when content is primarily information based - when speedy download times and maximum efficiency are required. We felt that with these two sites, however, it would be more appropriate. These companies should show what they have to offer, and text alone could not do this. Of course, as always, we still had to keep download times within reason.
These two sites, are essentially online brochures. If you have ever gone into a car dealership for example, and picked up a brochure for one of their cars, you will find a lot of things in common. In a car brochure you will find all vital statistics, features, and benefits of car, but text will not be long-winded and boring; information won't go on for pages and pages and bore reader to death. It will be clean, sleek, efficiently organized, and kept to a minimum. In addition, you will also find that car brochures usually have beautiful design and imagery that lets product speak for itself. Gray Office Furnishings is a good example of this comparison. Like cars, furniture is very visual... and like cars, furniture can have "sex appeal." With sleek curves, and hard lines, it only made sense to treat furniture in same manor. When a prospect see's this site, idea is to get them into showroom to see how great furniture is in person.
"Presentation is everything." Yes, I'm sure most of you have heard this cliche, but think about how true it really is. One should never present ones product in an ugly manner, this will detract from what is really important... product, customer, and in turn, sale. The "form" of site, must follow "function" of site.
c) We've established visual basis for these sites, but what about information? Of course we need to have text and information, but what kind and how much? Well, with these sites (or any for that matter) it is not necessary to bombard prospect with information that is not important to them. The only thing that is important is getting customer to purchase your products/services. The customer will come to site to see what you have to offer, so give them what they want... but only give them enough to satisfy them to point that they will contact you. Therefore, both information they seek, and means of contact should be prominently placed and easy to find. Notice how easy it is to find that information on both of these sites. Makes sense right?
Having minimal text with these sites also allowed us to utilize layouts/formats that were nice and clean, and that didn't require much scrolling. This brings us to some of design decisions that were made with these 2 case study sites.
VISUAL DESIGN DECISIONS With every decision made so far, there has been a reason. It's time to discuss some of reasons behind visual design choices that were made. If this stage goes wrong it can ruin everything. There should be a reason for everything, ie: layout, color, shape, size, and font choice. Lets go through some of design choices that were made with these two sites.
