Forum Moderators: phranque
I have several sites that need to be redesigned from the ground up. The general subject area will stay the same. The content will be updated. And the designs ... the current designs need to be nuked and I need to start fresh. So really, I’m talking:
I think I’m experiencing a severe case of Usability and SEO Information Overload, though, and I don’t know where to start!
So far, here are the steps I’ve taken:
And I have nothing to show for my efforts!
I see so many poorly designed, hard-to-use sites in my space that it’s easy for me to say, "See that? That is what I don't want." But when it comes down to it, I don't have any inspiration for what I do want.
So where do you start, when you’re ready to design a new site? How do you keep things fresh and exciting, without reinventing the wheel? How do you design a new site to make it both (a) familiar and usable to your audience, and (b) more than just a rehash of something that was inadequate to begin with?
Give me a site already built and I'll tell you what's wrong with it and how to fix it. But building a site from the ground-up, incorporating all of the best practices? I need inspiration!
A site is never finished. It is always BEGUN. It is a living creature. After you 1st launch your site, it will be vs. 0.1, you need to work on it to bring to 1.0 (minimum qulity)...then you add features, thus creating vs. 1.1 and so on.
Looking at other sites is NOT a good idea. 99% of sites out there have poor usability. You need to start with a clean sheet...only that will work.
You can get almost every answer from yourself. It requires more effort than looking externally, but the answers from within are ALWAYS better than from looking externally. That is becasue each situation is unique, so ONLY YOU can answer your situation.
For the most part i take inspiration from photography, check out stock image libraries which are searchable by them have a look around the ideas will start to come, shape colour contrast etc it's all there, I also look around graphic design websites, portfolios, it's not cheating to base your design on another site because 9 times out of 10 it won't be anywhere close by the time you've finished. Just gives a good starting point.
If design inspiration still doesn't come, build the html skeleton around the content, that'll atleast give you a frame to work with. I swear by a bit of cypress hill or anything funky wihile designing, haven't had a bad design with cypress hill and a few beers yet, good design doesn't come when your stressed ;oP
most of all simple sites are usually the ones that look the best don't over design it.
my site: <snip>
[edited by: Woz at 12:42 pm (utc) on July 3, 2003]
[edit reason] no self URLs please, TOS#13 [/edit]
For those with the "big picture" approach, you may find a thinking approach labelled SOS (Survey, Observe and Solve) is helpful. You can find more details in a white paper entitled How to Think Better [strategicmarketingmontreal.ca].
Barry Welford
In my experience, there isn't always one foolproof approach for igniting that creative spark. Sometimes just looking at the site's products or objective will cause a design to pop into mind; other times, a scan of web portfolios may trigger an idea. The one certain thing is that if a particular approach isn't working, it's a lot better to move on to a totally different approach and see what happens.
I completely understand and sympathize. Try giving yourself permission to play for the afternoon and you may find your creative juices are recharged.
Good luck!
So I'm imagining myself, as I'm reading these, following some of these suggestions. Imagining myself sitting at my desk with a vodka and iced tea, cranking some Skynrd (or something else inappropriate for work, pick your flavor), zoning out with a stock photography site on the monitor and a bunch of glossy magazines on my desk, making collages as I stare blankly into the pretty, pretty colors. My boss sneaks up, startles the hell out of me, I throw my glue pot and accidentally stab him in the eye with the scissors in my tipsy startlement, and not only get fired, but sued and thrown in jail. Alternately, I manage not to poke anyone with scissors or douse them in glue, and he gets to ask me the inevitable "so whaddaya workin' on?" question, and I'm so far zoned-out on creative juices that all I can answer is "pretty, pretty colors... pretty colors..."
I just haven't figured out how to really get creative at work. I mostly do boring stuff there. I can zone out at home because my boyfriend almost never sneaks up on me, and he knows that if he does he deserves what he gets.
When you have decided your deign get a person who knows little about the net, but know roughly what to do and ask them to find a,b,c and d on your site.
Watch them do it and see what they do. I find a lot of people try to click on things that should not be clicked etc.
It's a very good idea to have someone test it, and one I have never done enough of. Of _course_ I know where to find everything; I _put_ it there. Sigh.
Take a tip from a pro:
"Good artists copy. Great artists steal"
– Picasso
I am not advocating you violate any copyright or intellectual property laws, or do anything unethical. A great website, is never original. Or at least it starts out that way. It is a compilation of the best ideas reinterpreted in a new vision.
Need Inspiration, go to pixelmill.net.
GHSnow
Thanks guys!
"Good artists copy. Great artists steal"– Picasso
This is an ongoing debate, and so true.
There are truly very few original thinkers out there, as digitalghost once pointed out "de novo thinker".
Excellent thread! :)
I picked up the habit at art college some years ago and is a great way to record ideas and then resource them when you are stuck for creativity.
I wonder if we could support a "creativity" forum here...
Excellent idea, Rogerd, an area for members to share creative ideas and questions.
I second the motion.
- Chad
subscribe!
Maybe the term "creativity" is a little misleading, though. I see a lot of creativity in alost all forums, from the use of htaccess files to PR-improvement.
I would suggest that "Web design and layout issues" might be better, just to narrow it down. That said, perhaps "design" is better, as layout is already covered in the CSS threads - eg: "One column for small windows, two columns for large windows "
/claus
I dreamed about my site redesign last night. Must've been sparked by all of the stuff in this thread.
I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted to do with my redesign ... and then last night while I was sleeping it all came together.
I wonder if we could support a "creativity" forum here...
We definitely have enough creative people - but I wonder if the topic is sustainable. I'd love to have a place more specific than "Webmaster General" for this kind of thing. It doesn't quite fit into Content and Copywriting ... it doesn't quite fit into Site Graphics and Multimedia Design, either ... :)
I wonder if the topic is sustainable
That was my concern, too, Hawkgirl. This has been a great thread, but I think a forum would have to deal with solving specific creative problems rather than general discussion of the creative process. I'll let *you* suggest this one... If I bug Brett with another great forum idea, he'll ban me for life. ;)
They tend to have entire themes... some are as small as business cards, others fold out to an entire poster size...
DMOZ has an entire section just for rave flyers!
[dmoz.org...]
look long and hard at it...
start building yours :$
or am I the only one to do that?
I dreamed about my site redesign last night
Another way, creativity pops in. When I keep thinking about the site when I go to bed, chances are sometimes I dream of it and most of the times it makes sense (I dreamed of an alogrithm once which was an enlightning experience). Occasional beers before that procedure improves the qualitity of the creativity.
The bar ;)
While you're there, try to look at everything through the eyes of a child.
Don't just look and see trees. Look at the branches, the bark, the leaves, the bugs, the colors, the shapes, the shadows.
Don't just look at the giraffes. See the way their spots are placed, the different shades of the spots (they're not quite all the exact same color, you know), the lumps and bumps on their bodies, the way they move when they stand and eat leaves from the treeetops, the way they pick up something from the ground, the way they scratch and itch.
Aw heck - you get the idea.
Syren
As sugarkane suggests, consumer goods can be good starting points. Presumably, the big firms spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a product package design, so why not learn from their their work?
I'm relatively new in this forum, but not as new as it might appear;) Only that since I found this wonderful place on the Web, I just spend sometimes hours, browsing through the different topics in WebmasterWorld. I don't have a specific question just now, so I just listen what others have to say... but I couldn't resist the desire in this thread!
I'm also sure when I have questions, I'll find the answers right here, in this community (I'm just a beginner and I can code a bit of html and css).
What I can say about inspiration? I think maybe the Mountains are one of the best places to go, when you feel tired, when you lack ideas, when you think you cannot invent nothing more... In such a time, just leave the city, go somewhere high, where air is pure and Silence has its meaning, and don't try to think about anything. If you started or must start a project soon, don't think about it. Just relax. And you'll see, when you go back to your work, ideas will come, as if by themselves.
Truth is, we NEVER stop thinking... but when we go in such a place, all the process goes to the background, and that's why it helps.
At least, Mountains help me.
Of course, sometimes all you need maybe something very different - like coupla cans of good beer, or a walk in the moonlight, or simply a nap.
But for me, Mountains are the Inspiration:) Maybe because when up there, we're closer to Heaven? ;-)
Good content & easy navigation, I've seen plenty of sites that are eye catching with content that dosen't provide enough information or has very poor navigation & on the latter people will click off to another site, I know I do.
I tend to plonk the content on a page then build around it, ususaly several times until I'm satisfied it's right. Whoever invented cut & paste is a god!
Take for example my latest project for a cycle shop. This shop sells mountain bikes that vary in price but are upwards of 7K. for the elite series. I looked at all the competitors sites and they all had difficulty in presenting the product. A cycle is an odd shape but that's no excuse for something small and blurry.
After working on the design for a while I began to understand why they had problems. The correct pixel value was just too (way to big) big an image for a website, both in terms of image space and download speed (in spite of optimization of pics).
So I utilised the modular approach and highlighted the essential features of each cycle and cropped them at that point. The click through leads to the full image on a page on its own. The site was powerful and graphic in its representation of a high quality bike.
I often work with the modular approach because I believe people need to see the product at its absolute best when it costs a lot of money. What you see is what you get. Present poorly and the products lose out in the process.
So. Product first design-wise. Customer-viewer-target market needs second. Pleasing the client is not my main priority because there is sometimes a gulf between what a client considers cool and what is practical and effective for the audience.
Does any of that help? Yea bit long winded. You can sticky me for the address of the cycle site :)
antipodes
