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Website Design Review

by Ben Johnson - Posted 13 years ago

Web Design in review...

Here at +ApogeeInvent we have been busy creating gorgeous, effective web designs coupled with our powerhouse marketing software. How do we stay so fresh on the hottest design trends and techniques? We research topics and review examples with our design team 4 days a week. We are obsessed with the question \"what makes a web design effective at capturing attention and conversions?.\"

Here are some of the designs we have reviewed lately along with our notes.

Website Design Reviewed: ByteLaunch www.bytelaunch.com/

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What Works
  • 3D logo works well with infinite depth backgrounds
  • consistent shadows indicating top lighting source
  • big bold headlines
  • yellow / blue color combination works well and is a nice respite from all-to-common orange / blue
  • big blog section at bottom catches more attention than blog link or blog titles in a widget
  • hire us button on left to reveal contact form is clever and unique and a decent call-to-action
  • request for proposal forms at bottom of content pages works well for catching visitors ready to convert after reading.

What Didn\'t Work
  • Search Engine Optimization header doesn\'t match other headers
  • hover shadows on right side icons feels unnecessary and just adds clutter
  • blog title text sizes look inconsistent
  • hire us button can confuse if you click while scrolled to bottom (displays black)
  • hire us button, to be a true call-to-action, should have been made yellow
  • most content pages feel needlessly boring and sub-page navigation is inconsistent
  • blog style doesn\'t perfectly match rest of the site and alters the navigation bar and footer

Website Design Reviewed: Moondance www.moondancebellydance.com/

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What Works

  • layers of over-saturated colorful imagery is well done and feels surreal yet cohesive
  • great font and ornamentation in the logo
  • shop is easy to navigate and is very visually oriented
  • search tool works beautifully
  • inclusion of newsletter sign up at the bottom of every page is very smart
  • footer image on content pages looks gorgeous and would work well as a banner ad

What Didn\'t Work
  • site is only 780 pixels wide which indicates it was designed for 800x600 resolution screens- only 1% of internet users have 800x600 resolutions or smaller.
  • navigation ordering and style changes on content pages
  • left side slide show is based in flash, which won\'t display on newer devices
  • small font and black background can be difficult for some people to read
  • Add to Cart button overlaps product image on many product pages

Website Design Reviewed: 41 Media http://41mediainc.com/

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What Works
  • logo is readable, unique, modern, and has a nice symmetric and uplifting shape
  • light blue and gray colors in logo work surprisingly well on dark blue and white header background
  • decorative scroll / flourish under logo adds a nice touch and is placed precisely
  • bottom Contact Us area works well and helps transition the eye into the footer green
  • orange call-to-action buttons work well in color scheme and are used sparingly
  • shadows and gradients look modern and attractive although one of our designers felt the shadow under the slide show was heavy handed
  • great job making the phone number so contrasting and noticeable
  • double beveled edges at top of page look nice
  • navigation rollover effects are subtle, clean, and effective
What Didn\'t Work
  • green header text feels out of place in color scheme
  • white box on white box layout style is unnecessarily cluttered- whitespace would be sufficient
  • Quick Quote section gets completely lost in page content- Request Quote button should be the primary call-to-action on the page using a large orange button
  • slide show has a bug that displays wrong orange left side slice when Our Gallery is selected
  • content would work better if benefits to consumer were highlighted rather than topics
  • bottom footer area is yawn-able
  • too many stock photo people on content pages
\"\" Design Review by ApogeeINVENT President Dwight Calwhite.  
Connect with him: Google+ / Twitter

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