June 2nd, 2011
My latest project was working with the City of Boulder’s Parks & Recreation department on their facility displays. The city operates three indoor recreational facilities and have recently bought a 52″ monitor for each center to display departmental news and marketing material to the patrons. My job was to design the User Experience for the displays and determine the best strategy to arrange content to be displayed in an organized and informative way.
The requirements for the displays were pretty straightforward. The city wanted to display a variety of content including promotional material, videos and images. They also wanted to display a weather forecast and the city’s RSS feed. The city chose to use a display content management system from Four Winds Interactive, my job was to design a template to display the content. Each monitor had a resolution of 1920 x 1080 to work with. The results that I came up with are what I believe to be the most efficient way to display the desired content within the space available.
The first thing that I did when I began designing the layout for the displays was to divide the space using the rule of thirds. I wanted 2/3rds of the space to be used for the main content area and the last third for 2 smaller content areas. Since HD video would be used on the display at some point, I decided to make the content areas all 16 x 9. The city’s original template had a large 8.5 x 11 content area. Their original plan was to take print material and put it up on the digital displays. I explained to them that print media and digital media are two entirely different entities. Just because it works for print does not in any way mean that it will work for another medium. In this case, large pictures and bold headlines will work best to attract an individual’s attention.
Finally, I designed a basic template for 16 x 9 content. However, it will be up to the Parks & Recreation department to keep the content current and informative. The facility displays went live two weeks ago and so far the feedback has been very positive. The biggest factor will be how often the content gets changed. Once the public acknowledges that the displays are a good source of relevant information they will be looked upon as a very good resource.
May 12th, 2011
Right before I launched LifeSport Chiropractic’s new website I took a few screenshots of their old website for comparison. The ultimate goal when I design any site is to make the site’s information well organized, concise and easy to find. After looking at the two sites side by side a noticeable difference can be seen.
The biggest challenge I faced with the LifeSport Chiropractic site was reducing the amount of text used throughout the site. When a user navigates to a new website, the site must make an immediate impact and make it’s purpose clearly known. Visitors to websites don’t read content, they scan it. As a result, all of the information needs to be presented in an easily scannable form.
My strategy for this site was to lay out the majority of the content in a two and three column format. For each section of information I used a headline, some sort of image or graphic, a brief amount of text and finally a call to action button. This format streamlines the users focus in a logical way. With only a brief amount of time scanning the site, the user knows exactly what the site is about and where to find the needed information.
The home page is the best example of the easily scannable user interface for LifeSport Chiropractic. However, each page utilizes the exact same strategy of focusing the user on what is important by maximizing white space and minimizing unnecessary clutter. In the left hand column there is a comparison of the contact page of both the old site and the new site. There was not nearly the amount of information to organize on this page as there was on other pages. However, I tried to include the necessary information to contact and interact with Lifesport in a structured fashion. The text introduces the social media icons. The physical address leads to the map, which leads to a call to action button that directs the user to directions from Google Maps. Finally, there is a simple contact form highlighted by the call to action button to submit the form.
The goal of any website is to effectively communicate ideas from one party to another. For LifeSport Chiropractic’s site I tried to make things as simple and user friendly as possible. The less the user has to think and the simpler the interface is, the more effective the site will be. I hope that the strategy that I used for this site and will continue to use for others will be extremely effective in reaching the intended audience.
April 22nd, 2011
This week I launched my latest creation for a local chiropractor, LifeSport Chiropractic. My goals for this site expanded well beyond just displaying LifeSport’s services. The core of this new site is the resources that will be offered to existing and potential customers. In the coming weeks and months, LifeSport will be continually adding blog posts, home exercises and videos that will help injured athletes better understand their injuries and how to treat them. As a result of offering free resources to the community, LifeSport will be developing a relationship with customers that they have never met before.
My vision for LifeSport Chiropratic’s new site is an online resource overflowing with information that will be helpful to the athletic community, not just locally but around the world. As a result of this information, it is my hope that an online community would form within the blog comments as well as the discussion forums that will enable athletes to help each other. As a result of this abundance of information, a sense of trust will develop that will make it easier for potential customers to seek out chiropractic, sports medicine and muscle restoration services from the company.
I look forward to watching LifeSport’s online community and business develop together.
April 14th, 2011
There are countless hosting companies competing for the right to host your website. However, not all provide the same level of service. From the research that I have done and the positive feedback that I have read and heard from peers in the design industry, it is clear that Media Temple is one of the best if not the best hosting company. Across the internet, some of the best sites by the most talented designers have “Hosted by Media Temple” proudly displayed in the footers of their sites. The reason is simple. Media Temple offers an outstanding product, with superior technical support at a competitive price. Isn’t that all one can ask for from any tech company?
I completed the process of switching over my sites to Media Temple relatively quickly and painlessly. However, when I did run into trouble their technical support staff (Stephen R.) was very helpful in quickly solving my problem at 3:00AM on a Sunday morning. Once my sites were launched I instantly noticed the difference in speed. It really is quite amazing how the overall user experience of a site can increase when everything simply loads quicker.
Web Rhetoric has only been with Media Temple for a short time now. However, we are looking forward to a long and happy relationship with them. All of Web Rhetoric’s current and future sites will now proudly be Hosted by Media Temple.
