Thursday, March 30, 2006

Ugly sites: why people love them

There is no limit to how many UGLY sites are out there (with respect to this lady thing over here to the left, good lord IT could use some braces, and a razor LOL). It’s rare that you run into a clean well-designed site. I go to google a lot, like everyone else because I need info or trying to find something and when I do find it.... It’s just like. What the HECK were you thinking? It really seems like people are intentionally designing them UGLY. WHY?? Do nicely designed websites scare people away? You know what, I want to come up with a search engine that works just like google, but only searches out nicely designed, clean looking, well organized, well thought, nice color schemed sites for your search. Not the ones with 9 different fonts, 20 different colors, Everything is BOLD, because they want EVERYTHING to be important.. uhhhh ... what’s the need to bold then...... like this site right here http://www.superstarmanagement.com/ .............
.................... One word....................... "Throwup" Everything is bold. He got flashing lights on black squares with a menu bar that’s just floating around, almost trying to decide where it wants to settle down. And that sonar thing on the header is giving me a headache, looking at it just go into your brain everytime.. Ok enough bashing the site. I sent an email to the guy, but no response. This company is huge, VERY BIG. Sponsoring movies like ATL, and big celebrities, actors, singers, athlete’s etc.... crazy..
Well what I wanted to say ask is that, Do people really feel safer going to ugly websites. I mean is it like, UGLY=CHEAP... BEAUTIFUL=EXPENSIVE.. Well maybe a little but still.
it could also be that the design firm that did the site probably put in all their effort and skills to use, but it still came out UGLY, and the customer didn’t know the difference as long as he had some flashing icons going off like STROBE lights, he paid the guy. SAD :(
I have a client who's website needs a FACE LIFT, actually everything needs to be lifted and tossed away somewhere far far away... current site ( http://www.nssplus.com/) can you say I AM BLUE
There is so much going on in that site, I felt like someone was breathing down my neck.... felt like everything was caving in, shortness of breath, and the light.... the light., its sooo soo pretty.. It’s getting closer.... hehehh... ok fine.. Well that’s how bad it was.. So I said, wow.. Let me get to work and after about 14 hours came up with this www.imanstudios.com/nssplus .. hey NICE, why thank you. Used a more professional interface, clean white, still kept the blues and reds that he wanted... Changed his logo around a little, included a new flash header that will be different on each of the main pages. The guy who I was dealing with from NSSPLUS loved it.. he said our site just got plastic surgery.... but the decision-maker dint like it. He still was in love with the HYPNOTIZING blue screen of FREAKING DEATH... that has been pasted over his Bifocals. This guy is soo old school, but runs a multi-million dollar firm. I am not asking him to just give me money, I am giving him a quality product that will step up his image on the net. His competition is CISCO.... How do you plan to compete with CISCO with a site that looks like kaka dodo (excuse my French).. he just wants me to create flash banners for all his pages.. and that’s it. I just wish I got one opportunity to talk to him... I usually go through his marketing guy, who I don’t know if he is relaying the messages properly or not. I think I can make him see my vision, butter him up a little and then go through. Well Ill keep you updated on this. Anyway.. Lunchtime... :))
I am out.

New Layout: Color Scheme


My latest project. http://www.dahji.com/, a personal store of arts and apparel by a guy from Virginia. He wanted something that really had a clean and crisp look at the same time a warm color scheme. I knew I wanted to use the browns oranges, whites, and some grays, but needed exact colors. So I went to http://www.colorschemer.com/. Pretty cool site. It gives you different color schemes according to what type of environment you want to create. Not just for websites but for everything. I mean you could use it to paint your room if you wanted.
Well if you look at the website its pretty simple. I wanted to have fewer link on the main navigation but he needed direct links to all his pages, so they had to be put there. My toughest challenge was in Dreamweaver, when it came to putting the shadows in the exact place and make the tables the exact size to achieve the clean look it currently has, sometimes it gets frustrating. The client was very happy with the site, and has contracted me for more work. At the end that’s all that matters. Check out the site; let me know what you think. One thing for sure, the guy can sure take some nice photographs.