Website Evaluation #1
May 17th, 2008Shambhala Holistic Health Center
We discovered the Shambhala Holistic Health Center website as we were researching a marketing campaign to reach out to holistic health practitioners. We feel this site is a perfect example of a site that was not created by an experienced professional or was created by the business owner themselves. Of course, many such sites exist across the internet, but with a redesign and attention to detail and the target audience, this site could go from “ho hum” or “oh wow!”.
Layout
This website uses a standard layout format which places the title/company name in the “header” (top portion” of the site, a menu of site pages right under that, and text within the “body” (center) of the site. It also has a menu on the left-hand side of the page. The only information appearing in the “footer” (bottom) area of the page is copyright information.
Although this is a familiar and standard layout, there are some issues with it. For one, where does your eye want to go first? For me, the answer is, “I don’t know”. Honestly, there isn’t anything that pops out on the page or anything to draw your attention in. Leading your viewer around your page is a key factor in good design layout. Although a “meandering” type of layout can work in specific circumstances, the majority of viewers need something to grab their interest right away.
The placement of the name against a background of clouds at full opacity makes it hard to read. Your eye does not want to settle there (and therefore read it). The light blue color was most likely used to help the text “stand out”, but because of the very visual background, it does not.
The navigation is somewhat confusing on this page. At the top are what seem to be major pages of the site, then on the left are more pages lumped under the heading of, “Links”. If one clicks on the “Links” in the top menu, you get to external site links, so why is the menu on the left of the home page also titled, “Links” but basically include repeated page links from above and additional “services”?
Color and Imagery
Color is very important aspect of design. With this website, we get a monochromatic palette of purple. In color theory, purple is the color of royalty and spirituality. Although this is a holistic practitioner’s website, I feel the overuse of purple to be detrimental. Monochromatic color schemes are often viewed as bland. On the web, you have approximately 3 seconds or less to draw a visitor into your site. Between the layout and color on this site, there is nothing to capture the interest of a viewer. My guess is that purple is the favorite color of the practitioner. I often find a client will be insistent on utilizing their favorite colors or images in their site. Of course, this is perfectly natural, but does not always make for great design. Attention has to be given to who the viewers of the site will be. You may be perfectly happy with purple clouds, but will your target audience? In addition, are you trying to reach a wider audience? Certain imagery may appeal to some viewers and may turn others off. This website is most certainly lacking in imagery that would help connect the majority of the viewers to it. Basically, we have clouds and a silhouette of a man in a meditation pose. For a holistic health practitioner I would recommend brining in more of a human element - something most viewers could relate to - perhaps healthy-looking individuals or individuals in activities that would inspire viewers. I would have selected a range of images that either blatantly or symbolically presented the concept of “health” and “well-being”. Utilizing imagery throughout a design also helps to break up the space and lead the viewer’s eye in a logical path through the pages.
In Conclusion
Although this was a very quick review of this site, I could immediately see room for improvement. With a more logical menu, changes to the color and background, and the addition of appealing imagery, I think this site could greatly benefit.
