http://www.shambhalahhc.com/

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.

Website Evaluations

Website evaluations from an experienced professional is an excellent way to gain insight into why your website may need an overhaul, how it can be accomplished, and how it will better server your target market. We are now starting to offer both quick and detailed evaluations to potential clients and this on-going series will help to point out some of the common “pitfalls” as well as explain why design is important. We will select a business website at random and preform a quick evaluation on the site. We hope our readers find this useful. We will not be accepting requests to evaluate a specific website, but if you are interested in an evaluation, please contact us.

Stay tuned for the first evaluation in the series in mid-May of 2008.

http://www.jvmediadesign.com

Things like overall layout, patterns, type layout and logos can all start on a post-it note or a napkin. If you’re thinking about a project and don’t know where to being, start with the simplest thing first. Take in inspiration from everyday life. Try to look at the project from all angles.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not good at drawing, this exercise just helps to refocus your creativity (or temporary lack of it) and in so doing might dislodge a good idea or two. I’ve learned it can be especially helpful in the beginning stages of logo design.

I decided to delve further into my own research of this phenomenon. I started with analyzing the industry of this business, which happened to be natural personal/beauty care products. There are some very large companies in this industry such as, Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Main, Jason, etc. But it seems that the majority of companies are not large, with many independents (and “mom and pop” operations). Of course, cost does factor in to an equation like that – large companies usually have large marketing as well as design budgets, smaller companies may not, leading them to believe they must do it themselves.

So the obvious was now out of the way, but there was still the question of what is deemed to be “professional” by the clients of a particular business. For over 10 years I’ve tried to study the habits of the web user while also striving to evolve design for the web and stay on the cutting edge of what’s hot. There are many standards that lead to a website in which users are more likely to stay, and in the case of ecommerce sites, buy. There is also color theory, imagery (photos, etc.), and basic design principals that can be used to lead the user’s eye around the page. Does the average web user have a much lower expectation of websites than myself, being the professional designer? Could business such as the one from the online group mentioned above be receiving “compliments” from friends and relatives that are screwing their perspectives of what is professional?

Well, yes.

As I think about the many clients I have had, I realize that I have often played the role of educator as well as designer. I do believe that even the folks that might have a notion of what professional is can raise their expectations once a designer takes the time to explain why something may be more effective. I have dealt with clients who absolutely demanded to have 18 different fonts on their page or a red background with blue text or any other manner of design “no no’s” and have helped them to understand how a better design choice would ultimately lead to their business (and their website) looking more professional (and potentially increase their sales). I have also had to gently take the reins away from friends and relatives of the business owner and steer them back on the course to a great looking website or printed materials. And I have even had to break up “committees” and force someone at a large company to make an executive decision to not only reach the goal of a professional design, but also remain on track with the development timeline.

I do believe that the responsibility to educate clients about great design resides with the designers themselves. If no one steps up to alert a business owner that a visual or layout choice may not be right for their website or marketing materials, then they’re likely to be unaware of the potential they could have or the business they may be missing out on.

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About the Author:
Sherry Holub received her degree in design from UCLA in 1995. She is now the Lead Designer and Creative Director at Southern California firm, JV Media Design - http://www.jvmediadesign.com. Sherry is also a member of the NAPP, AIGA, the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), and Co-Op America.

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The series will feature the offical JV Media Design cat, Isis (as a kitten)! Isis was adopted by Sherry, the JVM Creative Director, when she was 8 weeks old (she’s now 7) and her YouTube.com debut is not her first public appearance. She is in scene in the Los Angeles electronic music documentary, “Concentric Beats”, she’s been PetCo.com’s “Pet of the Week”, and she’s even graced the pages of Cat Fancy (in the reader submissions, but hey, that’s still in there!).

Here is a direct link to the first video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsj0ygjoXks

Here’s a direct link to the second video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3l5SjgEycY