richsoil design

It is time to update the look of richsoil.com. Anybody who has ideas, please post your design here.

Here are some early submission that are not exactly what we are looking for.

I think one of the issue is that they look too much like your typical wordpress blog.

I'm digging #2.

I had the thought that my site was too default Wordpress themish but then I realized that lots of smart developers put a lot of work into those themes and many of them use slight variations on their own sites.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Here are a few more designs

A different header would probably be good. Maybe a collage of pictures similar to the podcast page at richsoil. Here are pictures that were used for creating the header.

Here are 2 new concepts. Any suggestions?

Personally, I like the where the headers are going.

2 new ones

I think the headers have moved in a really good direction. I like the mix of photo realistic elements and the graphical or cartoonish elements. In my opinion the wood panel background grounds the site much more and could do a better job pulling the users attention to the content areas.

Thanks for your feedback Jon!

Here is what the articles could look like:

Jon McBrayer wrote:I think the headers have moved in a really good direction. I like the mix of photo realistic elements and the graphical or cartoonish elements. In my opinion the wood panel background grounds the site much more and could do a better job pulling the users attention to the content areas.

What Jon said. I especially like the expression on Paul in the header. The wood panel background does help the content pop out, but is a bit dark IMHO.

The home page has finally been updated!

I got rid of the wood panelling, which made it look really dark.

Please let me know what you think.

It is looking great! I was just thinking that richsoil really needed an update. I'm glad you got rid of the dark background, the light one looks SO much better. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with the rest of the site.

I'm just curious what your ultimate goal with the site is. Obviously you want to spread the permie word, but do you want to sell yourself? Do you want to find people to come to your land? Other people to work with, etc.? From a marketing perspective it would be good to know what you want from visitors to maybe be able to give some critique in that arena.

I'd prefer a photo of Paul's giant smiling face in the banner because it makes me happy but it looks good!

I like it a lot, the header looks great and so is the content.

For graphic design, the simpler, the better. The trend for many websites is to reduce verbiage, use lots of white space, and provide good navigation. Look to some popular corporate websites for ideas. I'm looking forward to using the new and improved website. "Using" is the operative word, not just "viewing" a pretty site, though an attractive site has many benefits. Lots of graphics and pictures are fine; they attract attention and add "pizzazz" to the site, as long as they don't clutter the page and get in the way of finding stuff. Reduce the size of photos and graphics by 30% and see if they still work on the page.

Lots of elements go into a well-designed website. Content is king, and navigation is queen. Graphic design is the pawn that serves the king and queen. The website must allow users to easily navigate, find information, and interact with the website. The pictures and graphics should be meaningful and help people get information they need. Building categories of information into a hierarchy (an information architecture) helps users "drill down" to what they need, but the hierarchy cannot be too heavily layered. Users typically don't do a lot a scrolling to find stuff, so webpages should be short and graphics shouldn't take up the bulk of the webpage "real estate." Sometimes I have difficulty on permies.com and richsoil.com finding information and the only way I can find my way back to an article or post is to find the email that originally linked to it. Sometimes, I remember there is a gem of knowledge in a podcast, but I don't want to invest the time to re-listen to several podcasts to find that 30 seconds of wisdom. Summaries of videos and podcast information are helpful. Cleaning out out-dated or unused forums and also non-informational posts in the forums would help as well.

Just my two-cents worth, which applies to most websites. Building a well-designed website is hard work and I applaud your efforts to make improvements. It's easy for any of us to make suggestions, but it is the people getting the work done (on the website and in permaculture in general) that are the real heroes.

Thom Illingworth, newbie permie

Well, as Thom eloquently encapsulated websites in a way I agree: Art is subjective, you either like it or you don't.

I really like the content display in concept 1 (fewer words, more pictures)

I like the Banner in concept 8 and the Footer in concept 3.

Lately I have noticed a 'splash' page with few words that scrolls left or right to big idea image, tagline and links to content...then it gets more traditional is a very pleasing way to 'drill' in...maybe use art from the Permaculture 'deck'?

Much slicker than previous attempts...of course I think it is the current 'down-home' style of Permies that I like: It got my attention.

so far I like the new design, I think it is quite easy to find what you are looking for and easy to maneuver through the information....a nice "clean" look as well

I just took a look at the actual site . . . it appears that 9.1 is currently in place.

I like the overall look and feel. 2 comments. Perhaps a bit of texture in the background? Perhaps some art in the footer to match the header? The footer looks a bit harsh in comparison, especially because the contrast between it and the lighter background emphasizes the "chopped off" look on the sides.

Good job overall though.

Charlie

Adding my vote of support. I've been in web development and more heavily web application development for over 5 years so I'm no design guru but I know whats good and whats bad.

Just noticed the link for Sepp on the front page goes to the DE page. Looking good over there, the new email newsletter design looked good too.

I just finally fixed it. I had noticed it too, but never got around to fix it.

Has anyone told Adrien how awesome he is lately? Hey Adrien, you're awesome

thanks Ben! I am hanging on

Ben Plummer wrote:Has anyone told Adrien how awesome he is lately? Hey Adrien, you're awesome

Agreed! Adrien IS awesome!! Including the new format on the daily-ish e-mail -- tres chic!