I chose to redesign this site because it doesn’t seem to follow the design and navigation principles I have learned so far in class. Some things I see that work are that its laid out in a two-column layout with right-hand navigation. One of the strongest parts of the site is that it keeps its navigation consistently in the same place on each page (right-hand column). Other than that there are a lot of cons in the design and layout. The navigation is too overloaded with photo options when those could be consolidated as sub-pages under one “Photos” tab on the main navigation. That would cut the main nav menu in half (from 12 to 6 options) which is more user-friendly. Also, the logo gets lost on some of the pages when it is placed over the busy background photo instead of on the white background, and the fact that it moves position is another inconsistency with the site.

I don’t think it follows a grid at all because text and images seem to be placed randomly on the page. The color palette and typography is inconsistent throughout the site and seems to have been haphazardly chosen. There are too many fonts and not all headers have the same style throughout the site (different size fonts, capitalized first letter/all lowercase, italicized/not italicized, etc.)  Another problem with the design is that there is no main focal point on the pages. It would be great if the logo stood out but it kind of blends in with the rest of the text (and even with the background on some pages, as mentioned above). The logo should be more prominent and appear in the same spot consistently throughout the site. It should make use of the design principles of emphasis (to make the logo stand out and help guide the user to important areas of the site) and proximity (especially on the home page where everything seems to be smashed together on the right hand side which isn’t appealing to the eye).

The target audience for this site is people who are looking for a ranch venue to hold an event, most specifically people who’d want to hold their wedding at the ranch. In doing a competitive analysis of similar ranch venues’ websites I was able to come up with a better color palette and logo, a more concise and logical main navigation menu, and also create a more balanced and consistent redesign, I hope!

For my final project I am doing a redesign of a ranch-style event venue. I think the following three sites will help me in my redesign and I can learn from where they succeed and where they fall short.

1) http://www.eddiedeensranch.com/index.php
I think this is a very good-looking site. It uses a good color palette and the logo and navigation menu is consistent throughout. It has good balance and uses different typography well to let important things stand out. The only con I can really see is that when you go into one of the main navigation options and click into a subpage from there it just kind of stops, you have to use the back button on your browser to remember where you came from. I would suggest using breadcrumb navigation to enhance the browsing experience on the site.

2) http://www.riociboloranch.com/

I think this site is very fun to look at and I like all the imagery. The page has a consistent look and feel and has kept important things prominent on the page (ie. the logo, link to facebook and link to the blog is prominent in the header). However, I feel like all the images could make it hard for people with different accessibility needs to view the page. I’m not sure if the images would show up if someone had the images turned off in their browser. Another con is that on some of the pages the left panel font color on the description of the ranch blends a little too closely to the background image, making it hard to read. And that same font size is used on many pages throughout the site (FAQs, Wedding Section for descriptions, etc.) and it is very small so may be hard to read. Also, the title in the browser tab is a little too descriptive, it says “parties, event venues, wedding locations, San Antonio Texas” maybe it could just say “Rio Cibolo Ranch, San Antonio” and have the tags somewhere in the HTML to enhance SEO.

3) http://www.redcorralranch.com/default.asp
This is a great site that I think I will use as a guide in creating my web redesign. It uses a two-column layout and other simple techniques that I can also use from what I’ve learned so far in the class. I’m not sure if we’re going to learn how to do dropdown menus like they have on this site or how to add the consistent decorative background but if we do, I’d like to try to incorporate that in my site. I think they use typography well to emphasize important elements on the page, and the use of different colors in the columns unifies groups of elements and distinguishes them from other elements on the page. Some cons would be that they, like Rio Cibolo Ranch, have a really descriptive browser tab “Texas Hill Country Weddings Bed Breakfast Wemberly Red Corral Ranch” maybe this could be more concise. Also, they could add a bottom navigation menu and possibly shrink and move the Facebook, Professional Innkeeping & Inspected and Approved Buttons up to show they are a reputable company and also connect people via social media.

1) Grid Theory uses the Rule of Thirds to divide a composition into a proportionate grid. The Rule of Thirds comes from “The Golden Ratio” which is known to create more aesthetically pleasing layouts.

Grid Theory is important to web design because it creates proportion and balance which are key to an appealing design.

2) In addition to balance, the design principles of Unity and Emphasis are also important to web design. Unity is important because it takes into consideration how different elements of a page interact so there aren’t any that don’t seem to belong or are disconnected from the page. Emphasis is important because it helps guide the users’ eye/attention to important parts of the page.

3) The Bread & Butter Layouts in web design are Left-Column Navigation, Right-Column Navigation and Three-Column Navigation.

1) modcloth.com
type of website: e-commerce
audience: women 18-34
goals: to sell merchandise, inspire individual style

2) hulu.com
type of website: entertainment website
audience: everyone
goals: to attract viewers with good content and encourage them to buy subscriptions to gain access to more content

3) facebook.com
type of website: social media
audience: everyone
goals: to connect people with friends, family, co-workers etc. across the world and possibly get them to share interests so that advertisers can target a niche audience