$28 million website
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- 2cents0
as a designer who likes to see everything well designed i have to say that a site like CT doesn't need to look 'pretty'....also, i have first hand experience in designing something that has been consumer driven...as based on research and findings from testings and focus groups...its not always pretty but is usually most effective.
maybe the site could have used some more 'design' elements to it but for the most part it serves a purpose and it does it well.
- MrDinky0
3cy..
i know i know...
trust me dude, i know what you guys are talking about... dont think that i am just being a dick and not listening... cause i was like you guys when i started to work on the project but when i understood the full scope of the project, i decide to back down.. i am just trying to tell you, there are more than meets the eye (or back end)amazone failed to make par on ROI for many years. it continued to lose money as it operated in strong market
but CT is not. CT in a down market is making back its ROI relativiely fast.
- TRNSMTR10
MrDinky
you started defending the critques of this site. which i think were fair based on the visual nature of the site.
i think anyone here who has anything valid to say has worked on several million dollar online applications and has valid critism of the CT site. there is no bashing, but you defending the site and we just stated our critism of it.
- unknown0
fuck the word "pretty"...
god i hate the word...
did I say p r e t t y ?
bbc.co.uk ain't nescessarily "pretty",
but more pleasant to navigate thru...just by the use of some damn solid css!!!css ain't invented for "pretty" sites only.... come on!
- Retro0
haha, all i can say is.. imagine what 2advanced could have done for them if you payed them $28 million. They would have had the best of both worlds, a great backend system and attractive design.
- exador0
as an art director, i look at that site and think
'yeeesh.' that's it?as a customer i'm fairly confident that i can find what im looking for and order it quickly..
thats what matters most, i guess...
and then i try to look at it through my fathers eyes...
who doesn't give a shit about design, but has been an electrician his whole life..
and i think....he'd be fine with this.
he wouldn't have any problems looking for stuff..and THAT is the most important thing...
he's the exact type of customer i'd design for, on a site like this..it's not the prettiest thing in the world...
and the images and whatnot look bit 'horsey' as my ol Creative director used to say...
but ...
in the end...
i'll bet they make money.
- MrDinky0
like i said, as designers we should understand the business aspects of things. we are so concerned about making things look pretty that we fail to look at business and marketing aspects to it.
alot of us havent worked on multimillions dollar projects and never experienced the large scale project jitters....
i am not bragging but its a whole different experience.
- surfito0
i didnt read the whole thing, after my last post, this is going to fast, but im one who believes that "coolnes" plays an important part in business strategy, not just back end.
people dont see whats inside, people dont judge a book by its content, that is the bigest lie ever.
it is a competitive market, target has been succesfull because target is cool. (ok im bored now by my post)
you cannot just go out there and spend all the millions in the world wireing a site. It wont work if it doesnt have a "cool" package.
however, i think that this site looks good for the people that theyre targeting, they didnt waste their time in the graphic design.
but im shallow like that, it needs to be both good and "cool" like an armani suit.
i see too many print advertising and web design out there that just rely on simple old standards to deliver the message and forget about the "wow" factor, making it, totally inefective, even tho the message is there in big bold letters.
and another thing, graphic design relies 90% percent on trends, what works today doesnt necesarily work tomorrow.
one thing for sure, that site has too many colors and lacks organization and consistency in the way it presents some of its content making it a bit confusing , in no way nothing in that site stays in my head besides the colorfull navigation graphics, but i dont remember the products on the first page, something is wrong there. they could have spent an extra 50K on the design.
- unknown0
do NOT (i repeat NOT) get 2Advanced into this!!!
I think (and Mr.Dinky would underline this) that 2A would miss a whole lot of solid research results or just ignore it to just use their cool/pretty style....
- kodap0
haven't read all posts...
this must be a joke, right?
- MrDinky0
3cy?
who said bbc was pretty
its perfect example of site that looks good and easy to use.
- unknown0
ok...
just to put things straight...
I don't remember who carried the evil word "pretty" into this thread...
now back to work..
- monNom0
UGH! that BBC site stinks.
talk about clutter.
- MrDinky0
o god 2AD would put flash intro everything and make the site unaccessable to the 95% of the targetted user.
surfito
i agree with you. in a prefect world, design would be as important as to business and functionality....
but its not....there have been alot of research done by independent research firms that most users relaly only care about content and functionality.
- MrDinky0
kodap
its reall cause i worked that project
- surfito0
hey 3cy, 2advanced would have saved like 18 million on research and would have design something.
BLUE.
- enobrev0
I'm backing Dinky on his entire argument.
Although there have been some great design pointers made here,, in a board meeting with investors and managers present you would merely sound like design geeks trying to push your portfolio.
What matters for a project this large is numbers, and you give the people exactly what they want.
I'll agree that the site is ugly as fuck, but i found my way around pretty easily. Most likely because it works just like 90% of shopping sites have worked over the past 5 years.
I would never want to work on such a large team and large project. The money may be fantastic, but it's going to the analysts, IT staff, managers, testers, etc. You, as a designer are just another blue jumpsuit on the line.
- unknown0
MonNom said:
"UGH! that BBC site stinks.talk about clutter.
"And I said:
yeah, whatever!
- MrDinky0
3cy
i think they would just pocketed the research cost.. they would say they did extensive research with experts, mainly just shane and eric
- unknown0
amen, Eno!
but just a bit of css would have solved the table issues and fonts...