Skin-care Website Draft Critique

[cadencedesign]

Hey everybody!

Just put together a first draft of a website design for a client. I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks!

Illuminate Skin Care & Make-up Design (http://www.cadencedesign.net/carly/test.html)

-Mike
Affordable Web Design (http://www.cadencedesign.net/)

[cadencedesign]

P.S. This is my first entry - be kind... or not, whatever. :)

[urstwile]

While I rather like the overall design, I think her skin is WAY too perfect. She looks a little, um, dead. And I'm not trying to be sarcastic. She needs some color or something.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

I disagree on the level of perfection, perfection sells (unfortunately)...Maybe Urstwile means she needs "more colour"- that I agree with.

Nice set up.

Are the swirlies the logo/symbol?

[urstwile]

Well, yeah, Sama, I guess that's what I meant, I wasn't talking about adding pockmarks. :D

I guess the totally even tone on the face, with no shadows or dimension or anything, plus it being totally grayscale except for the eyes. I don't know that it would attract me, as a female, towards using their products.

[tZ]

If your slicing this up I think your relying to heavily on images to carry your design rather then the content.

[SurfPark]

My only concern is the amount of text on each page. You're not going to be able to add much text with this design. Consider having an open button to that white box, so the text and stretch without breaking the sliced up images.

[tZ]

^ yeah… A major concern is the lack of content and/or the lack of space to place that content with this design.

[Emmanize]

I like this design. Not sure if you have sliced but this can be done very easily with CSS if you haven't, makes it less heavy as well. Slicing isn't the best way to go about building sites imo. But great start :D

[nyc_skater]

Yes, more alive skin color, less gothic dead person

Looks nice otherwise

[Eraser Nubbin]

I like your images so far, not so sure the century gothic works.
The focal point to me right now is her eye, which makes me think eye care, contacts, mascara, etc.
Maybe if you add some colour to her skin, or show more of her body and less of just her face it would relate to skin care more.

[DC1]

perfection sells (unfortunately)

I would like to suggest context sells. Absent a celebrity endorsement, I suggest showing how well the process works. This can be accomplished with a before/after shot. Unfortunately, perfection is often more aesthetically pleasing to the graphic artist. Testing a before/after split image would probably have a bigger response, and better Return On Investment, ROI.

Credibility sells. And the web lacks credibility. Further, beauty treatments are often viewed with suspicion. These factors combine to put pure artistic factors behind providing the site visitor with immediate, actionable information. My first impulse -- and this has nothing to do with the example -- is that stock photography of models who've never needed or used the beauty treatment is being used. Beauty treatments and exercise programs have a particularly high hurdle in striving for basic minimum credibility.

Whether it is a tooth whitener, cosmetics, or wrinkle remover, the buyer wants to know how well it works. You can not show this with an end result. For all the viewer knows, this woman could have started out 99.9% flawless and makeup design took five minutes. People with flawless good looks are not a desirable target market. People with flawed looks who can look perfect after using (XYZ) is what you want to show, up front and immediately.

In the copy world, there is something called A/B split run testing. Modern web design techniques (or old ones, for that matter) allow you to run one version, then another. Provided there is a specific benchmark, like filling out a request for brochure, buying something, signing up for a newletter, you can see which of several designs produces better results.

[cadencedesign]

Hey all,

Thanks for your suggestions! I see what you mean about having some color in the face and making more room for text. In this revision I scaled the logo down, made the text box larger, and added some color to her face. I'm interested to know what you think.

Thanks again for everyone's comments. I still haven't heard back from my client, so I'm interested to know what she thinks as well.

-Mike

Here they are...

1st link (for reference):

http://www.cadencedesign.net/carly/test.html

Revised version:

http://www.cadencedesign.net/carly/revision.html

[urstwile]

I'm definitely liking the second one better, although the gradient down towards the bottom is making the text down there a little hard to read, especially in combination with the ornament.

Sorry, though, I still feel she's very perfect, in a way that just doesn't appeal to me. As i said earlier, I don't think you need to throw blemishes on her, but she just doesn't look real to me. It could be just me however, I have an aversion to overly perfect looking images; if I were looking for a skin care solution, I wouldn't choose this, as the image seems so unreal to me as to be highly skeptical of the credibility of the product. It's possible I wouldn't even be a target audience on this one.

What is the target audience? Is it just for people interested in skin care products, or is there something more specific that they're going for?

[Zendada]

I like the second version better, definitely. The only thing I don’t like is the :: between menu items. Its so done. So are |. You have some great decorative elements that could be used for spacers, or even just plain space between menu items might look great.

[CamarotaDesign]

second one is looking nice. Personally, I dont like the nav menu outside the box. I'd like to see the navigation under the text as buttons that light up when you mouseover. Also, if this is for a make-up artist named carly, shouldn't "By Carly" be in the main title? But all in all looks sharp. Likin it. I Like all your stuff actually.

[EC]

I like the second one much better. I haven't read the thread, but I'm a product whore -- I love me some skin care. I want to see healthy skin, in color. the b&w just won't work for that. much improved.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Looking good! - the second one that is.

Resize the swirlie thing at the bottom so it fits in the space at the end of the text. I find it's placement abit off.

[1ooScreamingTrees]

The 2nd one is 100x better. Very nice.

I would suggest removing the :: between each navigation link, as this has become a trend which has reached the point of becomming tacky. Keep the spacing the same between the links, don't add pipes or anything - and it will look much better.

Will the text be black as pictured in the mockup? If so, it becomes slightly hard to read towards the bottom (darker green) portion of the gradient background. Although I feel a youthful-target vibe from this site, you will undoubtedly recieve many older (late 30's, 40's) audiences. Their reduced vision when combined with these dark colors, would definitely reduce the site's legibility.

No comments about the "older" thing - I'm only 22! It's all relative!

[Navian]

I liked the b/w picture.. But its always up to the client. Alot of the greatest pieces of stylized photography is done in b/w.

As far as the face being too perfect, I'd like you to go to any local grocery/drug store that has a "make up" isle, and look at the faces in pictures above the products, the ones with the womans face that looks like its been caked on. Every last one of them seem just as fake. But I think thats the way that industry/advertising goes. Fake sells, because people want to look fake (i think lol).

All these minor change sugestions, had reminded me of a Simpsons episode: where Homer met his brother (designs/owned a car company), and was given a chance to design a car. He wanted everything here and there, but when it was built looked like crap.

Thats what I believe happens with many kinds of design projects, not just product design, but graphical as well. To much stuff IMO, lowers the aesthetics/communication of the piece/site, becoming too busy and losing the attention of a customer.

I dig the simple and clean designs the best. As some would say, less is more.

I like the both, but I like the first version best.

my 2¢