Seeking Feedback

[Uncle Cheese]

I posted a mockup of this website for review a couple months ago. It has now been launched, but every time I look at it, I just feel like something is missing. It isn't as "crisp" as other sites I have seen and designed. There seems to be something disharmonious in the layout. I'm especially concerned about the home page. If any of you talented designers could take a look, I'd really appreciate the feedback. The link is http://www.kcfitmax.com

Thanks in advance!

[urstwile]

I'd lose the gradient at the top. And also, the kind of random blue triangles in the left corners further down.

I see that you're targeting this to women, but I myself (as a woman) don't necessarily go for sites that are pink-heavy. Maybe work with the color scheme somewhat? I understand where you're going with the color and such, but I dunno, I just don't feel the pink and the shapes and the colors, they don't make me want to join up.

I think women nowadays want to feel like they're getting the same types of things as men are from their fitness workouts in terms of results, and your design seems to put things into a stereotypical box of what women want, i.e., pink, lots of wavy swoopy things all over the place.

Then again, that could be just me. :) I'm not saying it's a bad design, but it just seems kinda conventional.

[Emmanize]

Hmm, I dunno. I am a woman and I work out down the gym all the time and I like it. I understand what urstwile means about women wanting to be treated the same as men. However as far as keep fit is concerned it would be very easy to turn it into a less feminine site. Maybe drop some pink and use more white. Or use (not much) some darker color, just to take the eye away from the pink slightly. But to be honest its not bad. I defiantly loose the gradient though. Great job :)

[Ned]

Whereas I agree with both Urstwile and Emmanize to lose the gradient at the top, I also believe that would leave a very empty spot. I would lose the gradient, but at the same time move the pictures up more to fill in the gap.

[RyanDigital]

the picture with the woman holding the clip board on the homepage i dont like, only because it looks awkward with her head being cut off...just my .02...otehr than that i like it!

[logomantis]

Not that that gradients are bad. If you use a gradient, you have to have more consistency with it. Lose the gradients in the buttons, change the powder blue background to that magenta you used on the main buttons. Also lose the lines that divide everything and keep the triangles consistant.

[urstwile]

Gradients aren't bad. This one just feels gratuitous.

And I would like (and respond more positively to) a different color scheme, then again, I'm an old hippie feminist from the seventies, so maybe the pink is just a turn-off, as it feels stereotypical. :rolleyes:

Otherwise, I think it's a functional and good-looking site, just needs some tweaks IMO. Lose the blue triangles for sure, because I'm always right about things like random blue triangles. :D

[WrC]

speaking from a female's perspective: I personally don't like the pink and blue conbination, too stereotypical.

As a designer I think the site is over designed: too many colors; the fonts on the buttons are too big; no order of importance (no focus point)

[cjoe]

simplify man! err... girl!

[tZ]

why for some of your text do you use images instead of mark up?

I would just think for acessability reasons on would want to use text vs. images of text. Expesically for something as simple as the questions and answers or the header text. Just makes sense to me.

Otherwise, I think its allright. You could prombably simplify it a bit more but, people who lnow nothing about design might like it becasue thats the kind of stuff they adhere to- useless effects. Not saying its a bad thing just from my perspective.

[Emmanize]

To be honest it’s good to see a colourful site of some kind. When I did a survey I was amazed at the amount of people who where fed up of boring sites. My own boyfriend says he hasn’t seen a site that has made him go “wow” in a long time (from a design prospective lol). As I have said before, you’re trying to please your audience who are not web designers, so if they like useless effects and colours use them, as long as the site is still useable.

You need to create something that makes the audience think “well I couldn’t do that”. It has been known that if you go too simple your client is just going to think “I paid all that money for that! I could have done it myself”. That is what I have been told anyway. This is why some designers use flash in some cases, because they might have not been successful in making the site look professional without. More and more people are building their own sites (yeah I know it’s a bad idea) but I just generally think, they would rather do it themselves then pay a designer to do a simple job. So id say keep the use of a site simple, but put some kind of effort into the design. Don’t make it too graphic heavy though.

[patkennedy78]

Here is what I see, in short, mismatched saturation.

Your pictures on the top of your homepage seem dull and lackluster. But when you click on the links the pictures below the navigation are vibrant. I think the saturation on the duotones needs some work as well. Same with your pink / maroon color. On the homepage comparte the navigation button color to the "welcome" color, to the top pink curve color. They don't seem to be harmonious with each other.

I think on the homepage the pink curve is bent / crooked in the middle. This is not complimenting the rest of the site. I agree with the blue triangles comment as well. They are sharp shapes on a curvey site, done effectivly they could ad a nice contrast, but I don't think they are effective.

I am not a web designer, but I took a class on it. I know those are some famous last words, right :) But I was taught that your navigation should stay in the same place on all pages. Yours does not, it goes from left navigation on the home page to top navigation on the rest. Something personally I do not like, but may be an accpted convention, because I see it a lot.

I hope that helps.

[1ooScreamingTrees]

I'm a fan of keeping the navigation consistant, so it erks me when the navigation shifts from a vertical to a horizontal system.

The "sign up now" button with the heavy bevel is also detracting from the "crisp" feel that you are referring to.

The "kink" in the curve at the top is definitely noticable, and once it is in fact noticed, it becomes distracting.

why for some of your text do you use images instead of mark up?

I'm not sure if it has been changed since originally posted, because the images in-lieu of text do not seem that abundant, but when they are in place, a simple alt tag will take care of the accessability issues.

And to wrap it up...
At the very least, get rid of the :: between each content link! The only thing worse than an over-used trend is an out-of-date over-used trend.

[SharkFinStudios]

Uncle Cheese, I am a former Art Director and QC manager for a web design firm and here is what I see on your site. I am going to mention many things, so don't get too overwhelmed.

First off, everyone who has commented here made some great points. The pink - got to go. Make it more contemporary. The images - very dull. They need some 'pop' to them to make the viewer WANT to click further. The navigation - big no-no. It's very confusing. The sub-pages are much stronger than the HP. The top curve - needs to be smooth and flowing.

Now for my points:

In the Pink headline/titles you need to be more consistent. 'welcome' is off center and a large font. Center it and make sure each header is the same size to have a flow about it. Lost the light blue text on pink. That's like having blue text on red... it's hard to read.

I agree with urstwile - lose the gradient and the blue triangles. They do nothing but distract. Kinda like have an image below each and every story on the HP. I don't think it needs it. Very distracting to have 3 other images screened back and also much more imagery at the top.

Why do you have each sections title at the far right? Throws me off each time I go in there. Also, with FAQ, lose the periods in between each letter. Looks like you were trying to space it out a bit, but the periods aren't correct.

The images inside at the top are stronger than the ones on your HP. Maybe try using a duotone image like those on the HP. I think what distracts me on the HP is the large picture of the woman overlaping the other images at full color. She would stand out much more if they were screened back or one color.

Small thing - the black line that comes across the top interferes with the left hand column. I would drop that small line completely.

Like I said, Uncle Cheese, there are many things I mention and there are always more. Just comes from an Art Director and QC Mgr. who has done it for many years and who is very picky. You do have a nice start to it. It just needs some tweaks to make it powerful.

Cheers!

[Uncle Cheese]

Wow, guys. Thank you so much. I wish I had known about this forum in my design phase. You guys have a lot of great stuff to say.

However, I do have to make one crucial point to defend myself. With regard to the image text vs markup issue -- I am a developer, not a designer, and if there's anything I'm concerned about it is making a valid page that is search engine friendly and semantically correct. If you turn off the css with FF or at http://www.kcfitmax.com/index_nocss.php you will notice that every single one of those images is backed by text, often in a header tag, with a background image applied to it and actual text offset by the CSS. Image replacement is a wonderful technique that gives you the best of both worlds. For any of you web developers out there, I really recommend you look in to it.

I guess my next question is this -- you guys came back with a lot of comments about the colors. Can anyone recommend to me a place to start for a color schme? What is not girly, yet invites users to join a fitness program? Also, I've always been told that one of the tricks to good design on the web is avoid "rectangularitis" where everything is in boxes (as per the web format). So I know how you all feel about the curve I've used, but how is everyone feeling about a curve in general? Should I ditch it? I think it's mildly effective in the interior pages. Perhaps changing the navigation to that style through out will help.

Again, your comments on design are very sharp and well-informed. I'll be adding to this thread within a couple weeks with some new ideas for layout. This time I won't build the page before asking for a review. :)


-Aaron