Any ideas to make this website (mockup) less "ICT Company"/bland?

bamme

Senior Member
Hi everyone


This mockup, that can be found here:


http://www.ameliealden.com/mock2a.jpg
some variations:
http://www.ameliealden.com/mock1.jpg
http://www.ameliealden.com/mock2.jpg
http://www.ameliealden.com/mock3.jpg


I think it might be a combination of my very safe use of colour (just the greys and blues really throughout the entire page), and also the generic looking icons below the main image (server, email, monitor), but my supervisor at work says it looks a bit "ICT Company" (think he means a bit same-old/clinical??)


The problem is the logo colours are what they are; I can't change them (logo on left in header) so if i change colours it must suit this logo somehow..


It doesn't need to just be colours but can anyone provide ideas/suggestions for making this website pop a bit more?


It IS a corporate site, and is targeted toward b2b companies, and it's to be designed to sell webmail packages - so it can't be too crazy.



interested to see what you guys think you'd change given site purpose/target audience and the need to make it less clinical
 
I like it how it is but I no what you mean, it just doesn't come out of the page. The thing that strikes me is the background, I could picture it being a cool blue, like the blue you have used with the mail illustration in mock up 3, or the blue you have used on the send button at the bottom. I think a simple change like that would really make a great difference
 
Yeah thanks Ben that's a good shout, i think that might look really good! And also stop the image looking a bit displaced as it's so colourful in comparison.

Do you think if i used a sort of white 'glow' or basically like.. a white fade out gradient of some kind over the top of the images and recoloured them a bit to blend in with the blue, i would get away with keeping the colourful picture?
 
At the minute, the design looks very much like a template website. The elements on the page look quite disparate and don't link together.

Apart from the logo, there is nothing on the page to suggest Webmail - maybe you need to include some mock screen grabs of a webmail interface (sites like Campfire or Campaign Monitor)

I would try and integrate the logo shape as a detail into the background of the site. I would also look to use more interesting icons (for the 'Quick Benefit' areas) or instead you smaller thumbnail images that relate to the product.

I would also try to use a better main image - this is the gateway to the site and needs to entice the visitor to stay on the website. You could possibly look for imagery that link to the headline of 'bring life to the community'.

The light grey and dark grey background needs a vibrant colour - for me, the light blue doesn't stand out enough.

Sorry for being harsh but hopefully my feedback will help you improve the design.
 
I disagree about the main image, the image you used in the third mock up really works for me.

I think using the logo shape in the background may just complicate the the whole look and feel of the site and will be too distracting from the other elements.

I do agree how ever on the icons, they could do with some experimenting, but to be honest the ones at the moment do work in the way that they give a professional look, "business like" if you will.

I don't think you need to worry about gradient effects, I think the images and menus etc would work well just with a change of background colour
 
I third the icons definitely, and I don't take your feedback as anything but really helpful Designmatic, especially as you gave so much of it - i see your points too so thank you :)

I'll definitely experiment with the background colour and maybe try some sort of 'swoosh' faded in there somewhere or over the grey to give the thing some depth.

I wanted to try noise but I didn't really think it was the right type of site.

Unfortunately, I did have the thought about screenshots, and thought to maybe include some sort of slider feature, simplistic but showing screenshots of admin interface, but the project as it's in it's sort of test stage, will be manually 'run' first, before later buying a server and looking into admin panels etc.

So the icon thing is actually going to be the slider for now, and i def think as you say, i could at least work on the imagery so it *depicts* usage of the thing.

I am really really meek with use of icons as Ive never designed one so am pretty limited on a set timescale to istock/similar or creating more simpler ones in illustrator.. like those stripy email box things..and also only just getting into proper use of colour scheming as in planning it first or going according to logo/some other brand element.

would be cool to know how you guys learned this stuff,

Thanks!
 
well your doing a great job emma anyway, just have a little experiment like you said.

you don't really learn it as such, it's just "the eye for design" as they say. I'm an artist and illustrator as well as a designer so I can get a little buried in critique sometimes, but I like to because I can give a more artistic critique to a subject as well as critique from a marketing and what looks good for the customer sort of thing, but you've definitely got a good professional style to your work so keep at it!
 
Back
Top