Web Design Disaster

Billyjeanplxiv

New Member
I assisted in implementing a clients ‘vision’
There are a ton of things we couldn’t work around as implementing these designs were critical for job completion. Earlier layouts were cleaner, more modern, organized. This is what the final result is.

After submitting the original designs, we were told we had got everything wrong, and the client demanded a rework toward the guidelines established and wanted the site to represent a brochure we were given.

More grunge, more abandoned houses, push for more donations, more pictures, more graffiti, show the city in a negative light. We absolutely had to keep the video on the homepage. The paw print dividers are required and the shop page was reworked recently. The original design they wanted to use is still visible if the store link is visited. We couldn’t touch the logo as well. Its embarrassing to have worked on this, and I dont display it in my portfolio. Feedback welcome, critics have at it.

Dog Rescue 9

They have seen an increase in SEO, Donations, and website visits so essentially we completed the goals.
 
They have seen an increase in SEO, Donations, and website visits so essentially we completed the goals.
So it's job done then!

Only going to comment on the homepage because that's got enough on it's own:

1. Horrible pop up as soon as you land - Google doesn't like these at all and will penalise you if it prevents access to the site (which it does).
2. Header is full of junk - no idea why the Amazon links are there and why the SM icons? Do you want people to donate or look at the FB page?
3. Logo is naff
4. On my phone the menu is a hamburger - the key links are hidden so no one will know what you do.
5. Video is cropped on a phone (the device of choice for many)
6. Video looks staged.
7. If you rescue any dogs why is the URL detroit pit crew?
8. What we do says the same as the hero image
9. Why an image of a house when the site is about dogs.
10. Next section is called Detroit Stray dog Rescue. Is this different to DPC?
11. Caveat on the SMS maybe difficult to determine - how will I know if an angry dog in injured?
12. The process images have a hover effect that doesn't do anything.
13. The process images stack up on a phone - would be better to be two columns.
14. The rescued dogs images don't lead anywhere. There isn't even a caption with the name of the dog
15. No events found!
16. Footer widgets stack - plenty of room for two columns
17. Font size too big on a small screen
18. Only scores 21/100 on the Google speed test: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https://detroitpitcrew.com/
19. The text us link in the footer has different criteria to that in the content.
20. No idea what 'guidestar' is.
21. Awful code - but you can blame the horrible elementor plugin for this.
22. Support Us link in the header doesn't do anything.
23. Donate now button goes straight to PayPal with no return link.
24. Homepage is 21.4Mb with 141 requests!

Will that do for now?
 
Thanks for the feedback, critique. I hope you had fun, the homepage is an an embarrasment. This was a pain to assemble but I appreciate the time you took to go through it. I'll try to respond with as much as I can.

The pop up is a new addition, it's what they wanted to promote their newsletter. I didnt know it negatively affects google.

I didnt work on the header, I have no idea what amazon smile is.

The video was something we tried hard to discourage but the client was adamant this played and it was this specific video. If we didnt include it, the client would have pulled out. It's a tragedy and one of the biggest eyesores.

The client requested as many graffiti and destoryed house based imagery. She wanted to show Detroit in the worst light possible to scare people into donations.

The process images are a gaf on our end. They shouldnt have hover effects.

No events found! Yup.

I'll look into two column footers in the next client and fixing the support us in the header.

The guidestar was another client requirement. Apparently they 'won' it and wanted to display it proudly. I've never seen another site with one.

I'm not sure what's keeping our speed down, all of the images should settle around 50-100kb. Could be something on the backend or the poor code. I can bring this up with my boss.
 
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