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    Entries in design (3)

    Friday
    19Feb2010

    Classic Website 'Dead End'

    Fri-No One's at the Ad Agency-day, February 19, 2010
    From my desk in Athens.

    As I continue to troll my way through Atlanta advertising agencies, I keep eyes open for more examples of what does and does not work on websites. And while this unnamed agency's website looks OK (it falls victim to the chunk'o'color design scheme I find redundant), it has some basic web problems.

    I got to this page by clicking 'Who We Are.' After I click that three names and a bunch of the color chunks I was referring to pop up. Why not start with a profile that is showing? Not in the cards. So I click on Bill's profile here and here I am - no links to the next guy's profile, just the link to the annoying 'extra click' page 'Who We Are,' which makes the browser back button more useful and faster to load. Whoops.

    What you are seeing above, I would call a classic website 'dead end'. I'll probably throw that term in my definitions shortly as well.

    xoT

    Monday
    15Feb2010

    Now That's a Website

    This Atlanta agency, Fletcher Martin, has a great website. It looks great. It works great. It does cool things that don't get in your way. The copy is intelligent and friendly. It has little nuggets of embedded media, like the interview with Andy Fletcher (audio is a little weak, but not catrastophically so) - and here's a kicker - when you are scrolling through the principles at the agency it doesn't lead you to a navigational dead end. This is a number one problem on many Atlanta agency sites I've visited - always with the back and forth on the browser. Whereas this site smoothly moves you along, maintaining form and framing for each topic, then returning to the lovely central form of the main page with the textual background, centralizing the main topics, never losing site of the web visitor's quest for various types of information.

    Now THAT'S a website.

    Monday
    08Feb2010

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