Post Crit

Crit raised a few issues with my site, most of which were known to me, but also a few that i hadn't even really taken into consideration. The main points raised were;

• Include the right information for people to know why they're there
• Be more clear about what the website is for straight away (Can a customer decipher what the site is for in seconds?)
• Where is the event?
• Perhaps add a slider on the header to show more images for the site
• Include more call to action

A few of these points i knew of already such as the lack of call to action and the inclusion of more of the artists imagery. But other than that these other things did make me look at my site differently. Designing the site myself i always knew what it was and it never occurred to me that other people wouldn't.

My first task was remedying this, previously my site just had the word 'Concept' on the header with nothing else. the point raised was that there was absolutely no way to know what that is unless you already know of it. I took to illustrator and began designing something in the same vane as my original header but with a little more info. Previously my header looked like this;

After a rehash in Adobe illustrator, i've come up with this;

I changed the background colour ever so slightly to make the white text pop a bit more, and changed the font. I think 'Impact' works a bit better in this situation than the themes default font. This way it satisfies the crit evaluation and really does make a very beneficial difference to the site as a whole.

The next big issue that was raised was my lack of 'call to action' buttons, unfortunately this was something i'd previously looked into. With the parallax theme i have there is no way to just add floating buttons that sit within or around text. The only way to add these call to action buttons would be in a block element next to the text. The ideal place for me to have these buttons would be on the right or left hand column of a certain page surrounded by other things of a similar nature. Also, with the theme i've picked the only way i can fit a button is to have it on it's own line, separate from everything else, making the site look particularly weird.

Unless, of course, i put more CTA buttons to other things like the shop and the artists. This may work.

So, after working through a lot of the shortcode on the site as i previously did with the about section on the home page, i managed to create a button that linked through to various different places on the site. Although i believed this to be the issue before in me not being able to place a floating button for tickets, the integration of more than one button on the row has seemed to remedy the problem allowing a more fluid site. After messing with the code;

I have been able to put in 6 buttons on the top of the home page instead of my original intention of just one, creating more of a CTA button section that just one random button. Through my experience of people throuhg other lines of work, it occurred to me that too many obvious function buttons can never be too much. therefore i have included some already established icons lower on the page, into my CTA button section, allowing more fluid access for the user. I though i would also stick with the staple colour scheme already established as not to overwhelm or disorient the user.

Finally, the CTA section looks like this;

I think it compliments the site well without being too overbearing. With my lack of knowledge in web design i really think this has been executed quite well and really clears up the main issues in the Crit.

My next objective is to include a sliding header that always originates on the concept festival header. But i think overall i have sorted out the main things from the Crit and i am quite happy with the outcome.