Redesign SramanaMitra.com
Sunday, February 22, 2009
14 comments
By guest authors Charles W. Bush and Kathy Hwang of 3Strand Innovation, a brand, design and business consultancy.
As regular blog readers, how would you like to see the user interface and experience of SramanaMitra.com redesigned? How would you want to interact with it? What would you add? What would you take away?
We’ll be taking a look at the design of blogs next week. But for this week … you be the designers and let us know your thoughts.
We will all participate in this process, including Sramana!
Hi,
Thanks for this chance. I personally have the following suggestions:
1. The header should have a static pic, not this flash animation…sometimes it’s a great distraction. Or it should relay different messages, not the same stuff over and over again all the time.
2. The header tabs with contacts, Guest author, Bio, etc needs to be more prominent, I feel the font could be enlarged too.
3. The ads sometimes gets in the way! Could you please think about doing something to make them a little inconspicuous?
4. Please consider putting some color in the site.
5. Can you add dates along with the recent posts?
6. In Role Model Interviews section, on the right of the page, please try putting a thumbnail of the role models along with the caption. Some pictures could be added in the posts too. There are very less pictures in the blog.
Thanks,
Sayan
Folks,
I am looking for a redesign that is less, not more. If you are coming with suggestions of more, that won’t align with my line of thinking.
I am a minimalist at heart, and am bothered by the fact that the site has, over time, accumulated too much.
Along the lines of being minimalist,
(1) What are the first three things that pop out at you on the site? and
(2) What are the first three things you WANT to see when visiting this site?
Sayan, thanks for taking the time to comment. Your feedback is surprisingly specific, and clear. We definitely agree with you on your 3rd point about finding a clean design for AdSpace so it doesn’t take away from the reading experience. You also have a good point about using visuals to build a stronger sense of intimacy with the interviewees in the articles.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for this blog!!It rocks!!
1.Could you please add a print button so that at one go i can print the entire article or interview.
2.I have observed that in the interview articles,you split it in many pages-Is it not possible to reduce the split to max of 3 pages like any of the nytimes articles.
3.Can you consider having the top 20 viewed articles.
Thanks,
Vikram
Hi Sramana,
Paraphrasing Peter Drucker, information is data infused with relevance and purpose, when my (information design) clients ask me how I’ll approach their project, I tell them I look at three things: relevance, purpose, . . . and I add the people factor. For your site, I’d ask you these questions:
What are you trying to accomplish (your purpose)?
Who are you trying to reach?
From there, I’d sort your content, eliminate those things that don’t relate to your answers, retain the things that relate, and add any missing pieces.
In addition, I’d follow usability guidelines. For example, I’d eliminate red font color. For some with red/green color blindness, red changes to a dark brown. So, using red defeats your intent to make that content stand out. It won’t.
I’ll be glad to provide more information if you have questions. All the best!
Pati
Pati – those are good points. As a reader, when you look at the current site, what is it you think it is trying to accomplish and who do you think it is trying to reach?
Good evening –
First impression: It looks like this is AT&T’s site, selling the Digital Media Solutions Center, to someone who might be interested in that technology.
Second impression: It’s unfocused and confusing. The key content (trends, interviews, and case studies) are spread out, dwarfed by the ads.
****
A few things: I read the post in a reader (NetNewsWire), then linked to the site. I don’t get the impressions noted above in the reader — but I think you want to drive people to the site. Also, as I said initially, your intent (I’m guessing) to use red font to highlight areas might not work. Last, I’m viewing the site on a 20″ monitor. Although this might add to the confusion (I get to see almost everything), when I look at it on my 15″ laptop screen, I only see part of the site (missing part of the key content).
Sramana provides a great service (content . . . knowledge). To get people to go from the new reader to the site, the site needs to embrace that.
Good night,
Pati
[1] The tags can be utilized better. The tags which are available at the top level is not used well as some the tags have an article written a year back. The most used tags can come there with a link to all tags.
[2] The advertisement as placed on the site makes the site look really bad also not sure how the adv is pushed to this because I always see the same adv coming on the page in multiple locations at the same time. Like all the time the adv on the top of Role Models etc would be same as the bottom most adv. The adv on the top banner below the self adv banner goes too much into the text at the right. The two vertical ads in the right hand side show same adv a lot of time and then it looks really bad. Also may be we can have one adv showing there and the other adv is shown before the comments section or in between the comments.
[3] It is very hard to find the relevant posts which were made before though Sramana does a very good job on embedding those links in his writing well. There should be some better way to get into those previous writings.
[4] The site is not at all context sensitive I guess the site can always have a module (Don’t know much on WordPress) which will show context sensitive writings.
[5] The site should have the option of registered users and create a platform for discussions to have bigger impact. Knowing that the viewership of this site contains several VCs as well as entrepreneurs it can actually provide a platform for people to get help from each other. By which the site can build a social network around the readers and help the relevant people.
[6] BTW, the footer image never loads so may need a QA team to look at it once the site is changed.
Later again…..
A lot of typo above…. the best one was “Sramana does a very good job on embedding those links in HIS writing well”. I apologise.
Thanks for the excellent site!
1. Something that really pops out is the dynamic header. I guess the site would look more professional if the flashing header was removed. Site’s which are simple with static content appeal more to me.
2. Also, the navigation tabs could do we some better alignment.
3. Choice of colors is up to you, I would go for a white background and black text with a bigger font size.
These are simple changes I think can make a difference. Again, thanks for the excellent content you provide on this Site.
Folks,
Pls remember that if you want an advertising free site, you’d have to sign up to pay for it.
Also, if you request a long laundry list of features, including private lounges, etc. – that would mean you’d have to pay a subscription.
Are you willing to do that?
Based on your comments so far, it looks like these are the recurring themes:
1) READABILITY / DISTRACTION POINTS: use of flash, ads, font size & color, # of pages
(2) EASE OF NAVIGATION: header tabs, tags, related posts
(3) VISUAL ENGAGEMENT: photographs, color application, layout & alignment
(4) SOCIAL NETWORKING: connect to other readers, most viewed articles, help facilitate discussions
For now, let’s focus on minimalism for improved READABILITY. Sramana is right that every design choice has a trade-off. But for the sake of brainstorming, if it didn’t…
What are specific things that you would remove from the website (other than the banner ads already mentioned)?
What do you feel are the core necessities for Sramana’s site?
Hi,
I feel if the post section is encased in a block, or has a different color than the rest of the portions in the site, it’d be more prominent and definitely help us read fast.
At present the dotted line pattern doesn’t create a good enough mental demarcation between the posts and other stuff.
Thanks,
Sayan
A lot of space can be made available by introducing DHTML mouse over for listings on the site including the Role Models, Recent comments and other listings to provide more space for the articles and make the site look clean.