I just finished reading this great article about the perils of redesigning major websites. The author illustrates the “Kubler-Ross hatefest” that a redesign invariably incites. To wit…

Denial: Why on earth did you change it? The site was fine the way it was.

Anger: My twelve-year-old could have done better!, F***  you, I’ll never use this site again.

Bargaining: At least give us the option to use the old version.

Depression: I used to love this site. Now I can’t bring myself to use it. I miss [feature X]

Acceptance: Actually, I’ve been using it for two weeks now and it’s not that bad.

I think most of the nd.edu redesign team would concur with the validity of these stages.

The best part of the article however was the following story about a redesign experience from the eBay design team:

…the classic eBay redesign story, which I assumed to be apocryphal but have been assured by insiders is true.

In a nutshell, a meaningless background was removed from a seller page. Pandemonium. After strong resistance the background was reinstated, to everyone’s satisfaction. In fact, the rebellious users were so placated that they failed to notice the designers slowly adjusting the background’s hex values over the next few months. The background got lighter and lighter until one day “pop!” it was gone.

More then likely, this is how we should have approached the dark blue background on nd.edu. Instead of digging the trenches and settling in with our provisions to fight a long protracted battle, we should have just started with plain white and slowly added a slightly darker value every day until we eventually hit our desired blue, with no one being the wiser.

I love this site, because I am painfully aware how easy it is to get carried away with a design and throw in a bunch of superfluous elements that don’t need to be there. This site is hot largely because this is what a plumbing and heating company’s homepage should look like and this is the content it should include. No more. No less. The service number’s even in the upper right hand corner in big yellow digits, just waiting to comfort my red, swollen, tear filled eyes after an hour and a half of bailing water out of my basement at three in the morning. 

I am in no way surprised that this site was put together by Astuteo, a design studio out of Wisconsin the homepage of which I discovered last month. (It’s currently the front-runner in the much coveted “Inspiration for oAk’s Impending Homepage Redesign” awards).

It’s easy to design cool, informative, beautiful sites for rock bands and amusement parks (and University Sustainability Initiatives). You really gotta take your hat off to designers who can roll up the metaphorical sleeves and make a site this sharp for a plumbing and heating firm.

It’s impossible to hit this homepage and NOT think “Professional Operation.” Well done.

It’s a minor tragedy that I only had my phone camera with me when I ran into this film projector at the Vickers Theatre in Three Oaks, Michigan. Low light and no flash makes for some questionable image quality, but man…what a beautiful piece of machinery…

Antique Film Projector

 

The lens

 

The control gauges

I think these might be...speed settings?

 

"Frame"

 

 

Let's hear it for Univers Ultra Condensed!

The New Jersey Community Development Corporation’s website, my first collaboration with the wildly talented developer Bill Harle of 90% Gravity, is now live. Check it out.

Non-Profit Marketing guru Chas has a great list of Laws of dealing with clients posted today. Most of his laws hit so close to my own experiences with various clients that my laughter is tempered by the unpleasant memories.

My favorites

• When referring to a budget range, the Client will only remember the low end of the range.
• You will remember the high end of the range.
• Fixed bid or flat rate projects always screw someone over.
• It’s usually not the client.