 |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
     |
|
Challenge: Turner Resources had an existing site for their affiliates to download promotional material. They had recently redesigned their logo and were interested in an updated look for their affiliate website. Since the existing site was fairly new, and most of the affiliates were used to the way it worked, they wanted to give it a new face without changing the core functionality or flow of information. One of the key features they wanted to keep was a navigation that allowed the user to enter sections from two points, by network or by site section. Also, the original design had not taken into account the variable size of the assets for the different networks. As a result, when the site was updated, it often looked out of balance since there was no uniformity to the graphic elements pulled in by the database. Solution: We first concentrated our efforts on solving the problem of expandability. Since there was no standardized size for the promotional materials and the content was updated on a regular basis, we had to design a site that was flexible enough to accommodate the varying sizes and formats. To this end, we designed a modular homepage and subpage template with database generated pages. The images' width was standardized, but their height could vary without effecting the composition of the page. Next we redesigned the dual interface to make the choices clearer and easier to differentiate. One of the complaints about the old design had been that the network logos looked like design elements, rather than navigation tools. To rectify that, we made each option into a button, using one shape for the networks, and a different shape for the site sections. The new look kept the existing functionality, but made the choices more obvious to the user. Turner loved the redesign, which allowed for future design tweaks that help to keep the site looking fresh and current without requiring a radical overhaul of the structure or functionality.
|
