The content seems more useful and directs me towards specific actions. And I particularly like the media page. (Hiding and showing the pictures is sort of gimmicky but for some reason I like the gimmick. Having the picture show up felt like a “pleasant” surprise)
But the vibe of the website feels less professional to me than the old website. Part of the issue is the gratuitous use of clip-art, part of it is font choice and color scheme. (Your logo doesn’t stand out very well against the dull blue background, and there are several different random fonts getting used, few of which seem to match the feel of either of the sleeker fonts used in “Singularity Institute” title.)
Yes, I have to say that the unprofessional vibe given off feels absolutely horrible to me. I’m surprised that the designers of the site appear to be the same as previously, since the previous style and vibe felt very good to me, and this feels so much like the opposite.
The current crop of clip-art would really need to go, I’d say. Nothing looks as hasty and unprofessional as stereotypical clip-art. You especially shouldn’t with your clip-art choices communicate that you’re a very formal, ordinary and uncreative men-in-suits organisation, since you’re really not (and if you were, who would think you competent or even sincere in undertaking such an unusual mission? Stereotypical and ordinary men-in-suits are the antithesis of creativity, exceptionality and thinking-something-that-isn’t-a-politically-correct-cliche).
The current site design could perhaps be made to rock if all the clip-art was changed out to a new theme that was creative and original (and you) and wouldn’t really look like clip-art. Some associated changes to color scheme and fonts might be required, but perhaps not a complete redesign.
Huh. Obviously Rain and I disagree here, but practically every image looked like something I’d seen before. (Hand holding globe, two hands shaking firmly, etc). My suspicion is that your graphic artist in many cases took existing clip art and modified it to match the style of the website. Which is better than just grabbing the closest clip-art you can find, but still: the whole reason clip-art is bad is not because it actually is clip-art, but because it looks like something you got off the shelf.
They might not actually be clip art, but they definitely look like clip art. Even the ones that are specific to the Singularity Institute have a generalized, vanilla feel to them.
If you want me to be entirely honest? Scrap that whole design and get a different company to design your website.
To me, when I first saw them, they definitely looked like clip art, except that in some cases the SI logo had been edited in.
I wish I could upvote what Raemon said several times: “the whole reason clip-art is bad is not because it actually is clip-art, but because it looks like something you got off the shelf.”
The content seems more useful and directs me towards specific actions. And I particularly like the media page. (Hiding and showing the pictures is sort of gimmicky but for some reason I like the gimmick. Having the picture show up felt like a “pleasant” surprise)
But the vibe of the website feels less professional to me than the old website. Part of the issue is the gratuitous use of clip-art, part of it is font choice and color scheme. (Your logo doesn’t stand out very well against the dull blue background, and there are several different random fonts getting used, few of which seem to match the feel of either of the sleeker fonts used in “Singularity Institute” title.)
Yes, I have to say that the unprofessional vibe given off feels absolutely horrible to me. I’m surprised that the designers of the site appear to be the same as previously, since the previous style and vibe felt very good to me, and this feels so much like the opposite.
The current crop of clip-art would really need to go, I’d say. Nothing looks as hasty and unprofessional as stereotypical clip-art. You especially shouldn’t with your clip-art choices communicate that you’re a very formal, ordinary and uncreative men-in-suits organisation, since you’re really not (and if you were, who would think you competent or even sincere in undertaking such an unusual mission? Stereotypical and ordinary men-in-suits are the antithesis of creativity, exceptionality and thinking-something-that-isn’t-a-politically-correct-cliche).
The current site design could perhaps be made to rock if all the clip-art was changed out to a new theme that was creative and original (and you) and wouldn’t really look like clip-art. Some associated changes to color scheme and fonts might be required, but perhaps not a complete redesign.
Btw, am I hallucinating, or did you already change the colors slightly?
Anyway, I’d like to say that I currently like how the colors look. (Though doesn’t have much to do with the points that I was critical on.)
Thanks for your feedback. Just a small note: the graphics on the website were developed specifically for the website, and are thus not clip art.
Huh. Obviously Rain and I disagree here, but practically every image looked like something I’d seen before. (Hand holding globe, two hands shaking firmly, etc). My suspicion is that your graphic artist in many cases took existing clip art and modified it to match the style of the website. Which is better than just grabbing the closest clip-art you can find, but still: the whole reason clip-art is bad is not because it actually is clip-art, but because it looks like something you got off the shelf.
They might not actually be clip art, but they definitely look like clip art. Even the ones that are specific to the Singularity Institute have a generalized, vanilla feel to them.
If you want me to be entirely honest? Scrap that whole design and get a different company to design your website.
They didn’t look like clip art to me; they were too appropriate for the presented subjects.
Also, ’twould be odd for clip art factories to make clip art with the Singularity Institute logo in it. :)
To me, when I first saw them, they definitely looked like clip art, except that in some cases the SI logo had been edited in.
I wish I could upvote what Raemon said several times: “the whole reason clip-art is bad is not because it actually is clip-art, but because it looks like something you got off the shelf.”