Comments on: IMA hires out of town talent for crazy Drupal site http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/ The adventures of a freelance web designer Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:38:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Ian http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4899 Ian Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:14:04 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4899 Well, replacing animated gifs with flash sure helps load size, but nothing can save that navigation style :) Where is a semantically correct menu list when you need it. The three static images are now three instances of the same 4K flash movie. On rollover, these load in three different images - which total 50K combined. So, no real overall filesize savings. Well, replacing animated gifs with flash sure helps load size, but nothing can save that navigation style :)

Where is a semantically correct menu list when you need it.

The three static images are now three instances of the same 4K flash movie. On rollover, these load in three different images - which total 50K combined. So, no real overall filesize savings.

]]> By: Christopher http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4898 Christopher Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:34:06 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4898 I'm going to guess that what George is talking about regarding the pixelated design element is the big boxy graphics under the main navigation and the roll-over blue sidebar things, and not the calendar of events. Because the other way around would be, well, just too dumb to comprehend. And, if you take a look at the site now, it looks like Blue Studio has actually softened up the pixlation animations since the original post. (OMG - has this blog actually effected change?) I still don't like the anchor link effect when you make a selection. There's simply no navigational/interaction or design reason to make that kind of visual jump. I'd much rather have to scroll down to get info rather than to have to scroll up to use the navigation. After all, I use the navigation on every page, but may only scan the content and want to scroll down once in a while. But, call me old fashion... I’m going to guess that what George is talking about regarding the pixelated design element is the big boxy graphics under the main navigation and the roll-over blue sidebar things, and not the calendar of events. Because the other way around would be, well, just too dumb to comprehend.

And, if you take a look at the site now, it looks like Blue Studio has actually softened up the pixlation animations since the original post. (OMG - has this blog actually effected change?)

I still don’t like the anchor link effect when you make a selection. There’s simply no navigational/interaction or design reason to make that kind of visual jump. I’d much rather have to scroll down to get info rather than to have to scroll up to use the navigation. After all, I use the navigation on every page, but may only scan the content and want to scroll down once in a while. But, call me old fashion…

]]> By: Mark http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4895 Mark Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:47:10 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4895 An assault on the senses is right. I've noticed that art-related sites are often among the worst offenders. I work in a building surrounded by talented painters, sculptors, photographers etc. who give out business cards immediately recognizable as MS Word templates. Yikes. I can't comment on IMA's situation, not having worked with them, but there's definitely a "something-for-nothing" mentality prevalent in the art community. An assault on the senses is right. I’ve noticed that art-related sites are often among the worst offenders. I work in a building surrounded by talented painters, sculptors, photographers etc. who give out business cards immediately recognizable as MS Word templates. Yikes. I can’t comment on IMA’s situation, not having worked with them, but there’s definitely a “something-for-nothing” mentality prevalent in the art community.

]]> By: Ian http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4892 Ian Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:24:43 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4892 George, Thanks for weighing in. As a designer I understand the overall pixellated, "squares" look that was achieved, but to take it so far as to crap up the images with super-low compression just looks like an amateur's mistake. I don't fault you for that :) George,
Thanks for weighing in. As a designer I understand the overall pixellated, “squares” look that was achieved, but to take it so far as to crap up the images with super-low compression just looks like an amateur’s mistake. I don’t fault you for that :)

]]> By: George DeMet http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4891 George DeMet Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:36:03 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4891 Hi - I'm one of the developers who worked on this Web site. While I can't comment on your criticisms of the site's art direction or its use of "Web 2.0" features, I did want to make one clarifation regarding the use of a JPEG image for the home page calendar background. As I mentioned in the comment thread for the article on drupal.org, the heavily compressed "pixelated" appearance of this image was an intentional part of the design, not a decision dictated by the site's use of Javascript or any other technical consideration. Regarding the legibility of fonts on the site, it sounds like you're running Windows with Helvetica installed, which is a fairly uncommon font/OS combination. Do you have ClearType enabled on your system? If not, that could account for some of the anti-aliasing problems you're experiencing. Hi -

I’m one of the developers who worked on this Web site. While I can’t comment on your criticisms of the site’s art direction or its use of “Web 2.0″ features, I did want to make one clarifation regarding the use of a JPEG image for the home page calendar background.

As I mentioned in the comment thread for the article on drupal.org, the heavily compressed “pixelated” appearance of this image was an intentional part of the design, not a decision dictated by the site’s use of Javascript or any other technical consideration.

Regarding the legibility of fonts on the site, it sounds like you’re running Windows with Helvetica installed, which is a fairly uncommon font/OS combination. Do you have ClearType enabled on your system? If not, that could account for some of the anti-aliasing problems you’re experiencing.

]]> By: Ian http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4890 Ian Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:04:05 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4890 Hey Chris- I was thinking the same thing... it "smacks of effort" as the saying goes. It's a shame because we know it's possible to get great-looking site with clear information presentation without the WHOLE bucket of web 2.0 whiz-bang. Hey Chris-
I was thinking the same thing… it “smacks of effort” as the saying goes. It’s a shame because we know it’s possible to get great-looking site with clear information presentation without the WHOLE bucket of web 2.0 whiz-bang.

]]> By: Christopher http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4889 Christopher Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:51:49 +0000 http://www.ianlabs.com/2007/11/01/ima-hires-out-of-town-talent-for-crazy-drupal-site/#comment-4889 Nice review, and I couldn't agree more. All that flashing and page bouncing makes my head hurt. No wonder the average stay on the site is only a couple minutes. Thing is, it looks like most of this layout (which has promise, except for the pixelated image things) probably could have been done with straight html. Heck, even the calendar could be hex code instead of a graphic. Regardless, they went WAY overboard on the 2.0/geek stuff. While I appreciate the "highly ambitious project" attempt, the whole thing to me seems to me to come off as a little amateurish, not sophisticated, as I consider the IMA brand to be. Nice review, and I couldn’t agree more. All that flashing and page bouncing makes my head hurt. No wonder the average stay on the site is only a couple minutes.

Thing is, it looks like most of this layout (which has promise, except for the pixelated image things) probably could have been done with straight html. Heck, even the calendar could be hex code instead of a graphic.

Regardless, they went WAY overboard on the 2.0/geek stuff. While I appreciate the “highly ambitious project” attempt, the whole thing to me seems to me to come off as a little amateurish, not sophisticated, as I consider the IMA brand to be.

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