Is almost finished.  Please give input of what you would change.  It is being updated often so keep checking it out.  We need EVERYONES suggestions. 

 

I'm not sure what to put to the right of the banner. 

 

The *New* UrbanOhio

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/index.php

I think it looks a bit basic.  I think we need a top graphic or something.

More color.

More color.

 

Where/how?

Yeah, we need specific examples/suggestions.

It looks good and clean. I'd go for more pictures and less text.

I like it, generally. I just have some basic thoughts: justify the text as on the current design, do something to enhance the image (ie. border), and replace 'Warren' with 'Springfield.' Warren is a great town and all, but Springfield, Lima, Steubenville, Mansfield, (maybe Portsmoth even) are larger urban centers, at least phisically; Springfield tops them all in population.

It doesn't say warren in the top, it says Youngstown-Warren. Referring to that specific metro....

I think a solid [insert same color here as the reflection of the skyscrapers] box should be placed behind the buttons on the top of the page and the "Welcome to UrbanOhio.com" banner. The white needs to be broken up.

 

I would also use the red from the "dot" somewhere else. It would be a nice to see it repeated for aesthetics and balance. It is really distracting right there all by itself.

If you're going with Youngstown-Warren, then for consistency, shouldn't you have Dayton-Springfield and Canton-Massillon and Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria?  Now that's too busy-looking, so I would cut Warren out also.

 

Both Lorain and Springfield have larger populations than Hamilton (so does Parma but this isn't SuburbanOhio.com)... just sayin'

 

Either way, I think the gray city names are a bit too big, considering that they're just place-holders and not clickable.  I would rather see the "links" "forum" etc buttons become more prominent.

 

Lastly as much as I love the new logo, I miss the state outline of Ohio being somewhere on the page (maybe like a watermark behind the paragraph explaining the site).

Lorain might have a higher population, but it isn't that large of a town, for whatever reason.

 

Hamilton will most lilkely surpass Springfield in population this year or the next, if the trend of the past few years continues.

I agree that the logo should and city names on the header should be anchored by a colored bar. Question: are the names functional, i.e., do they click through to city-specific content? If not (or even if they do), they should be knocked back to serve as more of a graphical pattern. That will allow you to sneak in more names of smaller-sized cities. As it is, they fight the logo and the content below.

 

Also, I don't like that the dynamic content (the recent forum topics and site updates) is below the fold (newspaper term, not sure what the web page equivalent is). Maybe a two column layout would allow us to sneak the dynamic content up to eye-level and still preserve the "Welcome to UO" blurb.

 

Come to think of it, how necessary that blurb of "Welcome" copy? It's kind of book-reportish (in my book, there's no higher praise). Wouldn't an RSS-feed of news affecting Ohio's urban centers (Transportation, Development, City Hall stuff, etc) feel more current and relevant to the dynamic nature of Ohio's hustling, bustling cities? Just a thought.

 

And one last comment: as awesome as that logo is? It's about 20-30% too big. But let's see what happens if we can anchor it in a color bar.

Oh man, Rich, you really opened up a can of worms here...

I know: A CONTEST TO DESIGN THE NEW SITE!

 

No.

Oh man, Rich, you really opened up a can of worms here...

 

I'm not scared  :)

More color.

 

Where/how?

It was my first reaction going in with the mindset that it was basic (CDM’s post). The gray that is used for the list of cities and welcome to urbanohio.com is faint. The white background washes it out. Maybe a tad darker gray or another color?

 

Sorry I was in a hurry and didn’t explain it more in detail. Nice job though!

Hello everybody. To introduce myself really quick, my name's Joey and I've been working on the new site redesign.

 

I have read your suggestions and made some changes accordingly. I also moved the test page to this url, so I could get all of the generated content to work. Let me know what you think

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/index.php

Good job padding the search box from the top of the design.

 

I suggest using a class or style to change the search box to something less generic. Also, I would question whether or not the background image is necessary. Lastly, I would consider a darker gray or something that doesn't strain the eyes for the City Names image.

 

Great design though, you're doing a good job.

Thanks Jake!

Somebody mentioned the old logo in the background, so I did a state outline there and tried to make it really light, so it wasn't distracting. the search box is something that I'm still working on to get it lined up in Internet Explorer, it looks great in Firefox and the style is going to change on it, like you suggested. When I first did the design, I had the city names scrolling across the top and then changed it to how it is now. I think if it's too dark then it's going to attract too much attention, but that's my personal opinion. Maybe once we get a few more responses then I'll understand a little better. I don't really know this audience, so I'm not sure which direction to take. Hopefully being signed on here and reading some of the old posts will get me more "tuned-in" to the people who are on here all of the time.

Lorain might have a higher population, but it isn't that large of a town, for whatever reason.

 

 

the reason is because lorain has bled a lot of it's industry and population and infrastructure. that's why it's firmly a classic rust belt city.

 

Well the Ohio outline watermark was an idea, but I'm not lovin it after all - maybe because my favorite part of the state gets buried under the photo.  Maybe if it was smaller and just behind the introductory paragraphs?  Sorry to possibly lead you astray.

 

I think the city names could go in a single row across the whole screen rather than just the right side; looks a bit off balance - as long as there's something in the upper right to balance out the logo on the top left.

Thanks Jake!

 

No problem! I know how much fun it can be to completely redesign a website, but it is totally worth it in the end.

...and replace '-Warren' with 'Springfield.' Warren is a great town and all, but Springfield, Lima, Steubenville, Mansfield, (maybe Portsmouth even) are larger urban centers, at least phisically; Springfield only because it tops them all in population.

Search form style has been updated in the header

Nice! Top of the page looks balanced out now - thanks for all the work you're doing...

I think I agree with KOOW's comment, or at least questioning, of the necessity of the introductory text.  I'd rather see more dynamic content, perhaps a calender of upcoming events/more urbanohio news/make the image larger, etc.

 

It's a nice design otherwise, though.  And thanks for continuing to invest time in keeping the website fresh.

I think I agree with KOOW's comment, or at least questioning, of the necessity of the introductory text.  I'd rather see more dynamic content, perhaps a calender of upcoming events/more urbanohio news/make the image larger, etc.

 

It's a nice design otherwise, though.  And thanks for continuing to invest time in keeping the website fresh.

 

We will work on that and will shorten the intro so there is more room for dynamic content.  But it will happen down the road in a month or so.

I agree that the intro is a bit much...and puts waay too much text on the main page.  From my experience that seems to turn people off and away from your website.

 

Another thought I have is instead of a random rotation of pictures, for each city, how about implementing some sort of flash element that would display those all in one cycle without having to refresh the page...that could be something that would really draw people in.  Also I would say the overall feel of the design is a bit search engine-ish (if that makes any sense).  I think the addition of some more/enhanced graphics will help to cut down on that feel, but I do tend to like the stuff "below the fold" as KOOW put it.

I also think there is too much intro, but I'd much rather see it shortened than eliminated entirely, and not so that there can be more dynamic content, but so that everything can fit "above the fold" (to carry on with KOOW's newspaper terminology).  I'm thinking from the perspective of a first-time visitor, and in that regard the bottom line for me is that when I visit a site I want to be able to figure out just what the hell it is within 10 or 15 seconds.  Front pages cluttered with links and with no explanation of the site's subject or purpose do not tend to captivate me.  Heavy emphasis on the dynamic content caters to us regulars without enticing n00bs.

 

So, my USD 0.02: Brief introductory text, a picture or slideshow, easily-located links to the photo pages (the existence of these, BTW, doesn't seem obvious enough in the current design) and the forum, and short lists of recent posts, news, upcoming events, etc.

My only suggestion is to not have a picture of what appears to be a small-town setting (even if it's from one of the Three 3 C's, it still looks like small town mid-America). When I think of Urban Ohio, I'm thinking of the state's biggest cities. The site's banner lists those cities, so I would expect to see a setting from one of those cities pictured -- preferably from one of the Big Three Cs.

 

Now, I realize that if we show a skyline or downtown setting from one of Ohio's largest cities, it will immediately be recognized as coming from that city. And I know how we can be on this site when it comes to the perceived favoritism toward one city over another. So how about a picture like one of these:

 

 

 

 

Or even the side of a big building shot so close that it appears to be only a mural of windows. Or a shot of a crowded sidewalk cafe on a nice spring day. That sort of thing.......

I'll second KJP's suggestion. 

A Grasscat-bot.

A Grasscat-bot.

 

That would be too sweet!

 

 

Pushing 2000 seicer, don't forget to update your sig.

BTW, I'm going to put the new design online later today.

Please be careful! ;)

Please be careful! ;)

 

I will be careful, if your account is deleted by accident, it was a total accident I swear!

I have only read a few of these suggestions, not all of them.  I agree with the few that I have read and I agree that it is too basic, needs more proffesional pictures, and the font type needs to change. 

What font should we use?

Courier-New, or Times New Roman.

 

Nah.

 

I actually use Trebuchet MS, Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif -- in that order. My CSS will read something like this --

"font : 150%  Helvetica, "Trebuchet MS", Arial,Tahoma, sans-serif;"

The reason we have the "large" introduction (only two whole paragraphs) is that our site is recognized by Google in key words.  The gallery doesn't have much writing to even be recognized by Google so when you see "Ohio skyline" or "Ohio cities" and such, this site will pop up due to the introduction.  Thus, we aren't scrapping nor even shortening it for a reason.  And really, it's a flufff piece but people get the idea and go straight to the gallery or forum.

 

I mean, you all are here, right? ;)

Thank you all for your suggestions as we have taken them into consideration.  God Bless!