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> The Persuader Blog |
16.7.06 Keep it clean I’ll be leading the redesign of the Lucire web site, which has been postponed more times than I care to mention here. I have a few concerns: if we abandon the 160-pixel-wide skyscrapers in favour of these 300-wide advertisements, is that reasonable? Do readers have any feedback on this?My principal aim, aside from ensuring that Lucire’s brand values are maintained, is to keep it clean and workable with our Silverstripe content management system, while being an evolution of what we had before. We will adopt some technology to ensure that the headlines and some other odds and ends are displayed in the correct typeface. Nothing new now, but the applet is new to us, and particularly vital. Comments are welcome, especially as I am redesigning with a print magazine existing now, whereas at the time of all the other redesigns, Lucire was web-only. Posted by Jack Yan, 14:57  
Comments:
I think the adverts on French Vogue are 300 wide, they're certainly very prominent yet the site as a whole works brilliantly. I think as you use a widescreen layout on Lucire, you can use the 300px ads and still have plenty of space for the content to be king. It's all about placement rather than size, optimally I find that I am more likely to look at an advert that has its own space than one that is invading editorial space, in which case I am already negative towards it and skip it, whereas if it has its own place to the right side, I am more likely to look as it hasn't prevented me from viewing what I want of the content. Then again, that may just be me.
I really look forward to seeing what you do with it.
Thanks, Pete. I did have to take a lead from what was happening out there—it’s been a little while, maybe six months, since I’ve led a web redesign. The last one was for this blog, I think, and I am not sure if that counts. I am worried that the ads will encroach a little too much so I’ll see what options we might have with Silverstripe—hopefully the boys there will be good enough to give us some flexibility with the CMS.
I always find that looking at the other sites in the industry, but browsing through the eye of an interested reader as opposed to a designer can be really helpful to the process. I hope you can talk to the guys at silverstripe, it's in their favour to help too, esspecially with Lucire being a growing business bolstered by your Print edition too.
They have been pretty good as I believe we are their only international client, as in a web site that is seen globally. Lucire used to lead even Condé Nast but we just don’t have the same deep pockets, so when they wanted to overtake, they overtook.
You are right—other sites will give us a good clue as to prevailing trends, and once we combine that with our flavour, we should have something very swish. The other important thing I have to remember is that reading habits, as in leading, letterspacing, etc., don’t change greatly from print to web, so I have to make sure those rules are obeyed.
I'm sure you'll find the right balance, can't wait to have a look. And on another note. All fashion sites should feature Gisele prominently ;) *ahem* from an asthetic point of view.
You would have loved us in 2000, when we ran the Hennes & Mauritz summer swimwear campaign starring Gisèle Bündchen, photographed by Mikael Jansson. Boy, I loved doing the layout on that one! Æsthetically speaking, too, of course.
I would suggest slimmer adverts instead of the broader one. They look less encroaching, and I know that I would like to have to space for content. Like the other commenters say, the right balance needs to be struck because too much would drive readers away. I would also keep ads confined to one area instead of liberally spreading them across the entire layout..
Thank you, Joy, I really appreciate your advice. I’ll have to work out the mathematical proportion, I think—what may happen is we do broad on the index pages and slim on article pages.
Jack, there is one more thing. This may sound simplistic, but making the links of important content accessible and easy to find is another suggestion. I know a lot of sites that have obscure placement of critical links. The culprit usually is the misplacement of ads, as it gets lost in that chaos.. I'm sure you may already know what I just suggested..
Slim on the articles is a great idea. It is less distracting. Cheers!
Thank you, Joy! It’s certainly worth being reminded of that. I think we’ll keep the sectional links up top, and the pull-down box for those who get really stuck. Suggestions are always welcome—in fact, I have been wondering whether to have some links on the side (like Style.com), but I dislike splitting them up.
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NoteEntries from 2006 to the end of 2009 were done on the Blogger service. As of January 1, 2010, this blog has shifted to a Wordpress installation, with the latest posts here.With Blogger ceasing to support FTP publishing on May 1, I have decided to turn these older pages in to an archive, so you will no longer be able to enter comments. However, you can comment on entries posted after January 1, 2010. Quick links Add feeds
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