I saw this site some time earlier in the year and when thinking of a theme for the mining site design, this one struck me as being a plausible, profitable venture.
Using an inverted white on black look, it proves quite striking when most websites nowadays adopt for a white background. Instantly, courtesy of the typeface and the type of image used, it is notably a reference to an American newspaper from the last century. In particular, the theme is helped along by the illustration with it's dollar bill like look.
I even like the small addition of a subheading that has ornate lines on either side. It is tiny finessing features like this that help build the overall authenticity of a piece.
Further in the page, there is a bit of a contrast. Some images are in black and white and seem in keeping with the design. However, some blog posts have full colour images and whilst these certainly stand out, they seem off-key with the design theme.
Interestingly, further down the page, a three column structure is used. This is one of many design trends for 2009 that I have spotted around the site. It helps distinguish information in a manageable form to the user. It is something I suggest using for our site too, as information will presumably be in abundance and so will need an orderly form to aid the reader's consumption of the site.
Here, I like the numbered bullets on the site. Again, this sort of idea will already be familiar to internet shoppers as most sites, such as Amazon, Play, iTunes have rankings in terms of popularity/sales. Furthermore, it is another neat way of sectioning information that may be of interest to the user.
It is also here that I spotted another of the design trends - ribbons that curve round from the back of the box.
One design point that is different but I think works somewhat is their sectioning of information. Whereas a popular technique currently is to have div boxes with borders so you can see where the information starts and where the information ends. Here however, they have gone for whole page horizontal sectioning, using dividers along with a sophisticated gradient effect which helps distinguish where a section begins and ends.
Notably here however, it does seem that the page lacks some colour or something to draw your attention. This makes it clear that it isn't the easiest to get a balance between keeping with the theme - all black and white photos, or using something away from the colour palette - posing the risk of being too outlandish and sticking out in the wrong way.
Further down the page is a commendable idea, one that I have not actually encountered before: a repeated navigation bar. It seems a sensible, intelligent design choice and one I had not considered before, instead preferring to fill the footer with a shortened site map.
It will already be familiar to the user after having seen it atop the page and therefore should encourage them on getting to the bottom of the information on the page to then click and go elsewhere in the site, rather than having to scroll back up or worst, leave.
There are downsides that I critique this site with however.
In short, it isn't very consistent in it's navigation/layout. Links can appear where you wouldn't expect them, presented in a different form. Furthermore, random pages can be navigated to which don't bear the trademarks set out in the previous staple pages, i.e. where is the main navigation bar to click?
This made me as a user confused, and it did dent the overall perception of the site. I believe poor website structure to be one of the reasons a site can fail. Being a fan of visual design, for me it can be made up, but still, most people want the information and then they want out. Here, they could spend some time having to find it... or more likely, won't.
In all, I drew most from this site through the visual design. It crafts a good look, being striking through it's individualism. This sort of style could prove a winner for our mining museum site. However, it was also noteworthy that a random navigation proves irksome and leads to being a downfall and so this would need to be have close attention paid.
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