Home Page design - Round #1

Today I reviewed the first of the proposed home page designs that were created from the latest round of wireframe presentations.  I asked for input from our creative director, who did a wonderful job cleaning up a concept that was guilty of muddled thinking.

What's important is that the home page immediately telegraph what it it that the Vermont Partnership does and how it goes about delivering on that mission.  I want to avoid showing the mission statement on the home page because I don't think it speaks clearly to lots of readers.  I want to communicate the organization's purpose clearly and succinctly. 

The proposed copy turned out to be too long and some of the proposed links still didn't give our creative director a clear understanding of the sort of content that was at the other end.  What we learned in Human Computer Interaction about getting shareholder involved earlier rather than later now makes sense.  We avoid building a frame that's garbage when it's made public. 

I also see that photography is going to be a challenge.  I want to avoid having the site look like it fell from the pages of iStock, so it will be important to allocate time for searching Flickr and other photo posting websites.  It's still too soon to start speaking with photographers about specific images.

I hope to be able to post the proposed home page designs tomorrow after making a number of design and text edits.  We'll also need interior page designs for to go along with the various home page proposals. 

Still so much to do.