cetac.media
Published 1 year ago
Project Timeframe
February 2008 – April 2008
Motivations
cetac.media, an organization dedicated to the study of Communication Technologies, needed a website redesign, but more important, an overall shift in the direction of their web strategy. They wanted a more open platform, where every member could share resources, communicate and divulge their published works. The site needed to be fresh and current, while still making usability and functionality a top priority.
Interface Design
Interface Design and XHTML/CSS development were my main areas of intervention in this project, with the Drupal implementation and customization being handled by another web developer.
The overall design follows a very light colour scheme, to boast a productive and serious environment. Some earlier designs featured a dark grey background and a more vibrant, but also darker colour scheme. These were rejected because they didn’t respond to the client’s needs. I feel the final layout is very clean and polished, with a few fun touches here and there that keep it interesting.
One design decision that I feel was crucial to the success of the project was keeping the same theme for both the front-end and management back-end. I see so many custom-made solutions that use completely different designs for these two environments, and I feel it slows down production so much because then the user who both publishes content and consumes it has to learn two separate, seemingly unconnected interfaces.
Not much Javascript was used, mainly because the site didn’t particularly need it, all the while not using spiffy Javascript meant a faster website and less bandwidth consumed. In the end, just little sprinkles here and there were used, where the lack of Javascript would actually compromise usability.
Final Thoughts
This project involved making sometimes hard design decisions and leaving personal tastes aside to better meet the needs of a client, who wished to be taken serious in the web world.
You can view the website online here.
