May 2003
Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
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Much of what goes on behind the scenes with this site is experimentation with various web technologies. When the site was initially developed I contemplated using a simple dynamic page structure based upon .ASP or another scripting language, or perhaps using templates based in dreamweaver. In the end the first go-around was standard HTML with stylesheets.
As a quick exercise, I wanted to recreate the structure of the web site using Cascading Style Sheets and the latest XHTML spec. It started as one of those, "let's see what we can do" that turns into a, "wow, it's 4:30am!"
I was able to quickly develop the wrapper of the site completely in CSS and XHTML. Looks similar and is proof that CSS is the wave of the future. But the future is not here yet!
The problem, as it always is with the web, is standards implementation among the various browsers. Depending on the browser, version and platform, implementation is different. For example Mozilla 1.2 was awful, but 1.3.1 was better. IE 5.5 on the PC had some issues, which an upgrade to IE 6.0 fixed. IE 5.2.2 on the Mac was tricky, Safari though was a dream. One could assume that if you have a Mozilla user that they are somewhat avante garde and will constantly upgrade their browswer to the latest version, but of course we all know when you 'assume'....
Of course the power of CSS is that you may develop separate stylesheets for various browsers, but considering that I would need to develop 10+ stylesheets for a web site that has less than 10 pages of content, seems like overkill.
One of my new favorite columns on the web is 'Ask the Pilot' over at Salon. It's written by a pilot of course, and he offers some uncanny insight into the world or commercial aviation. In a recent column he discussed the logos and liverys of some well known, and some less well known airlines. The article is full of links to photography of the planes discussed. I don't always agree with his opinions, I am especially not a big fan of the Air India livery.
All the plane photos are on a web site called Airliners.net, which if you find airplanes even remotely interesting, you will waste a bit of time at. This is there most popular photo on the site, and you can see why.
It's only natural to turn the critical eye towards our own site. It may not be perfect but we think it hits the mark for our audience and goals. Often during the development process our former design roots would surface and say, "it needs more photography!" But we're not a design firm; our purpose is organization and structure.
Obviously it is easier to design a clean interface without a large amount of content, and that was our goal. But don't be fooled, what you see is only the publicly available content.
Prior to launch we had a simple splash page with our logo and positioning statement, a rather clean look. The 'design devil' on our left shoulder said, "keep the splash page, it works with the clean look and feel." The 'usability angel' on our right shoulder said, "splash pages are a waste of a click, why force the user to download another page." Ultimately you can see who won. No Flash, thank goodness, and no unnecessary graphics, nothing worse than those Photodisc stock images that say, "we're in the technology business." There is a standard tab bar navigation structure, maybe a bit cliche, but it's simple and effective.
Taking into account our scope of services, the site achieves our goals; clear concise delivery of content, with a simple navigation structure. Download times should be quick with a very light graphical load. Effective use of CSS and Dreamweaver based templates creating .htm files also increases efficiency.
What's bad? Perhaps a bit too copy heavy, and will an audience who is not savvy understand what we do? This is the major battle that many web sites face, writing in a tone that will appeal to a variety of audiences. The other major issue is font size, perhaps a bit small, we're going to get some feedback, and perhaps offer a dynamic option similar to wired magazine.
There is a clear plan for the growth of the content on the site, this will allow us to avoid the sprawl that happens on many web sites, the expanding navigation bars that soon become too crowded.
Then there is the ever popular question, what does 'hyku' mean? Well, nothing, it's just a name. Just a short simple name that is easy to remember. Of course as people begin to question this answer, the imagination starts to create alternative stories. One idea that fits with our mission is: helping know your users. Sounds plausible doesn't it?
We recently attended Tour de Georgia cycling race in Georgia. The inaugural event marks the return of true stage racing in the U.S. Something not seen since the Tour DuPont in the early '90s. The initial site was developed by a rather savvy group out of Atlanta (ant farm interactive). Although the site contains all the core elements, it tries to impress too much.
First off a Flash intro. Like all Flash intros, cool to watch the first time, if you have the time, the plugin etc. Then it becomes old the next time and we're searching for the 'skip intro' button.
Interior design features consistent global and local navigation. Sidebar links to Cycling 101 and a Glossary are good ideas, especially when educating the many visitors who may know nothing about the sport of cycling. Course maps are animated, which once again, catches the eye the first time, but if you are visiting the site frequently to follow the race, it gets in the way.
Link off the home page for Tour de Georgia merchandise goes to a page with no co-branding, it's a scary looking store. Also once you leave the home page and navigate around the site, there is no link back home, the user is forced to use the back button, often repeatedly.
Pop-ups are used for the photo gallery, which has become almost a standard usage. One strange thing is the 'downloadable' photos which are offered in PC or MAC format. They are JPG files that are either zipped (.zip) or stuffed (.sit). But the compression offers little file size savings. So why zip up a single photo?
Results are now online, but usually not in a timely manner, but that's not the purpose of the site. CyclingNews.com offers the most up-to-the-minute coverage of all major cycling events, so that's where we went for our results. As an aside, VeloNews.com also covered the event, but it's sad when a web site based out of Australia (CyclingNews) does a better job of covering a US cycling race, than a US based site (VeloNews.
I understand though that one major goal of the site may have been to attract sponsors, and there is nothing a would-be sponsor will fall for more, than a slick looking web site.
All in all, Ant Farm does some cool stuff, and I like there logo.
