Figure 1. Town of Cochrane Design - Home Page. Click for larger image.
Our project management class required a redesign of the Town of Cochrane website. I chose a professional looking design that caters to all of the town site’s users (business users included). I chose a primarily green palette to draw on the town’s primary symbol: It’s coat of arms. The graphic in the middle is a placeholder for a flash rotator for “what’s hot”, whether that be news or seasonal tourist info.
Figure 2. Town of Cochrane Redesign - Home Page. Click for larger image.
However, once my prof saw it, he noticed that the image was dominating the page, and a text news section was missing. When I talked to the town’s IT manager, he mentioned that the new direction of the site would be focused on tourism. He also said that he liked the categorical breakup of information that the North Bay and Sudbury town websites had (e.g. Visitors, Residents, Business, Town Hall). My prof and my wife both pointed out that they didn’t know what the little squares were on the first comp. I decided to remove the squares, which were to be navigation buttons for the flash rotator, and add the more self-explanatory play and pause buttons. So taking these suggestions to heart I did a second version of the comp, and it looks like figure 2.
#1 by BeeTee - April 12th, 2009 at 04:23
I really like the design of what you did much more than the real town of Cochrane’s website.
I love the minimalistic approach and clean, clear, and elegant feel
You should show them what you did and maybe they would commission you to design their site?
#2 by mashour - April 13th, 2009 at 17:22
@BeeTee Thanks Bee. Actually we did contact them and it looks promising. I’ll let you know how it goes!