Ohio State University - Stone Laboratory
|
Login to vote for this site
|
||||||||||||
Login
|
|
Login to vote for this site
|
||||||||||||
Articles about this site
EDU Checkup Live Video Review
Source: educheckup.com
Add a link to an article
Comments
It's not often that one sees that type of fiddly decoration on a university website. (That green stuff) It's something graphic designers often seem to like doing on their own sites. At first I thought "wow, that's different" and nearly gave it a My Style vote - but then I realised I actually find it quite distracting and showoffy and somewhat offputting.
I think it's beautiful. After all, it is a Stone lab...it needs a bit of greenery and showoffery to make it pop. Kudos to OSU for going outside the box and chiseling out a new design paradigm :-)
I like the 'fiddly decoration'. It reminds me of the type of bubbly goo one would find in a laboratory test tube. Fortunately, the design is for a laboratory - so I guess that's working out. A minor concern is that perhaps in a year when this style grows old - as it's been around now for a couple of years in commercials, ads, and t-shirts - you will have to redesign once more. But, since we are talking websites here, redesign happens quite often. Again, this all seems to be working out for you guys at Stone.
The only real issue I had was the main graphic (banner image). Since it doesn't really do anything 'flashy' - I was wondering why it needed to be in flash at all. Simple js or perhaps php would achieve the same effect, and with likely less maintenance. Just a thought.
Overall, I do like the look of the site; it piques my curiosity and makes me want to browse. And, isn't that what a site is supposed to do?! Good job.
Chech out the "Explore the Island" page: http://stonelab.osu.edu/explore/. Very nice!
A lot of good, fun ideas here that are executed well. Its just overdone... the swirls and graphics at the top are far too distracting. More subtle and similar colors could help to relieve some tension as well as simply minimizing how much of this illustrative effect is used.
Not a big fan of all the grungy bits at the top. I'm not really sure that adding vectors/brushes all over a webpage is an "out of the box" idea either.
I, personally, find it distracting. Also, I feel like I've seen that particular shape everywhere, so it's nothing new to me.
Otherwise, I enjoy the site. Especially the footer. It's nice to see people "doing something" with that bottom space.
I like the site, but this site is one of a number I've seen lately where the top element on the site completely blends into the browser.
It might just be me, but if there's not enough contrast between the top element and my browser I don't register the top element (generally a menu bar) as having anything to do with the site.
It's so bad on this one that I tried to scroll up to the top to get to the bread crumbs even though I was looking right at them.
Love the talking navigation!
There are a lot of things I like about this site, though I hate it when a site has a fairly prominent navigation to a page that says "content coming soon..." (there are a few under the "Explore the Island" section. I do appreciate how upfront they are with the costs, as that is becoming as increasingly important consideration for students, and too many higher ed sites bury that information, in my opinion.
Overall, though, I think it's bold design, and I like it. :)
This site is beautiful! if only more designers had the courage to push designs like this within the education sector then maybe the area would not be so dry and others may find this style easier to accept.
I voted My Style because of the design, but I think there is to much information on the home page. If possible, I would cut down on at least 40%-50% of the content and move it to an inside page. good work!
First Impression: Beautiful website. I love almost everything about this website. I think that they need to cut down a bit on the green circle graphics at the top of the page. I love the main navigation bar, the paper type graphics and movement. The paper type background on the main content area. The footer and how it blends into the rest of the page. I love how the rest of the website is consistent throughout the site. Totally MyStyle!
Subscribe to Comments
Leave a Comment:
Login to leave a comment.