Graphic/multimedia/creative studio

Website reviewed: "Hipfish Design Studio" http://www.hipfish.com.au/

• Good colour scheme – use of only a few colours which create a professional yet fun feel (grey, lime green, black and white)
• Neat simple layout with clear header, footer, navigation and content areas. It is professional but still has some character
• The logo is quite large and at the top in its own space. On the opposite site of the “header” is large/bold text which summarises what the company is about/what they do. This gives you an immediate indication of what site you are at.
• Below this is a clear horizontal navigation menu which shows rollover quite nicely. The issue here is with the dropdown menu which is not very clear and which is rather indistinguishable from the rest of the website behind it. It almost seems to blend in. Maybe this could have been avoided with something like a drop shadow or border. Also, when navigating to pages such as ‘about Hipfish’ where there are few further navigation options, the titles of these aren’t clear enough and definitely take away from the design.
• I like the dashes which have been used for ruling and for separating the areas of the website – it is creative and unique and reminds me of old crafts like knitting/stitching etc which maybe creates a more trusting impression…
• It is very simple to navigate around the website since all non-essential information/graphics have been left out of it, so navigation is very obvious and user friendly.
• The homepage has a collection of information that is neatly organised and includes sections such as “what we can do for you”, their latest news and deals, “a snippet of what we do”, access to their portfolio, reviews from clients, access to their newsletter and contact information. This provides potential customers with immediate access to all the important bits of information that would be required for them to consider using the studio for work.
• I really also like how the sections of the website on the home page have been separated by titles - these divide up the content into 3 equal parts which helps the overall design and keeps everything even and well-aligned, balanced. I think this could have been further improved in terms of usability if clicking on the titles could have taken you to the appropriate page as well.
• The portfolio page has been done well too – it includes a separate navigation header that navigates to works in their different areas of expertise – it includes a small/short description of what the images are about and showcase the cropped work which, when clicked, show it using the lightbox effect. This clear, simple, neat layout and presentation makes the work the center of attention - extra text or irrelevant information would have damaged this areas good, clear design. When going to the portfolio page, it is almost completely blank – only has a small title and description of the page and a small navigation bar. Maybe they should have had a default page here instead of leaving it blank so that the user is immediately exposed to work. There is clear navigation back to the main website and clear navigation to other areas of the portfolio.
• Perhaps they could have done more with the interactivity – e.g. rollovers could have done something more exciting than just have the cursor change – maybe the image/text could have been enlarged or changed more dramatically to show that it is an interactive component. This is especially true when navigating through the extra navigation in the portfolio section, and for images on the homepage which navigate to other pages.
• Otherwise, perhaps the website could have included subtle sound effects for interactivity to let the user know when something has been clicked etc.
• The language on the portfolio is professional when it needs to be but is otherwise quite laid back – e.g. when you go to the portfolio page the title is “What would you like to be nosy at?”
• When navigating around the website, several separate internet windows appear – the user is still able to navigate back to the homepage from the window they are currently in, or they could simply close the different windows until they are back on the original window.