Recently I was asked to present a few designs for the redesign process of Asbury Theological Seminary’s public website. The number of designs were then narrowed down to the top two and presented to a larger audience. The larger audience then made comments about each, which stood as a barometer reading for which design should be chosen.

From that process I learned a lot about design and the expectation that people have of design. Even though mine will not be the next look of AsburySeminary.edu I feel like I gave this a good shot.

See the front page in life size

See the second page in life size

There were some things that I was asked to change before presenting this design. I had originally designed to a darker shade of blue because the final color scheme had not yet been decided. If you look at this design just right and then tilt your head to one side while closing an eye you can see that something just doesn’t mesh as closely as it could. I would venture to say that had I been given the final colors before designing the result would have been very different. That’s not to blame anyone else for my decisions, it’s just the reality of the matter – your choice of color or range of color can guide your train of thought.

To me this design carries a tone of elegance while staying age neutral and clean. I tried not to pander to trends or acknowledge where we had been with our current website. My emphasis was on organization and ease of use, attempting to keep people from getting lost was my main objective.

I should make a note or two about the intended user interaction with the site. I wanted to keep the space at the top of the front page rotating through photos, because that’s typically what people want to see. However, should the user click on one of the smaller ads to the right of the photo it would project either an image or a video into that space. The smaller “ads” would rotate on their own, although using the arrows at the top or bottom would allow the user to move back and forth without having to wait for the items to slide back around.

All in all, I think I accomplished my goals, and I am happy about this design even though it will never be created as an actual, functioning website.

Note: As always, it should be noted that nothing expressed here is the opinion of my employer, or anyone else for that matter. I write all these things on my own and without intended disrespect for Asbury Theological Seminary or its employees.