Catalyst West registration has opened for the few and brave! That’s the first part.
The second part is there very “different” approach to their website, which is a layered design with a foreground and background. The catch here is that the background is a randomly (?) chosen site that loads and provides some of the scenery.
These sites, ranging from the basic blogspot blog, to a google map of the event, to purity and porn awareness is an interesting touch, if anything.
Here are a few screencaps:
What are your thoughts on this? Does this impact branding at all from your perspective? Is this the point?
The theme is “Unusual Tomorrow” and it would seem they took it quite literally.
Yes, too unusual. In fact, I'd go further than that. I'd say it's unusable. I don't mind unusual, but unusable is bad. I'd like more distinction between the background and foreground sites. Without more clear distinctions, it's just confusing, especially if I were to land on that site without the warning from this post (the splash screen doesn't count as enough warning).
Also, while I like the general idea, I don't think it's branded well enough on the site to really show why in the world they've done this.
Just my thoughts. What do you the rest of you think?
-Marshall Jones Jr.
I mean…go big or go home. boring would be even worse.
I agree. Boring would be worse!
you're boring.
shoo.
Interesting. Very interesting. I'm sure this will be addressed at the convention in a very cool way. Can't wait to hear about it!
Interesting.
I have a hard time figuring out what is going on.
I do like the idea though.
But I think you would have to be pretty familiar with what catalyst is as well as the organizatons websites that they have in the background to make sense of it all. If not for you saying something about it, I would have never understood what was going on.
Maybe for the loyal 3000 people that will automatically sign-up it is cool, but for the others that are looking for more info and understanding I think things can get lost in the shuffle.
I think the same thing happens on church websites as well. For the loyal Church participants, everything makes sense. But for the others that are unfamiliar with the language and all the "products' it can be very confusing to navigate.
I think it's a great idea with poor execution; the design is confusing and somewhat of an eyesore.
I appreciate the ability to turn foreground/background on and off, but wouldn't a hover feature have worked better?
i agree. it is somewhat confusing. but perhaps they're banking on the already existing equity…?
The screen shots don't do it justice. Looking at the pics, I strongly dislike it…but the site itself doesn't look so cluttered and unusable.
Especially with the ability to turn on or off the foreground or background.
Even a 3D rotating cube would be more usable I think….
haha talk about a cross-browser nightmare!
agreed.
Ugh.
Mystery meat navigation AND a splash page are big no-nos in my book.
Bad, bad, bad.
mystery meat. ugh.
yea, i got that, but it's somewhat annoying.
I think what everyone is saying here is it is no John Saddington design
Holy crap, John! Thanks for the screen captures, that told the story well. I plan on going over to the site to see what the intent is – but I certainly am going to have to be wow'ed to overcome my initial negative response. Humans come to a site to be "delighted" or at minimum "informed"- and I am thinking that this is currently a deficit in the web design here. Perhaps it is a digital burning man statement??? Maybe they plan on making us hurt, so that when they swap out something useable, it feels OK? Maybe it's an homage to Qbert? (reaching…)
qbert FTW!
Coming from a development standpoint, I get what they are going for and there are some cool things going on. Coming from a usability standpoint or, better yet, a human standpoint, I don't dig it.
well said. fair.
I'll say what everybody else is trying to say. it look awful
Haha. What do you really think…?
John
I'm confused as to why everyone things it's so hard to figure out. Different to be sure, but it seems straightforward to me. Maybe as a designer, I've seen far funkier things…
And I even agree with those above who say "Go big or go home." I'd much rather see a fresh — even crazy — site like this once a year, than to see yet another gradient-graphic, template-looking church site with grunge scratches, flying birds, and a dark canvas background.
Churches are already the ultimate "culture-copiers" (ugh), so it's nice to see a little madness from a church-youth initiative like this
I'm a designer and i think it's terrible.
I suppose it's subjective then and everyone has an opinion (might as well be criticizing music or movies or clothes or anything else).
In the end, if church people don't like the site, and the site is supposed to be for church people, then maybe that's what matters. I know I won't think twice about this conference (or whatever it is) after today, but I'm glad to have seen it.
Now off to wander the interwebs for more unusual sites…