| SitePoint Sponsor |
Hi,
I'd appreciate comments on http://www.saltvault.net.
The logo is undergoing a redesign and comments on this logo would also be appreciated. I'm looking for feedback on the proportionality of the icon to the height of the text section, and the tag line font. But comments on any other issues are very welcome. And yes, it is misspelled!
Thanks,
Steve
I think logos should always be printable and embroidered on a hat...I like the concept, just should be more simplified. Use the wheel that is actually turned on the vault rather then the dial itself?
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=vault...86&tx=54&ty=45
Embroidable is a concept that I had never considered before. I like it.Originally Posted by KeithKarr
Thanks for the link to the graphic. The wheel could be a bit obscure as a representational graphic for the vault.
One of my goals was to create an icon that was unique and interesting enough to be memorable. I think that was accomplished, but only with adding the complexity that you mentioned. Do you (or anyone else) have thoughts on how to simplify the existing dial so that it's still obviously a dial?
Thanks,
Steve
Try running some filters and tracing functions in photoshop and illustrator. Then clean up...Maybe look at this link, combine the 2 with some numbers maybe?
http://www.google.com/imgres?start=9...r:15,s:97,i:52
Last edited by KeithKarr; Aug 10, 2012 at 10:35. Reason: added a reference to support the posting
make it so when the user clicks the search box at the top the word search disappears and the mouse cursor is there blinking or in some way highlighted to prompt the user to type something in or the selection has been made.
Make the date on the left hand side more view-able - too faded at the moment.
Looks good! Just a few things. The platform the devices are sitting on could use some visual work. It looks very flat, there's no shading and it's texture clearly isn't in perspective with the surface it's trying to be. It throws off the otherwise very professional look for me.
Also when you click the side to side arrows the devices change entirely too slowly. I'd like to see the animations feel snappy and not too much longer than a second.
There's a visual error going on with the animations too. When you click an arrow, the devices fade into the background fine, but when the new ones come, it's like the old frames of the animation stay on the screen (but only in the area where the device should be) until it's all done moving. In effect I just see a bunch of lines instead of a device for a second. I'm using Firefox 14.0.1 with Windows.
I'll pass that by the artist and see what he can do. Thanks.
I'm getting different behavior on the search box based on computer and browser. On an under-powered Win 7, IE8 (My only non-HTML5 environment) it behaves like you describe. On the latest Chrome, the cursor does not show, but "search" is replaced once you start typing. On a normally powered machine, Chrome shows a blinking cursor and "search" is replaced once you start typing. IE 9 and Opera behave as you describe. I'll keep it on my issues list, but it's a low priority.
I lightened up the date.
The platform issue has been placed on the list of graphics issues, but it will have to wait until after we get the first two apps out the door.
I can't duplicate the animation visual error on Firefox 12.0, 13.0 or any of the 5 computer/browsers mentioned above. However I do see something similar on Firefox 14.0.1. In my case the old frames do not show, but the leading edge of the new ones duplicate and then fixes itself when the animation stops. Actually, it looks kind of neat, but it's not what I'm going for. I'm going to have to assume this is a Firefox 14.0.1 error.
The animations start slowly, but it seems that the animations may be a bit slower on your computer. They seem fairly snappy to me and take just over a second as you describe. It was a hair slower on Firefox 14.0.1, but only noticeable when I look for it.
yh i find that the search box with a word inside and when you click on it replaces it with a flashing cursor is abit sticky to me. Some browsers you have to refresh the page in order to enter a value in the search box
I don't see any logo. it's error
Damn. Search worked when I first installed it. I don't really need it, so I took the easy way out and removed it. Thanks for pointing it out.
After confirming the logo on a few computers, I checked on browsershots.org. The results were surprisingly inconsistent, but that's not unusual for browsershots. Here's a link to a result with the intended appearance.
I'm curious. Could you tell me your operating system and version, and your browser and version? Thanks.
Nice and clean layout with perfect color combination. But still there is a scope for improvement on the platform part where all the devices are siting. Consider adding some texture or little bit shading. But seriously love your design and concept too.
iPhone to Computer Transfer - iPhone File Transfer Utilities
Headlines are very important so here's what I think of yours:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s113/...876af87dfe078b
The whole headline just left me with a big question mark. It doesn't really MEAN anything, it's just marketing jargon that is trying to sound smart. Be clear, VERY clear about what you do, you should be able to show your website to a 9 year old and they understand what your major focus is.
The rest of the website tells me you make apps but the headline really doesn't tell me why you are different from the 19530352 other app developers out there.
Your background image is really low quality. It's okay to try to make your images as small as possible but when I can SEE the grain it really puts a bad taste in my mouth.
Your animations take a while, I don't really want to wait for it to zoom in and out that many times to see if there is any relevant information. Overall it seems very "fluffy" I feel like you can accomplish the same thing with a nice hero shot (Large static image that gives a good idea of the product). I know the animation seems "cool" but in the end what is it really accomplishing besides distracting your viewers from more important information?
A big question mark is the intent at this stage. If you had scrolled down just a little, you would have read "Our apps are in development, so everything is very hush-hush." The site is a placeholder framework for now.
Thanks for creating the graphic. Your point about capitalization may have merit. We want to bring a little extra emphasis to those words, especially "Get Intimate", but that may not have been well executed. Your "What???" about Cooperative Competition is just what we were shooting for. The answer will be unveiled when we launch, so hopefully, the few people who don't already know the answer when they get to the site will look for it when they get there.
Keep the context in mind. This is mostly a support site for mobile apps. If people have issues with the app (okay, "When people..."), we will encourage them to come to support for help instead of writing a bad review. When they get to our site, we want to give the impression that we're a credible company (we are!). It's all about image, or we would have thrown up something much simpler. We're a start-up with a constrained budget that needs to use our resources for development and marketing to whatever extent possible. With that in mind, this site is pretty good.
So, almost everyone who reaches the site will already have the app installed (hopefully!), or they decide to dig deeper after reading all about it in the app stores. These people will not say "What???" to "Cooperative Competition". There will be links from reviews and other marketing placements where the question would also already have been answered, but most of the people who see the reviews will click directly through to the app stores.
The suggestion to create a less visually engaging site by using a static image seems almost Luddite. The speed varies on different computers. My personal experience is that much older computers, computers that are under-powered, or computers that have way too much crap running (like my computer) may experience slowdowns, but not consistently. Part of the problem for the slowness of the first view of the images could be a slow shared server. However, we'll shortly be moving the site to it's own VPS, which should reduce the issue.
You are the third person to complain about the shelf image, so I may increase the priority of a fix. However, the problem isn't the resolution since the shelf is about 1300px wide.
Okay but I'd strongly advise against using a "insider" term on a homepage headline without an immediate answer to the question.
You are sending conflicting signals then, if the website is all about support then why is it not set up to handle customers questions right away? Why are you making them wade through a splash page to get to the answers they need?Keep the context in mind. This is mostly a support site for mobile apps. If people have issues with the app (okay, "When people..."), we will encourage them to come to support for help instead of writing a bad review. When they get to our site, we want to give the impression that we're a credible company (we are!). It's all about image, or we would have thrown up something much simpler. We're a start-up with a constrained budget that needs to use our resources for development and marketing to whatever extent possible. With that in mind, this site is pretty good.
It's not all about image, if the internet was all about image it'd be chalk full of flash websites (thank god it's not), it's about usability. If the website is about introducing your company to potential customers (As it seems to be right now), make it about that. If it's about helping your customers find answers to their support problems, make it do that and nothing more.
Just because you are a start up doesn't mean you should skimp on your information architecture. In fact BECAUSE you are a start up means you should invest more into creating a simple USEABLE website and get rid of frilly stuff that adds to your "image" because how does "image" serve a customer again?
It's less about the speed and more about the fact that it doesn't really add anything to the website. It's basically saying "Hey look we make stuff for these", which can be accomplished with much less. Take a look at iA Writer's website:The suggestion to create a less visually engaging site by using a static image seems almost Luddite. The speed varies on different computers. My personal experience is that much older computers, computers that are under-powered, or computers that have way too much crap running (like my computer) may experience slowdowns, but not consistently. Part of the problem for the slowness of the first view of the images could be a slow shared server. However, we'll shortly be moving the site to it's own VPS, which should reduce the issue.
http://www.iawriter.com/
Notice how simply they display the product without any fancy animations? Like you said before: you're a start up, you don't have much budget. So why are you spending your time developing animated slide shows for your website when a simple image accomplishes the same thing?
At the end of the day it's your website and you'll do what you want, just make sure that your allocating your resources to things that actually matter to your customers and not what makes you feel good.
Remember, not "insider" for almost everyone, but an answer to the teaser will just be one click away.Okay but I'd strongly advise against using a "insider" term on a homepage headline without an immediate answer to the question.
There is a menu item at the top of every page called Contact Us. Once there is something to support, we'll make appropriate changes. No wading necessary. Even so, the link from the app and the market page where it suggests to go to our site for support will have a direct link to the support page.You are sending conflicting signals then, if the website is all about support then why is it not set up to handle customers questions right away? Why are you making them wade through a splash page to get to the answers they need?
Thankfully, no Flash here! Only HTML5. For older browsers it degrades nicely to something much less active. Remember, an introduction to customers is a minor function, and those customers are interested in games, a decidedly more glitz oriented base. As for usability, that mostly applies to the ticketing system, which will work nicely. Pages about individual apps will be much less active, and more info intensive.It's not all about image, if the internet was all about image it'd be chalk full of flash websites (thank god it's not), it's about usability. If the website is about introducing your company to potential customers (As it seems to be right now), make it about that. If it's about helping your customers find answers to their support problems, make it do that and nothing more.
Again, remember context. The site will have incredibly few visitors in proportion to our user base, even as a pre-sales vehicle. Even so, while it's built on a nothing server, the architecture is built to scale to many more visitors than we anticipate for a long time once we move it to a production server. If I'm wrong, we'll have the resources to rebuild. Not all startups are alike. If we were a web start-up, the point might have merit. But we're a mobile startup that will have a much better web presence than most companies in our position and even better than many that have been around for a long time.Just because you are a start up doesn't mean you should skimp on your information architecture. In fact BECAUSE you are a start up means you should invest more into creating a simple USEABLE website and get rid of frilly stuff that adds to your "image" because how does "image" serve a customer again?
iA Writer's site is appropriate for what they sell. Something like that would really suck for us. Know your product. Know your customer. One-size never fits all.It's less about the speed and more about the fact that it doesn't really add anything to the website. It's basically saying "Hey look we make stuff for these", which can be accomplished with much less. Take a look at iA Writer's website:
http://www.iawriter.com/
Notice how simply they display the product without any fancy animations? Like you said before: you're a start up, you don't have much budget. So why are you spending your time developing animated slide shows for your website when a simple image accomplishes the same thing?
At the end of the day it's your website and you'll do what you want, just make sure that your allocating your resources to things that actually matter to your customers and not what makes you feel good.
As for allocating appropriate resources for the web site - we did. It uses an open source CMS infrastructure with several free add-ins, a purchased template that just required a few settings for the animation, a few custom graphics and a few recycled graphics. I've paid more for a dinner with my wife in a really good restaurant than the total spent on the site. Maybe the lesson should be to find a less expensive wife?
The site is very aesthetically pleasing. But I feel like you're missing a few things.
1. Headline explaining exactly what service you are providing.
- Are you selling apps?
- Are you going to build apps for people ?
- Clearly define your product/service
2. Benefit Statement - clearly explain what benefit people will get from using your product/service
3. Call to action - what is it you want your visitors to do?
- Buy your apps?
- Contact you?
- etc...
If I came to this site, I'd look at the homepage, say "cool site design" to myself, and click back to leave the page.
I would suggest you tell your visitors exactly what it is that you want them to do.
- Click here
- Go here
- Sign Up
- etc...
Other than that, the page loads a tad slow in my opinion. See if you can speed it up.
The logo is nice, but I don't think that it looks right against the blue background in the header. Use a color wheel, it will give you great color combos that work well together.
Great site- but the animations kinda need to be redesigned. The graphics inside the ipods and tablets dont look too good. Overall, nice site.
The logo is fine, and it reflects the point of "security". Well, I'd say it is a little too busy with minor details, perhaps...Hi,
I'd appreciate comments on http://www.saltvault.net.
The logo is undergoing a redesign and comments on this logo would also be appreciated. I'm looking for feedback on the proportionality of the icon to the height of the text section, and the tag line font. But comments on any other issues are very welcome. And yes, it is misspelled!
Thanks,
Steve
The logo seems to be a bit incongruous to the site, it looks a little as though the site is a new one made with an inherited logo. Maybe your tagline font should be more similar to that serif one you've used for "Play. Relax. Connect." (or vice versa)?
I also think you're spot on wondering about the height of the icon to the text - have you tried a version with the text (both lines together) taking up the same height as the device? I would think that might be more balanced, thoguh you'd probably have to mess around with letter spacing, etc to make the two lines still be the same width at different font sizes.
Clean concept is good but the result can use some work:
- Images feel noisy, pixels didnt get much love
- not sure if its intended but i couldnt click on the iphone / ipad, whats the point of scrolling those there if they are not interactive.
- as it was said logo is busy. It should have simpler shapes
- what are those marbles iphones are standing on? or is it paper?
- colors can use some love as well, teal on dark intensive blue isnt that great imo. Different shades may help it.
This is one of the better ones Ive seen. The general layout generates interest. I wanted to find out more about the apps you have been developing. The apps and games section would be the place to have people sign up to be the first to get your great apps. The way you present your product creates suspense. You should really build on that.
The site needs more pages. With the direction you are going with this you could really have something. Build it and they will come.
Thanks much!
Stay tuned. We'll be releasing our first app very soon and I hope to have the web site changes ready within a few days.
I was a little unclear about the graphic as well, it looked like a thermostat to me to be honest. I would try to work on something that is a little more intuitive, since the name "Sault Vault" isn't immediately indicative of Software to begin with, and the tagline confuses things even more. Personally, I would leave out the word play on "Sault" vs. "Salt" all together, and just focus on the "Vault" theme in the name.
I wonder how this would look with low resolution graphics, I think the color pallet might be too many colors?
I have a high end laptop and see dithering around the letters, maybe switch to plain white background - or at least stick to web safe color pallet.
When you want to print this - invoices etc - you may have trouble getting a good resemblance - and your business cards are going to be expensive!
Honestly I think it not a logo - more of a work of art - nice as it is.
Brigzy
Thanks Brigzy. The dithering around the letters is weird. I haven't seen that on several screens of varying resolutions, from low to high end. However, there are clarity issues for the numbers in the spiral that we decided to just live with. Did you look at the early version posted on this site (I sure wish I could edit the earlier post to remove it!) or the finalized version on the web site? If anyone else sees dithering, I'd appreciate a comment.
The graphic is an export from an .ai file. Versions for printing are exported at appropriate resolutions.
You said "Honestly I think it not a logo - more of a work of art - nice as it is." I think you meant that as a compliment, but I'm not sure. Either way, I choose to interpret it as a compliment!
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks