Other UU retreat websites

[Michael Tobis]

For inspiration

http://mountaincenters.org

http://starisland.org

http://www.ferrybeach.org

http://www.cedarhillcenter.org

http://rowecenter.org

http://www.uucamp.org 

Of these I have one clear preference (will explain later); do you?

Did I miss any? 

mt

[Jackie Purdy]

I like the overall look of the Mountain website the most (I think UBarU could offer up some nice large header photos), but I think the Rowe camp has a cleaner look and functionality when navigating the pages.

mt

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[Karin Gates]

We can’t copy somebody else’s design.  We have to come up with our own, or use a skin we have purchased or is free.  Custom designs can cost thousands of dollars.  Unless you want to pay that kind of money, my suggestion is to stay with a packaged skin, which range in price from free to $100.

 

Here’s the watercolor skin with a UBarU logo without the white background. The logo can be improved to blend with the background better, but it was a quick fix to remove the white background.

http://www.stonesoupsites.com/dnn/ubaru/OtherSkinSamples/WatercolorSkin.aspx

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[Jackie Purdy]

Right, Karin. Just pointing out the aspects that attract my attention when I visit those sites. We may not be able to go with a custom skin, but we can try to narrow down our choices based on what we want the website to do/look/evoke, and which skins can best fit those preferences.

 

The watercolor skin looks great with the modified logo and name.... with the picture of the windmill on the front, it does kind of support the idea that blue could be considered a common color from the UBarU landscape. And the two-tone effect in the header makes me think of late sunset in the hill country, with the mountains all around. Thoughts?

 

Jackie

[Karin Gates]

Thanks Jackie,

 

Adding pictures, slideshows, flash, etc. is not a problem. We can always add plenty of those into any skin.

 

Karin

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[UBarU Director]

I agree with Jackie that the Mountain and the Rowe Center are the two best of the bunch, and it is interesting to consider how they differ and why.

Rowe Center is definitely a WordPress site (pages are called pages.php?name=SOMETHING) and uses a professionally designed skin, and The Mountain looks to me like a homespun design (hand-written CSS and little snippets of off-the-shelf Javascript).

The main advantage of the Mountain site, as Jackie points out, is the large, attractive, "ooh I want to go there NOW" pictures. (It will be difficult to match that at UBarU, since our scenery, while beautiful, is not as spectacular and hence it's harder to capture the spirit of it in a photo.) Further, there is a different picture at the top of every view, which is unusual in this kind of a (CMS) site. But this handmade sort of design, as Karin points out, is very difficult to do well.

What I like about the Rowe site:

CONTENT

1) The home page is clearly aimed at the first-time or near-first-time visitor to the website, probably somebody who has never been to the retreat center at all. It clearly offers the main customer options front and center.

2) While there is a link to a capital campaign on every other page, it does NOT appear on the home page. A capital campaign is aimed at people who are already interested in the site and what it can do for them. The home page is meant to elicit interest.

3) Contact info is extremely easy to find, as it appears at the top and bottom of the page

4) Facebook link, map link, mailing list subscription at top of screen are nice. (Not so sure about "search" as the site isn't the sort of site one would search on) (But this is one of the spots where the font is wrong - see below.)

5) There is lots of well-thought out content on the interior pages in smallish chunks. The pages look neither too full for a casual reading nor too empty for a pleasant look (some of ubaru's pages suffer from the latter).

DESIGN

6) The elements on the page are sized and placed with an eye to shape, proportion, and repetition, almost in an architectural way

7) No part of the pages looks empty; no part looks cluttered. 

8)The font is unusual enough to be eye-catching without being so out-there as to be difficult to read.

9) The color scheme is harmonious. There is little or no extraneous texture to distract the eye from the message

10) The most visible highlight color is linked to the user action (CLICK ME!)

TECHNOLOGY

11) Simple (Javascript) rollovers are the only gadgetry. Navigation is clear and unintrusive. (Compare Mountain's)

12) No distracting motion on the front page, which usabillity studies show drive casual visitors away

HOWEVER

-1) Extra fonts sneak in here and there, distracting from the look and feel

-2) The owl drawing isn't working for me - it doesn't really match the spirit of the rest of the site

-3) Copyright 2011 makes it likely that the site is not changing, which reduces Google's interest in it.

WHAT TO SHOOT FOR

In summary, there are three components to a web site: design, content, and technology. They should work together to present the user with a unified experience which implies competence in delivering a product which they are interested in.

Because we are partly in the business of taking care of their kids, we have to deliver an experience that evokes "stable, confident and trustworthy". Because we are delivering a spiritual experience, we have to evoke "tasteful, calm, and appreciative of nature".  Our design and our imagery should reflect our goals and intentions as much as the words we say do. 

We want to find room on the front page explicitly emphasize our commitment to the 7th Principle; the interdependence of all life on Earth and our role as stewards of the world. This is where we hope to be a leadership institution.

I don't think we need to think about copying directly. My point was to look at what else is out there. Of the UU retreat sites I think Rowe's is by far the most successful as a web experience. We can look at other retreat centers or even big budget resorts for more ideas.

We want to use one of the skins that is available for the DotNetNuke program for the time being. I'm pretty sure I saw some stuff among the skins that Karin pointed to that looked something like the Rowe design but I foolishly lost track of it.

ASSETS

Motifs we do have in hand (advertising people call these "assets"):

* the U-U symbol itself, which has many possible interpretations

* the windmill and stock tank

* the long views

* the beautiful subdued colors of the land

* also the amazing bright colors of the West Texas dawn and dusk, though I think we should use those sparingly, perhaps mostly in the photos

* the labyrinth motif

FINDING A COLOR SCHEME

There are a lot of palettes to look at on the web, for instance, http://www.colourlovers.com/ is fun

Here is one that I just found: http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/2043037/x

You can go to this page: http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/search and pick two or three color families (Hues) and then hit search.

I do rather like the green-gold color Rowe uses for border and sidebar navigation elements, by the way.

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mt

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[rel...@satx.rr.com]

Folks,
I pretty much agree with things you each offered. Like Jackie and Michael I liked the Rowe and Mountain web sites best. The Rowe site was
attractive, functional, informative and easy to navigate; the Mountain site was visually stunning, but as Karin pointed out would be too expensive
create something similar (also we don't have a comparable view to work with.) As for the skins presented, I agree with Karin and Michael that the water
colors look best, and like Michael said I would prefer more of a green shade than blue if this is doable with a reasonable effort, especially since
we want to promote a "green" theme at UBarU.
Roy

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[Karin Gates]

It will take me a while to find all the slices in the watercolor skin and
change the blues to greens. Unfortunately, the author of the skin did not
supply the original Photoshop files, only the slice-up smaller images, which
will each need to be Photoshopped to change the colors.

Karin

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[Michael Tobis]

Can't we just import the background images (png or jpg?) back into Photoshop or similar and do it as one layer?

mt

[Karin Gates]

Yes, that’s part of it.  There are also other containers that I didn’t use on the example page that use images with a dark blue color, and there is also the CSS that needs to be modified due to the headers that are blue.

[UBarU Director]

I can help you edit the CSS; as for the images, could you make them visible somewhere so we can consider which ones we need to think about and whether and how to replace them?

Is it possible to increase the font size in the site navigation bar? 

Finally, is there an option for a three-column or four-column layout on the front page?

thanks

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Michael and Irene Tobis

Executive Co-Directors (Ranch Managers)

UBarU Ranch Retreat and Conference Center

277 UBarU Drive, Mountain Home TX 78058

(830) 864-8419

[Karin Gates]

Here are the possible layouts:

http://www.dnnstyle.com/watercolor/ContentPaneLayout.aspx

There are 3 columns possible, but not 4 (TopLeftPane2, TopMiddlePane & TopRightPane2).

 

I’ll set up an FTP folder for you and place the files out there, then you can modify it all you want.

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[UBarU Director]

Thanks! Let me know the ftp address and password when you can.