It has been 3.5 years that OneOak Design has been alive and kicking. With 2009 I thought it was time to reflect the changes and growth of the company.
I would love any and all feedback you could give, as well as provide me with some user testing of the site.
site looks great, simple to use and flows expectantly. The images were a concern though. Firstly, you have the same one for the home page and ‘our work’. I had to double check to see if I had selected the wrong button. Also, the silo and phone image (about/contact pages) look blurred. It seems like maybe they were cropped and blown up beyond a reasonable amount? They just didnt look as nice as the other images you had up.
These were just my thoughts, so take them lightly. Im not a web pro by any means, but I figure the more advice the merrier
Jon,
looks good. well thought out layout and flow. All the necessary info is within 1-2 clicks which is great. I agree with the low res images that joyride mentioned.
The other question I have is the first two projects are almost abstracted images? I can get an idea of what they are from reading the description but I’d like to see 1 or 2 more
images that show what this thing actually is- maybe you can’t show anything more yet?
Last, the roundy box corners on the mouseover effect/selected menu is only used there and seems out of place. Just doesn’t feel right??? No biggie.
I like the pictures of your staff… you all look really familiar for some reason… 
I like it, it’s really clean and well laid out. I also agree with the other comment about the first link in the work section, the image is the same as the default when you click on it so you’re not quite sure if you actually did click on it or not. I guess I’m not used to the intro page actually being the first link that’s shown. Very nice though, I especially like your artistic/teaser product shots.
All great feedback! I definitely appreciate it.
The same image being the same on the two pages makes sense and was something I completely overlooked after staring at it for the past few weeks.
The silo image hasn’t been reconfigured at all…might be my eyes starting to go, but it doesn’t seem to be blurred to me. I will have a look at it and see if anything happened to it on my programmer’s side.
The abstract images are a good catch as well. I have been focusing more (too much) on the content and didn’t implement our multiple images for those projects. I will get that up and going shortly.
Thanks again!
I love the site.
I would agree with the above though - not enough images that actually show the work and the image of the telephone on the contact page definitely does not have the same quality feel as the rest (and as this is probably the last page that you will view before leaving the site that is a shame). Also, I am not that keen on the google map in satellite view - it’s probably just personal opinion but on a design site I almost want to see a custom map that is really clear - unless you know the area really well the satellite view just appears confusing.
My only other comment would be that it might be worth sticking the form in a table with some cell-padding as it seems rather squashed together.
Otherwise though I think that it is fantastic with really clear layout and navigation. And it looks pretty hot as well.
The site layout looks extremely crisp and professional, it reminds me very much of Frog design’s website so i think you have done an excellent job in those regards.
Biggest biggest problem is the our work bit
I firstly got confused when i clicked it as it seemed the same as the home page, i had no idea i was on the our work bit and my first thought was where is the work, is this it? or these tiny tiny pictures are the work.
the projects to me are not clearly labelled enough, Perhaps just catergorise by client e.g Energy aware technologies then the picture. i cant remember after looking at your website what projects you have done. Nothing stood out and shouted to me WOW that is awesome, although i am sure the work is, its just the content wasn’t there i.e you only have one picture.
Also much much much more info if your able to on your projects, sort of maybe in the style of case studies maybe as a seperate link to a PDF? here you could show more about your process maybe.
It might all sound really really picky but the professionalism of your site as mentioned is awesome, and i did think yeah this is a good looking site. its just to me the work content is really letting it down in my opinion. If you go on small consultancies websites sometimes the layout is a bit naff, but they make up for it big time by showing lots and lots of images of their work, people working in their environment, sketching modelling making buiding stuff which to me personally gets you all excited saying wow they look creative and cool lets go and work for them or lets get them to work for us.
Might seem really nit picky and i appologise, it is just my own opinion, and i am only a final year student so probably my comments are not quite as valid as someone who has a wealth of experience.
Just as an example to a recent website i stumbled across which to me just had the best presentationi had seen in a whilte was:
All i mean by this is they have loads of stellar images of their products which makes you sit there and think wow!
I really like it too: concise and it inspires confidence and gives an air of professionalism. However, just small things - I agree that maybe it needs a little more space around the text that comes below the images, as right now it seems slightly squashed in. The area where you can sign up for the newsletter particularly. Also, maybe not mention the “beyond expectation” in that section, as if it appears in many places, people will expect the design to be beyond their expectations, and hence it won´t be… if you see what I mean. And just one thing about the image under “Electronics Design” - it could be higher quality to match the other images in the “our services” section, which are currently so glossy. On a plus point, I like that it brings some colour in, as the images include lots of black and white tones. I agree with others that maybe more info on the projects or less abstract type images could be interesting.
Overall, cool website and a good mix of personality and professionality.
Craig Gauld apparently also runs a small bed’n breakfast at his beet farm
Overall, nice and clean and good presentation with easy to use UI.
Branding/content wise I think it could use some more uniqueness…seems a bit boilerplate and very similar to many other ID firms sites I’ve seen.
My biggest issue however, (and maybe this is just because I’m a designer, not looking at it from a non-design view), is that there is hardly anything shown in the way of final products or process. This, I think rather than text should be the focus of the site and would think that it is what catches a prospective client’s eye…
Half of the shots under “work” are so cropped, I can’t even tell what it is… there are no sketches at all…
I’d suggest to think of it from a client’s point of view. You want to sell them on what you have done for others, or what you can do different so they want your services. Showing some hot products, will make them think, “wow, we want our stuff to look like that”. Showing some hot sketches/renderings always impresses…
That’s my 0.02$ worth.
R
PS. Oh, by the way, I’m also not a fan of The Office pics for staff. Seems not very serious where the rest of your site is pretty straight up… doesn’t fit and I’d actually like to see who I’d be working with…plus some may not get it’s a joke and just get confused when they come into a meeting…
This is an interesting dilemma. As a company we’re 3 years old. Most of the work we’ve completed is just starting to go public…or…with the economy has been shelved or canned altogether.
I do agree with the clipping of the images and the lack of full process (especially considering that is something I preach all the time). But unfortunately, most of that all falls under confidentiality agreements as well.
Does anyone have the same problem? Clients don’t have any problem showing final product…but will not allow for preliminary work?
This helps a ton. The perfect reality check I need.
This one I have to chew on a bit…part of me doesn’t agree with the images of the office and people working…but I do hear your view on it.
Never apologize for giving your opinion when someone asks for it. I’d even go as far as saying listen to Gibbs…“Apologizing is a sign of weakness”. (a little pop culture insert for you).
The irony is that Carbon is in the same geographic area as us, so whenever we start poking our nose down into the Seattle Area, they are going to be a direct competitor.
Thanks again to all the comments…please keep the coming if you see anything new.
I will be working on implementing changes over the next couple of weeks as a direct result of your feedback.