[Project Complete] $350 - Wireless Mesh Networking Website - June 24 Deadline

[cngan9]

(Admin code added by Palmer - CC505883F)

Hello to everyone,

Basic Website Goals
We are looking for a new website for a startup technology company looking to sell hardware and software as well as a site useful for potential partners and investors.

For selling, the site will offer devices comprised of company developed software loaded onto commodity wireless hardware devices used to build wireless mesh networks. Customers will be businesses and ISPs. NOT individuals.

For potential partners and investors, the site will serve as a professional online presence detailing the benefits of our software as well as provide basic corporate information, benchmark information, white papers, etc...

Image
The image we are trying to project is one of almost effortless speed and usage. Light, fast, and minimalistic. Similar to a wisp of smoke, a light airy tune, etc... Our services are intended to be omnipresent and essential yet unnoticeable, like air or light.

To reflect this image, we want a minimalistic yet highly functional website allowing navigation to exactly what users want with little effort. Hence, the desire for some translucent characteristics and white space. Navigational aspects are important as well as noted in the comments below. Furthermore, the site MUST load quickly. Hence no flash.

Company Name : Aeria LLC
Company Profile : Wireless mesh networking equipment and technology company. Substantial work in R&D. Devices sold comprise of proprietary algorithms and software loaded onto commodity off-the-shelf hardware.
Scope of Project : New Website.
Intended Audience : B2B E-Commerce customers. Potential partners and investors.
Purpose of Website : To sell products and display marketing materials (benchmarks, relevant news in the industry and concerning Aeria, white papers describing technology, etc...).
Mood / Tone : Professional/clean/minimalistic. Light/fast/effortless.
Technology : The website will contain PHP/database backend and many of the pages will likely take dynamic content from the database. Other dynamic elements include forms, customer logins, etc... Looking for much of the page to be CSS based to enable easy addition and update of information and site feel as our needs change. NO FLASH
Theme : In terms of theme, we are lookin for something innovative, futuristic ("Minority Report"-like, "Ghost in the Shell"-like minus the gothic theme, technological future). Think about that scene in "Minority Report" where Tom Cruise is using that machine to find "future criminals" to music. Minimalistic (Japanese zen-like/minimalistic modern art). Use of translucency as well.
Color Psychology : Lots of white space. Translucent characteristic. Lighter colors and/or greyish "soft-brushed metal" look like motorola.com and brookstone (links below).
Main Competitors : www.belairnetworks.com, www.firetide.com, www.packethop.com
Example navigational links (in no particular order or organization) : Home, Articles, White Papers, Case Studies, FAQ.
Our Team, Products, Press Center, Contact Us
Other functionality desired : Search, newsletter signup. Both unobtrusively available on most pages. Also dynamic elements such as drop-down links upon rollover as described below. We are also considering having a login and section for members/customers, but the feel should be the same.

Navigational comments : We're looking for the top-level links to be dynamic rollovers. We'd like mouse-over dynamic elements to create that "Minority Report" feel, but if they slow the site down too much, it's not necessary. However, I don't want to limit the creativity as you are all much better than us at creative layout and I'm sure you will have better layout designs than what we can come up with.

Things we like
www.belairnetworks.com

Dynamic drop-down upon mouse rollover
Organizational link directly below. (Selecting "Products" leads to the website with the little links "Home > Products").
Easy subscription to newletter

www.motorola.com
Like the top-level navigational bar (dynamic). Once you have selected something from top-level bar, the page contains links on left of information within that area. (Just an example)

store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore
Like the top navigational bar scheme.

www.brookstone.com/world.asp
Like the top navigational color scheme, although overall kind of bland feel to the site.

Things we don't like
www.firetide.com

Too many graphics on start page. Slow, even after loadup
Like the dropdown rollovers, but on my computer, they make the site slow.
Too many bright colors.

www.packethop.com

Really really boring screens
Don't really know where information is. Once you navigate the site, you also don't know where you are.
Sheet graphics take up too much space meaning that you usually have to scroll to see any information.

www.microsoft.com
Way too cluttered. Informational overload.

Deliverables : Deliverables changed to HTML outputted files and any CSS/graphics/images/buttons & tabs. Allow for easy update to both navigational bars and content as I'm sure there are standard navigational items that we've forgotten to mention. Currently envision two different templates (one for first page, one for everything else), but noticed in a different forum that this can be achieved using one template. Maybe a slightly more graphic page-1 and everything else has fewer graphics. You let us know what works for your entry :)

Deadline Roughly 2 weeks. So June 24. However, I'd like to have a good idea of the finalists within the first week/week-and-a-half.

I have attached two copies of our logo for your use. They are just different sized graphics. Feel free to use both the logo as well as parts of it (like the little antennae thing). Best of luck and we look forward to working with all of you and seeing your designs over the next two weeks.

Cheers,
Chris

[Luc]

There are only a few designers who can provide your required deliverables. You will get more entries if you change your requirements to PSD or just plain html.

[cngan9]

Luc,

Heading in, I knew that our constraints would limit the number of designers would could provide our deliverables. The project deliverables as I envisioned them (and maybe my post didn't convey it clearly enough) was to be somewhat similar to the completed project for Vocation H (http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4985&highlight=PHP+CSS) back in August of this year. Reading through the responses, it looked to me that there were at least 8-9 designers capable of meeting both Vocation H and our requirements.

Let me know if I've misphrased my deliverables section such that it's substantially different from Vocation H's. We're new to designoutpost so it's pretty likely that what we wrote and what we thought don't match entirely.

Thanks
Chris

[Luc]

I'm actually the winner in that contest. And I delivered the files in html and completed other pages in html. She has a different programmer who worked on php/mysql backend. She just mentioned that the website will contain php but she didn't require the designer to do this. If you read on the Deliverables she states:
Deliverables - HTML outputted files and any css /graphics /images /buttons & tabs.

[cngan9]

Luc,

Let me check with my partner who would would be doing most of the backend integration. I'll revise the requirements and get back to the forum as soon as I find out.

Thanks for clarifying what exactly was done on your part and the client's part.

Chris

[Luc]

No problem. :)

[cngan9]

Luc and others,

We've changed the deliverables to be HTML outputted files and any css/graphics/images/buttons & tabs. As noted in the post, we do like dynamic mouse-overs or other navigational aspects if it's appropriate to the design.

I appreciate the help in focusing the project for the designers on the site. The deadline of the 24th is somewhat of a soft deadline due to the change in the original deliverables.

Thanks again,
Chris

[cngan9]

Hello all,

I was just wondering how many people are interested in participating in the contest but just have not submitted anything thus far. For those not planning to participate right now, I would be interested in finding out if our specifications may have been the reason.

Thanks
Chris

[Lori]

Hi Chris,

I don't see anything at all wrong with your specs. They are good, and very well defined.

I find this an interesting project, that I would love to be a part of. I just don't have the available time to participate right now. If I do manage to get some free time, I will enter a design for your consideration.

With that said, the deadline for your project, set at the 24th, is still a week away. The designers usually work on projects based on deadline, and there are many that are closing before yours.

I am sure you will get several designs within the next week :)

[Anne]

Just wanted to let you know that I've started on a design.

[Aliska]

Hello
My idea. Waiting for your comments.

[cngan9]

Aliska,

Thanks for being the first entry, and a solid one at that. I like the fact that when I first look at the page, I know exactly what the company does. I also like the transparent/futuristic graphic as well as how the psuedo-word graphics seem to frame the words in the header further emphasizing what the company offers "Networking equipment". Nice touch there.

Minor things other things that I noticed are:

1) "Welcome to the official Aeria LLC Website" is somewhat redundant. I am thinking that it would still be a good place for a slogan and were wondering if you could put something like "Solutions for a world unwired" there instead.
On pages later in the site, I think that with this design, we'll probably look for this "Slogan box" to move up to just below the current navigational bar and change color from yellow to the bluish/aqua color scheme that we like. It would show the heading of whatever page is currently being displayed.

2) The people graphic in the header seems out of place although we like how it adds a personal touch, showing people collaborating and working together. However, it shows them sitting at desks on wired computers not moving. We would like to convey an image of ubuiquitous connectivity, so showing people on laptops outside, or walking around on PDAs might be better. Would it be possible to even splice together pictures of people from different countries to drive home the point of "everywhere connectivity"?

As for the other graphic, it grew on me. I like how it was consistent with the Three Dot thing you've used and I also like that they are kind of working, but clearly not wired and are in an airy open space.

3) Is it possible to shrink the newsletter box?
4) Can you also change the heading names (just so I can see it more clearly) to be similar to the headings in www.strixsystems.com . Mostly because i think the current headers will be under "Corporate", "Solutions", or "News & Events" headers.

5) Can you also change the "Wireless Mesh Networking Equipment and Technology" to "Wireless Mesh Networking Equipment"? I like the framing, different color, and separation of "Networking Equipment" from "Wireless Mesh". Makes it stand out and it caught my eye immediately.

Thanks again for your entry and I look forward to seeing your next iteration.
Chris

[cngan9]

Anne,

Looking forward to seeing your design as we've liked some of your other work.
Thanks for letting us know.

Best,
Chris

[Aliska]

Thanks for the quick feedback. I will make corrections and upload changed version later today

[Aliska]

Hello
What do you think about the changes?

[Anne]

Here's my entry, with lots of white space :)

Looking forward to your feedback
Anne

[Anne]

or

[cngan9]

Anne,

Thanks for the two options. Of the two you submitted, I like the one with the navigational buttons on top the best.

1) I like the color scheme although it feels as though the dark blue used in the header is too heavy. Maybe it's in combination with the straight lines (which do convey an image of clean and crisp). Straight lines (at least in my mind) are more inline with wires rather than wireless.

We are trying to convey the clean and crisp image, but almost paradoxically, we're trying to also convey an image of almost transparent/invisible service. Something so easy and ubiquitous that you don't know it's there. The color scheme for the bottom part seems to achieve that.

2) For some reason, the company name looks like it was just added onto a website that could be used for anything. Is there a way you could integrate it a bit more into the header?

3) Could you also somehow incorporate a more futuristic/transparent scheme into the header as well?

We like the color scheme (and white space ;) ), but the header seems a bit too generic with the solid blue. Transparent futuristic scheme here would work best with the image we're trying to push.

Looking through your portfolio, the Agusal Flotation Center site you designed is a good example of a header that is clean yet clearly conveys what they do (with the water drop thing). For us, maybe a wisp of smoke, flowing water, etc... would be an equivalent.

4) Minor detail. Can you add in a box for people to subscribe to email newsletters?

I hope that helps? Overall, a nice, clean, and simplistic layout of information that reflects what we are trying to do and that people can navigate immediately. I think just the header needs to be tweaked. Thanks for the submission and I look forward to seeing any revisions you feel are necessary.

Chris

[Anne]

Thank you for the feedback and I'll work on a revision.

Anne

[Anne]

How is this?

[cngan9]

Aliska,

I like the new graphic you've put in there for a variety of reasons. Two young hip adults working even in the middle of nowhere. One with voice and the other data-oriented on that little laptop. The morph with the abstract wires is a nice touch.

For some reason, the three random people now seems out of place. But on the other hand it does make sense. Leave that in for right now.

Other layout things I noticed while looking at other websites:

1) Can you change the tabs to now have the headings:
About Aeria, Products, Solutions, Corporate, Partners, Contact Us

2) Eliminate the magnifying glass icon next to "search" and put in a link next to search that is "Advanced Search".

3) Change the subscription box. Get rid of "Enter email address here" and just replace with "Email:" next to/on left side of text box. Similar to www.strixsystems.com newsletter box. I like that theirs is unobtrusive but clear. You can get rid of the "unsubscribe" link if that will help too. Fix the header from "Newsletter Singup" to "Newsletter Signup".

4) I was thinking that there should also be a site-map link. To make it unobtrusive, we were thinking of putting that information at the bottom of the page similar to www.dell.com. So at the bottom in small text links, put:
"Home | About | Search Site | Site Map"

Mostly layout changes to get a better feel for what this design would end up looking like. Good work choosing the pictures and integrating it into the header well. If you have any other ideas about the "three random standing people" graphic, let me know.

Thanks
Chris

[cngan9]

Anne,

I like the changes with regard to the banner as well as keeping the feel of the site on the rest of the page. I like the graphic of the person doing work seemingly in the middle of and expansive outdoor place. Use of the cloud thing to create the white line is a nice touch too.

Although I didn't mention it previously, there were a couple of things I just suggested to Aliska that would be helpful in seeing the finished result of this design. Can you incorporate the comments I just posted previously (1-4)? These are just minor layout things I thought of recently and should have mentioned initially.

1) Same comments. Change the headers to be
About Aeria, Products, Solutions, Corporate, Partners, Contact Us
2) Just add the "Advanced Search" link.
3) Move the subscription box to the upper right under the banner to directly above "Feature Product" heading.
4) Put the small-text links at the bottom centered below the "Aeria - All Rights Reserved" text. Links being:
"Home | About | Search Site | Site Map"

Good work on this second revision and in incorporating my previous comments.

Thanks
Chris

[Anne]

:) Here's the revision

[cngan9]

Aliska, Anne, and any other designers;

I like both of the designs for different reasons. I don't have any other refinements in mind. I will be away from internet access from today (23rd) through the 27th. Upon returning, I will consult with my partner and we will probably be deciding a designer by next Wednesday.

I'm also going to let my partner make comments this weekend, but I'm sure they will be minimal.

I just wanted to let both of you know that there won't be immediate feedback over the weekend (unless my partner offers his own) and to not worry that I have forgotten about the contest.

Thanks for the great entries and I'll speak with you both in a couple of days.

chris

[cngan9]

Anne,

I just surfed across this site which may be too similar to the picture you've used.
http://www.flarion.com/about/default.asp

I like the concept, unfortunately someone else may have liked it too. You are probably more familiar with whether this is an issue or not.

Chris

[Anne]

Hi.

Both pictures have been taken from the same site so there won't be an issue. I've payed for the picture at http://www.istockphoto.com/

[Aliska]

How about the idea?

[cngan9]

Hi Aliska,

This is Chris' partner posting as him. I like the basics of what you have, especially the translucent overlay in the title bar.

Comments:
I think the sigmoid curve (S-shaped curve) all over the page is a little excessive. I'd pick one spot where I'd want to attract attention with the line break. Right now there are too many things fighting for my attention. Keep it simple, that's why we asked specifically for a lot of white space. The website should be readable by a corporate type in his/her 40s (they have very short attention spans). Also, make sure the S-curve curves up from left to right...corporate types don't like downward pointing curves (it implies you're losing money) :P

Addendum: In general I'm under the opinion that if diagonal directional flows are used in corporate materials they should point up towards the upper right corner (evoking a sense growth, profit and etc). Corporate types are most happy when they see a line graph going up.

The color scheme is too bold for what we do, pick blues closer to sky blue. I like the earth tone, but it doesn't quite fit in with the image of the company. I think sticking to blues, whites and metallics (used sparingly) would best convey our company image.

I like the photos you've embedded a lot. If you could find alternative photos in dense urban settings or grand atrium of an office building as well that would be great. We'd be using them for the other pages linked in from the main page. I was in Tokyo last month saw several great photo opportunities, but didn't bring a camera :weep: The image I'm imagining is a view from the third floor of Sony's show room overlooking a very busy intersection.


John

[cngan9]

Hi Anne,

This is Chris' partner posting as him. I like your design as well.

Comments:

Like in my feedback to Aliska, I'd like to see images of dense urban settings incorporated into you design as well. I think that'll convey the idea that our technology can really be anywhere. (Now I'm really wishing I took those pictures while I was in Japan)

The picture of the young woman with a laptop in the grass is great. I'd frame it with the faded in white circle and use it for pages linked in from the main page.

One idea to add to your design is a large watermark of our logo (just the antenna thing) in the background where there is a lot of white space. Just set the alpha channel to something like 25-30%, make it grey scale, and perhaps texturize it a little. Play around and see what works best.


John

[Aliska]

Changes. What do you think?

[cngan9]

Although only two designers entered the contest, we were impressed by both entries and the fact that they weren't too similar to one another and evoked distinct messages within the confines of our requirements.

In the end we are only able to choose one and so my partner and I would like to congratulate Aliska and her design on being our winner.

Thank you Anne for entering with a strong corporate site with many of the images and ideas we were trying to convey.

[cngan9]

There are still a few modifications that we want on your entry, Aliska, with regards to the curves changing from "upper left to lower right" to "Lower left to upper right" direction.

We also are looking for a modification of the template to serve as secondary pages where the bar labeled "Solutions for a world unwired" will be moved up to be directly below the tabs (eliminating the graphic with people and transparency stuff). In doing this, we were also thinking of changing that bar to have the transparent blue wire background, but if you think it's too busy looking, we can leave it as is.

Congratulations again and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Chris

[Aliska]

Hello :)
Thanks for choosing me.
Waiting for your detailed comments on changes.

[Anne]

Congarts Aliska :D

[cngan9]

Aliska,

One change we would like incorporated is changing the curves surrounding the Aeria logo to be "lower left to upper right" rather than the current "upper left to lower right".

So rather than:
___
\
\
------
Do:
___
/
/
----

In changing this, this will probably also need the tabs to change their directional lean to be consistent.

One thing we'd like is to have a second page with the silvery "Solutions for a world unwired" (as well as the login and email aspect) moved up to be directly below the tabs. This would be our primary page for the website except for the initial index page which will be your current page. I think our main motivation will be to allow for more text on each page.

Let us know if this is too vague a description. If it would be easier, I can send you my IM screen name so you can ask questions and I can reply immediately. You can email me at my designoutpost setup email at cngan101@yahoo.com

Chris

[Aliska]

Hello Chris
The changes as you requested and back page. What do you think? Any other kind of changes?

[cngan9]

Aliska,

The site and overall feel of both pages looks good. I think the next step is to convert the image files into HTML/CSS format?

We're looking to be able to customize aspects of the site and hopefully that will be easy to do? Things such as adding, removing tabs, changing the boxed outline of the text organizers, and add in/take out buttons such as the "Download", etc... Will these be easy to do and generic enough that we can create our own buttons? We're also going to be adding in our specific dropdown tabs on "mouse-over" of the top tabs.

Thanks again.
Chris

[Aliska]

Hello
I have sent you link to uploading source files by PM.