Comparison of 2 Web Sites - Home Builders

As usual, I've used something else that relates to my MAPC project. I've decided to look at 2 web sites for home building companies. Both of these companies build homes for similar demographics, yet their web sites are drastically different.

The losing site: David Weekley Homes http://www.davidweekleyhomes.com/
One of the things I noticed prior to this project (and the reading assignment) was that this site does not - at all - reflect the homes this company builds or the clients they serve. Its use of bright, almost primary colors, and overall layout immediately struck me as novice and poorly designed. After the readings, I noticed even more problems:

• The entire front page is centered, yet it doesn't follow the symmetry guidelines noted in the White reading. White notes that the "widest line should be at or near the top and the shortest line should be at or near the bottom." On this site, the 2 shortest lines are in the middle (Home Club, Financing line) and at the top (logo line) which makes the page look chopped up.
• The use of white space, as described by both White and Williams, should make a publication look wealthy, luxurious, and classy. Yet, this page doesn't achieve that, probably due to the centered content, which pushes the white space to the proximity of the page.
• The use of proximity on this page could be improved by splitting the content on the center of the page up - the introductory paragraph, links, and footer material are all sort of muddled together.
• The alignment, though I've been saying centered, is not consistently centered. The home club/financing line looks more justified than anything else to me and the captions under the left and right line of photos are not centered on the photo.
• Lastly, there is not a lot of repetition or contrast on this site. The closest to either is the use of a similar font throughout (though the sizes are not high contrast so it looks more like a mistake than a design choice).

The winning site: Kyle Hunt and Partners, http://kylehuntpartners.com
One of the first things that I noticed about this site (again, prior to this class and assignment) was how classy and rich the site looked. The most obvious different between this site and the David Weekley site is the use of color schemes. This site uses a light sage green with a darker mauve (a drastic difference from the bright blues, reds, and yellows on the David Weekley site and logo). This site is clearly the winner of the two because of the following reasons:

• White notes that "its common to use space as a kind of luxury, projecting generosity or classic simplicity...a formula for class" (pg 27) and this site exemplifies this concept. The top mauve bar is blank other than a photo and links (on 2nd level pages). Further, the content of the page has space throughout.
• The asymmetry of the background image suggests motion and activity. In addition, this background image adds something to the site in a subtle way and it reflects architecture.
• The concept of proximity on this page is followed correctly; all headers are grouped accordingly with text and links are together in their own area of the site.
• Repetition is used throughout the site with the same mauve top bar and green background on every page. The fonts are also consistent and the company name is always in the same place on every page.
• The top mauve bar helps with contrast, though I think that there could be more punch to the rest of the page(s).
• alignment is one of the big problems for me on this site. Overall the body text is always left aligned, which is great. The problem, however, is in the link line (on 2nd level pages) where the links are centered on the line and the company name where the "incorporated" is centered under the "Kyle Hunt and Partners" and the whole thing is sort of suspended in space - it's not lined up with any element on the epage. It might have been more effective to line up the K with the mauve line on the left of the page.

*Jen