# Criticize my (boring corporate) website redesign?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 4, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513 "2011-08-04T22:16:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/1 "2011-08-04T22:16:59Z")

</div>

I was given the opportunity to give my company’s website a bit of a facelift recently. It’s been more than six years since I’ve done any web design, and I have sort of mixed feeling about the result. (I did really _hate_ the old website, so I am generally pleased, but it still doesn’t seem 100% of what I wanted - I’m a bit rusty.)

You can see [how it used to look](http://web.archive.org/web/20090609005647/http://www.ascentpm.com/) via the Wayback Machine. And, [after my changes](http://www.ascentpm.com/).

Do you think this is generally better? Anything stand out as horribly wrong?

Thanks! (Assuming this doesn’t sink like a rock dropped into a tank of gasoline.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/2 "2011-08-05T00:11:38Z")

</div>

Pretty spiffy… I’d change the font in the top navbar to something that has a little more weight and is consistent with the image… like the font on the right-hand buttons. Right now it’s mixing serif and sans-serif fonts. I’d use the serif fonts for all the navigation menus as well as the headings in the copy, and let the rest of the copy remain sans-serif like it is.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/3 "2011-08-05T04:40:18Z")

</div>

Ooh, good call - thanks. My aim was to make everything more consistent - that’s a big miss.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/4 "2011-08-05T05:16:52Z")

</div>

Not too bad. I think the menu item backgrounds are a bit too chunky. Because they’re so dark, they’d look less oppressive if they were slimmer. The menu bar itself works okay, though.

Also the shadows under the buttons at the right are too dark, as they blend into the button and lose definition. A subtle shade dark grey should be enough.

Everything else seems fine, if a trifle monotone. I’d like to see some of the gold-green\* back just to mix it up a bit, but it’s not really necessary.

\*I have no idea what colour that actually is, I’m colourblind to that shade

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/5 "2011-08-05T18:14:31Z")

</div>

Thanks, **GL** - will at those suggestions to the list. (Except maybe for the gold/green - this colour scheme is known around here as “baby-shit brown.” Agreed it could use a little more colour somewhere, but we’re stuck with this in the logo and I can’t find a lot of opportunity to add inoffensive amounts back in. 😛 )

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/6 "2011-08-05T19:28:54Z")

</div>

I’m no web designer but I like your new version better than the old one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/7 "2011-08-05T21:41:05Z")

</div>

It looks professional, and I like that you can see everything without having to scroll down.

Well done on getting rid of the Wikipedia definition of intelligent - the one that acted as though intelligent were a noun. 😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/criticize-my-boring-corporate-website-redesign/591513/8 "2011-08-07T14:14:48Z")

</div>

Looks nice!

1. The blog page looks like it still uses the old look [[http://www.ascentpm.com/blog/](http://www.ascentpm.com/blog/)]
2. How about a sitemap link? I usually find them very useful for quick searches, instead of navigating menus.
3. It’s good that you removed the olf background picture!
4. In the “Our office” page, it might be nice to have a print button for the old-timers.
