IV. LAB architecture studio

IV. LAB architecture studio
http://www.labarchitecture.com/

Navigation:
Design wise the website is very creative; the floating icon creates the interacting between people and the site. Even though I think the design is quite interesting, it is a little hard to navigate. It makes people a little dizzy because the icons keep moving around. I think it might give some people hard time to follow what they need. It is good that the icon is not the only way to navigate around the site. There are 8 different categories and they all list on the bottom banner, which make some people life easier. The introduction page is really pleasing because of its color scheme. There is very subtle grey tone background with different color tabs for different categories. Overall, there is nothing really surprising that people cannot handle. It is really organized and structured.

Architecture:
LAB’s website is designed with very precise and consistent structure and orientation. The first impression of the website is modernized. From looking at the number of the category and sub-categories that list out below the menu bar, people already have a sense of the complexity of the company. People can understand the company and know what kind of service the company offers. After click on each tab, it brings up the context, which is what I expected. There is no additional page, which is good and the context page of the category also follow the original category color. The category color becomes the color scheme of the category, which makes the website even more organized. Because of its clean and comprehensible, the website loses some excitement and weak interaction with people. The only really strong interaction page is the home; however, there is no “home” tab to go back to the original page. The only thing that I think should be revised is the contact tab. It brings people to pdf page, which is totally not consistent with the original website.

Content / Typography:
What you see is what you get. The simplicity of the typography gives people good impression on the company, but it loses the hierarchy of the typography apparent to catch people’s attention. I really like the color scheme organization; therefore, I think the font size can be the one that get changed after click. It will be even better if the color tone change after click. I think graphically it will look more interesting and attractive, which will also create interaction between people and website. People will know which option have already been navigated. By the way, the name of the company seems like subordinate because it does not appear again after click into tabs. I think anything can be taken away, but not the company logo. It should be something that always there to remind people, which website and which company is being navigated.

Grid / Structure:
The consistency of the website grid emphasizes the philosophy and the structure of the firm. The bottom banner stays at the same location throughout the whole navigation experience. The content always stays at the right banner and images stay at the left banner. There is no dramatic change to confuse people. The purpose of the website is to promote an architecture firm; therefore, the focal point of the page will always drop on the quality of the images. That is the only way for people to understand the project and the specialty and the ability of the company.

Iconography / Imagery:
As what I said earlier, visual elements are really important for architecture firm because that is how people understand. Under each category, there are multiple projects and there are multiple images could be seems per project; however, that option is not clear. I did not realize there are multiple images to be seem. There is a color bar right above the image, but it is not obvious enough for people to notice that can be click. Maybe the option could be show in other way, such as mini image icon, but unsaturated into the category color scheme.

Color Palette:
LAB’s website has a very precise and consistent color selection. The light grey background with contrast color, black, as the text color and with saturated color tabs make the website much more professional and interesting. Beside color scheme, images selection and size also change the impression the company gives. I think maybe the image can be bigger. Now the image banner occupies same space as the content, which I do not think the content should be there the whole time. It should be able to close when not needed then allow the images to enlarge.

Site Focus:
The purpose of the website is obvious shown. It clearly introduces the purpose of the firm and its design philosophy as architects. It brings a certain degree of publicity and also tells a story about the office in general. From the website we know, the firm cares about the viewer a lot; therefore, it is really easy to navigate around. It can attract a lot of potential client and future architect to continue navigate the website or even have further interaction to the firm.