Best Firm Website??

[Edward A Kinney, MLA RLA ISA AZA]

So my company is updating our website. We’re looking for something more eye-catching, but still informative and easily navigable.

What are the best LA / Urban Planning / Design websites you’ve seen? What are some great examples?

[Tosh K]

Ours… when i’m done with it, j/k.  Adobe Muse has made it much easier to build your own.  I must say that the gap between the large screens firms use in house and tablet presentations makes it a tad more difficult than five years ago.

There seems to be two schools of thought on scrolling vs no scrolling; some try to keep everything visible on a “standard sized” screen which no one seems to extend beyond 1200 dpi wide (except the “stretch to fit”); others embrace scrolling (MVVA for one makes you scroll and scroll and scroll).

The ones that are easy to navigate are pretty standard, not too graphically endearing; but the “creative” ones seem to be not very intuitive.  I’d actually look to architecture offices, they tend to have better ones (KPF & Centerbrook are 2 that are more current and nice).  

[Brandon Reed, CVO, ASLA / Rooftop and Urban Designer / Landscape Architect]

Check out these sites…

http://www.bernardtrainor.com

http://www.big.dk

http://www.raymondjungles.com/

http://www.ojb.com/

I love the image size and the simplicity of these sites…

[Edward A Kinney, MLA RLA ISA AZA]

Great Ideas guys, thanks!

I notice a running theme- heavy on the imagery, light on the text. It works for our profession I think- draws the viewer in, intrigues them… website as storefront window- lots of dressing and display. It takes extra clicks to walk in and figure out the details of the product.

[Jamie Chen]

On the other hand, businesses can’t ignore the importance of Search Engine Optimization. And for that, text speaks louder than words. I think it would be worth if for members of your company to write informative articles for posting at the least. You have to also talk up the profession.

[João Bicho e Joana Carneiro, LDA]

Visit our website at http://www.jbjc.com, it’s in portuguese

[Alec Johnson, PLA]

SPAM?

[Andres F. Pineda]

Hi Edward,

As others have prior stated, Architectural Offices do seem to have quite elegant websites.

One of my all time favorite has been OLIN [http://www.theolinstudio.com/] for its simplicity, layout, color scheme and way they represent their project scale.

On the negative side, 80% of their website runs on flash (Please, stay away from flash); but they have figured a way around to bring live content to their users via blog, which they have made their primary page.

Most importantly, apart from a beautiful website make sure it is mobile ready and responsive.

-A

 

 

[Edward A Kinney, MLA RLA ISA AZA]

I tend to agree- how much business do our websites really generate from people who are window shopping? From people who stumble across them? I think the majority of visitors to our site already know who we are and are looking for authenticity or additional information.

[Author]

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