Website development

What do people want to know about us?  How do they access that information?  Short of conducting market surveys, I decided to draw from existing CSA websites and personal aesthetic preferences to redesign our website.

Here are some sources of inspiration:

Butterworks Farm -- welcoming, fun, intuitive

Pioneer Valley Heritage Grains -- simple, professional, informative

Community Grains -- informative

Kootenay Grain CSA -- visually-stimulating, interactive, informative

After browsing the internet to get a sense of the information and presentation of other grain projects, I directed brainstorming for our website into three areas:

• Essential information
• Desired information
• Aesthetics

I tried to set aside my graphic design-centered past and, instead, focus on content.  If I've learned anything from working with web designers, it's that people get carried away with the newest design widgets and forget what they're trying to say, putting form before function. 

I worked with Doug and Paul, the web designer, to address these areas of consideration.  We each contributed a list of elements we'd like to have.  Once we figured out what information we wanted immediately and in the near future, I was tasked with figuring out how to organize and present that information.

To me, that's the core question behind visual communication.  How do we graphically convey information (well)?  What are the flows of thought?  What feels intuitive and navigable?  Sleek, clean lines grid many websites these days.  The three-panel picture link prevails, which reinforces our minds to think in threes.  Well-defined columns and right angles might look organized, but that doesn't reflect the work we do.  Farming is complex, detailed, macro, and dynamic. 

I decided to create a few categories that could be represented by detailed, hand-drawn images.  Photos would be lovely, but integrating them in a way that doesn't look sterile or disjointed would be time-consuming and bandwidth-taxing.  I'll start drawing some sketches and see where we end up.