Description
In 1998, the City of Burnaby came to us with a mandate: Create a website that would relay an immense volume of information while still being easy to navigate and fun to explore. No easy feat. One major factor that had to be taken into account was the very diverse target audience - children, teens, adults and seniors were all potential browsers, many of whom did not have English as a first language. A diverse audience also meant diversity in computer hardware and software. With these factors in mind, short download time and browser compatibility were major focal points of our design.
Atomic Crayon was given complete artistic control over this project. We prepared all graphics and graphical layout, programmed all HTML, did all site testing and refinement, and registered the site while focussing on search optimization. Due to the massive amount of text that needed to be placed on the site, we spent considerable effort finding a solution that would display all information while maintaining a crisp and aesthetically pleasing design.
Our solution to create a fast, lean, informative site was to devise eye-catching site navigation that uses a palette-compressed menu bar, header graphic and text graphic. All of these features allow the site to be navigated easily and the compression saves download time. These features also reduce the need for the pages to be accentuated with many additional graphics that would add to the time necessary for downloading. All these features were implemented while keeping the site colourful and bold, thereby keeping the site quick and fun to navigate.
This site proves that transmitting a large volume of information doesn't require a boring design. Illumination and a beautiful layout can go hand in hand.
