AUTHOR ANDREA CAMPBELL
A web redesign calls for a simplified plotline for easy reading.
Designer: Larry Kozial and Molly Wells
While a devious plot full of twists can entertain and
compel print readers, for a website, straightforward,
simple navigation is best. Like an interesting plot,
author Andrea Campbell takes many paths: columnist,
contributing editor, forensic artist, educator and
foster mom to a Helping Hands monkey. But her
website must showcase and promote all these talents
in a direct, easily navigated fashion.
Regarding her current website, Campbell says,
“It’s a large site at about 34 pages or more. It’s
rather old-fashioned looking, and since it’s dense
and diverse, the navigation is always a challenge.”
Campbell must also be able to regularly update the
content on the site herself. She adds, “I have to create
all my own stuff. I also have another site, and I am
working on three more. It’s insane for me.” With a
limited budget and little extra time, she’s seeking a
new look that’s “more hip, modern, with more interactivity
and easy, efficient navigation.”
In their redesign, designers Larry Kozial and
Molly Wells created a totally new navigation system
using tabs at the top of pages. “The biggest problem
was the overwhelming amount of information on
the site, organized in such a way that much of it
was not easily accessible,” Kozial says. “Beyond the
navigational issues, the original site felt sterile. It did
not communicate the warm and welcoming attitude
that the author seems to possess. I felt that a traditional
typographic approach and a warm color palette
would better suit her interests.”
Kozial chose a soft and inviting palette for the
makeover. To complement the buttons, he selected
a warm, neutral background that works well with
rich brown text. “Small caps and italics were used to
create hierarchy in the text,” says Kozial. “To keep
things HTML compliant, I used Georgia, a system
font, for as much text as possible. Caslon was also
used, but sparingly, for the header and introduction
to the home page. On pages with more copy, an interior
scroll bar was added to accommodate the text
without sacrificing the accessibility of the layout.”
With improved navigation and organization, the new
site should provide Campbell with better exposure to
her wide-ranging audiences.
