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I came across the http://www.duboismeetsfugger.com which is a flash based site, that takes a few minutes to load but to me it looks great. It is features kind of qwirky simple cartoons, with a little character thats goes with you through the website. The navigation is totally different too – you click on a part of the menu and something happens to the character, he gets pulled up by a man on the rope, he gets kidnapped by two tribal men or other amazing things. For some reason it reminds me of the pink panther cartoon though I am not quite sure why.
In my opinion everything about the site looks fantastic and obviously a lot of creativity and time has been put into the site, but I couldn’t actually tell for a while what the company does. Are they a graphics company, or animation, or TV production or maybe all three. Maybe this is intentional, so as to not put any limitations on what they do, or to make the viewer think, but it made me think, how straight forward should a site be? Should you immediately be able to tell what a company does, or should the viewer be made to explore?
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16 Comments
It might be fun for a while, but for me, the navigation isn’t very user-friendly. I clicked on the small ‘work’ tab, then chose ‘print’. The list of clients was a bit frustrating when I wanted to choose ‘casino royale’. It took a bit of up and down, and one wrong click before I got it.
I think the more exploring the viewer has to do before understanding what the site is about, the less effective it becomes.
Nice site. Fun. Creative. I’d think with a name like Dubois meets Fugger, I’m not going to stumble across their site without knowing a bit about what they do. I think an agency gets room to not be conventional. That’s why people hire agencies. Great find.
Not too sure if I like the site or not… But the ‘Pink Panther’ thing definitely comes from the white outlines on bold backgrounds, and the big noses on the figures!
Good point, its amazing though because clients tend to love sites like these, but have no clue about how it negatively impacts usability and the accessibility of websites.
It even took me a while to figure out how to use the site
That website is cute and it’s fun to explore the silly ways the character gets to the different scenes, but if they are trying to attract clients, I don’t think it works well to that end.
As to the question about being able to tell immediately what the company does, I suppose as with most things, it depends. If you are trying to sell products or services and using the website to attract more customers/clients then YES! of course they should be able to tell what you sell within the first few seconds of being on the site.
I like the way companies like Automattic and Happy Cog have an “about us” statement that includes links to their various pages right up front so that you have no questions as to what they do.
Gorgeous, fun and utterly useless as a means of communicating anything significant. Will make other designers go “ooooh!” though.
That was a fun site for about five seconds. Then it was a little overkill for me. JMHO.
I agree. Overkill. I wonder if their prospects visit their site and think “wow, this is amazing, I must hire these people” or “huh? how do I get around this site?”. It wouldn’t have taken that much to make it a little easier to navigate either.
I agree with David – that scrolling menu thing is really annoying!
I think it’s gorgeous though. Just seems they’ve not quite given enough time to considering useability.
I think the key is WHO are they targetting as visitors to the site? If it’s your standard business or information seeking web surfer, then that person wants to know immediately what the site is and what the company is about – basic details they don’t have the time or the patience to go searching for.
But if the target is more specialised than this – a group of people who are looking for a site that showcases design for design’s sake, for example – then this kind of playfulness is justified.
When it makes people talk this much about it, with the bigger part being positive to very positive, it surely did his work for the agency!
It’s very imaginative, it works, it’s easy, it’s build smart.
It lacks some finetuning here and there, but like matt points out, you don’t know timing, budget and all that jazz behind the project.
Wow – is there a prize for forgetting you’ve already posted on a subject, managing not to notice your own post when reading the others and then posting all over again?
Ew, no. This site is annoying. I’m not a big fan of flash sites to begin with, but this one seems to serve no purpose. It’s one thing to showcase what your business is capable of – quite another to hide behind talent without ever explaining what it is you really do. I’d agree agencies have more room to be creative (along with rock bands and game sites), but there should still be a point. Maybe it’s just me, but if I can’t figure out what a site is about within the first 15 seconds or so, I’m usually gone.
Oddly enough – just found this… Wildcard.org You may want to turn off the sound, because it only takes a minute to annoy
but this is a great example of a “fun but useless” site.
In Japn, humor and fun is the best way to capture an audience. Think about it, 1 millions sites from your competitors already tell “what business they are in”. It can be quite boring – so it is refreshing to take a different fun and humorous approach. Still the humor must suggest the business.
In Japan, humor and fun is the best way to capture an audience. Think about it, 1 millions sites from your competitors already tell “what business they are in”. It can be quite boring – so it is refreshing to take a different fun and humorous approach. Still the humor must suggest the business.