Civitas Urban Design
http://www.civitasdesign.com/
On the home page, there are basically five navigation systems and they appear to be clear. Every navigation seems to have equal status and they cover all aspects of a urban design firm pretty well. The navigation remains the same place throughout the whole site, so you always know where they are browsing now. Even when you go down to the second or third level, you still find the navigation easily. Once you choose one of the navigation links, the looks of the link changes. However, as the color palette and fonts keep constant, you don’t feel like you are entering a different site. The architecture of this site is fairly simple, and as a result, you do not ever get lost or go to a point where you can not get back to the home page by clicking the logo, which appears on every page.
This site does provide lot of information but it does not contain too many pages. It focuses on its portfolio to demonstrate its successful experiences, which makes sense to attract it prospective clients. Due to the simple structure of the site, it does not include a site map. The architecture of the site is again clear but not flat because some of the second or third level navigation cannot be accessed from every page. After browsing the site, I find the structure of this site is pretty good because I can quickly find the information I need and sometimes get further information as I look more closely at their work.
This site uses limited font sizes and types but does not create a major reading difficulty. However, the hierarchy of the typography does not appear clear. I would suggest the site to use more font types to distinguish the navigations and the general content of the site and also increase the spacing between lines so it becomes a bit easier to read. Moreover, the site can consider assigning different colors for headings and paragraphs and draw the browsers’ attention to critical information. While the typography of the site has lots of space to be improved, the label of the navigation is quite clear. Each navigation listed on the left clearly describes its content and therefore I see the information I expected when I click on to any of the navigations. The structure of the pages does not stay very consistent from page to page, which may be caused by the diverse content of each navigation. The “firm profile” and “philosophy” share the same format while “project“, “people” and “news” share another. Among the latter three navigations, the grid of the pages are not the same but the images on top shows consistency. Looking at the “project” overview page, the focal point would be the rendering on top because of its color, size and position.
The images and photos shown in this site gives its browsers a sense of the urban design firm‘s style. While the photos appear neutral in colour, the renderings and drawings show a strong impact to demonstrate the firm’s capability and profession in the field of urban planning and design. It would be great to see more imagery from this firm. The firm’s logo is the only icon being use in this site, and it is easy to understand how it stands for the logo.
Not to include the colors from imagery, there are basically three colors being used on every given page. One color shows in the logo, one color works for the background, and one works for the font, including navigation and content. As there is only one color used for all content, the content is not separated by color but rather by the navigation system. The colors shown in this site are selected to create a clean and natural look and at the same time function as a canvas for the colorful portfolio images.
The urban design firm constructs the site for the browsers to quickly understand the firm and look at its successful portfolio. The site is selling professional design services and subtlety provides the firm’s contact information. There is no search function provided in this site, but everything should be clear and easy to find, which becomes the most effective feature of the site. The simple architecture is very helpful as the browsers quickly understand where to get the information. However, the category “firm profile” appears to be a little confusion as how firm profile is separated from people. Currently, the firm profile does not give lots of information, it may be combined with people and leaves 4 primary navigations for this site.
