Take the Walk - September 2008

First up, what a great cause! Donate or Take the Walk for yourself here. I’m not usually a fan of dusky dark websites but Take the Walk my have turned me around. The choice of red to compliment was possibly one of the best choices they could have made. It gives the site a much more serious/needy feel, especially with the excellent black and white images. Considering that we tend to read from left to right (Gutenberg Diagram), the eye flow and hierarchy of elements on the page help to direct the eyes with ease, with exception to that navigation bar - what is it doing hard up, top right? Defiantly the wrong place for it!

A rough texture has been applied throughout the site (logo/icons etc). Slaughter is the word I’m looking for – absolute overkill. The rough texture is tying in with those black and white images (again they crop up!) but personally they would have pulled it off better without it. Maybe I’m just stuck in my ways. If that is the case, I like being stuck.

The tally of walkers on the homepage has a subtle dotted map of the world behind it. It gives the site that little bit extra. Try looking at the site, and imagine the map missing – Right huh? One thing I should mention and would have love to seen was the designer moving away from this box grid look. How about overlapping an element or two or breaking into the gutters/margins?

I really enjoyed the use of AJAX throughout the site, again a little extra touch. However, viewing the site in IE provides the user with a few bugs (typical) that they really should have looked at fixing. Try clicking “Host Login” in Internet Explorer, the AJAX does its thing, but places the login form directly over the current navigation disabling it for future use. Bummer.

Is it a joke? No. Is it Sarah Palin? Hell no. It’s actually a "mailto" link in the main navigation bar. I had no idea people still used these. Tacking it back. Way back. What a waste of time when so many people use web mail these days anyway!

Overall Take the Walk has done its intended job. However, I don’t think it has reformed my opinion of the dark dusky looking websites that I so dislike.

Speak Soon

Matt Evans