2:  TWPF’s current website – first impressions

The current TWPF website has I believe succeeded in some areas, perhaps not so well in others. Here are some initial observations, in no particular order:

  • Beyond a rather small logo and the magenta headlines, there is little ‘Brand Identity’ or carried-through design ‘theme’ the current site. I suspect that’s a term many of you will hate, but it’s a marketing truism that design builds identity, identity builds credibility and credibility builds trust.
  • I think at the moment the site looks a little too ‘homely’ and perhaps doesn’t properly convey the size and scope of the Festival. I also feel it lacks structure and organisation – quite possibly because it has simply been allowed to grow over the years without due consideration given to older content.
  • The navigation system can be improved upon. For example, the navigation bar disappears completely when scrolling down a page. Use of main and drop-down menus is a little inconsistent (some main ‘top-line’ items don’t link to anywhere, whereas others do). But perhaps most tellingly (surprisingly?), a site check shows there to be 112 pages on the website – and most of these pages can’t be found easily or with any degree of reliability or certainty. A ‘search’ function would be of enormous benefit.
  • With the Festival happening every two years, the site should enthuse, inspire and point people to where they can go to meet others and learn more and meet artistes and enthusiast. While there is a lot of information on the site (when it can be found), there is little hint within the site what TWPF wants visitors to the site to do next – another dreaded marketing term – no ‘call to action’.
  • A few ‘legal’ issues. TWPF should show a postal address clearly on the site. The Privacy Policy hints at GDPR, but makes no actual mention of it – GDPR needs to be clearly visible. Similarly, there should be a Cookie Notice and users made aware that the site uses cookies – and given a choice to agree to the use of cookies.
  • Site performance is sometimes slowed by inconsistencies in the size and quality of image files. For example, images used to illustrate news items are only approx 320 pixels wide – yet are linked from originals over four times that size, using site storage space, slowing browser response and using mobile data allowances unnecessarily.
  • Quality of most images is poor (compared to how good they could have looked) – I believe because they have been incorrectly optimised. Very briefly, a digital photographic image can usually comprise up to 16.7 million colours. This is actually more than the human eye can discern and is why photographs on screen can look so rich, clear and sumptuous. Many/most of the images on the website have been converted to ‘8-bit PNG’ format – this supports only 256 colours (rather than 16.7m) and consequently only approximates the look of the original image. Here is just one example on the TWPF website, the first article on the news page ‘New Puppet Club dates announced’ – https://twpuppetryfestival.org/news/  The image used kind of looks OK on that page, as it has been reduced in size – but the actual quality of the image is seen by right-clicking that image on the page and choosing ‘Open in new tab’. It’s pretty poor… Puppetry is such a visually rich art and, I believe, needs to be represented by the best quality images possible.
  • I am sure that supporters/sponsors contribute enormously to the viability of TWPF – yes, their logos can be seen around the site, but I believe more could be done to acknowledge their support.

Why does image optimisation on a website matter?

The main reason to optimise images is in order to achieve the optimum balance of high image quality and small file size. I believe the need for image quality is all the more important on a site like TWPF’s, given the incredible visual impact of the art. File size is important on two points. Firstly, images with larger file sizes take longer to ‘draw’ on-screen – this can be very noticeable on slow broadband connections or poor mobile reception. It affects the site’s overall performance rating and may well be ‘penalised’ accordingly by Google in its search rankings. Secondly, large file size images consume website visitors’ mobile data (if using a phone of other mobile device to view the site). So this could potentially be causing visitors to incur excess data charges from their phone provider.

Click here for a comparison of image quality and file sizes...

produced by different file formats and degrees of optimisation

Design Example 2:
Sussex Heritage Trust

I redesigned the Sussex Heritage Trust’s website around four years ago and have been retained to maintain and support it since – click here to visit the site.

The Trust’s role is to encourage the sympathetic modernisation of old or architecturally important buildings thought Sussex. The Trust’s funding is through commercial sponsorship and from application fees for consideration in their annual Awards scheme.

Their old website was very inward-looking, and didn’t do enough to enhance or promote the work of those architects, builders, craftsmen and women who are in reality, the lifeblood of the Trust.

The new site has encouraged the submission of better quality photographs by entrants and this has in turn help us present the often very beautiful works carried out in a much more impressive manner. This can be seen when looking at the almost ‘apologetic’ 2013 Archive photographs, which are shown at the largest size available at that time on the old/previous Sussex Heritage Trust website.

Looking through the 2017 Award section, you will see much better quality images used as thumbnails with enlargements further available by clicking on individual images. Still larger images are used throughout the site, particularly on the homepage which really showcase the architects’, builders’ and crafts-people’s skills – all of which has received a positive response and appreciation by those organisations and individuals taking part in the awards.

The new site truly reflects the exceptional nature of the Trust’s work.