The NEW WPCOOP.org
Matt Haltom of AnotherColor is a founding member of WPCOOP. His savvy innovative and insightful user interface designs intrigued me. He has an uncanny talent for understanding the viewer audience and directing them appropriately to specific areas of content.
I engaged Matt in many conversations about the critical importance of a sites user interface when dealing with multiple target markets and viewers. And how your sites design can dictate its purpose as much as the content.
WPCOOP.org appeals to 2 very different but very related demographics. The WordPress professional and businesses seeing WordPress design and development.
WPCOOP needed a front page design to direct traffic to their corresponding areas as well as keep the site user friendly for our members and the public visitor.
We wanted to provide our membership with easy access to member features and functions and in turn highlight their talents and skills for individuals and businesses seeking their skillset.
Matt came up with a design that dramatically improves our viewers experience. I recently interviewed him about the new WPCOOP.org re-design:
Where did you get inspiration from in your design?
Before I start any project I like to review who the site should be for & what they want to achieve. In this case, the website was for WordPress Professionals and regular business people who need to find one. That meant creating something that was both engaging for the regular developer and simple for the average business person.
I like to cite other people’s work who inspired me, to give credit to those that influence what I do. The first was Glue Interactive Media. I loved their presentation of content and ability to outline who they are and what they do in three bullet points. I think any good business should be able to describe what they do in a few words.
Square Space was another professional style website that influenced the design. It accomplishes the same goals I was looking to accomplish with the WP CO-OP design, to show creativity while maintaining a professional appearance.
The rest just came from thinking about how things should look. Professional, stylish and global were all words going through my head while designing.
Tell us about the site’s unique features and functions?
Originally I felt the content of the site needed to be prioritized and laid out better to accomplish its goals. This meant creating a distinct path for WordPress professionals to take to interact with each-other, and business people to take to find the people they need. This gave me the idea of creating a really eye-catching illustration to direct traffic.
You will also notice that most of the “member content” has been moved to the footer, separating content for members from content for visitors. Hopefully we will soon implement a forum or something else to make it easier for members to connect and work together.
*Side note, in the illustration the designer is using a mac & the business man is using a PC. No hate intended, but I just love macs. lol
Does design follow function or is it design before function?
Design should always follow function. There are plenty of people who design something that isn’t functional, and it ends up in the trash. Every design should work first, then look attractive.
Conceptualization and an understanding of your user should be first when creating any design. I like to create “user objectives” to start out with any design, then work though ways to accomplish the objective and make the experience enjoyable.
What are your other creative outlets?
Painting, drawing, illustration, photography. I like to challenge the typical ideas of how people want things to work, flip the idea and see if it will work, essentially creating things outside the normal.
I enjoy studying the human condition of self expression and interaction. Though understanding people, you can create visual designs that communicate with them better. Shape and form, along with composition and functionality are essential parts of my work and ideas when I create designs.
I also love to get lost in Code. Reading a new book on PHP & Ajax or just trying new things when I get the chance. There are few designers who can say they code their own work.
I love the design community in general and I admire any person who wears their mind on their sleeve.
What are your biggest aspirations as a designer?
As a designer my goal is to reach people. I subscribe to the philosophy that design should communicate, not just be pretty. My aspiration is to reach out and change the way most designs react to the world. I guess you could say I am more of an entrepreneur then a designer at times, I want to design new ideas.
If I had to set a major aspiration it would be to work with the best in the web business and to shape how we all interact with the web and how we connect it into our daily lives.
What are the most important aspects when creating a unique web design?
Goals, Inspiration. Goals of the company or business lead the design where it needs to go. Inspiration helps facilitate creativity and promote ideas to grow from.
Look at what other people have done, get your bearings and do something different, even if that means just adding a little detail here and there. There are many web designers out there but the good ones know when to add that extra bit of detail and innovation into their work.
And in regards to this client?
I guess you could say the client was the WordPress community. I really wanted to create something for the people that need it. I think WP CO-OP will be the first, really viable resource for the average business person to connect with a WordPress professional without having to spend hours looking for one.
It also is a resource for us, the WP community to finally connect. Lets work together and build the next generation of WP sites.
