Visual Orange is a Web Design, Internet Solutions and Marketing company located in Thailand. They specialize in web based solutions for e-business, targeting small to medium sized companies.
Look And Feel
When I first entered the site, my first impression was that the site had a common corporate look and that it was well planned and designed. My eyes were drawn to the striking words(logo) on the top left hand corner named "Visual Orange". The word "Visual" seemed to be emphasized and that made me think I should be expecting something visual... I then zoomed out and look at the site as a whole. The second part that caught my attention was the credit card icons in the payment section. I think exposing the payment procedures on the front page is not a good idea. It might give people a negative impression of the comapny.
I then started looking at the content which bored me easily after some scrolling. I have to agree that long text is good for SEO but bad for the end-user especially when it is in the index page. Maybe it is just me or the design of the logo, I am waiting to see some strong graphics or surprises which I cannot find any.
Navigation
The navigation is very consistent thoughout the site. The left navigation menu is simple and effective. However, the sub-menus are not easily recognized. I had to do a few clicks before I knew how to use the sub-menus. Other than lightening the blue at the side, it would help by adding some bullets, icons or even some spaces before each label.
The breadcrumb looks cool but I not too sure of the
line above it. Maybe making the line thinner of even leaving it empty might be a better idea.
While navigating the site, I stumbled across a link exhcange page, ie http://www.sitecritic.net/
The title of this page is "Link Popularity Exchange Farms"....Hang on, Did I see the word "farms"? Mmm, this term seems negative to me. Term like these is prohibited in the SEO dictionary. The company might want to manually screen through all the titles of their web pages to make sure the titles are named approriately. The special char "" looks cool but might not be a good idea to use in the title.
Design, Layout And Content
I like the spaciousness of the layout but what impresses me most is the profiles of the employees at the top right hand corner. I am not sure if I like the male in the photo, but I definitely like the concept. This is what a company should sell; the people that makes up the company. It tells their customers that the company has nothing to hid and gives them a sense of security that they are dealing with real professionals rather than some ghosts from outer space.
The contents of the web pages are pretty boring especially those that needs scrolling. Perhaps more graphics could be inserted between the text to make them look more interesting. Alternatively, the banners on the right column could be changed more frequently. Very Often, I felt like increasing the width of the content area in the centre column. There are important contents in there but not enough room to show. In the worst scenario, I would change the layout to 2 columns just to fit in the contents and that would also allow for some interplay of graphic elements as well. I am not sure who started the trend, it seems that many designers nowsadays are very scared to show off their graphic design skills.
Conclusion
Visual Orange is obviously a commercial site targeting at people who are looking for professional services. With that in mind, I thought the site could be more professional by injecting some strong visuals and portfolio to showcase their talent. I feel that the colors, font selection and layout are carefully planned but I am not yet convinced of their design skills. Would I be tempted to use their services? Not at the moment.
