Limeworks' New Strategy, Website, Plus a Horizontal Blog

[Rob_Limeworks]

Hi All,


There are two parts to this thread. Both are linked, but somewhat different too

PART 1

As some of you may have noticed, we've recently taken a new approach to Limeworks' marketing strategy.

The Goal:
To differentiate ourselves from the competition, and leave an impression. The most stand-out comment from new clients is that nobody stands out in the market - everyone looks the same. (While i think some do stand out, obviously nobody stands out enough).

What we've done:
We've leveraged the fact that what we do is extremely nerdy. Let's face it - it is. Whether we're talking about website development or designing business cards, there's a nerdy element to everything we do. There were two reasons for this:

1. Being nerdy is associated with intelligence - which is important when it comes to technical things like websites.
2. It's funny. Humour is a powerful engagement tool, and by poking fun at ourselves a little, it shows we're not afraid to have a laugh, but it's not at anyone's expense.

The Website:
The website has been completely reworked to incorporate this theme, and present information in a clear way. We've also shot a few of us for the "meet the nerds" page doing various silly things, to help personalise what is such an "anonymous" experience. We meet perhaps 5% of our clients EVER. Many who have seen the site have already commented "oh that's what you look like", or "nice to put a face to the name" etc.

There's quite alot of information, a bunch of new articles, and a few extra services going on the website shortly, so be sure to check back again soon.

The Marketing:
Our marketing strategy follows the nerdy theme closely, for a cohesive approach. Below are a few of the banners/posters we have developed for use at expos and things. They're concise, to the point, and follow our theme. We're in the process of developing some flyers and things for a direct mail process that we use, which has provided good returns in the past.



Extras:
We're fully embracing the brand. Whenever we do anything such as an expo, or (coming shortly) seminars, we dress the part with braces and bow-ties. It's memorable, that's what we're trying to achieve. A few of our competitors even use "geek" etc in their branding, but their website still just looks like every other one with no clear point of difference.

Here's a photo of myself and Danielle at the last business expo we attend, where we first presented the new image to the world.
http://www.limeworks.com.au/blog/par...o_august_2010/.


PART 2

The blog...
To maintain consistency of our website layout, we've incorporated the blog into a horizontal scrolling layout.
While we know people are used to scrolling, scrolling horizontally is far less common.

Do you think the horizontal layout works?

It's a toss-up between breaking away from the consistency of the horizontal theme, and having a different design for the blog to present it in a more "familiar" way.

Thoughts and comments are appreciated.





SO...
That's what we're trying to achieve, and the reasons behind it all. I welcome and feedback, comments, or queries about anything.

Thanks for listening.
Rob

[Chris Bates]

Rob, you've done really well! You've reinvented your brand and given it a very unique spin.

I love the posters too! haha

[Rob_Limeworks]

Thanks Chris.

I must admit, a 5ft high giant nerd got ALOT of double takes and head turns at the expo

Rob

[Tecknowoman]

Love the marketing but call me conditioned I'm not a fan of the horizontal blog.

[Rob_Limeworks]

Thanks Technowoman.

That's the questions we're asking i guess... is a horizontal blog just too far from the expected...?

Rob

[Chris Bates]

Following along those line of comments - I don't like the horizontal anything. The blog especially, it too much of a shock to the way people normally view a website. The horizontal content on the site could work - but I think would be better with some jQuery implementation rather than just a horizontal scrollbar.

[Rob_Limeworks]

thanks Chris.

Maybe the blog IS too much.

I think the site itself works horizontally personally.

Regarding the Javascript - do you mean like having buttons/tabs etc in place of the scrollbar?

Since we had moved to a horizontal layout, i didn't want to go even further and remove a native GUI feature.
jQuery/Flash/non-standard scroll bars rarely work very well, and i think maybe that IS moving too far from the expected UI...?

I'm totally open to comments and suggestions of course - just my thoughts on it. It's the main reason i left the regular scroll bar.

Rob

[Chris Bates]

Speaking in opinions, of course.

I just think that the standard UI scrollbar detracts from the design pretty significantly. I would think a jQuery scrolls with the horizontal position of the mouse kind of thing (in which case, you'd only want about 1.5x window width in content), or as you suggested the 'arrows' that just flick across a panel when clicked (like in a lightbox window).

For example, your home page - I think that'd work great (at my width, which is about standard despite the overly large monitor) as an auto-scrolling thing that moved with my mouse. But then, your portfolio is way too wide for that.

[Rob_Limeworks]

Speaking in opinions, of course.

I just think that the standard UI scrollbar detracts from the design pretty significantly. I would think a jQuery scrolls with the horizontal position of the mouse kind of thing (in which case, you'd only want about 1.5x window width in content), or as you suggested the 'arrows' that just flick across a panel when clicked (like in a lightbox window).

For example, your home page - I think that'd work great (at my width, which is about standard despite the overly large monitor) as an auto-scrolling thing that moved with my mouse. But then, your portfolio is way too wide for that.

Thanks Chris. Yeah i had thought about that.
We don't use jQuery (use Dojo core), but can achieve a similar thing all the same.

I agree that standard scroll bars are a little average looking (and think scroll-bar CSS options is the only good thing Microsoft ever invented).
Maybe i'll implement some styles that are more fitting for the IE viewers, since they still make up the majority.

As a web developer yourself - what do you think of the pure AJAX navigation?
I think it's a better user experience, and degrades nicely so Google etc index the "real" pages.

Rob

[Tecknowoman]

I am going to ignore any of my web design, marketing type responses and give you my absolute user only answer

When I'm on the net my cursor is often in position or near about the bar for scrolling down the page - so I don't need to think, move far or take action to continue reading the page.

Horizontally not only is the look unfamiliar (and unappealing to me personally) but I have to find my mouse, take action, and God forbid think to actually scroll the blog.