• Importing and optimizing a government database with over 150,000 entries
• Developing custom graphing solutions based entirely in Ruby
• Logo and graphic design

For CleanScores, it was paramount that the site be easy to use, so Vestal took the time to perform in-depth user interaction work on the website, which represents a staggering amount of information in a pleasant and digestible format. CleanScores.com presents information in a format which helps every day users learn more about their favorite restaurants without sacrificing functionality for experts who may need technical information.

Visit the site »

Visit the Campus Vortex City Guide »

Premium accounts and online payment

Vestal Design responded within two months, building out the existing site with a new design that meshes well with the original branding. A credit card payment system allows restaurant owners to buy an account, and to upload a logo, post specials, upload a PDF menu, and more.

Mitigating a data entry nightmare

One of the client’s main considerations was data entry — Vestal helped modularize and simplify the system to meet the gargantuan task of gathering a mountain of data on each restaurant.

Community tools and API integration

Finally, Vestal drew upon it’s extensive experience with and community building tools and web service APIs to implement a Facebook sharing link and a Google mapping feature (showing a map of every restaurant). Watch out as Campus Vortex rolls out to cover an ever-growing number of campuses!

• Plays video or audio (with an associated image)
• Includes a Playlist which runs off PodTech’s RSS feeds
• Allows users to link to, embed, or email the player
• Intuitive and distinct controls
• Dynamically resizable, opens in pop-up window

To accomplish this, both Vestal’s Web Design and User Interaction groups tackled the player from separate view points. After each graphic iteration, the user interaction group would analyze the player for ease of use. The PodTech Player team at Vestal consisted of Diego Rojas Bandini, Jeffrey Warren, and David Pitman, with support from Jon Saints, Pete Habuda, and others.

Also see the Vestal Flickr Shufflr

Vestal has also worked with PodTech on two versions of the site’s graphical look and information design. Most recently, Vestal has designed PodTech’s current site from the ground up, and is currently providing UI expertise as PodTech’s site matures. Furthermore, Vestal was able to produce and launch an entirely separate “PodPolitics” website for PodTech, in only a single weekend.

Vestal’s Diego Rojas Bandini and Jeffrey Warren developed the Shufflr in Adobe Flash in just three weeks. Also see the PodTech Media Player

The Writebird.com system offers the ability to produce additional advertising revenue, to provide more frequent and dynamic content, and to expand readerships. The features currently include a multi-level author/editor system, image uploading, PDF article conversion for download, and a variety of elegant built-in layouts. The system will soon have a subscriber list, online image-editing, a blog, sorting and email notification, a search engine, and online advertising.

Vestal Design is not simply a design firm; we’re active in developing of new, innovative web services in a variety of different domains.

Visit the Site >>

Also unique to the system was the reliance upon social networking to organize file exchange and increase relevant search results. During extensive beta testing, it became apparent that allowing users to connect to networks of their friends provided a wealth highly relevant media to each user.

Using a web-based asynchronous Flash system, Coffeeshop offered it’s users a responsive and intuitive interface which was developed in just a few months. By using an intelligent index-caching system, search queries were executed in a fraction of a second, despite an index size of hundreds of thousands of files.

Coffeeshop was an independent project of Vestal Designer Jeffrey Warren and software developer Patrick Fitzsimmons.

The Cut&Paste Labs program offers an educationally-oriented internship to a select group of Peruvian university students. The 6-week internship includes workshops on web design, business management, web applications development, and entrepreneurship, with the goal of giving students skills, confidence, and independence.

Visit the Cut&Paste website.

Vestal also developed stationery, logo design and branding for Cut&Paste Labs.

Vestal designers work under the belief that good websites balance both design and usability equally. Flashy graphics are beautiful to look at, but if a customer can’t find how to buy a product or contact a seller, then the site is just a flashy failure. Similarly, pure functionality ignores the business possibilities of branding and identity building online. With every website, Vestal Design finds the right mix of visual excitement and helpful layout to meet our client’s needs.

Good web design should be both attractive and highly functional, and Vestal Design emphasizes both to make the best possible product.

Click to visit the site >>

Rather than hire multiple firms – and try to manage and combine multiple ideas – Vestal Design offers a one-company solution for businesses looking for a wide range of design and support services. Being able to work one-on-one with the client helps us focus our work, leading to a more representative and cohesive product.

From market research to coding to ideation, Vestal’s designers have experience in everything a company needs to construct a consistent and engaging business identity.

Click to visit the site >>

Futureproof/ed’s Serge de Gheldere was also a speaker at the first Yale Wearing Change series of talks on sustainability and fashion.

Click to visit the site >>

CarePlace is a startup based in Boston, MA with the mission “to address the difficulties caregivers and patients encounter in their search for social support and peer information.” Their social networking site, CarePlace.com was about to enter their Beta phase, but first they enlisted Vestal Design’s services to review the UI of the site.

Problem

Before launching their Beta site in August, Careplace had several issues they wanted advice on.

• An evaluation of the site’s usability and user interface
• Consulting on how to design and administer a user study
• Advice on creating an effective user survey
• Recommendations and Improvements for the site

Approach

For a week, Vestal Design worked with the CarePlace team, both in 1-on-1 meetings, and in team discussions to help them identify what they were seeking in their user studies and surveys. At the same time, Vestal went through the entire site and documented potential usability issues, formally known as an expert heuristic evaluation.

Solution

None of the CarePlace team had formal training in user interaction, so Vestal provided mini-courses on topics like performing a user study, selecting questions which would not produce a biased result, and other related topics. Inbetween these courses, Vestal carefully reviewed the entire site, identifying, documenting, and classifying usability issues. At the end of the week, Vestal gave an hour presentation to the CarePlace team reviewing the topics we had covered earlier, as well as providing recommendations on how they could improve the UI and design of their site.

While many firms can make a pretty face for a website, Vestal Design has an in-depth knowledge of the systems ‘behind-the-scenes,’ allowing us to completely support our pages from the inside out. And, as businesses change and expand, Vestal will be able to adapt all the layers of hosting at once, by ourselves.

Technical support can be a harrowing business; but, for better or worse, we feel it is a necessary part of thorough web development.

Vestal also designed the Cut&Paste Labs website; to view it, click here.

The Independent Press Association, an organization of over 500 publications nationwide, has awarded Yale’s Environmental Leadership Magazine with “Best Independent Campus Publication of the Year with a Budget under $10,000”. The IPA says on their award website:

True to its mission, this gorgeously designed publication has the feel of a collage created from hand-made paper and found or recycled scraps. Though the design may look rough-hewn, the content is anything but. This small zine features moving essays, solid investigative pieces and compelling editorials on a truly diverse array of topics. Though always firmly grounded in its environmental theme, ELM manages to deliver a blend of voices and topics, making it appealing to a wide swath of campus readers.

Link to award announcement.

Link to ELM website.

View the site »

This graphic design mockup was created for Yottabricks, an exploratory concept by an independent web developer.

Vestal stepped in with a fast and elegant design which was updated regularly as the list of speakers grew. Vestal also set up a conference blog for announcements and photos, and developed a visual style for the conference, including flyers and posters.

A web-based community repository for searching, uploading, and playback. Audio Enclave is being developed in an extremely tight iterative design process. Audio Enclave uses AJAX, when appropriate, to enhance then user’s experience. For this project, a Vestal employee design and implement the UI and graphic design.

Problem

Audio Enclave’s predecessor, which was created in 1998, began to break in the Fall of 2004. At the same time, the user interface, while appropriate for the late nineties, had lived on long enough. Vestal Design and others took it upon ourselves to completely start over. There were several existing problems in the user interface, and additional features we wanted. For example, information was limited and poorly displayed in the old interface, and the user was limited to adding and removing songs from the queue At the same time, the consensus was clear that the remainder of the hall liked the key concepts behind the old interface- a simple front page, a minimalist design, and some humor. The site is used by the entire hall, and has speakers placed in both lounges and all bathrooms on the hall (for shower music).

Approach

Vestal Design’s employee had been using the previous incarnation of Audio Enclave every day for approximately two years when he first approached designing the interface. Since there was an excellent user base to draw on, it was decided to employ a tight iterative design process in building Audio Enclave. As soon as we felt the interface had reached a sufficiently stable level, it was immediately deployed. All code commits are automatically live-updated to the server. This allows us to employ an iterative design process which comes full cycle approximately once a day. We actively solicit input from the rest of the community for new functionality and feedback on existing features.

As Audio Enclave was being designed in the Spring of 2005, AJAX was just beginning to appear on the radar of web designers. Initially, the site was implemented without any JavaScript (one requirement was that the design have basic functionality in a terminal web browser). In the past few months, the team has gone back and re-implemented several parts of the site to use AJAX and JavaScript.

Solution

After a summer of work, Audio Enclave went live in August 2005. The interface includes sortable tables which display information relevant to the mode. Intelligent linking is used when a user clicks on information. For example, clicking on an artist name anywhere on the site automatically redirects to a page displaying all albums by that artist. Fitts’ Law is used in the design to minimize user interaction time. AJAX is employed to tighten the user’s sense of “cause and effect” in playing songs and controlling playback. Finally, the user receives graphic feedback whenever they hover over any actionable item on the site. After clicking on an actionable item, confirmation feedback is always given to the user.

The campaign organized a march to the Peruvian congressional building in Lima in late August 2006, where actual giant pencil mock-ups were carried as icons for the cause.

Vestal also developed a website at permitannosestudiar.com to provide a central contact point for the campaign and to deliver campaign-related content to the increasingly online Peruvian population. From the site, campaign coordinators can email supporters, post photos, review statistics on site visitors, and organize contacts.

Vestal continues to develop campaign design and ideation for Permítannos Estudiar… expect to hear more soon.