Duirwaigh Studios

When I opened this website, I was interested by the rich artwork and colors. I immediately wondered: what kind of business does this CSS website represent? Unfortunately, it took me quite a lot of looking to answer this question. There is a lot of flowery language and pretty pictures, but few actual explanations. The front page is in a blog format. I saw artwork referred to and a few references to an online workshop, but nothing about the exact industry. The fonts were beautiful, the art bright, but no indication of purpose. Even after reading the About page it was a little sketchy. The website is run by a husband and wife team who are involved in a variety of pursuits, most of them artistic. Duirwaigh Studios is their online ‘home’.

Creativity:

5 stars. I wish we could give them ten out of five stars for creativity, because the website obviously was developed with a great deal of care and attention to detail. The artwork is fanciful and engrossing, and the other elements are created to work well with the visual aspects.

Ease of use:

3 stars. Perhaps it is the ornate language or the many different elements on the page, but we found the Duirwaugh Studios website to be a little difficult to navigate. It seemed cluttered and crowded in places, and I had trouble finding the things I sought. On whole it is a great website, but the organization is not intuitive. It takes a great deal of thought to navigate, which some visitors might not be willing to do.

Functionality:

4 stars. I could not find social media links, although it was certainly easy to find the blog present on the landing page of the website. There were polls and other interactive elements, but no Facebook, Twitter, or other means of interacting with the brand outside of the website itself.

Content:

4 stars. The content is well written but a little too ornate. It is difficult sometimes to discern the intent. However, most of it is easy to understand and written with attention to every verb.

Appropriateness:

3 stars. This website is meant to present the two artists as professionals, but it is just a little too flowery to be business appropriate. Even if your artwork tends toward the Baroque side, a professional business brand is an important part of running any small business or freelancing venture.