Fitness+Sports





__**Home**__ __**Store Locator**__ __**About Us**__ __**Contact Us!**__


 * **

__Runner's Store__ ** || 

__**Swimmer's Store**__ ||  __**Fitness Sports Newsletters**__ || 

__**Other News**__ || 

__**Information Sites**__ || 

__**Training Groups**__ || 

__**Upcoming Races**__ || **__Results from Recent Events__** ||

=Welcome to Our New, Re-Designed Home Page! = ===Whether you are a long-time friend, or a new acquaintance, we hope you find our new web site easy to navigate. The table below summarizes the different categories of information that can be found here. You can either use the tabs above or the links in the left column of the table to get to the category of information you are looking for. ===


 * __**Runner's Store**__ || A one-stop shop for all your running gear. ||
 * __**Swimmer's Store**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">Your source for swimming supplies, club updates, and other news. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Fitness Sports Newsletters**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">Our archive of monthly newsletters, in PDF format. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ff8d00; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Other News**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">Human interest stories and other news, including <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">Joe Henderson's Commentary <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">, <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">Lance Bergeson's Blog <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">, and the news archive. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Information Sites**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">A set of links to your favorite information sites, including USA T&F, Iowa Trails, Iowa AAU, Sports Injury Clinic, and others. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ff8d00; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Training Groups**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">A collection of links to local training groups. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Upcoming Races**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">A listing of events scheduled in central Iowa over the next few months. You can also add your races to the list on this page. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ff8d00; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Results from Recent Events**__ || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">An indexed listing of results for recent central Iowa events. ||

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">__**Links to Weather Sites**__

=<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">Featured Races and Merchandise: =



<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%;">

We urge you to __Contact Us!__ with any comments about the new layout. Thank you for your continued support.

Re-design Summary:

 * How Redish's Principles Were Used:** The main problem I saw with the Fitness Sports home page was the clutter when I first brought the page up. The amount of information on that page is overwhelming, and unless you are familiar with it, it looks completely unorganized. In re-designing the home page, my main aim was to use Redish's guidelines to make it more user-friendly and more organized. The site does a reasonably good job of identifying the brand and giving people a sense of what it is about, but it doesn't do a very good job of letting people start on key tasks immediately, or sending them on their way effectively and efficiently. That was what I concentrated on for my re-design: Provide people the information they want quickly, and send them to a pathway page that points them in the right direction for the information they are ultimately looking for. Thus, if I was re-designing the entire site, I would definitely follow the "Home Page ---> Pathway Pages ---> Information Pages" model that Redish touts in Chapter 2. Other concepts that I've learned, and that I've applied (or would, if I was working on the entire site), include:
 * Adding "Home", "Store Locator", "About Us", and "Contact Us!" links on all page levels (except those that are external to the Fitness Sports site), allowing for better site navigation.
 * Providing a smooth path through the content of the site. Giving people what they need...following the less is more mantra.
 * Breaking down walls of words.
 * Using active space effectively.
 * Using patterns and alignment in the layout of the elements on the page.
 * Eliminating centered text.
 * Using a sans serif font.
 * Providing good contrast between text and background.
 * Making note of the colors used in body of the page.
 * Talking directly to the site visitors, making the page more conversational.
 * Writing in short, simple, and straightforward sentences.