Sounds of Sacramento Rehearsal Studios
In addition to design, another great passion of mine is music. I have played in the local band Secure Sounds for a few years now. We have played countless shows up and down California and have DIY toured through 9 western states. I suppose you could categorize our music as alternative/indie progressive rock. We are a fairly loud 3-piece band so like most loud Sacramento bands we have had one of the many 24-hour rehearsal rooms. They charge you on average around $300-$400 a month for a rehearsal room and you can come and go as you please and play as loud as you like. They are usually a pretty safe place to store your gear as well, with card/fingerprint access to the building. We had experience with 2 different rehearsal room companies – one in North Sac and one in the Del Paso Heights/Arden Arcade area and were recently looking for another. The North Sac one doesn’t exist anymore and the Del Paso one was booked solid. So that is how we came across Sounds of Sacramento Rehearsal Studios.
What is the experience and who is the audience?
The experience is a web page. A single page. There are only 2 clickable things on the page, well 3 if you count the header/logo. The audience are people just like myself – musicians looking for a place to play/practice/record music as loud as and whenever they like. (Luckily we have been rehearsing at my bassists place which is nice and actually has natural light in the form of windows, unlike these dark, musty rehearsal room buildings.)
In what ways is this site bad/challenging?
In addition to the site being merely a single page, lets start with talking about it from a design standpoint. First of all it comes off as very unprofessional, amateur, and a bit sketchy. The logo/banner with black script treble clef S and sun flare on a staff on maroon background needs to be redesigned. The entire page suffers from lack of contrast. Black text over dark maroon background is hard to read and all the text is centered. The Pink Floyd sheet music/tab background is extremely distracting. I’m almost surprised that a midi version of “Wish You Were Here” doesn’t start automatically playing upon entering. The site feels cluttered, claustrophobic and not welcoming to the user at all. A plain white or even solid color background would help with this immensely. I get that this site’s main goal is to give people the phone number, since that is their preferred method of contact, so that should be higher up in hierarchy, maybe along with the physical address. The large single photo of the exterior is of poor quality and doesn’t tell us much.
From a functionality standpoint like I mentioned previously, there are only 3 clickable things on this page. The logo banner directs you back home, but that is redundant on a single page site. Clicking on the large central image opens up Google Maps in a new tab and directs you to a different address than the one listed on the page. I know from personal experience that this is a different rehearsal building completely – The one on Pell Drive that may or may not still exist, so that’s an issue. The only other clickable link on the page is a facebook link, which is like a breath of fresh air, not because the photos or information is any better on their facebook page, but the standardization/grid/whitespace of facebook’s template feels like a welcome contrast to their bad site, plus you can read user reviews.
In what ways is it successful?
Their address is listed prominently. They do show a photo, but it could be of better quality. Contact information, and about the company info is there, but suffers from design issues. 2 of their 3 links work correctly. That’s about it.
How might you make it better?
First I would get rid of their current logo/header. It just looks unprofessional. Next get rid of the distracting sheet music background. Also I would fix the contrast issue of black text over dark maroon (sometimes gradient) background. The phone number should be prominent near the top by the address, since that is their preferred method of contact. The site would benefit from a larger, high-quality central image. It could take up most of the screen and cycle through a few images, perhaps showing the interior of the building, the rooms themselves, their security measures, popular bands that have used their services, etc. I would also correct the link that takes you to the wrong address on Maps. I know simplifying a single page site sounds funny, but it does need to be simplified, cleaned up, and also expanded upon. It is in desperate need of whitespace and a grid system. I would create a navigation bar, so it is more than a single page. The nav bar should include About, Contact, Reviews, etc. They mention that they occasionally work with charities and sponsor fundraisers, but its in tiny text hidden at the bottom of the page. They should make this more prominent and could even include links and/or photos of examples of this. I suppose having a bad website isn’t hurting their business as they are clearly providing a much needed, in-demand service – their monthly rooms are booked solid – but it definitely couldn’t hurt their business either to have a more visually appealing, engaging, functional site.
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