3rd go at AHR's front page design, not the last

This week has been all about Act for Healthy Rivers. It's a good thing since I've been in a bit if a holding pattern with the national redesign. Our partners tasked with the design side of things have been busy at work with the homepage mock-up following the series of wireframe developments.

The added time this week has allowed us to focus our attention on Act for Healthy Rivers' design elements. Below: the current mock-up is the most recent effort to date and significantly different than the last. And though both designs are in the family, the two below are products of an earlier round. And I suspect the next to be different too - it's anyone's game now.

Current mock-up

Previous mock-up

After running this by members of our executive team and an impromptu focus group, the loudest feedback was that the current mock-up didn't pop. In fact, our partners pretty much summed it up best with the latest effort -

It seems like we are taking a safer approach here when we could be pushing the envelope and focusing on a real campaign brand. As we have said the site can easily be redesigned. But does your constituency really want to see another pretty river header and another river group site, or do they want to see a more edgy site that emphasizes the problems that have necessitated this new legislation?

We're not really going for an edgy look with the 'river group' site, but we do want the appearance to be engaging, clear, and okay, a little on the edge. This process has gone around the horn and I'm confused with what we want to achieve again. Our team may need a regroup and clear things up before we proceed.