*Update on the photo choice! * The same member who shot the new photos for our website was out with his camera during our town hall & holiday party on Friday night and gave us the perfect ammunition to replace the less active main photo of people working with something that I wouldn't have thought to ask for, but is totally aces.
The photos were shot candidly, and really speak for themselves. Now updated on: http://indyhall.org -Alex On Sunday, December 9, 2012 2:50:19 AM UTC-5, Alex Hillman wrote: > > > We at Cowork Frederick have invested a lot of time and words and pages > explaining what coworking is and how it works (on our home page, FAQ, > etc.). The new Indy Hall website doesn't. Given that the site is an > invitation, I'd expect more about what people are being invite to. Is that > because the concept is well-known in the Philly area and you no longer need > to explain, because you want them to come in to learn more, or some other > reason? > > > In all of the explanations and descriptions of coworking I've seen and > tried myself, there's *no* substitute for the experience. > > When people read the word coworking, one of two things happens: > > 1) They have no idea what it means and need an explanation that won't do > it justice or > 2) They have their own preconception of what it is, based on what they've > read or maybe what they've experienced before. > > In both cases, it's not until they walk in the door and actually see > it/try it for themselves that they understand what coworking is going to be > *to them*. This leaves the door open for coworking to be a multitude of > things, far beyond definitions and explanations. We make sure that our job > is to make sure that they have an amazing experience, and let them choose > to associate that with coworking. > > So the "invitation" is to walk in the door, meet us, meet our members, and > learn what coworking is based on their experience and participation. > > Also like the floorplan. I see other coworking sites also have them, so we > now plan to add one to our website as well. > > > It's worth pointing out that this comes with the a similar risk to the > logo problem that Jerome mentioned before: when we make layout changes, > we'll need to update those drawings. That's a pain. In fact, since we did > these drawings last month at least 4 things are inaccurate on the drawings. > My suspicion is that they'll end up being simplified even more to make them > more reference, less detail. Time will tell. > > One thing that immediately caught my eye is the picture on the home page. > As I recall, the old website had pictures of lots of people in a fairly > crowded room. I don't recall if they work working or socializing, but, in > my mind, it painted a picture of a flexible space akin to grabbing a spot > at a coffee shop (but in a better work environment and community). This new > picture shows a few people using what look like permanent desks with a > fairly generous amount of room. That, to me, paints a picture of serious > workers, coming in every day to do their jobs at their desks, more like > going into the office (but cooler of course). Is there an intential image > change in the works? How much desk space does an Indy Hall coworker get to > work? What percentage of your members are full-time members with permanent > desks? > > > You're not the first to point this out, and it's actually at the top of > our list to update. We've got another photo shoot very soon, but decided > that we wanted to ship and iterate the website for other reasons and swap > in more photos once they're ready. That top photo is an awesome angle and > lighting, but my #1 complaint about it is that it doesn't show any > interaction between people. > > When we prioritized "value" for the photos we wanted to shoot, it was: > > Good: has a person in it > Better: has multiple people in it > Best: has multiple people interacting in it > > This is another challenge with photos of our space - every "zone" has a > slightly different density and vibe, and we've only managed to capture a > couple of the variations so far. More photos to come, and I'm confident > that this will improve :) > > Long post from me, I know. In conclusion, just want to say congratulations > on the new website. Here's to the continued evolution of it, Indy Hall, and > coworking overall. > > > Thanks Julia!! > > -Alex > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
