30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson

July 18th 2010

Web Design

by Tom

30 Minute Redesign Saturdays – a new weekly set of posts where I take a visitor’s website, analyze it’s design and then provide a redesign free of charge – all in just 30 minutes! This week: Nick Throlson gets a redesign.

Week 17: Nick Throlson

Nick Throlson.

In the space of 5 minutes I can identify some of the key strengths and weaknesses of this design, and sketch out a mockup.

STRENGTHS:

The overall all design is not that bad, it’s fairly professional, clean and legible
The header is bold and grabs the users attention, with a professional logo design
The layout follows user expectations (menu top center, content left, ads right etc…), it’s fairly easy to browse because of this

WEAKNESSES:

Whilst the design is reasonably professional, it’s also quite boring
The overwhelming amount of content in this design means that it feels cluttered, and this makes it harder to read the content
The blog posts are pushed down, and not given enough attention. As the main reason why people use the website the content is given little precedence.
There are simply too many unnecessary elements to this design, it’s as if the designer has tried to fit in every piece of content and every widget they possibly can.

My Redesign

As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I tried to improve upon several of eCustom’s features, adding a few design flourishes and a clearer layout that promoted content over wasted space:

WHAT I TRIED TO DO:

Create a bolder, more interesting design
Simplify the design A LOT, removing unnecessary content for a less cluttered feel
Give the content (blog posts) far more importance, moving them up the page and making them more obvious via bold post titles and headings
Added subtle design and usability touches, such as faint dividers to separate content, and an active menu tab to help users realize their location within the site’s structure.

nickthrolson2 30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson

Comparing the 2 Designs:

Here is a quick comparison between the original design and my 30 minute redesign. Sure, my design could be more polished, but I believe that a lot of the basic elements have been improved upon, creating a more pleasant browsing experience.

nickthrolson3 30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson

How and Why To Enter Redesign Saturdays

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.

The Benefits of Getting Your Site Redesigned Include:

Most obviously – a FREE redesign job!
Your website gets exposure to PSDFAN’s thousands of readers
You understand how to improve your website. This isn’t just a redesign, it’s a lesson in design.
You will get emailed the .psd of your redesign and can do whatever you want with it!

So please, leave a comment today for a chance to have your website redesigned next week!

About the Author: Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

25 Awesome Comments: Leave Your Comment

Jose 18th July 2010

Hello, i think this is a fantastic re-design as always, nice, clean and beautiful colors!
As well as the re-design you made from my site a few weeks before, the problem was that I never received the .psd and I would love to use it on my site!

Thank You so much for your help,
Stuart 18th July 2010

Love what you’ve done to NT’s site – your re-design has some of what I’d love to do for my site but don’t have the WP / CSS skills to do so.

Primarily what I like about this are two things – the increase in post space and the increase in header size. I agree that the previous incarnation was nice but like you say it doesn’t jump out and say lovely or wow.
JZ developpeur web 18th July 2010

In 30min it’s nice, very simple but nice.
Good job.
dzigner 18th July 2010

HI,I was surprised it was NT’s site you redesigned, I thought it would be clear concepts. Anyway, NT was my choice and you did a great job. Will you consider my website(http://www.des-us.com) for a redesign?
Thanks
Nick Throlson 18th July 2010

Love the new redesign only thing maybe little too much blue but I do like thanks much.
MarkT 18th July 2010

Oh that’s fab. )
See – I knew you could take something that was OK to start with and make it top-notch. Well done.
admin@twilightblog.org 19th July 2010

I would love to have my twilight blog redesigned.www.twilightblog.org please count me in on next weeks redesign.
Stephanie Webb 19th July 2010

It’s sometimes really challenging to fit a lot of content into one page without it looking too much and all crammed in. This layout makes a big difference and much easier to look around and find what you want. A definite improvement I think.
web design 19th July 2010

very simple but nice.
Good job.
Graphics Cove 19th July 2010

I have to say, I’ve been watching these redesigns for a while and thought I’d leave a comment.

I’m always stumbling onto someone’s website where I’m shocked it even exists in it’s current state. I’ve thought about redesigning someone’s site randomly, just as you are doing, but I’ve never got round to it, and after I saw you’re doing along the same lines I’m happy there’s someone out there making websites better one at a time.

Anyway keep up the great redesigns, they’re great for tips and pointers that can help others in their own web design project.
Gadget Guy 19th July 2010

Great design. Congrats!
Tom 19th July 2010

Thanks so much guys, your comments always make these redesigns worth doing .

Dzigner: Nick’s blog won Thursday’s poll, so it was naturally the site I had to redesign.

Jose: Sorry, I thought I’d already emailed you your .psd. I’ve just sent it across to you now. I’m glad you enjoyed this redesign too!
Twopo 19th July 2010

It been long i ahve not been on this site
Great Job Tom .
wish to submit my site also for redesign .
Jose 19th July 2010

Hey Tom, thank you so much for the .psd
Tom 19th July 2010

Twopo: Great to see you again! I’m glad you liked this redesign, and consider your website submitted for next week’s poll .

Jose: No problem!
DMD Digital Retouching 19th July 2010

Haha, this series of articles is a brilliant idea. Love it.
Nick 20th July 2010

Another fantastic redesign. Considering it takes only 30mins for you, would take me 30 hours! It would be interesting, for me at least, to see a case study of what you would/could do not given any time constraint.

Anyway, I would love to put one of my sites forward for a redesign – http://www.paml.info. The site is Drupal based and uses an off the shelf theme. The site promotes an event we are now holding each May. I can easily code, but am no designer, hence the use of off the shelf designs. I would love to see what you could do with it, branding, layout, etc. I would be more than happy to convert it to a HTML and Drupal template for all to enjoy.

Once again, well done on this weeks redesign.
Twopo 20th July 2010

Thanks Tom for considering my site . Been going Through some great stuff here since Yesterday . Kudos
Oliver Bristol 20th July 2010

I always like to see your redesigns as they are always a major improvement on the original designs and this redesign is simple yet stands out compared to the original. I think it’s great that you can so easily redesign a site in 30 minutes and I will look out for next weeks redesign.
Trisha Cupra 21st July 2010

That’s really nice and clean. Good one. I probably would have gone for a black background with blue accents rather than vice versa, and maybe keep the blue background with black logo for the footer and/or header areas.

The curly font in the logo looks a bit more feminine to me, but I really love the depth in the black circle.

The nav bar is inspiring – I wonder how that would work on a black background?

Thanks for the inspiration!
30 Minute Redesign: Week 18 Vote « PSDFan 22nd July 2010

[...] 30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson [...]
wingnutart 22nd July 2010

Kudos for doing this awesome project. I’ve seen plenty of sites, many of local friends and community supporters who need a design workout; thanks for breaking the ice on this and you should think allowing a submit form where visitors might rework sites and write them up as user submitted reworks. Might really grow interest in the project, too.

So great idea, and I’m definitely keen to try it myself.

That being said I wanted to do a little critique of your redesign. I’ve been struggling with my own design skills, and it’s nice to just take a minute and think it through.

I’d start by saying, the black logo doesn’t read as well as his original logo color, so I’d resist the urge to wholesale dump a clients branding. That being said your more stylized one is definitely more interesting though it’s also a little busy, and doesn’t match the client’s modern / high tech work.

The other things I’d offer are that the navigation is still pretty bloated, kill archives (their on the side, after all), gallery and projects sound like the same thing (or could be handled with a dropdown, under a common nav element), and think of drawing more attention to the any of the places that help the site owner sell something, “hosting”, “advertise”,”product”. Just as simple background image or color would help highlight these to help the client immensely.

These changes, are the kind of things that help show your value as a technologist, and creative thinker, over just your ability in Photoshop, btw.

Otherwise, think of sticking a little closer to a grid. It will help keep the positioning of the Advertising thumbnails, with the bio, and the archives all in better vertical alignment (I <3 subtraction.com)

I'd also rethink the social media icons on the sidebar. They may fit better under the bio, or they may work better on the contact page of the website. I'd be more concerned about providing the ability to connect with the content. I think, people want to help push great ideas, first; and despite wanting to serve the client, your inadertently do that more, by having people share their articles, then their name.

If I watch my twitter feed, I'd be less likely to read "@nickThrolson is pretty awesome" then "HasOffers – drop dead simple Affiliate Network building bit.ly/f@ke @nickThrolson"

That's my two-cents; and keep up with the good work.
Nick Throlson 23rd July 2010

Will be updating my site with the new redesign within the week had to get it coded for wp theme.
Lee 24th July 2010

Hi Tom, steps above the previous design. Good looking redesign.

Cheers,
Lee
Paddy 28th July 2010

great post and great work, will you consider my site for redesign? http://www.paddykgriffin.com I need to make the homepage more appealing and lost on ideas.