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30 Minute Redesigns Every Saturday!
I’m very excited to announce the launch of a new weekly post series at PSDFAN – 30 Minute Redesign Saturdays.
The idea is very simple, each week I redesign a visitors website in 30 minutes. I then observe what I tried to achieve with the redesign, and identify problems with their original website.
Why 30 Minutes?
Good question! I chose to spend 30 minutes on each week’s redesign in order to prove that you don’t need weeks of labour and an expensive design team to improve your websites’ design! Obviously with more time I could make the redesign considerably better. However, these posts show that with just 30 minutes of your time spent identifying problems with your current website, and spent mocking up a new design, you’re well on your way to providing your visitors with a better user experience.
Week 1: Rich Gates
Rich Gates provides professional voice overs for a living. You can view his current site below:
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:
- Clean design (whoever designed this originally does have skills)
- Readable content, bold colors
- Easy to Navigate
- Concise Content
- Interactive Demo Player useful for Potential Clients
WEAKNESSES:
- Visually you can’t tell what the site is about. There are no visual cues promoting the ‘theme’ of the site.
- The content whilst concise has no visual hierarchy. All text is roughly the same size, so your eye doesn’t really get ‘grabbed’.
- There is a distinct lack of images, nothing is hugely wrong, yet nothing is particularly interesting.
- There are no factors really drawing you further into the site. You need some ‘call to action’ buttons!
My Redesign
As mentioned, I could do a hell of a lot more with more than 30 minutes, but off the top of my head I produced the following design.
WHAT I TRIED TO DO:
- Add a logo for some personal branding. I tried to create a set of lips from music equalizer bars. This could be done better with more time, but the basic idea is there.
- I created a more structured layout, framing the content better and drawing the visitors eye down the page.
- I created a large, attention grabbing headline, instantly showing what Rich does.
- I created a simple image montage, visually depicting what kind of industry Rich is involved in. This also ‘jazzes up’ the page a little.
- I created more of a textual hierarchy. Using larger headlines to identify areas of content and prompt the visitor to scan content more.
Comparing the 2 Designs:
Here is a quick comparison between Rich’s 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.
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!
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