Comments on: 30 Minute Redesign: Cathiegraphy

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:52:13 +0000

Thanks a lot Eric! I like your suggestion for a slideshow, that could definitely work well. It seems that a lot of people have agreed about the negatives of a video based or flash website though, so I’m glad that point held up.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:51:11 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion Jessica, I’ll be sure to include you in today’s poll post.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:49:34 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion!

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:48:36 +0000

No problem Cathie, I really glad you liked my redesign. Give me a shout if you’d like me to email the .psd, or if you’d let me have a crack at a full redesign for your upcoming relaunch.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:47:33 +0000

That’s a great idea Chris, it would be nice to include the video, but just not as the most central feature.

By: Eric Vasquez

Eric Vasquez — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:23:07 +0000

I really like what you have done with the redesign Tom! The strengths and weaknesses of the original website seemed to be spot on. I think the video is cool but to the point of some of the other readers, some people may not stick around and wait for a video to load. I think the same problem happens with websites that rely heavily on Flash.

I think making the nav menu more prominent was a fairly straight forward fix, but a much needed one. I also really like how there is more of a textual area on the main page.

The background for me is a bit busy, but after reading some of the other comments I think that another possible solution would be to have a slideshow below the text or next to the CTA that would allow users to see some of Cathie’s beautiful work right off the bat. Nice redesign overall!

By: jessica Roberts

jessica Roberts — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:09:14 +0000

Wow this is amazing I voted for Cathie, and think her website is pretty good as is, however, I love the changes you have made. I would love to win a 30 minute redesign as this is something I have been thinking about doing.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:36:32 +0000

The website for Jefferson St. United Merchants Partnership (JUMP) is not my site. I am actually doing some volunteer marketing work for the non profit. I have been fighting with the founder to free up funds for a redesign but she wants to see what it will look like first. No designer is willing to put in that work without any money upfront. I hope it makes it to a 30 Minute redesign that I can show her.

By: Cathie Heart

Cathie Heart — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:13:13 +0000

I’m very grateful that you’ve done an analysis and 30 minute redesign of my site. All the points you’ve made are spot on and I will be taking a lot of lessons from this. The front page was good but could be so much better and usable with an action to draw my viewers and potential clients in. Also thank you for pointing out the menu .. I should learn how to do a heat map analysis to see where people are moving their cursors to see how people interact with the design.

I like your big images background and would love to learn some HTML5 to be able to do this rather than rely on flash to do it. Lots of positive lessons and comments from above as well. All perfectly in time to help with the redesign and splitting of my CathieGraphy business into new halves of Commercial Photography & Design and then my Portraits & Weddings Photography.

Thank you very much Tom for your thoughts and time.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:32:27 +0000

This was a great design from the start, but I agree with every point you made Tom. Your design is easier to follow and I think the points about the video are really spot on. I would be just as likely to close the page and move on as clicking and waiting for a video. To Stephanie’s point about having a link to pull up the video, I think you could replace Cathie’s picture with a thumb from the video and have some text saying “Watch my welcome video!”