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Week 19: Digital Printing Service
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 layout is actually fairly easy to use and straight forward
- The site has a bright color-scheme, which matches the topic well
- The site has a clear, relevant logo, as well as relevant imagery
WEAKNESSES:
- The menu is too small, and is not attracting enough attention
- Some of the typography feels inconsistent and messy. There are simply too many fonts and colors being used throughout the site.
- The black border surrounding the layout and content areas feels clunky and unnecessary.
- Whilst the color is relevant, it’s a little too much, and ends up being hard on the eyes and overwhelming
My Redesign
As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I tried to improve upon several of Digital Printing Service’s features, adding a few design flourishes and a clearer layout that promoted content over wasted space:
WHAT I TRIED TO DO:
- Add a more obvious, attractive menu design
- Add more consistent, attractive typography, using few fonts and colors to create a sense of unity
- Replace some of the less attractive layout elements with nicely designed areas, utilizes subtle touches like rounded corners and gradients
- Toned down the colors of the site to promote content more than color
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.
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.
11 Comments:
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Looks very good… simple, sweet and good colors.
more professional! I think it’s a great redesign! the colors are nicer but still related to the old color scheme. Keep up the good work.!
Great work.
Yeap, I like it too. Some times, more space make the whole site looks professional. Great!
excellent
I really like the redesign, sometimes with colour less is more and although the CMYK theme works, having the whole page splashed in so many colours can really put people off. With content too, before the site looked like it had a lot of text because of the way it was arranged. Now people would be more inclined to read what was there as it appears less to read with the bullet points and columns.
A great redesign and a major improvement over the original design. The content is easier to read and the overall design is much cleaner and professional looking. With the new design the colours aren’t all over the place like in the old design and is nicer to look at.
Thanks for the awesome comments everyone! I’m glad that you’ve picked up on exactly I was trying to do. All of your thoughts really capture what I was going for with this redesign. Remember, I need suggestions for next week though.
Just the simple change to white b/g makes my eye go directly first to the company name, and second to the phone contact – pretty amazing what a simple change like that can do!
I don’t think my site can really qualify for a “redesign” since it is a CafePress template, but who knows, maybe! I am such a klutz with web design; have been flailing desperately in attempting to create a site using the WordPress templates, which everyone says is so easy. Not for me!
Awesome redesign, the site looks so much cleaner without the thick, dark border!!
Good job!!
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