30 Minute Redesign – Suggestions Needed!
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Week 49: Eric Vasquez
This week I will be redesigning: Eric Vasquez.
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:
- Overall this design is clean, professional and bold. Definitely one of the better sites that I’ve had to redesign.
- There is a consistent color palette, and the typography is clean and legible.
- The artist’s work is the main focus of this design, and the cool hover effects help engage the visitor.
WEAKNESSES:
- My main issue with the site is the system for browsing the artist’s work. Whilst the hover effect is cool, you can’t really browse his work all that easily. To browse you must click each thumbnail and wait for a lightbox to load. This process should be quicker and easier for people.
- I would recommend displaying at least one work in full, as currently there is nothing to really engage the viewer, all the emphasis is on them to put in the effort to explore the works.
- Personally I don’t like the bio text being in the header, as it pushes down the work somewhat, which should really be the most prominent content.
My Redesign
As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I tried to improve upon several of Eric Vasquez’s features, adding a few design flourishes and a clearer layout that promoted content over wasted space:
MY AIMS FOR THE REDESIGN:
- I improved the browsing aspect of the site, by integrating a more usable system. Users need either hover or click on the thumbnails for the full sized image to appear next to it.
- I integrated a full sized work to help engage visitors and draw them into the site.
- I moved content such as the bio text down into the footer of the site, as it should be less important than the stunning works of the artist. The purpose of the site is immediately clear due to the slogan in the logo, and so a full bio section isn’t needed in the header.
- I added some detailed background flourishes to help make the design more exciting.
Before/After:
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 principles.
- You will get emailed the .psd of your redesign and can do whatever you want with it!
NOTE: I can only accept sites with English content, as foreign language websites are simply too hard for me to work with.
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.
12 Comments:
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I would love this, you do some amazing work in 30 mins
Thanks Kevin! I’ll be sure to include your site in this week’s poll.
I’m a big fan of Eric’s work and I was interested to see how this project would turn out.
You’ve done it again, Tom, it’s a great re-design with some carefully chosen typography and lovely touches – the soft highlight in the top banner looks SO stylish. I’m trying to do something similar for a monochrome website I’m working on now and I’m struggling to get it right!
I agree with having a ‘first up’ image in an artist’s portfolio section; it’s full of impact when you visit the site and – BANG! – there’s a great example of work on your screen straight away.
Thanks so much Mark! It’s always great to get such in depth feedback. I was pretty happy with the background design and highlight header effect. What exactly are you struggling with for your design? Maybe I can help… For this design I simply had a black background, then used a really low opacity floral brush for the background details (masking off areas of this floral design to add variation), then adding a radial gradient (white to transparent) at ‘normal’ blend mode, really low opacity, for a subtle highlight effect.
Thanks Tom, appreciate your thoughts. I’m going wrong because I’m trying to combine a bright logo with a light background, light pattern, then trying to add a highlight to the header. It was never going to work, really. X-D
Thanks so much Mark! I appreciate your kind words and agree that Tom really knocked this one out of the park!
Tom I’ve been following your 30 Min re-designs since you started this series over a year ago and I must say that your designs just keep getting better, What you achieve in 30 minutes is astounding. Good Technique of narrowing down the Strengths and weaknesses.
I really like colours and the background that you’ve used. Keep up the good Work Tom.
That really means a lot, thanks so much
. It’s great to know that some people have been reading right from the start. I definitely enjoying this redesign, and it’s nice to get into the swing of the redesign process over time. I hope that you’ll keep enjoying the series!
Wow! I think you did a fantastic job man! I absolutely love the redesign. I feel like I have been HGTV’d or something.
You really broke down the strengths and weaknesses of the site which is great, especially because when you are looking at your own site for so long you don’t always see the other options or different ways of laying things out.
I am very happy with the end result and have been a big fan of the 30 Minute Redesigns for some time now. I value your suggestions and your hard work! Thanks again Tom.
Thanks Eric!
It always seems to help to get an outsiders perspective, as you always miss stuff with your personal projects.
I’ll just email you the .psd now, and hope you get a chance to use it.
The most amazing thing is how u come up with the redesign ideas! oh man I stuck at first at such redesigns!
I see that u made important improvements mostly, if not all, related to user experience! am I right?
anyway great job and I am bookmarking all your redesigns as its my inspiration in a lot of projects of mine
Great work on the redesign! I love the vibrant colors, and I loved the additional tutorial you did in colorizing the art. I would like to submit my Association’s website. I have been their IT guy for 2 months. They badly need a redesign, but I am not that artistic. The url is http://www.msrealtors.org. Thanks for the consideration, and the great tutorials!