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FanExtra Launch Week (Day 2)

As part of our FanExtra Network launch, we will be publishing one tutorial every day for our launch week. We hope that you enjoy them.

You can also sign up for your FanExtra membership for just $1 for the first month (offer ends Friday 22nd, October). This will give you access to our hundreds of tutorial source files, members only tutorials, hundreds of textures/vectors/icons, and great design discounts! Sign Up Today.

FanExtra Launch Week:

DAY 1:

FanExtra Network Launch
Create a Google Docs Icon

DAY 2:

30 Minute Redesign – GymDJ
Master a Professional Photo-Retouching Workflow

DAY 3:

Design a Textured Portfolio Website

DAY 4:

Members Area Tutorial: Digital Painting Lesson: Scarecrow’s Joyride

DAY 5:

Create a Stylized Photo Montage From Scratch

DAY 6:

Design a Grungy Rock & Roll Gig Poster

DAY 7

Design an Awesome Paint Splattered Dancer

Week 30: GymDJ

GymDJ.

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:

• Great color-scheme and attractive logo. The overall feel of the site is actually very nice.
• Prominent album covers. I love the interactive hover effects and sliding panels on the albums.
• The site is clean, fairly well laid out, with good padding. Definitely one of the better efforts from this series.

WEAKNESSES:

• The navigation is really small and tucked away, making the site less usable.
• The main problem is that it took me some time to figure out exactly what the site was used for. I had to read through the about page to fully understand. This should be immediately obvious, and prominent on the homepage of the site.
• There is a lot of unnecessary content on the homepage, which detracts from the music. This music should be the main focus, so many of these elements are not only unnecessary, but highly distracting.
• There are some calls-to-action, but no clear direction to the page. As a user I’m not sure where I’m meant to be clicking.

My Redesign

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

WHAT I TRIED TO DO:

• Maintain the clean, professional layout, but reorganize it to make it more convention. The logo seems to work better in the top left rather than the top right.
• I made it much clearer what the site is about, through use of a prominent slogan under the logo, and integration of a BPM display.
• I made the BPM feature of the site far more obvious, as this is the USP of the website. The homepage can be ordered via latest songs, popular songs, or songs that give the most intense workout.
• I integrated subtle design touches, such as a line graph in the header background (meant to evoke a heart-rate, and also pulsating music)
• I replaced the ad units (which I assume weren’t drawing much revenue), with a ‘recommend buy’ section. This takes a featured song of your choice and promotes it for sale on the homepage, along with it’s BPM, suited work-out style etc… This should look less like an advert, but better engage your visitors.

On a personal note, I think this idea has real potential, and is a great unique idea. From a business perspective I would try and make it more of a social network. Let users create and sharing the best running playlists, vote on them etc… I would focus on making a profit from track sales (obviously through Itunes etc…), and would assist this by frequently updating content. In a wider sense I had a more adventurous idea (which I’m sure is probably near impossible right now), but a way to have your music adapt (through iPhone app etc) to match your work out intensity. I.e.: as you start running faster your music gets more intense.

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.

*NOTE: I can only accept sites with English content, as foreign language websites are simply too hard for me to work with.

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!

Related Posts

• 30 Minute Redesign: Week 2 Vote
• 30 Minute Redesign: Week 64 Vote
• 30 Minute Redesign – Suggestions Needed!