30 Minute Redesign: Artis Lane
30 Minute Redesign #92: Wayne Duhon
30 Minute Redesign: Week 17 VoteHave every post delivered to your inbox and get access to hundreds of useful design freebies.
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Week 65: Jump to Jefferson
This week I will be redesigning: Jump to Jefferson.
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 design itself has a lot of issues, but at least the header/menu are fairly conventional, sitting at the top of the website and following typical layout structure.
- There is good promotion of events on the homepage, drawing people into the site and instantly getting word out.
- Contact details are included on the homepage.
- The header includes photos of the town and it’s residents, adding a personal touch to the website.
WEAKNESSES:
- The site is built in Flash, which is a big issue for me. Limited SEO, slow loading (the entire page loads as a single entity) etc…
- The menu is tiny and difficult to read, this makes browsing the site difficult.
- The homepage is hugely cluttered, with far too many elements, styles and colors. The content feels unorganized, busy and unprofessional as a result.
- I found it hard to tell what the site was actually about without having to read the about page. It should be immediately obvious what the site is about.
My Redesign
As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I tried to improve upon several of Jump to Jefferson’s features, adding a few design flourishes and a clearer layout that promoted content over wasted space:
MY AIMS FOR THE REDESIGN:
- I made the menu much more prominent, including an active state, which makes the site easier to navigate.
- The entire layout was simplified, and made much cleaner and clearer, with less visual clutter.
- I included a prominent welcome area that instantly explains what the site does, as well as a bright call to action button drawing users into the site.
- I retained the homepage event promotions, but integrated them in a creative, interactive way, using a content slider.
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 30 Minute Redesigns
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.
10 Comments:
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Tom,
That is a major improvement for JUMP! You do great work!
Thanks Jason! I actually really enjoyed this redesign.
That make-over has a much more professional appearance – not so “home-grown” and cluttered.
Our website’s address is one of our main keywords, but it is not our landing page for searches and I think space is wasted because I cannot update anything except the “news” section. What do you think?
Thanks – you’re talented!
Leh
Thanks for the kind words Leh. I’ll be sure to include your site in the poll for next week’s redesign. To be honest it’s not a bad looking site at all, although like any website it does have it’s negative aspects.
Really great work Tom! This is like night and day looking at the before and after. I’m constantly impressed by your redesigns and this one needed A LOT of work!
You really made the page so much easier to look at after organizing the information, using a nice clean layout, along with a plethora of other improvements.
I especially like the message on the homepage explaining what the company is about, as well as the content slider and the use of color is a perfect way to create a clear hierarchy. Good stuff!
Thanks for the ongoing support Eric! I was pretty happy with the colorscheme for this site, much cleaner yet bold and bright in places.
wonderful! thanks a lot !
Great job as always Tom! Much cleaner and more attractive design.
I would like to submit our Realtor Institute website for a redesign, as it is badly needed and I would love to see what you could come up with!
http://realtorinstitute.org/
Thanks for the consideration and all the great tutorials!
I don’t know how can you manage to improve a website so much in less than 30 minutes… it takes ages to my team to actually come up with a great idea
really nice change,thanks for to share