30 Minute Redesign #86: Get it Done Home Improvements
30 Minute Redesign: Capitol Church of God
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Week 43: MGOCSM America
This week I will be redesigning: MGOCSM America.
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 is actually quite strong. It uses a clean, and fairly up to date looking layout.
- The color palette used is cohesive and the varying hues compliment each other well.
- The header image is really striking, and adds a nice visual touch to quite a simple design.
WEAKNESSES:
- The dark background is quite distracting, and feels quite morbid.
- The menu is broken, as the ‘contact us’ link is pushed beneath the rest of the menu. However, at least it uses hover/active states to help make it clearer.
- The text used in this design is a little small, making the blog posts difficult to read. There could also be more contrast between the text and the background.
- The formatting of content seems a bit strange, with text content being erratically placed. Text from the various posts are not aligned with each other, and photos are positioned to the left of text content (web conventions usually mean images are placed to the right of text).
My Redesign
As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I tried to improve upon several of MGOCSM America’s features, adding a few design flourishes and a clearer layout that promoted content over wasted space:
MY AIMS FOR THE REDESIGN:
- I gave the site a lighter background, which fitted the mood of the site better.
- I fixed the menu bugs, and retained the clear ‘active’ state, making it easy to browse.
- I reorganized the content, making the text bigger, better aligned and more readable.
- I didn’t actually want to alter too much for this design, but I did try to update the look of the design, making it feel more modern/professional.
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.
15 Comments:
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Great job! Amazing! Tom, you are truly the best!
Can’t wait for the PSD!
Thanks mate! I’ve emailed the .psd to you
.
It looks much better now. I’m just not sure about the gray sidebar background. I feel like it stands out/clashes a bit. I would have chosen a warmer gray or tan/beige type of color. Why did you go with that particular shade of gray?
Hi Trisha. Thanks for the feedback. I actually agree with you on that one. Quite often colors are something I will tweak near the end of a design, but with this one I was running out of time, so didn’t have that chance. I agree a very light beige would probably be more suitable though.
I too like the new look far better and it is easier for my eyes to follow. Nice re-do on this.
Thanks LjM! It was definitely designed for the eyes to scan down the page more naturally.
wow this is great… i really love how you lighten up the site and give it a fresh new look…
by the way, i have an assignment fixing this site http://stf.ae/ , i think its been hacked by someone and has an old design… i think this would be a great redesign for you… thanks in advance…
Hi nj. I’m a little unsure of whether to include this in this week’s poll or not, as fixing up hacked websites isn’t really my thing. I generally like to help people improve their own personal sites.
Much easier to see the information and get to what you’re looking for.
Hi, Tom. I think it was hard to make this redesign as the old design was pretty good.
wow, wish you could redesign free for me
Nice work, Tom. Beyond the visual changes, I’m equally impressed you transformed this site in only 30 minutes. I can’t imagine ever possessing that kind of efficiency.
The site I’ve included in my comment is that of my brother’s metal sculpture business, for which I designed the original concept (somewhat embarrassing admission, although it was some of my earlier design work), which obviously hasn’t been touched in several years. This was primarily due to the fact that my brother was just getting his feet wet in the sculpture business (taking over after my uncle’s retirement), and didn’t want to use the website as a primary vehicle to promote his work until he felt more confident as a sculptor and proprietor. Now that he has the necessary experience under his belt, we’ve been discussing the notion of approaching a re-design.
Perhaps getting a fresh, professional perspective would help us put this plan into motion. Regardless, thanks for the consideration and keep up the great work!
Hi Tom excellent job. I’ll be happy if you can redesign my blog next week
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I’ve included each of your sites in this week’s poll
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