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30 Minute Redesigns Are Back!

I’m so happy to announce the return of 30 Minute Redesigns! Our popular weekly series has been on hiatus since August due to time commitments on my part. However, I know how many people love the series and I’ve been getting a lot of requests to reinstate it.

Now that the dust has settled on our newest website MyDesignDeals I can again turn my attentions to helping our reader base one redesign at a time.

Not only that, but I’ll be implementing some great new features in the series including:

• Video analysis
• An in depth ebook
• Webinars/live events for group site analysis

I hope that you enjoy the series and please get involved by commenting and suggesting your own site for a redesign.

30 Minute Redesign #99: CAMFO Medics

Today I’m going to be redesigning CAMFO Medics’ website. CAMFO is the German, Cameroon Medical forum.

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: CAMFO Medics

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

The Site is Clean and Professional

The current design for CAMFO Medics is certainly not bad. Overall it’s actually fairly professional. The layout is clean and nothing feels clunky or amateurish.

Content areas are fairly well distinguished from one another and backgrounds are light and non-obtrusive on the content.

Clear Navigation

Another plus of the current website is that the navigation is pretty easy to use.

The ordered list of pages is very basic, yet clear to understand. The links are self explanatory, and it’s a fairly pleasant experiences browsing around the site.

I also like the use of the breadcrumb navigation, as it helps clarify where the user is within the website.

Strong Logo & Brand Colors

Whilst it’s not so much of a website perk as a logo perk, the logo is a real visual piece within this website.

The icon, fonts and colors of the logo are quite striking, and act well as a header to the page. In my redesign I show how to echo these strong colors throughout the design.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

No Clear Explanation of the Site

Probably the most common problem I encounter when analyzing sites is a lack of explanation on the homepage about exactly what the site is, who it’s catering for and what they do.

CAMFO Medics has a single, small sentence explaining what ‘CAMFO’ stands for and offers no further information on the page. They need to make it instantly clear what the website and organization is all about and who they’re serving.

Too Much Clutter

CAMFO may seem like a fairly simple website, but there is still a lot of useless content on the site.

Remember – if the content isn’t helping you, then it’s not needed!

Here’s a list of clutter content on the site that I would remove (and why):

- The search form (there doesn’t seem to be enough content to warrant this)
- The date (it never fails to astound me how many people put calendars and clocks on there sites. We already have these in the corner of our screen, you don’t need to tell us what time/date it is!)
- A hit counter (telling people you’ve had ’7 visits today’ only serves as negative social proof, and certainly doesn’t help your visitors).
- Your email in the bottom right corner (keep this for the contact page)
- Some of the menu links (a lot of the subpages are empty. Remove all links you can. The less the better).

No Human Element

Your website represents your community, but I don’t get any sense of community when visiting it. Generic stock photos of text arrangements is not going to entice new members to join you.

You need member examples, testimonials, reviews. You need faces and personality. Don’t hide behind an impersonal front page.

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

Clarified the Website & Organization

The current site is definitely quite unclear for new visitors who need an immediate explanation of the site and organization. In my redesign proposal I used a clear heading and subtext to instantly explain the purpose of the site. I also included a bright call to action button ‘learn more’ to encourage visitors to read more about the organization.

Added More Personality

This type of organization should not have a faceless website. I used a prominent picture of a medical student to front the website and another photo of a member in the testimonial/casestudy area. I used stock photography, but of course you should use your actual member base for these areas. You could even have the photos rotate as part of a slideshow, thereby showing more of your membership base.

The testimonial/casestudy area gives a more human element to the site as visitors can instantly learn about specific people within your organization and how they are being helped.

Created a Stronger Color Palette

The logo is fairly strong in the original site design, but the rest of the website doesn’t build on this very well.

In my design I echoed the bright, eye-catching colors of the logo throughout the rest of the page. From the bright, bold blue menu to the eye-catching pink call to action button you get a much more consistent, strong color palette established throughout the page.

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

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.

Related Posts

• 30 Minute Redesign: Week 39 Vote
• 30 Minute Redesign – Suggestions Needed!
• 30 Minute Redesign – Suggestions Needed!