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Week 61: One Grape
This week I will be redesigning: One Grape.
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 header is unique, and visually pretty impressive.
- There is reasonably good visual hierarchy, with clear post titles and sub-headings.
- There is a good amount of white space and padding, making the content fairly easy to digest.
- The site uses relevant imagery, which helps engage the reader.
WEAKNESSES:
- The menu isn’t very obvious, and goes unnoticed.
- The blog post images are too large, and not even indented, meaning that text content is pushed right down the page.
- Whilst the main blog posts are engaging, the site needs to draw readers deeper into it, by highlighting key content more.
- The site just feels like an ‘out of the box’ WordPress theme, and therefore doesn’t feel all that unique or interesting. It needs livening up!
My Redesign
As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I tried to improve upon several of One Grape’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 more prominent and bolder, making the site easier to navigate.
- I departed from the ‘standard free theme’ look, and gave the site a more unique look.
- I highlighted key content such as the wine reviews in order to draw readers further into the site.
- I reduced the size of post images and indented them, allowing for many more posts/content per page.
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.
17 Comments:
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will like to still propose our site for this weeks redesign
Thanks
Absolutely, you came close to winning this week’s poll
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Well done – I don’t like the square header you did as much as the (original) -just with regard to the edges in white since the new one makes it boxy – but the low and ease of read is much better. Original has too many bubbles that look like buttons, but I’d prefer a mix between the two – non-boxy, with your simplicity of placement and blend. BTW, my neglected ASP based site http://www.richmondmovies.com (from 1998) need some design love badly. Keep up the great work – enjoy your posts and emails w/sources.
Thanks for the great feedback Chris! I was a little put off by the bubbles in the original design, and at first glance didn’t even understand what they were. That being said, I’d certainly consider a more abstract header shape if I had more time, to help avoid that boxy look. Thanks for the website suggestion too
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A really nice redesign and some strong elements already in the original design so, good use of what was already there. I think the navigation is a much needed improvement and works really well with the design. I think a blog can sometimes be hard to redesign but the grid layout of this is really well thought out, precise and everything is easy to locate, a good job.
Thanks Stephanie, I was pretty happy with this redesign in the end. I definitely think having a strong grid helps promote the content better, rather than letting it all be pushed too far below the fold.
Very nice as always Tom!
Cheers Chris, I appreciate the support
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WOW, the redesign looks great Tom! I hadn’t thought about the grid layout or having the reviews on the side there. Your ideas and design notes are a great help also. I appreciate you taking the time out to do this for my site
Thanks Vu, I’m really glad you like it
. I definitely would try to include the reviews in the sidebar, as that would certainly be something that made me want to explore your site more. Also as I mentioned, the way content is pushed right down the page is a real turn off atm.
Great work Tom, as always. I’m currently designing my first site and your 30 minute redesigns are a constant source for inspiration
)
Thanks Jennifer! Feel free to submit your site in the future if you’d ever like some pointers or feedback.
Great redesign, awesome job making the menu more prominent as it is very important to have a clear navigation! I look forward to seeing the next one, keep up the good work!
Thankyou
. I agree, users should never have to search around for the navigation.
Another solid redesign! It now has a much clearer hierarchy and prominent grid structure which directs the viewer in a much more intuitive way. Well done Tom!
Cheers Eric, I appreciate the support as always. I’d love to see more of my redesigns used, but I understand it can be hard to implement and get things coded up.
I don’t know how you can do all that work in 30 minutes. It’s unbelievable! You did a really good job, except I would say that the background image of the header is too washed out looking, I would have increased the contrast and would have brightened up the colors a little and adjusted the other images so that everything blended a lot better.
Though, I suppose since you only give yourself 30 minutes to do it in you don’t really have enough time to make everything look really good. I still can’t believe you only take half an hour to do all this in. Amazing!