Hello all,
Aside from persuing the standard activities of any sociable teenager in my evenings and weekends; I’ve been squeezing in a bit of time to work on the concept and designs for the new Redswish blog. I’ll be looking to scale back the irrelevant nonsense (to some extent) and ensure a steady stream of personally crafted, but objective and hopefully inspirational posts on the subjects of web design, digital marketing and life experience etc. Although this isn’t a drastic change from where I’ve slowly been taking the website, it will become clearer, the tone of voice and theme of the new site will hopefully be obvious.
Redswish is however a site built and maintained for you, my loyal readers. So I thought it only justified to provide a sneaky glimpse of the design approach I’m using to construct the new site. However I’ve hit a slight slow patch, that’s right – I’m stuck. And I want your help.
Please take a look and come back to me with the harshest critique you can. I can take it, come on! I want the new site to be as good as it can be, and your feedback will be an important part of achieving that:
Design 1:
Design 2:
Thanks,
Nathan
Much prefer the second one – the navigation is more obvious (it’s a bit lost in the first), and the featured post is a good focus. If anything, I think it could do with some imagery for each post (something like the watercolours on A List Apart), otherwise it could become a little dry. Also, proponent of white space I am, but the space above the logo/strapline could be reduced, to match the spacing under it…
I agree with Luc, only the search and popular section is better in the first one.
I do miss images though. The Featured post could use some hightlight as well.
Alright Nath.
Hmm tricky one – second mock-up wins for me though!
Agree with Luc that the spacing around the logo/strap needs matching, make it nice and even. Also like the featured article – it’s useful for encouraging people to move around the site. Lukas is right though that it needs a highlight. I also think the navigation on the second mock-up ties in with the overall design more nicely than the first but its really flat now you’ve taken so much colour out of it.
Not arsed about images unless they’re necessary i.e. images that demonstrate a point rather than pointless stock images!
Speak soon.
The second one is the best one, very professional! As for the space above the logo, I do not think it is too much, I like when things are not too narrow..
Yes the second one is best .. thanks for sharing information .. nice blog
This new design does look cooler but I feel its way too plain. If I were a new reader having somehow landed on your website, may be I would not have realized the gem it is. Links to your previous posts and tags do help.. but then that’s just my opinion. Do you have stats on the bounce rates for the performance of new design vs. old design for first time visitors of your site? That will be the best critique of your work. But anyhow, I am a fan of your designs and your blog and of course the quality speaks for itself.
I will go with the first one. Major thing needed in the home is a search box.
Go with Design 1.
Thanks for the comments guys, I’ll great cracking on the final design… not enough time in the world!
Thanks Genie, that’s a good point.
I will be including much more in the sidebar to jazz it up, and my latest designs have included images in the posts to add some visual interest. I’m actually going to finish building the site this weekend, looking to launch it next week, so we’ll see what the feedback’s like when it springs to life!
Nathan
Thanks guys, well the new site will be going live tomorrow. It’s evolved slightly from these designs but I’ve tried to keep it fairly simple and content focused – anyway, you’ll see tomorrow I guess!