The re-design of SEOmoz has proven itself to be a very difficult and time consuming task, as you can see I'm still working on the header. Rand suggested I write a blog entry so you can all see how things are coming along and share in my turmoil. :)
Some of the designs turned out okay, others are just plain horrible. I've found my best work comes by accident, so I often just tinker around until I start to like what I'm seeing rather than having some kind of plan and sticking to it. This tinker-until-you-get-it process often yields some pretty freaky stuff. I'm pretty sure none of these designs are going to make it into the site, but if I had to pick one it'd be one of the following three:
The rest of these aren't very good. I went for some pretty awful color schemes on some of them and you can definitely see I'm fond of gradients. The quest to make a web 2.0 site is difficult.
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Whichever one gets chosen you are sure to have a great looking site Rand. I liked number 8 the best and 5 comes in close second.
Matt seems like he really takes his task seriously and will create something we can all appreciate.
If I didnt prefer to work on my own sites I would definitely like to have someone like that developing for me in-house.
Keep it up - I will look for more whether 30 or 20!
I like 15_flowers. The simplicity of 14 is kind of nice, but it's lacking a little touch to make it jump.
I'm in the #8 camp. Interesting options.
17 is a winner! _But why not implement 4 or 5 different designs and let the users pick their favorite?
Thanks for all your input, everyone. I'll keep at it and post what I come up with.
Ummmm, can I sift through your trash can and take your rejects?
:)
I personally like what you currently have. Why not incorporate some new features and some "web 2.0" tweaks to your current design??
If I had to choose one from the top I'd go with #8 but tweak the background.
-PK
How about a tabbed version similar to www.wayleave.co.uk but maybe with a fixed width of 780. You could then maybe incorporate some of your previous ideas. Rob
Sanity - The goal with SEOmoz is to reach as wide an audience as possible. There's a lot of folks in the webdev and design side of the industry that a phenomenal layout and exceptionally pretty looks can reach.
The SEOmoz team all agrees that the new functionality is alos a must - we need to keep folks logged in across sessions, make blogging and commenting easier, etc.
Kim - You can have anything you'd like. Just drop me a line :)
They're all lovely but I can help wondering what is wrong with your current site??
#5 is a keeper! very nice and clean only suggestion play a little with bg(colour)
nice work, keep us posted
I like only design 5 and maybe 8 with some work on it.
Have you ever tried to design from the inside out.
I picked this tip up from 37 signals I think. It's certainly helped at times.
Basically the idea is that you focus on the main content first, as this is the most important part of the site. Then you design everything else around that, as these are less important.
I like quite a few of these designs, with the proper typography there would be some really great ones. That'd be my constructive criticsm, work on the font styles, sizes, colors... that will really make a difference.
Rand, If you're so fascinated with design why don't you do it??
I love this post. I think the design process is fascinating to watch and a great thing to be able to see visually, as you've done here.
Matt - you should definitely show the next 30 designs you come up with in another post. Seriously - this is one of my favorite posts on the site - like a visual dialogue, it actually conveys an entire range of business/marketing/branding/psychological goals without using a word... brilliant stuff!
BTW - I think you meant to say "web 2.0" with the quotes :)
If I had to choose, that would be 8, but I would change the background, black doesn't look too good.
5 and 13 are my favorite. Though for 13 I suggest that you make the buttons smaller in height, then see what it looks like
Well, I did actually design the existing SEOmoz site, and now look at the pickle we're in ;)
Actually, I used to do design, but I really don't have the talent for it - the passion, yes, but no ability to put shapes and colors together to create something truly remarkable. Luckily, Matt can :)
Those are all pretty good looking, far better than I could do. Some how, you got the "cool project of the week job". :) I really like #22 and #8 - although #5 kind of gives off a tension type of feeling.
Great work! Im excited to see the new look. -Scott Fish
It's hard to decide, can you put up some HTML dummy pages for the different designs?
Just kidding, my vote goes to 8 and 5, but with a different background color. If you haven't decided to go BH, then I guess the black background would fit in. :)
Well, however many then...
BTW - #20 is so inspirational, I'm actually floating away on a cloud built from my own sense of self satisfaction right now. :)
"Matt - you should definitely show the next 30 designs you come up with in another post"
haha, oh god.. 30 more?!
I agree with nadir... if it was some of the above, I would favour #8 with bg colour changed.... Sometimes it's the simplest that work nicely.
PS. Sorry for slow posting. I've got tons of work...
22 is pretty snazzy