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hillcrest
09-13-2005, 05:36 PM
(Admin code added by Palmer - 3MX2976176123130B, 34387730T1028123V)

Hello Designers,

I need two web templates for my software product, MindSite CMS, that is about ready to go to beta. MindSite CMS is an enterprise content management system targeted to medium and large companies looking to centralize and easily manage business critical content using the web.

At a high level, what I'm looking for is one template for the home/landing page and one for detail pages. I'd like something with a very clean look and feel with nice use of spacing that's easy on the eyes. I'd prefer a white background as my logo looks best on white and I think white backgrounds give pages a cleaner look than colored backgrounds. I'd also like something that has a nice subtle use of shading and borders. I'd like the home/landing page to have some nice sized images that convey business users being productive while using a computer. Some smaller sized images on the detail template would be great as well.

Some more specifics:

Colors: My product logo has three main colors (a blue, green, and gray – see resources links below to view logo) and I’d like to try and incorporate these colors into the site somehow. Of course, feel free to add any additional complementary colors that you feel would make the site “pop” a little.

Navigation: First level navigation will be consistently at the top of the page in the header (see wireframes below) while secondary and tertiary navigation will be located on the detail template to the left hand side (again, see wireframes below). For the secondary/tertiary navigation I’d like to see a hierarchical type menu where if you select a second level item the third level items below it are shown and indented to show their parent/child relationship to the second level item. The site hierarchy won’t go any deeper than three levels.

Layout: I’ve wireframed the home/landing page and detail page (see resources links below) so that you have a general idea of what content is going to be on the site and an idea of how I’d like to see it laid out. These wireframes are merely guidelines that I’d like you to try and follow but if you feel your design suffers because of adhering to the wireframes feel free to submit something that’s somewhat different than what the frames specify.

Images: I’d like to see some nice .jpg photography for the home/landing main campaign area as well as potentially somewhere on the detail pages. In addition, I also like seeing smaller .gif images that look really cool used for bullet points, breadcrumb spacers, etc.

Font Styles: I prefer Arial or other sans-serif fonts for the free text areas. For other items (like headers and sidebar text) feel free to experiment or use two or three different font styles/colors/sizes. Stay away from any “wacky” fonts like comic sans as I want the site to be easily readable and professional looking.

Flash: Flash is not necessary but if you’d like to add a simple, tasteful home/landing page flash item I’d be open to that. I’d guess that you’d either want to do something in the primary campaign area (see wireframes below) or with my product tagline which is “…making the web work for you.” Again, this is optional so don’t feel like you have to force something into the template if it doesn’t complement the design.

Logo and Tagline: The product logo is available below and should not be changed in any way. However, I don’t have an image for the product tagline “…making the web work for you” so you can be creative with that. The tagline should be located near the logo (see wireframes) in the header.

Screenshots: One of the things I’d like to do is have what I call “screenshot snippets” of my application on appropriate pages. By “screenshot snippet” I mean a small area of a screenshot with a nice pixel border around it. You can see an example of this at the www.campaignmonitor.com site where they have rounded rectangles with a light gray border that have partial screenshot images in them. When you click on the image you’re either taken to an appropriate page or a popup window opens showing the entire screenshot. I’d like to incorporate this somehow so I’ve included a link in the resources section below where you can get a bunch of screenshots to work with to do this.

Size: The site should be about 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high.

Some examples of sites that I like are:

http://www.campaignmonitor.com - Very clean feel with great styles and use of smaller icons. Very nice color scheme as well.

http://www.fogcreek.com - Nicely laid out site with sharp colors and unique fonts.

http://www.fatwire.com/ - Clean site with well laid out detail pages and sharp colors.

http://www.sonic.com/ - Clean with nice use of color.

Resources:

Product Logo: http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/logo.jpg

Home/Landing Page Wireframe: http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/homewireframe.jpg

Detail Page Wireframe: http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/detailwireframe.jpg

Application Screen Shots: http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/screenshots.htm

Application Icon Set Snapshot: http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/icons.jpg

SiteMaps: http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/SiteMap.jpg
http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/SiteMapAbout.jpg
http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/SiteMapFeatures.jpg
http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/SiteMapLicensing.jpg
http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/SiteMapContact.jpg
http://www.mindsitecms.com/working/SiteMapSupport.jpg

To sum up, I’m looking for a very clean, crisp, professional site that is both visually appealing and easy to read. My primary purpose for this site is, obviously, to market my product so I don’t want something that has extremely heavy visual elements that would take a viewers eyes away from my marketing messages. In short, I’d like something that gives an initial “wow – nicely done” impression and then allows the viewer to easily delve into the content. Hope that makes some sense.

I’m offering $425 for both templates and would like to have the project complete by the end of September 20th, if possible.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post them and I'll respond as soon as possible.

Regards,

hillcrest

Aliska
09-15-2005, 11:45 PM
Hello :)
I will join with my idea in several days.

hillcrest
09-16-2005, 04:03 AM
Sounds good, Aliska. Looking forward to your design.

Regards,

hillcrest

hillcrest
09-18-2005, 04:30 AM
Lisa or Palmer,

I was just poking around the site and noticed that the minimums for templates have changed since the last time I posted here (quite a while ago). Since I'm looking to get:

Single Page + One Interior Page - HTML Coded

which has a minimum of $450 I'd like to up the reward for this contest to $500. Can you please:

1) Let me know how I can post the additional $75 so I'm up to $500.
2) Change the title of the post to read $500 instead of $425.

Thanks very much.

Regards,

hillcrest

Lori
09-18-2005, 06:24 AM
Hillcrest,

If you will just go here (http://www.designoutpost.com/content/view/24/42/1/1/) - and deposit your $75, Palmer or Abby will put a second admin code on the project, and I will change the title for you :)

Thanks!

hillcrest
09-18-2005, 09:58 AM
Thanks, Lori. I've posted the $75 at the link you provided. If you could change the title of the post to reflect the new amount I'd appreciate it.

Also - my apologies for calling you "Lisa" in my previous post -apparently my brain wasn't working correctly this morning! :-)

Thanks again,

hillcrest

hillcrest
09-19-2005, 02:44 AM
Designers,

Found another site that looks really great, IMO. It's:

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/

Another one that's very clean with great colors and styles.

Looking forward to some entries,

hillcrest

Aliska
09-19-2005, 07:22 AM
Hello :)
Design idea from me. Waiting for your comments.

crimsondesigner
09-19-2005, 08:11 PM
I have been working on this for you. Let me know if I'm headed in the right direction with this or.. Constructive comments are welcome.

Erika

hillcrest
09-20-2005, 04:47 AM
Thanks very much for your entries. Unfortunately neither entry quite hit on what I'm looking for. Aliska's design is closer to what I had in mind but is still not quite there. If you'd like to revise or try another design here are some comments:

Aliska:

Your design looks very good and makes nice use of shading and borders but I really don't care for the overlapping effect with the top menus, latest news, and primary area. The one thing that did give me a "wow" moment was the top menus - I really like those with the faded gray and green bar. You're on the right track with the latest news and testimonials sections as well - they both look pretty nice. You have the right idea with the three boxes for IT managers, Developers, and Business Users but the implementation just isn't sitting well with me. I don't know if it's the fading colors or the fonts but just doesn't look like I was envisioning. The primary marketing campaign section and the latest release section that you included weren't quite what I was looking for either. The image of the woman and man with laptop is good but I would like a similar picture in a more "businesslike" environment (e.g. desk, meeting room, etc.). I'd also like to have more information towards the top so you might try combining the latest release section with the larger images section above. Also, the colors are pretty good but the bright blue is bothering me. Could it be changed to the blue/purple in the logo?

Overall, I think you did a great job on the top menu and latest news/testimonials section but the overall design just isn't quite what I am looking for.

Erika:

Thanks for your entry but I'm afraid it doesn't have that professional, polished look that I'm trying to get. As a smaller software firm selling an expensive product to larger customers (Fortune 500) I need my site to give a solid, professional impression that some of my larger competitors have. If you'd like to try another design looking at some of the comments for Aliska above might help.

Thank you both for submitting designs. If you have any questions about the above comments please let me know.

Regards,

hillcrest

Anne
09-20-2005, 10:59 AM
Hi

I wanted to let you know that I am working on a design for your competition.

Anne

Anne
09-20-2005, 02:39 PM
Here's my entry

Anne

riverpast
09-21-2005, 09:51 AM
(oops, posted in wrong thread, please ignore)

SKR
09-22-2005, 12:07 AM
Hi,

Here is my design :)

Regards,

Sarah

http://www.pulppixel.com/projects/mindsite/mindsite.jpg

Luc
09-22-2005, 02:26 AM
Hi! :) I'm in!

Aliska
09-22-2005, 08:02 AM
Hello.
Changes at my version.

hillcrest
09-22-2005, 08:09 AM
Hi All,

Thanks very much for your new entries. I'm between meetings now and only have a minute but wanted to let you know I will get some feedback posted as soon as I can.

Regards,

hillcrest

Luc
09-24-2005, 05:33 AM
Hi! Here's my entry with 2 arrangements. Sorry for the delay.

hillcrest
09-26-2005, 10:05 AM
Hi Designers,

My apologies for the delay in giving some feedback. Thanks again for all of your entries. All of them look good but if
possible I'd like to see another round of revisions before narrowing the choices. Here are some comments about each entry:

Anne:
- very nice but a little more "organic" looking than i'd like. Can you make it look a bit more "mechanical" like Aliska's or
Sarah's entry? I hope that makes some sense.
- Great job with content and whitespace balance - very easy on the eyes and easy to read.
- Can we try another top menu? Sorry but the one you have looks a bit plain to me.
- For the images in the ITManagers, Developers, and Business Users sections can we try a justified, faded image kind of like
Aliska has done? The hard edges on the images look a bit clunky to me.


Sarah:
- very nice overall - nice balance of whitespace and page items and a great clean, polished look
- I don't care for the horizontal top menu - can you try another style of menu justified to the top right only in the header portion of the page? For the style you might try something like Aliska has submitted - I think that looks great.
- For some reason don't care for the photograph in the primary marketing section - can we try another one? So far the photo in MaryLuc's entry looks the best, I think.
- Nice use of grays and fading in headers, menus, buttons, and borders - very polished look.
- The icons for latest news and testimonials are really cool - nice job there.
- Colors are spot on - very nice
- Can we try a version with "hard" corners on all the bordered items and buttons? Don't know why but I tend to not like rounded rectangles. I'd like to just see how it looks with sharp corners if it's not too much trouble.
- The screen shot snippets are cool and i'd like to use those for the detail template but maybe for the primary marketing space you could remove those and try a faded background with a screenshot and the photograph and text overlaying it. Check out the green section ('You can try it free!') on MaryLuc's design to see what I mean about the faded screenshot background.

Aliska:
- The overlapping is still there on latest news - my apologies for not being more specific about that in the previous post. If
you could try to make site layout just like Anne & Sarah have it where the primary marketing section doesn't run behind any of the other sections that'd be great.
- The new boxes for IT Managers, Developers, and Business Users are nice but still not exactly what I had in mind. Can you try them with the same look/design that the latest news and testimonials have?


MaryLuc:
- Nice job with the layout and overall balance of space and content.
- I don't care for the tabbed menu look at the top - can we try something else? I like the menu in Aliska's entry - the green bars underscoring the menu items is pretty neat and looks great.
- The horizontal blue lines aren't doing it for me - is there something else you can try here?
- Great picture in the primary marketing area - the best so far.
- I like the version with the smaller primary marketing area and text below so let's stick with that.
- the blue background color of the primary marketing area is a bit too overbearing/strong - can you try a lighter color or a
grey or maybe even white?
- Cool effect on the green download section with the screenshot faded in the background - that looks great.

If you have any questions or need any additional information, please let me know. I hope that you all will be able to submit
another round of revisions - you all do great work and you're making it hard to choose.

Thanks again,

hillcrest

SKR
09-26-2005, 11:37 PM
Hi,

Thank you for the feedback - Here are the revisions :) Let me know if you would like to see any further changes.


http://www.pulppixel.com/projects/mindsite/mindsite2.jpg

http://www.pulppixel.com/projects/mindsite/mindsite3.jpg

Aliska
09-28-2005, 11:02 AM
Hello
And changes at my version.

Luc
09-29-2005, 02:09 AM
Here's my revision.

hillcrest
10-05-2005, 03:34 AM
Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been able to reply to the latest revisions but I'm still recovering from a hard drive crash over the weekend. I will get some comments up as soon as I can so we can continue on with this project.

Thanks,

hillcrest

hillcrest
10-10-2005, 07:30 AM
Hi Designers,

Finally back on my feet after my hard drive crash...my apologies for stalling the contest for so long.

After reviewing the latest revisions I'm going to go with Sarah's design. All were great but I feel that her's is closest to what I am looking for. Thanks again to all who submitted a design, the level of talent here always amazes me.

Sarah - I do want to make some changes to the design before I sign off on it. Here are my thoughts:

- Can we make the top menu bar a little simpler? It looks cool but I'd like to simplify the whole design a bit and if we could try a menu bar similar to what you have but with just the text part and the underscoring blue (and green selected) bars with a white pixel separator I think it'd look a little cleaner and less cluttered. If you check out the menu at www.sonic.com that's kind of what I'm shooting for.

- Can we move the questions and email that are currently at the top of the header to a space right over the 'Latest News' section? You can remove the 'Latest Reviews' section if you need to in order to make some space at the top of the column.

- For the header, you can remove the '...making the web work for you' from the logo area - it'll be fine just to have the logo with no slogan there. After this is done can you move the top menu to be aligned with the logo? Again, check out www.sonic.com for how their logo is right in line with the top menu.

- Overall I'd like to try and remove and/or change some elements to increase white space and reduce a bit of clutter. Can you take out all the vertical and horizontal gray spacer lines that are separating the different areas right now? Also, can you try to reduce the size of the 'Read More' buttons in the 'IT Managers', 'Developers', and 'Business Users' sections?

- For the footer menu, can you replace what you have with a simpler menu - even just smaller text links with some widgets (e.g. :: or |) between would work here. I feel that what we have now is a bit overbearing and steals your eye when scanning the lower part of the page.

- Sorry to be a PITA about it but do you have any other pictures for the primary marketing area? It's cool how you put the appliation screen shot in the laptop but for some reason that guy pointing at it bugs me. Sorry, I know it's not a rational explanation but that's the reaction I'm getting to that photo. :)

Thanks for the great design. I think with the changes above we should be very close to what I'm looking for. Also, if you could put together a first cut for the detail pages so I can take a look at that I'd appreciate it.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,

hillcrest

SKR
10-10-2005, 12:45 PM
Hi,

Thanks for selecting my design :)

I'll work on the changes for you today.

Regards,

Sarah

SKR
10-10-2005, 01:50 PM
Hi,

I do have a question :) Which design would you like me to make the changes to? The square or rounded?

Thanks,

Sarah

hillcrest
10-10-2005, 02:24 PM
Oops...sorry I forgot to specify that...I like the square design a little better.

Thanks.

Luc
10-10-2005, 05:45 PM
Congrats Sarah! Hillcrest, goodluck with your new design. :)

SKR
10-11-2005, 02:10 AM
Thanks Luc :)

SKR
10-11-2005, 02:15 AM
Hi,

Here's the revisions to the home page. I have given you a couple more options on images. If the other image is OK apart from the guy then I could try and give him another head :)

Let me know if you'd like to see any further changes.

Thanks,

Sarah

http://www.pulppixel.com/projects/mindsite/mindsite4.jpg

http://www.pulppixel.com/projects/mindsite/mindsite5.jpg

Lori
10-13-2005, 09:19 AM
Congratulations Sarah! Beautiful design hillcrest :tup:

I have moved this over to revisions for you to finish up!

SKR
10-14-2005, 02:43 AM
Thanks Lori :)

SKR
10-31-2005, 04:12 PM
I have sent through a link to download the files :)

hillcrest
11-02-2005, 09:27 AM
Moderators,

Sarah has finished the project and sent me the deliverables so please release the money for this contest to her as soon as possible.

Thanks very much,

hillcrest