(3 total) templates needed for webmail website

PancakeMail · #1 11-20-2003, 02:24 AM

(Admin code added by Palmer - 4G993443L)

Hello,

This contest prize is $300. for 3 templates total.

We are looking for a website template/layout to use to launch when we have our first press release next month. To begin with, we'll use the template we found:

Company name: Pancake Programming, LLC

Company profile: PancakeMail is an email system that completely defeats spam, increases security and provides for more organization of an email user's inbox and mail folders.

Domain name: www.pancakemail.com

What is the scope of this project?: new website layout/design that can be used throughout the site.

Who is the intended audience?: well, we hope to attract anyone who uses email, particularly people who hate spam and wasting time dealing with spam.

Mood or tone?: Most of all, we want people to come away from the site understanding how our system works. Since we emphasize simplicity in our system, we are looking for an image that depicts simple people (laugh if you want) with simple ideas (again..) A good example of the type of simplicity we are looking for is "google.com", or you can look at our placeholder page at www.pancakemail.com. We are not-too-serious, and there's actually some dark humor in our initial marketing plan, so we are not afraid of a mildly playful image. While we are professional enough to take our ideas, products and services seriously, our intended image is the opposite of "Technocratic America" (yes, we made that up after not being able to come up with anything else at 6AM) -- where every other IT company seems to us to brag about what they can do, we are emphasizing what the idea we call PancakeMail can do. (okay, now I feel I have typed your collective ear off -- I apologize!)

Color psychology?: We strongly prefer the light, eggshell background, white 'space' and fine black lines we use on our placeholder page. Simple, clean, crisp, to the point, etc. We prefer to define our "working area" with the black, one-pixel border and distingush the content area (white) from the background (eggshell color). We are not stuck on this layout, or these colors! This should only be used to give you an understanding of what we like and are looking for. If you come up with a spectacular layout that trashes these guidelines, that's fine too -- the only component we are not flexible on is our current logo. Whatever you come up with that works with our logo is fine with us.

Any dynamic elements?: Yes. We expect that all pages will be SSI enabled (shtml)

We are looking for help with layouts of 3 pages -- the main page, the data pages (text and graphics pages), and the general layout of the "webmail" pages. Elements from the first page are expected to be used on the other two layouts, keeping a more consistent look and hopefully making your job easier. We suggest that designers only start with layouts of the first page, and as we get that look under way, then move to the other two templates.

On our front page, we expect to have:
1. our logo
2. links (I hate that word, but is what they are!) to the other pages on the site -- "how [PancakeMail] works" (most important, but doesn't have to stand out), "sign up [for a free email accont]", "purchase software", "email hosting", "in the media", "contact us", "credits", "terms of service/acceptable use policy", and "privacy policy".
3. a place in the center (?? we think this would be good, but hey -- if we were designers ourselves, we wouldn't be here...) for a simple flash/shockwave multimedia demonstration of how PancakeMail works. Clicking it will take the user to a page where the PancakeMail system is described in more detail, the same as the link to "how [PancakeMail] works"
4. a member login/signup box/section, (something like yahoo has) for people to sign up for a free email account to try PancakeMail, or to log in once they have signed up
5. place for one 468x60 banner

On the data pages, we'd like our logo, a place for a 468x60 banner, the links to the other pages, the title of the page, and then the text/images of the page. hopefully, this will be a rather simple layout. These are essentially 'watered down' copies of the first page.

On the webmail page, we'd like our logo, a place for a 468x60 banner, the links to the other pages, the title of the page, and then the rest of the page will be used for the web-based email. We really like the layout of the yahoo webmail, so to the extent permissable, feel free to mimic it.

Fonts we like are Announce (typically used for graphics) and Verdana (for text). A custom palette that we use includes:

magenta-ish: #C8246D
blue: #2494C8
teal: #5AC6C6
red: #C8244B
purple: #9424C8
orange: #C85A24
yellow: #C8C224
green: #24C88C

We would also prefer that the layouts/templates look identical in Mozilla/Netscape/AOL/Internet Exploder, and therefore would prefer a simpler, less fancy but more streamlined layout over one that looks super but only in one browser.

Who are your main competitors?: none, this is a new concept that nobody else is using yet.
What resources can you provide?: Our logo is attached.
Websites you like: google.com, our own, mail.yahoo.com if it was a little less busy
Deadline: 30 November 2003 (at 11:59 PM for those techincal people) unless there's sufficient activity to justify an extension.

We'll watch for questions and reminders of what we have missed in this description (considering I've been up through the night and my alarm clock just went off....)

Thanks, everyone!

JeremeDavid · #2 11-23-2003, 01:28 PM

I'm on this. I'll post my first design within the next two days.

I have some questions.

Are we expected to lay out the entire webmail UI? I assume you already have the system itself developed? Is that available for viewing to use as a basis for fields to be added?

You mentioned that you need SSI. Would you be open to PHP includes instead? They work the same way.

What exactly will be on the data pages? You mention pictures and text, but not the nature of each.

PancakeMail · #3 11-24-2003, 09:45 AM

(responding to Q's)

1. we're just looking for an overall look for our site -- even if we come away from this contest with a general idea to work with, we'd be happy. We just had a collective mental block when we tried to put all the necessary components into a layout we liked, which is why we posted this contest. So, to answer your first Q (I think), for the webmail portion, we only are looking for a layout for the first page.

The PancakeMail email system is actually being developed right now, but will work similarly to the free email system at Yahoo.com. We don't expect it to be ready to show for at least another week.

2. as for the SSI, that was probably more info than necessary. PHP will work just fine too.

3. On the data pages will be the contents of each link, such as "how it works" will be a detailed description of how the PancakeMail system works, "sign up" will be where people go to sign up for a free email account, "privacy policy" will be our privacy policy, etc. We are only looking for a general layout that is generic enough to use for each of these, and we will take it from there. If it mimics the first page of PancakeMail in many/most ways (sans the content) that is okay with us.

I hope this answers more questions than it elicits.

(Sarah)

JeremeDavid · #4 11-24-2003, 02:55 PM

It's hard to get a handle on what you want the design to look like. You stated that mail.yahoo.com was a little too busy. With that in mind, I've made this. I'm just going to throw it out there and let you rip it apart.

I added the top left "tech" image just to see what you think about having an image. The middle grey square could be reserved for your "how it works" idea.

crimsondesigner · #5 11-28-2003, 09:08 PM

I've put together something simple. this is absed on the page that you have posted at the site now. Hopefully, it is close to what youwant.

Erika

Luc · #6 11-28-2003, 10:11 PM