April 01, 2004 | View Comments (37) | Category: Version 2
Summary: April's site for Version 2 and March entries.
For the April Edition of Version 2 I chose The Internet Movie Database. Like Project Gutenberg, it is a great content site. I would like to see it become a well-designed site with great content.
I am guessing that it was built around the age of Amazon due to its tabbed navigation structure. It seems that they also read a lot of Jakob's rules of usability because the default blue links really standout. Of the three sites done so far in the Version 2 series, I really think this will be the easiest to redesign.
Here they are:
If I forgot you let me know.
UPDATE: Here is the original site.
Voting will begin (along with the new Version 2 site) on Monday, April 5. Best of luck to everyone.
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/194
Looks like a majority of these just took the current site content almost exactly, prettified the navigation a bit, and added a few graphics. The ones that actually tried to do something with the IA to make the site more usable are superior in my mind.
Mike
Wow, there's some great work in there!
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com.com/sandbox/weblog/)
Mike (the first one): I agree and will do a writeup on this soon hopefully.
I hate bugs.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
You sayin' that you don't agree that there is some good work in there? ;-]
At any rate, I'll have to agree with my namesake above as well (we had posted at the same time).
In a way it smacked a bit of the Garden, where, besides some standouts, it becomes a bit of a graphics show - granted the garden wasn't made to showcase good ui development or site architecture.
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com.com/sandbox/weblog/)
The good thing about using IMDB for April is that if you just try to pretty that site up, you are stuck with just another mess.
For March, I will concede that the CBIP site didn't really provide that much information for the designers to work with.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
No doubt, this month will be interesting.
And, just to be clear:
"...granted the Garden wasn't made to showcase good ui development or site architecture [it was meant to showcase the possibilities of css, which it does wonderfully]."
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com.com/sandbox/weblog/)
I think all efforts are commendable, but certainly some are rather mediocre when viewed against others.
I've never entered a design contest for the very reason that I would be embarassed to see how my design compares to others.
As for the new contest, that is going to be very interesting. That page is a mess in my opinion.
I have some idea of what I would want from the "Internet Movie Database" if I had never seen it before, and I know that's not how I tend to use it, so it would definitely be an interesting exercise to design a site that highlights my two very different approaches to using the site, but my use of the site and perception of how others may use the site could be very off.
In short, I think it would be infinitely helpful in this case to know more about the demographics of visitors and their surfing habits upon entering the site. What is the most popular aspect of the site? Looking for a specific actor or movie through search? Or is it looking for reviews of recent movies and the times they're playing? Or is it the news aspect? Or do people go to buy DVD's? Weighing the interests of visitors to highlight aspects of the site without any information seems like a huge undertaking.
Jacob (http://www.onemaven.com)
It's interesting that you mentioned the Amazon.com look and feel. In looking at the whole page(including the footer), it's an Amazon company.
Tim
Huh, I wonder if they had that look before Amazon bought them. Of course that is assuming Amazon bought them and not just created the site. I think I will whip up a redesign for this site just for kicks.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
Maybe you should pick a different subject for the redesign since Amazon does run IMDB and it's a commercial entity (and might not appreciate being the subject of a redesign contest, to boot)
Maybe the GIMP, since we picked on that a week or two ago? Though that needs a lot more design work than just a new website look....
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I don't know...I've been frequenting the IMDB for a long time now and I've never had a problem finding information there. Maybe I'm just used to the look and layout of the site?
Todd (http://www.monkeyhouselounge.com/loungeact/)
IMDB does need help.
Scrivs, could you post a link to the original site the March entries are redoing? It's scrolled off the recent entries... and I am lazy.
Stephanie (http://www.sillybean.net/)
This is the same Mike as above, just included my last initial to differentiate. :)
To follow up on my previous comment, I certainly did not mean to imply that most of the entries were bad, just that they did not really improve the site all that much (other than making it slightly prettier).
Two of the entries stand out for attempting to deal with the IA issue: Bright Corner and Lodewijk Evers. Not necessarily the prettiest entries, but I did find them more useful. The Colectivo YTW entry also went far in this direction, but it is just too busy and some of the fonts and colors are tough for me to read easily.
I think I viewed all the entries, but in a list like that I might have missed some. Anyway, those are the three that I remember as not just regurgitating the current site.
Mike M
Stephanie: There I updated the entry. Keep on forgetting to include those links.
JC: IMDB has been selected. I was trying to stay away from another OS project. So IMDB it is.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I guess I should add Kurt Didenhover, Jeremy Johnson, and Parallel Vision to my above list.
Though the light orange links and light gray text on a white background for Kurt is tough to look at. And I don't really like sites with large images that take up a lot of room "above the fold" without serving a useful prupose. I mean, you probably don't even really look at the image after your first visit to the site.
Mike M
well i know where my vote is going...
The other sites just didnt have that vision that was..parallel :p
Design beautiful ..it's like everyone slese had there thunking cap turned off.
-peace
Steven
IMDB is a brilliant - it invites to more complicated thoughts about making the navigation usable, and is a real challenge.
Can't wait to get my own grubby hands on it, actually.
Brian Andersen (http://www.brian-andersen.dk)
I like the selection of IMDB. There's a lot more complexity to it than the bug site, which should make redesigning it easier, I think. Who knows, maybe I'll actually try something this time around.
Jennifer Grucza (http://jennifergrucza.com)
The only thing I care about on IMDB is the search, which is right at the top. Everyone I know only goes there when we're trying to remember who was in a patricular movie, or which movies an actor has been in, etc. But I guess other people use it for other things...
Mike M
Yet another one I didn't get to... Next month. :)
This is a much closer match than the February edition, in my opinion. A lot of talented designers, I see. I would have to agree with Mike that this will come down to IA. I think that's what February came down to as well.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
Some really nice entries ... way to go, everyone.
I would just urge people to think about accessibility and code, etc., as well as design when viewing entries and deciding on who they are going to vote for. Perhaps try out Opera and its options to emulate text-only browsers, etc.
thomas (http://gendes.elivy.com)
My fave is Jeremy Johnsons, with special mentions to Parallel Vision, Aaron Gustafson and Michele Gerarduzzi.
PV: I can't overlook the blank space in the bottom right...
AG: Great header graphic!
MG: Brilliant, however the mailing list sub/unsub seems unnecessarily complicated, and the way the three vertical boxes are both joined and separated is very distracting to me.
Nice job all!
Adam Bramwell (http://www.octapod.org/adam)
Although there are some very good entries it has to be said that some of them are bloody awfull. It also seems to me that the recent articles on ALA for rounded corners and drop shadows have resulted in a series of very similiar sites.
Scott Hutchinson
I've entered a design for both months so far. I don't expect to get nominated, but I can't tell you how much this competition is helping me to become a better designer.
It is slightly embarassing when you compare your design against some of the others, but it is spurring me on. Like Michele Gerarduzzi's entry this time. the mailing list is a great idea. I'm guilty of not thinking around the existing site and just putting a new ui on it. It's the last time I do that. The main thing is that I'm really enjoying being part of this, and if I work my way to a nomination by the end of this whole thing that will be a real achievement.
Anyway, next stop imdb.
James Gardner (http://design.bumblepuppy.org.uk)
Well, James, I'm kind of in the same boat as you, though I didn't participate the first month. I addmit there are better designs than mine out there but it doesn't have to be all about winning, in my opinion.
For me, it's a great chance to work on what I like, to improve my skills, and finally, to compare my work against other talanted designers, and to learn from them.
And as you said, if I manage to get a nomination after all, it will only proove that my efforts were not in vain.
Thanks a lot Paul for a having this great idea!
Reminder to self: start your work earlier for this month's project :)
Lucian Slatineanu
Great point thomas. Using FireFox, you can easily disable style sheets (using the developer toolbar). Then compare the sites above.
It really shows who has good information and makes good use of things like h1, h2, etc tags. Compare Parallel Vision and Lodewijk Evers, for example. Without styles, one is far superior to the other.
Mike M
Exactly.
Headings; hr tags; skip to content links; browser compatibility; accessible navigations; good, clean, validating CSS and XHTML, etc. If this were merely a design contest, it wouldn't matter if people used nested tables and spacer gifs all over the place. But since we're doing this with valid code and CSS for presentation, I think voters should take a long look at sites before they vote (and I won't mention the discussion last month about the winner's site...).
thomas (http://gendes.elivy.com)
Good points, Mike M and Thomas. I would like to point out, however, that there can be good reasons for not implementing certain often-user features. In anticipation of just this sort of discussion, I posted the rationale behind some of my decisions (including the absence of a skip navigation link) about a week ago.
I almost wish the competition required the designers to justify (or at least make explicit) their decisions in these sorts of situations. I think hearing the reasons behind the really good (and less good) designs might be more edifying than merely studying the end products.
Ben Scofield (http://www.culann.com/grumble)
As in the previous contest, my choice seems to be shared by no one. There's a lot of amazing designs in there, but the one that really smacks of "Wow, this page is clear on its purpose" to me, is Dan Hodos's design.
The graphics that detail the process and the clarity of the information are what got me. It may not be the best design graphic-wise (the parallel vision one takes that I think), but it's the one that the project would benefit more from.
And, as before, the brightcorner design is a close second in my mind.
Sergio (http://overcaffeinated.net)
I agree Sergio - Dan's design is nice and does actually make the site more usable. It should go in my list of non-regurgitators also :) Not sure how I missed it the first time. I guess I just didn't click on it somehow.
Mike M
I may be crazy, but it really seems like few people actually judge the sites based on all the different aspects. Visual design, information architecture, accessibility, good coding practices, usability, browser compatibility, etc.
The point is that all of these are a small part of a much larger picture, and it seems like most people are very good at understanding and criticizing one aspect of all the sites while failing to see the aspects at which many of the sites excel.
My two cents is that the entries have improved significantly over the previous month, and I'd say that's an achievment in itself.
Good work all around. I'm impressed.
Garrett Dimon (http://www.yourusabilityresource.com)
I think that's one of the situations that arises when judging criteria aren't explicitly presented, Garrett - everyone picks out (and on) the one or few aspects of design they feel is most important. I'm not sure whether this effect is harmful or not, but intuitively I'd say that the larger the voting population, the less noticeable the biases (that is, with a large population whose individuals vote according to their own criteria, the overall outcome will reflect the best candidate). Of course, that's an empirical question....
Ben Scofield (http://www.culann.com/)
Well to put it in perspective last month Bright Corner got 25% of the votes in the first round and they went on to win, so it seems the large population has some mind as to what is important. We will see this Monday what happens.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
@ Vinnie:
I don't think neither stating anyone's faults or errors nor promoting any particular website is fair play at this moment.
Please, review sites, decide and place your vote.
Marko (http://www.inet.hr/webdesign/)
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#1
Some are very good. ^_^
Good thing nobody used spiders in their stock photos. Please provide warning if you do. (>_<)
Zelnox