Web designers never stop designing – even when we’re just browsing the web.
In my day-to-day surfing I’m always coming across sites that I’d love to redesign, whether they sell products I love, contain challenges I’d like to work with or just call to me for some reason.
That urge is the catalyst for a new series I’m calling One-Hour Makeover. In each One-Hour Makeover, I want to refresh a site and create a new Photoshop mockup in just 60 minutes. The results might be a little rough, but each site only gets one hour.
The site that launched the idea for this series is DoggySnooze.com.
I first saw this brand’s absolutely gorgeous dog beds via fab.com. When I checked out the DoggySnooze site, I noticed that the beautiful product photography was being dwarfed by a design that didn’t provide the sophistication that $150+ dog beds need. All of the great craftsmanship that had gone into the product was lost on the site.
My goal with the DoggySnooze refresh was to produce the same feeling of elegance as the product itself. The idea was to introduce the product, clearly list its unique features, and get people into the shop to discover more.
What I like about the makeover: It shows off the beds and put them at the forefront.
What I could have done better: I would like the call to action higher on the page, and the paw prints in the feature list should be replaced with something more sophisticated.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with this makeover.
Do you know a design that needs a One-Hour Makeover? Let us know!
Big Name has been pretty busy of late and we've updated our work section to reflect just that.
Big Name provided design services for this UK-based accounting software company. AccountsPortal.com was looking for a site design update that was simple, clean, and effective. We handed off our design and we think they did a nice job implementing our suggestions.
Mom Meet Mom helps busy moms discover new friends and schedule play dates.
We're developing the site now and just launched the sign-up page. We're very excited about the technical and interface challenges ahead. We won't be building a dedicated mobile app, so responsive design decisions will be at a premium. Shawn is pushing Laravel to its edge, and he's implementing a lot of great solutions to provide an optimum experience.
Real Change New You was built to provide recovery services for individuals with drug and alcohol addiction and/or HIV-positive lives. With Big Name's development help, case managers now can interact with participants via the site, text messages, forums, and video services.
Having recently converted to Linux, Justin found the ScreenCloud.net services to be very attractive. The ability to have a screenshot uploaded and a link automatically added to the clipboard was huge! So we reached out to offer a hand with the site's design and identity. We're wrapping up some of the last of the app assets and a full launch is imminent.
Today we are happy to announce bigto.do! bigto.do is a FreshBooks add-on for tracking time on your to-dos. We love FreshBooks, but we wanted to be more efficient when it came to incorporating our to-dos with time tracking. bigto.do is an add-on that will pull in all of the projects from a FreshBooks account and allow users to instantly start tracking time on any to-do item they create.
Currently, we're looking for beta testers to work with us and make this add-on something great for FreshBooks users! If you're interested or know someone that might be excited about this app, please sign up at bigto.do or share this post.
The app will be totally free! Many FreshBooks users are already subscribed to a paid plan and we didn't want to add to that line item.
If you have questions or something you'd like to share, feel free to reply below, tweet @bigtodoapp, or contact us directly at info[at]bigto.do.
It's been a fun and exciting year for us. We worked with a lot of great people, released our first web app (Picofin.com) and Shawn moved to the Netherlands where he established a Dutch branch for Big.
We've learned a lot about running our own business over these past 12 months and we're looking forward to another year.
Thank you all for supporting us and helping us grow!
Photo Credit: mediamolecule
Here is Episode 1 of our Designer Hangout where we talked about Design Processes. We’ve noted discussion topic changes in the player if you want to skip around. If you weren’t able to join us for this one, don’t worry, we’ll be hosting more of them.
The first Big Name Designer Hangout will be Dec 16th from 2PM to 3PM Central (8PM to 9PM GMT).
We'd like to know what you want to chat about. Head on over to our Google+ post and check out some ideas and suggestions for topics.
Hope you can make it!
