April 9, 2007
Redesign the MacUser site
Posted Apr. 9, ’07, 12:46 PM PT by Dan Moren
Category | MacUser
We love the MacUser site—it is, after all, our home on the tubes. But it’s come to our attention that the design of the page is getting a little long in the tooth. We’ve been around for more than a year now, and think of all the things that have happened in that time: iPhone revelations; Apple TV hacking; even Creative Suite 3 eventually got shipped announced. Good times, good times.
Changes are just around the corner though: with Leopard due out sometime soon (fingers crossed) and the iPhone still to ship, we got to thinking that the ol’ MacUser design could use a bit of a facelift. Just to stay with the times, you know.
So here’s the deal: we’re running a little contest to redesign the site. Submit your design and if it’s chosen by the MacUser team, you’ll see it on the page before you. Not a designer? Don’t worry, we’ll be posting our picks for the top three designs for you, our readers, to comment on after the contest’s finished.
But we’re not just offering the everlasting fame of having your vision out on the web for all to see. Give us a little credit. If we pick your design as the winner, we’ll pay you cash money to help us implement that design.
Interested? Good. Follow the jump for the nitty-gritty.
We have, of course, a few ground rules, both technological and procedural. First, the requirements for the design itself.
If you’re the person who submits the design that we love the best, we’ll contact you and work out a paying deal for your design. Maybe you’d want to help us implement the detailed design, in which case we would pay you at our usual contractor rates. Of course, we do need to have a few ground rules to avoid that inevitable moment when someone yells: “You used #FF00FF and my entire design was based on #FF00FF! It’s mine! Mine mine mine!” Okay, I don’t really think any of you would do that. But you can’t be too careful on the wilds of the Interweb. So, with apologies for the legalese, here’s what you’re acknowledging when you send us your submission:
Man, was it just me or was that was more bullets than a Hong Kong action movie? So, if you think you meet all of our criteria, send us your design, in JPG/PNG/PDF format to macuser [at] macuser [dot] com. You have until 11:59 Pacific Time, April 30th. Happy designing!
Update: Thanks for all your comments; we’ve adjusted some of the language in the last couple bullet points to hopefully clarify the rights situations for unselected submissions.
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Exciting times. What would be nice to keep is good readability. The text (I find) is really legible right now.
Leave it alone, Your page layout is one of the reasons I visit here to read. No need to change a good thing
Aw, damn, so I can't kidnap Adam Betts and force him to make a design at gunpoint, then collect the cash? Screw you, MacUser!
I agree with Mark. Maybe I'm just averse to change, but I like what I see now.
We like the clean, simple look of the site as well, but the truth of the matter is that it's far from perfect. Don't worry too much, both myself and some of the other staff members have worked in web design at some point, so we're going to work hard to keep the best parts of the design and improve some of the lackluster parts. We value simple elegance, and hopefully we'll find a design that gibes well with that philosophy.
There are ads on this?? Oh that's right, OmniWeb blocks them for me. ;-)mmmmm... OmniWeb.
Seriously, it doesn't matter for me. I enjoy it now, and my RSS feed would still provide me the headlines I want to visit regardless of layout design.
the only thing i wish would change around here is the fact that we get no notifications for comments left... sometimes we ask questions on the comments or entire conversations start and we have to keep on browsing down old posts to check if anyone replied to you... with kate marshall on a daily mission to post a ton of new blogs (love u katie) it makes it all difficult to keep track of replies... other than that, i like the current design...
I find the current design to be very Apple like: simple, yet elegant and very functional. Let's hope the next design only gets better!
My problem with the current site is that it's maybe a bit too dull. Not that I want it to be jazzy. But a little bit more exciting might be nice.
I'd do something but have no clue about moveable type.
- “By submitting your design to us, you are automatically giving us all copyright or other intellectual property rights you might otherwise have in the design, and giving up any claim you might have against us for copying or using the design or any part of it.
- You agree that we have the right to implement ideas that are similar to what you’ve submitted, and can do so without any obligation to you.”
Surely that's not right? If you're offering to pay, then you get IP and copyright upon receipt of payment.Although it's probably not your intention, this reads as, "If you win, we may pay you something but if we don't, we still get to use your ideas. If you don't win, we still get to use your ideas."
Obviously this is how many similar competitions are run, and the prize in many cases is simply having your design used. I just feel that your offer of remuneration muddies the waters somewhat.
Like other people said, the current design is actually not that bad.
HOWEVER, if you do redesign the site, please don't do what you did for Gadgetbox because I definitely liked the old design better.
We can handle the Movable Type part. If you've got a brilliant design, don't let it get in the way.
Are there any significant design restrictions to the Movable Type templates? Their website didn't give me a good idea what considerations would need to be made in a design for MT to work.
I'd be pretty ticked off if I didn't win and therefore didn't get any money, but you still considered my ideas (or "similar") good enough to use (as indicated in your final bullet point).
Kalessin is right: while some designers foreswear spec work of all kinds, those who are okay with design contests are still generally wary of anything that says "we get all rights to your design, and you get none, and you get nothing in return." At least say that the copyrights revert back to the people who aren't selected once the contest is complete so that those people can tweak their templates for other clients. I realize the above stipulations are probably just to keep your legal people happy, but you're going to turn away smart designers with rules like that.
By:
• “By submitting your design to us, you are automatically giving us all copyright or other intellectual property rights you might otherwise have in the design, and giving up any claim you might have against us for copying or using the design or any part of it.
• You agree that we have the right to implement ideas that are similar to what you’ve submitted, and can do so without any obligation to you.”
I take it to be like Apple’s policy of accepting ideas or improvements. If you offer them something in that respect, you basically give up all rights to it without any compensation, credit, or mention now and forever. It’s pretty simple. If you don’t agree with that policy, don’t give them any ideas. ;-)
Let's be clear: it's not our intent to rip anyone off. We are honorable people. However, imagine if a particularly litigious person submitted a design to us that contained, in a couple of places, small gray dotted lines. And then imagine that the new version of MacUser featured, in a couple of places, small gray dotted lines. That person could imagine that we stole their brilliant idea and sue us for theft.
This is why if you submit spec scripts to TV shows, or ideas to Apple, or whatever else, you have to basically close your eyes and hope that the people receiving your creation are honorable people.
I wish it weren't this way, but it is -- we can't open ourselves up to lawsuits from people who think that they had a unique idea that actually wasn't unique.
Quote:
If that's the case and you want it to look good in the submissions, you should consider posting a hi-res and/or vector version of it for contestants to use.
Content. All the praise from whoever these people are aside, content would be the best redeign feature you could add. I visit your pages and read line after line of nothing. If your writers work for free maybe this is ok. If they are actually getting apid, then I am embarassed for the future of literacy. More and more what is Apple but the ipod company. More and more the content of these pages seems mostly filler for the advertisements. It would be nice to read ONE story that actually had some depth and some real content. I find most of your content to be such useless fluff. There used to be a time when mac people had intelligence and style and really good ideas. As the internet becomes the greatest tool ever for communication, it also seems to invite more and more babble about nothing. It is truly ironic. Except for the utter lack of meaningful content your website/blog design seems ok. Just my opinion. William Winterstone, Ojibway Artist