Thread: $400 Web Design Contest

Web design contest for webcomso.com website. We are adding a social networking component, so we need the site redesigned.

Prize: $400 (will be paid via paypal only)

Contest Deadline: January 19, 2009

Basic Requirements:

• Design must be unique, nobody have it.
• Design will be two pages, home page and one inner page.
• I have the sole right not to choose a winner if I feel like there is no quality design.
  
• Design must be user friendly.
• You can submit multiple designs.
• You must give me the psd, ai and any other resource files if your design is chosen as winner.
• Must not use any copyright materials
• Design must follow the design requirements mentioned below.

Design Requirements:

Width and Alignments
950 pixels wide and center aligned

Color Schemes
Upto you

Main Navigation
Post Ad
Subscribe
Browse Menu with items – Browse people – Browse Business
Search
My Account
Footer
Help
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
System status
Copyright notice
Body Part
Classified Ads
If the user did not select a location, we will have:
-An intro for classified ads. Something similar to the one on the existing site.
-Dropdown menu for country/state/city to select a location.
-Link to the “Location List” page.
-“Post Classified Ads” link.
- Event Calendar

If user has already selected a location:
-Show current location (country/state/city)
-“Change Location” link. Which would be the Location List page.
-Main categories. E.g. For Sale, Jobs, Community etc. We would not show any subcategory on the front page to improve load time.
-5 Most recent ad posted. Ad title(as link), user posted(as link to profile page).
-Quick Search function. Will have a textbox, and a main category dropdown menu.


Social Networking
-4 recently joined members. We will NOT show profile picture, instead we would show icon and username as link to profile page.
-4 or so recent polls. We will show title (as link) and user who have posted it (as link). Also we would show Post a Poll link.
-4 or so Recent Business listed. We will show business name(as link), category(link).
-Search Business feature. Textbox, category dropdown menu, and a search button.
-Search people feature. We will show the basic search on homepage. Basic feature would have ** radio buttons for 1. All 2. Name 3. Display Name 4. Email ** a textbox ** a short instruction ** a find/search button. Like the “Find a friend” option on this mySpace page Find Friends and Search Profiles on MySpace Also we would show a link for “All search options”.
-We can have the two search options (business and people) as tabbed. Upto you.

Here is the link for the logo stuffs (ai file and the font) if anybody interested: webcosmo.com/logo.zip

Cool! Please don't tell me you've posted in other forums as well...

Originally Posted by yawez.com

Cool! Please don't tell me you've posted in other forums as well...

are you afraid of the competition? yes i did.

I'm in....

Originally Posted by 3ncryptabl3_lick

I'm in....

awesome, looking forward to see a great work pal

why do you need a design for that site, I love the current design; simple and elegant.

Originally Posted by mastermind

why do you need a design for that site, I love the current design; simple and elegant.

we are having a social networking component added to the classified ads. so the whole layout need to be redesigned to accommodate that.

Okay here is my entry. It’s basically a three column design.

It's a departure from, what I'm sure you're used too. I think, to be noticed, you need to be bold and stand out.

Homepage

Header:
-I took a cue from both your forum and webcosmo.com and merged the logo and space theme into a stylish graphic. I tilted the webcosmo logo to give the overall look a more whimsical and less corporate feel – it also works well with the angled planet. Overall, I think it combines both concepts nicely without being too spacey and adds a nice glow of warmth.
-User details are all in the top right corner. Log Out | Account is replaced with Sign In | Register for none-users visiting the site. The mini-icons are optional> Home, Sitemap, Contact.
-Tagline space is available if needed.

Navigation bar:
-Home is the current page/hover color
-Incorporated the Location feature into the navbar.
-Search Link is a java dropdown a-la vBulletin if that’s possible, otherwise it’s a direct link to an advanced search page (remove the arrow)
-Social Net Link takes us to the Main Social Page. If you’ll have one.

Left Column:
-Jobs tab is the selected/hover color.
-List of the top directories and amount of current viewers (if you can do that). At the bottom of the list is the Area List link and Search Link.
-Event Calendar. Nothing to say here. Add Event Link and a View All events Link.

Right Column:
-Newest Members List with links to their profiles. Members list Link, Search link. The webcosmo logo is used to denote the latest members as well as the order. Brighter is newb, faded is older.
-Latest Businesses, same as above.
-Polls list with a View Polls Link and New Poll Link.

Center Column
-Welcome message
-Latest classified ads. User names are at the end of the directory tree. ‘More’ link at the end of an appended description takes us to the primary ad page.

Notes:
I tried to keep some things standard. Hyperlinks are underlined (most of them) and blue, just a lighter shade. So if it’s underlined, its a link. Some other things can be links as well, like the title of the ads in the center but I didn’t feel it was necessary to underline that and would have been overkill. There’s a more button and of course you can make the title linked, just not underlined.

It looks graphics heavy, but it isn’t. Not in my opinion, anyways. Mostly everything is a solid color with a 1px outline. Save for the headings, header and navigation bar. Yes, it will require some fancy CSS, especially if you want the arrows to hover change with its associated link: ie – Directory Search link in orange along with the arrow in orange.

Some of the fonts are on the small side but will render fine if you take care to consider macs and the font type. I can read them just fine and the ones that are sub 9px, aren’t incredibly important or obfuscated. (high contrast) They are details, there when you look for them, otherwise they disappear.

The inner pages are basically the center portion only as the header, nav and both left and right sidebars should continue through the site, though that's up too you.

We can fill it up with more, I just stopped because I’ve put into it as much time as I could. It only gets better from here if you like it and want it, otherwise if you think its crap, or is just not in the direction you wanted to go then I wouldn’t have lost too much time.

We make changes and modifications only if it wins.

Originally Posted by 3ncryptabl3_lick

...........

Thanks for the submission pal.
There are lot to like in this design. Lets wait until the deadline.

dang thats a lot of money! wish I knew designs. can I just have the money

@mastermind , yeah haha nice one man , but in your dreams only lol , its alot of money... im busy with school stuff.

Originally Posted by mastermind

dang thats a lot of money! wish I knew designs. can I just have the money

you are funny.

encryptible lick? I have seen this user before? Are you from V7N?

uhh...

...

... No?