Project 3 Preliminary

[Cole_Richards]

For Project 3 I went with Craigslist. I hear you "but it's not that bad right?" I implore you to take a look at the website again, by no means is it terrible, but it is no where close to being a beautifully designed website, it's a bunch of links, links everywhere. So I wanted to take the main idea of Craigslist and redesign it for the 21st century. For the first design I wanted to keep the essence of current craigslist, but then completely change it, adding a recommended tab, a search-bar in the middle, and the categories on the left. For the second I completely changed everything, adding a background color and the categories in the middle, which later will become drop down menus. I think the direction I'm going is good, but please tell me if I'm completely wrong. Thanks!

[Fatkid53]

Wow thats a big lift for this project and I applaud you. I think I dig the simplicity and color scheme of the second design, the hard part with a redesign of this magnitude will be improving the functionality of this site which drives a lot of folks to tearing their hair out. I think you have a great start at that. The first part I may adjust is to possibly leave a little breathing room for the functionality you may discover moving forward, the second being the contrast within the links and their containers for UI could be a bit more stark and keep consistent with the simplistic style you seem to be heading for. Kudos and good luck moving forward.

[Elle Barre]

Hi Cole,

Your redesign is attractive and streamlined and organized, colorwise and shapeswise. As a frequent user of Craigslist for various things, one of the best things about it is that you can be in the department you want in two clicks. The door to every aisle in the store is on the first page in category order, and nothing but. No distractions: no color, no art, no photos, just the index. I like it, but, I WOULD like it to be purple, and have a bigger nicely colored peace sign--it is soothing, it's pleasant, it alters one's mood just looking at it, vs. CL today. I'd be willing to do three clicks or even four clicks to get where I want to.
I like the purple background for the first page, and for the categories page, and then the white background for the items pages. I don't feel I can articulate why, but I definitely would prefer it that way: purple on the title pages, and white on the 'shelves of stuff' pages, for my own purposes as a user of the site. :- ) Beautiful looking design.

[Samantha_Thomas]

heya, cole,
As someone who has never even been on the craigslist website before, I got curious and looked. I can see why you choose that for your redesign now.
The first one might be good cause it organizes things nicely and is much easier to read than the original. Plus, the color keeps the craigslist feeling to it. The second one, I feel, could go just as well. It's mainly the background that bothers me so much in the second one. So if you go with that one, I suggest messing around with the background color.

[lilykmitch]

Hey Cole
I think your first design is really nice it is set up well and organizes all the random stuff that is on craigslist. I especially like the desktop version's layout and the colors keep the craigslist theme but make it look more professional and less chaotic.

[zandrews]

Hey Cole!

Omg I have been saying for the longest time how craiglist really needs to hire a designer to update their site - it STILL looks like it belongs in 1999 on an apple lunch box computer. For how popular the site still is, I am shocked they haven't gotten a refresh and especially with so many competitors like FB marketplace, etc. SO in other words, killer pic for a site redesign! I wish I would've though of this one!

As for your site redesigns, I would go set 2 (I feel set 1 still looks to reminiscent of the current site with a slight upgrade where as set 2 definitely feels like a refresh! In terms of set two, love the color combo as it keeps the integrity of the purple craiglist brand whilst expanding the hues and shades to have something more to play with in your redesign. I also think you've done a very good job on carrying out a clean, organized layout. My only advice moving forward is don't be afraid to take some risks and get whack with your layout - I would even take inspiration from other modern sites or even facebook marketplace and modernize the item sale page and listing pages.

Overall though very strong start here and I cant wait to see where you take this. Again, fantastic website pic. Such a no brainer of a popular site that needs a major refresh. Great work!

[Instructor]

This is the first time I've seen anyone do Craigslist in these classes. Good pick!

I like your second design better because it puts more distance between itself and the actual look and feel of Craigslist than does the first one.

Those shades of purple in your second one are bold colors for the pale type to play off of. You have enough contrast between the purples that it doesn't become monotone. A bold and frankly risky choice that works here. What really stands out to me though is your use of margins. You have a strong grid system established here and you do a great job of using even margins to enforce proximity and distance, creating an easy to follow pattern throughout your composition. Your type is clean and easy to read. Your navigation is bold and easy to see and use. People should be able to easily navigate through this thing. Especially with the tone setting button column(s) on the home page. I also like the customized search bar. It's very visible, but not boxy which stands out on a gridded layout like these.

I think your home page should have some photos on it. So far I don't see any places set aside for them on it. I'd add a little more top and left margin to your peace sign logo, too. I'd also recommend bolding your navigation type so your buttons and footer nav stand out a bit more.

Not bad!

[squidgola33]

wow im actually extremely glad you chose to redo craigslist. I wondered for the longest time why such a widely used website looked so horrid. I really like what you've done to it. I like how you've kept the ogival grey and purple theme but made it more organized and easier to navigate. it no longer looks like a scam website. I personally think your first concept is better than the rest.

[James Hill]

Hello,
You designs are interesting and differently from the original. I see why you went with craigslist as it is an ugly website. You sure gave it a face lift. I think your first design works good. Great work.

[Megan Greaves]

I remember seeing craigslist show up when searching for my own bad website but passed it up for my own reasons, but I think it was a very solid choice for a redesign. A webpage for a service like the one they're offering needs to be way more organized than what they have currently. I think between your two designs I like the layout of the first set better but the darker palette of the second set. Maybe if you combined the two in such a way that the darker colors don't overwhelm the whole. It's a nice start tho; it's definitely more professional and easier to navigate than the current site.