Redesigning existing websites allows me to test my own ability as a designer and coder, but also illustrates that any design can be made usable, accessible, pretty and practical. All designs below will validate, and should be an improvement in most areas over the original documents.
The Redesigns
- Amazon New: XHTML, CSS layout and less-o-the graphics
- Redesign of everyone’s favourite e-tailer, » Amazon.com. Uses CSS positioning for layout, is structured with headings and is improved in almost every way over the original. Uses far fewer navigational graphics than the original and looks great. 25th June 2002
- UCD Personified — “How very Clever”
- I’ve been working on and off on the design of this one for months and months. Basically, I have to use my college’s website quite a lot, and am constantly frustrated by its lack of common structure, shabby graphics and poor design. So, rather than a simple design fix, this one is actually an entire architecture change, where relevant information is served up to each individual student/lecturer etc. Next stop, a working prototype... 12th September 2002
- OverClocked Remix, Remixed!
- Redesign of favourite site of mine, » OverClocked Remix. Again, a combination of floated divs, absolutely positioned content and a proper document structure make it an elegant and accessible design. More details in the design document. 18th August 2002
- RareNet 2001 — redesign
- Older (and less good) redesign of » RareNet; this doesn’t boast any of the slick CSS implementation (or even XHTML underpants) of the other sites here, as it was designed to be ‘backwards-compatible’. Tsk. 27th June 2001
Design Philosophy
- Use valid XHTML for Markup, and CSS for all presentational concerns
- Introduce a semantic document structure using headings and logical tags.
- Make the page accessible to all devices and people.
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