Some of the web sites I think it would be most difficult to redesign, yet the most rewarding:
- eBay
- Drudge Report
- CraigsList
- Slashdot
And when I say difficult what I mean is this: redesign without ruining the experience. Sure you could change the fonts, code them better, and provide better layouts, but would you also ruin what is so good about these sites in the experience. Changing these sites is a fragile balance because the people who use them visit daily, even hourly. This makes for a very settled customer base and as we all know, people don’t like change.
Can you think of any others I’ve missed?
6 responses to “Redesigning eBay, Drudge Report, CraigsList, and Slashdot”
The folks at Slashdot are sort of redesigning – well, actually, they’re in the process of switching to a pure CSS diplay.
I have to agree, those surely would be very hard to roll out a new design (total style). Yet it would definately be the most rewarding.
The only one I think you could redesign is Drudge, there would be a few ways of serving up the same information a little more efficiently, graphically, and would actually give the reader a better experience. But I don’t think Matt will be knocking on anyone’s door anytime soon.
Don’t forget Myspace, that beacon of ghetto design online!
Oh yes, very good comments. I heard slashdot was going pure css. I remember seeing an example someone did for A List Apart last year where they did that and the file size dropped by 75% or more. Imagine the bandwidth savings.
I agree about Drudge. He’d never go for a redesign unless you did it and presented it to him. But try getting through to him. I bet he gets more emails than the President!
MySpace. Oh yes. That’s a mess. I heard it was purchased for half a billion the other day. I for one am one of those people that only heard about myspace 1 month ago and frankly happy about that fact.
Myspace looks like GeoCities reborn in a 2005 way.
I’d have to say Microsoft’s and Amazon’s would be both be a pain.
Umm… As an American Teen I would find Abercrombie.com and Myspace as “ghetto” design.