Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
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Comments Letsrun.com Re-Design Contest Final Round Our re-design contest has reached its final round. At 99designs.com, we can comment on each individual design that is submitted and that's what we have been doing. We also thought it would be useful to have a place where we put all of those individual comments. Apparently, it's frowned upon on their board as it clutters things up so I'll just put them here. Most recent comments appear first. Please note that the letsrun.com visitors also are commenting on the designs on the LRC forum. Read their comments here. *Please note that we don't have all of the comments here. Most of them up through Monday night but I can't guarantee we'll get them all as it is a lot of work.*** #230, you made me laugh with the QOD. did you go to Cornell? The problem with you is there are too many designs. Can you get me down to your best 3. Your best with the nav bar above QOD, best with it below and one of your choice. I'm not sure if i like the new logo. maybe. maybe not. also does #163 have a slightly darker grey bottom than the others. if so, i prefer that. but pick your top 3 and get rid of the others. It will help your chances. One of my favorite books is "The Paradox of Choice." HUmans don't like so many choices. You can eliminate ones i have at 4 stars - just tell me what 3 you like best. #205 and #206 are my favs. I'd like the QOD to be centered though please. It drives me nuts hwo it's not centered. If you one a photo in there, put it to the left but QOD must be centered in those two columns. I think 206 is better but would need to see it again to know for sure. You did a very good job adding in a photo gallery as i suggested to others. nice job. Can we see #205 with it centered and then with it white as in #188 #191 too much shading up top. #227, Burnham, i see what you mean about the blue adding in the vertical stuff so much. But that may just be when you look at thumbnail as it looks ok when you are searching. but because of that 227 and 199 may be yuor best. font is better in 198 as u said. i think i prefer smaller quotes for QOD but don't really care. So 227 is your best as you said. i really like the on the boards up there. very well done. what about having a small white line or something that goes around it in sort of square with rounded corners or maybe just a verticle line to separate it (white or grey) from QOD section. #210 teal is prob my least favorite color in the world. you have some good ideas but this late in the game i think it's going to be hjard for you as everyone already has some favorites so you'd have to really nail it. i think some of those rectangular boxes are too big as well. i don't like the new logo. #184, you have great colors and a lot of potential. i was on a call with some people today and they used your thumbnail as a good color scheme. a classic dark blue. Some major concerns. 1) Your design doesn't meet our must haves. I'm not sure if we could use it as a result. Your ads simply wouldn't fit. The 720 x 90 and 300 x 250 plus the logo wouldn't all fit. Your horizontal ad is too short. Also we don't want the two ads (your 300 x 250 is a video player but normally it's an ad on our site) actually touching like they are on your design. If you could somehow fix that and then somehow just put the QOD under a simple QOD header that says "Quote of the day" you'd have a great design. Maybe make it a little lighter for the QOD of- like grey instead of so dark? I'm just thinking out loud here Josh, the green color makes me sick. i coudln't even look at those. Can we see your ideas but make it look like #190 or at least use those colors. teh concept of red for must reads is interesting. you could try that as i'd like to see it again. If you made one of your later ones like #190 colors, then we prob give it four stars. the QOD placement in #190 is wrong. it must be in middle in that situation. we don't watn video though and ad up there. #224, u must be a regular visitor either that or lucky as we love usain bolt. #224 is good. i'd like to see the search bar on the right of the nav bar as u sort of had it in 166 - just to the right. most sites have search on the right. It's a very classic, clean look overall. I like how the Messageboard thing is in red. I like the logo in the middle and the bottom. interesting how u did that. u must be a runner. i like the 'run to the top thing as well.' #183 that much yellow is too much up top. the logo is too much as well. if you are going to change the logo, it needs to be an improvement. yours just gives me a headache. Thanks for trying. #185 Daniel. I've got to admit, this is a very interesting concept. The newspaper. We are big fans of newspapers although it seems like people under 25 have never read them. Very well done. I just doubt that we'll end up changing things this radically. Maybe we should, but i doubt we will. I will email it to weldon and make sure he looks at it when he gets up. He's in egypt right now. Very well done. I just doubt that we'll end up changing things this radically. Maybe we should, but i doubt we will. I will email it to weldon and make sure he looks at it when he gets up. He's in egypt right now. I just showed it to a kid on my team and he said, "Is this a magazine?" #186. a great first attempt. it certainly helps to be a visitor to the site. The layout is good. the blue and black contrast looks good, the bottom is good. You clearly come to the site and realize what we could put down there. nice nav bar (maybe a tiny bit thinner?). i love the yellow there and want yellow in all my nav bars. i like the black nav bar. interesting. I like the grey background for quote of the day. My concerns really all come from the fact that you made your design really pretty but it doesn't reflect how in practicality we do the site each day. In reality, we don't always have equal amounts of world news and national news so i don't think those headers work. Would you still do the black for column 1 and blue for column 2 if we don't have headers? Can I see it if it was a consistent color? ALso i like to make comments about the articles in bold above the link. how would u do that? can you do those things? Also the quote of the day isn't done right. Can I see it without the picture (i'm not sure if there always will be a picture) and have it all centered. On the world famous message board is there anyway to do "World Famous" above Message board. make it two tight lines.
#128 is the best of all of your entries. I'm putting it at 4 stars so my consultatns will look at it and not the other ones. I did notice a few things. The line separating column one from column two isn't the same. Make it the same. Get rid of the 2nd 300 x 250 ad in the 3rd column. In the nav bar, maybe use small vertical lines or dots to separate the subjects. Maybe make the text for the Messageboard a diffiernt color. I'd make the nav bar a little thinner. I like thin stuff. We are runners. Thin is in.
#155 I like the placement of the boards on the right hand side and your navigation bar placement. However I think the navigation bar needs to be a bit bigger. The articles are a little hard to see so the font needs to be darker as there is not enough contrast between the font and the background. Either that or slightly change the background color so there is more contrast. I also think you need to do something with the bottom right. Maybe something with links to recommended reads, or popular posts, or training advice. Or how about random small pictures. We may have users submit photos.
#61, The reason why we waited so long to comment was honestly we were a bit intimidated for us amateurs to comment on such a pros design. Not only are you a pro but you also a pro runner designer. We felt like you deserved more serious thought and then we didn't realize you hadn't been commented on. Things I'd change: I dont think there is enough contrast on the font in the body of the text. It's like too light or something. I'd put the search bar on the right. I dont like how the right column doesn't line up with the 1st two. What I like: I like the photo album thing. I just wrote someeone else and told them we were almost certainly going to do that somewhere so use that to fill space. I like the blue right hand column. #132 . Bottom is good. Right column blue is good. The one line looks great. How about instead of those three dark columns up top putting the QOD quote of the day right there like we currently have it. Would that work. I mean the news doesnt always break down into three columns. Let me see that as I think it would have a lot of potential. #157. Color scheme just doesnt' work. Our historic colors are yellow and blue with a little red. No way we go with green. Also you basically have only one major column for news. We want two and we want that on the left as the news is most important and people read left to right. #154 . Burnham, what's up man. Wejo was given me hell for making your a studly designer in the 1st place as it wasn't very sophisticated but you've come through very nicely with #154 . The top is brilliant. Quote of the day on up!! Very brilliant. Classic nav bar looks great with your logo. Yes we now realize half-way through the competition we are willing to redo the logo as long as it reminds everyone of the old one. You did that excellently. Additionally, your yellow and blue contrast is classic and reminds everyone of our site. As for the site itself, your fonts are fantastic and the way you link to thinks is great as well . What I
don't like. But
mainly the bottom. I think it's an interesting concept to just keep pushing the
news down with the previous day but it's not real practical as the week after
the Boston marathon - that news is relevant for the whole week. I'd rather see
something else. Two options: 1) Either just end the site after the first day or
2) Do something with past special event coverage or photos or something as
others have suggested. Maybe have the bottom in a diff color if you do this
(Grey/black, etc). #122 not a bad first start. i like the nav bar. i like the overall classic rectangle feel to your site. Maybe ad a search to the nav bar. Biggest problems. 1) Quote of day. You could center the QOD headline as well as the quote. Also don't leave all of that blank space. Please put the headline right above the quote and the name/description right below it as we currently do. Also a lot of our news is just links so we'd like to have hyperlinks instead of those arrows. Blue on the boards is nice. #144 Not a winner unfortunately. Font too big. dotted lines not good. THanks for trying. #138 Interesting idea up top. one of the things we want to make clear right away is it's a running site and we've long contemplated putting little runners near the logo. Their are major problems however. Everything is way too big. There is way too much space between the text. Your fonts are all gigantic. You have two stories in like six inches. Normaly we'd have 10 in the first six inches of the body. Please see some of the other sites that have compact text. In that light, Your nav bar is twice as large as it needs to be. What is the 1,2,3,4,5,6 stuff? #131 nice design but not what we are looking for. Zero chance we go for one news column. Our site is about the content - not the design. Your site is all about the design. #74, i just think there is too much color. We are all about simplicity and white (maybe tan or grey) is what we are after. People want to come to our site and quickly find their info. All of that color puts the emphasis on teh site and the layout versus the emphasis being on the content. #70 I dont think this design will win but i'm giving you 4 stars as this is probably exactly what I would have done myself except i want one line between the columns - thats' my big pet peeved. Very text based, 3 columns etc. I think ultimately though I realize we need something a little more advanced. I never thought I'd say this but my logo is making me sick today!!! Maybe it's just me as over the weekend i was saying I'd never change the logo. Maybe now i'm just getting tired once again.
#88 and #89. First of all, I really enjoyed your description a great deal. it was right on the money. The problem with design contests is a lot of people don't understand two things. 1) What the site is all about - getting all that news out there quickly which you totally get and 2) How we do it pragmatifcally on a daily basis. It's just not practical to have some overtly graphical site that needs a ton of care every day to look right. You totally get this stuff. I mean the problem with these contests is after a few hours of looking at them, there is a tendency to gravitate towards pretty but unfunctional designs. I'm trying not to do that. That being said, I just don't quite like yours for some reason. Can you maybe redo it with the original logo. Also since you centered the logo, please center the QOD. #102 Everything is just too light. It's almost as if I can't see the design. the colors are too light. That teal or whatever you call that greenish blue color is like my least favorite color in the world. But don't feel too bad. It may be just that it was my ex gf's favorite color. Thanks for trying though. #47 , Very well done. I like a lot of it. The columns are done perfectly. Nice simple small lines between them, great spacing on text, nice fonts, etc. Your nav bar is also the type I really like. ALL Caps, rectangular, etc. I like the classic color contrast on the site as well. I also like how the body of the site is a slight tan color - not white. It's not a color but the tan adds something to it. A nice touch. What I dont like. Changes
I'd make additionally. Sorry for taking so long. #93 , First of all. Let me state that before I even looked at your design, I really enjoyed reading your description of your work. It's fascinating to listen to a good designer describe their work and thought processes behind it. Very informative. I onthe other hand often now what I like but can't explain it. So thanks so much for that and for telling me about the fonts. Would it be possible to see #93 with the ad up there next to the QOD anyway? I'm going to be talking to our ad people today anyway and they may prefer to have it where you have it but I'd like to see your design with it up there anyway and see if that space really looks too bad - decide for myself if you will. If you do that, then center the QOD over 1st two columns. Also what about seeing #93 but with the logo next to the QOD as in your original? That looked really good. that might help also create more space which would work well for the 300 x 250 as you had the ad there on the origina. i'm giving you 4 stars as I want my consultant to look at it. H2ourius, I really like all of your stuff. I am confused now though as its' hard for me to tell what the difference is on all of them. The text in the body of 67-69 is just too spread out. It has to be more like #71-72. So I prefer 71-2 but I can't tell the difference though between some of them. I think bottom part of 67-69 may be better than 71-72. Would it be possible to see 71 and 72 with the bottom of 67-69? Or vice versa you could redo 67-69 with the text of 71-72. But when you reput them up there, can you please tell me what the major differences are so I can focus there? I do notice that I prefer the smaller font for the "Quote of the Day." That seems to be one difference I notice. ALso note, I tried to eliminate a few as a consultant is going to look at designs later today adn I didn't want him to have to look at 80 plus designs. Great stuff though. #97, I didn't even see your comments about the drudge report. But when I was looking at it, I thought "I see why he did this. He's trying to take what I said about the drudge report and apply it to our site." Thus I think youu are going to have a future in this business as you clearly meet the clients needs. Unfortunately, the client sometimes doesn't seemingly know what he wants as I just don't like it that much. I think it has too much color for that simple of a design. Drudge works cause it's all dark text. I'm going to talk to our ad partners later today and try to update people on what we are wanting. We want to add a little color but if the design is that simple, the two just don't go hand in hand. But i apologize for askign for two contrasting things. It's hard to describe what I want. #43,51.Sorry for nor responses. You are one of the few who actually gave me what I
asked for - 3 columns, etc - but for some reason I am not in love with your
design. I think there is just too much random color. It seems as if it's
alternating all over the place. I totally see why you did it as your design
reminds me of the feel our logo gives but we're trying to move away from that
3rd grade macpaint feel (as someone else said about our logo) and be more
refined. As for search, it's no biggie. We'll probably have search but you
could easily put it in the nav bar. No worries there. #60 #57, 58 #37 AND #78 . Sorry the lack of response. I am surprised there wasn't any feedback as my brother talked to me about yours today on the phone. We've both largely been away from the computer today so we've been sorting the entries by "Those Without Comments" but just realized if we've commented at all on anyone's design, then you don't show up as someone in need of a comment. #78 - the top looks good. The updated logo is nice looking but the problem is your body of #37 is way better. Can we see #78 with the body of#37 (3 columns, very bottom footer, etc). Right now the right column is missing and there is all that space. So take the quote of the day there and put it on #37 . For #78 , you need to move the text in the body up. Get it much closer to that horizontal line as you did on #37 . Right now there is like an inch of wasted space there. Let
me know if that makes sense. I'm absolutely exhausted and am going to bed. I
only wrote as I saw your message. I'm sure i'll make more sense
tomorrow.Anyway, my brother loved how you incorporate the logo into the nav
bar. He thought that was very clever. It looks great. I always thought I wanted
the nav bar below the quote of the day to sort of separate the top from the
body but maybe it isn't necessary.
#81,
your design skills are clearly very classy. The top ad, nav bar, etc shows your
talent. Your nav bar is very nice and elegant. Simple rectangular look with
staight lines and I LOVE the font on your nav bar. A few other nav bars are
similar but this is certainly one of the best. Nice colors contrast, use of
classic colors, nice font. Very well done. The font you use for text is pretty good.
It's not quite as nice on my eyes as the nav bar but it's way better than what
most people are using. That's the good news. The bad news is we simply would
never have a site like either one of these as it's not functional for what we
want to do. We want to get as much news out as quickly as possible. We've
changed the brief to state that we need at least two columns for news. Please
read what we wrote. My original idea for the whole redesign was to get rid of
our useless left column (and put that stuff in the nav bar) and have 3 wider
columns for news so we could get more news up high and get it out to our
visitors quicker. If the columns are wider, the news gets out faster. So make
at least two columns for news. We don't need any of the stuff in our current
left column or your left column. Overall design isn't close but great nav bar. #54, the way you did the top is interesting. Using the logo and the tagline "where your dreams become reality" to separate the ads and what not. Pretty clever. My brother is obsessed with having compact space up top so i bet he wouldn't like it but i like how that looks with that space. But overall looking at your design, i never thought i'd say this but it just seems like it's too much white. I also don't particularly like the font for some reason. Maybe because I'm exhausted. So
change the font. But it is a very simple look which is what we thought we
wanted but it might just be too simple. #22 Not our favorite. That ad up top is a little freaky. #53
and #17
#36,
This is a very simple design which is something we are looking for but there
just wasn't any time put into the design. The body of the site almsot seems
like a joke. Clearly this design won't win but I did comment because I think
other designers would benefit though from trying not to overdo everything. #34,
you nav bar is very well done. Great actually. You are dead on your thoughts
about it and the links and what not. Very good thinking. However, I don't like
the design as a whole. Just way too much going on and way too much bright red
color - makes my eyes hurt. We use red for special things - not the whole site.
Also I think there is no chance that we put the 720 x 90 where you have it.
Move it up. It's just not as simple of a design as i'd like. #41
is better than #32 because the text isn't bolded. We don't want the descriptive
text to be bolded (maybe the headlines but not the descriptive text). Your on
the board idea in #41 is a nice idea but doesn't look good the way it is
presented. The quote of the day box is too much as well. Definitely get rid of
that and maybe get rid of the ad to the left of the quote of the day as it
makes your design look way too cluttered. It would take a lot to get us to
change our logo too much so there is no chance we'd go with yours. Our logo
while drawn by the equivalent of a 3rd grader has a lot of charm. #23, I feel like it's just a little too much blue. Blue links, blue background etc. Designers lover everything to match. Maybe if you had the original logo it would look better? I'd center justify the quote of the day and move nav bar below the quote of the day. #19 A very strong first attempt. I think the bottom is very well done. We're thinking of having more photos (maybe user submitted and were thinking of a gallery like that). All designers seemingly want to give us column headers like "Political News" "What's News" and what not but often times there are no headers. I like your headers but often we'd just have links without them so maybe if you try again, take a few of those out and have more text/links as that's a bit more realistic and what it would like like most days. If you redo it, can you change the 720 x 90 ad to something else slightly prettier? That ad is just such an ugly color it takes away some of the beauty of your strong design. Maybe do two identical submissions but one with original logo and one with out it. #16 You are clearly a talented designer. I just think it's too much change from what we currently have. I don't think we'd be willing to totally change the color scheme and get rid of our logo. Maybe one but not certainly both. #50 Looks good. Not sure why everyone is adding in those ads. I'll have to ask my brother if we even need those. I don't think so. I like it better without them but it's no biggie. Hello. h2orius. Keep up the great work. #30 I think I'm going to stop looking at sites for a few hours and take a dinner break as I'm getting a little cranky. So don't take this personally but this definitely isn't one of my favorites unfortunately. Above the nav bar, it's just not smooth at all. It's clear it's sort of 1-2-3 (left, middle right column) instead of a flow. The new logo isn't likeable and it just doesn't flow together.The bottom of the site is much better. Thanks for trying. #5 A very interesting concept as you ad color to the site which helps take away from the over clutter of text which is what we need. We'd like to see what it would look like if you didn't have the ads in red (we know they won't be in red). Also the body of text (after each headline) shouldn't be bolded. We only bold names in the body. So change the color of the ads and unbold the text. ** 2nd post**With the initial mockup there seemed to be too much red but those were in reality place holders. Not sure which nav bar we'd like better. Also not sure if the blue box around the quote of the day is necessary. Not my favorite. But i really like how you saved space putting everything together. #29, I like the quote of the day much better on #29 than #14. The simpler the better. I think on #29, if the text in the nav bar was consistently white instead of changing from white to grey it would be better. Also normally we don't' have so many LetsRun.com articles. ybe when you redo it, just do some more generic non-red links. I like the red but in the real world, there won't be that much of it which is a good thing as it's a bit much in your example and it's not realistic. #21 a good first attempt as it's simple and elegant. I'd say the following and I told another guy this as well . I think from a pragmatic standpoint we want all columns at least 300 pixels wide (so we could put a video or ad down there in the right column if we needed to). 1) So redo the site but with 3 full columns of news like on drudgereport.com. The right column is the one that is always a bit wacky (polls, weird news, etc.). 2) Add a very thin lines between to separate the columns (like on several other designs or drudgereport.com) 3) Add a horizontal thin line to separate the quote of day section from main body section. We have those lines on the site now but they are overly jumbled and are 3-4 lines instead of one very thin one. #13 I think there is too much space with the space on the left of the quote. we could easily center that part when there isn't a 2nd ad.
Also to consolidate space before the news starts what if you took out the search box and moved the 300*250 up in that spot?
Maybe too much space between the columns for the news part.
I really do like how you highlight the On the Boards stuff. They are a key part of our website and bringing attention to them is good.
#12 and #17,We (both cofounders of the site) really like how your design saves space and its overall look.
Probably our favorite so far. One concern is how the quote of the day would look if there is no picture with it. we won't always have a picture to go with it but i think it might look fine just centered with whitespace.
What is the previous/all thing? My only question.
Also some of the faithful might want to see the original logo. It's 8 years going strong and hasn't changed with the rest of our site.
Really like what I see.
10 We've re-edited the brief to let people know that we post 10-15 stories per day. You have way too much space between your text and thus only a few stories appear. Ours is similar to the drudgereport.com in that we put a ton of info up there quickly. You have 3 columns and two are for news which a lot of people didn't do. You also highlight the quote of the day well. Ads in right place. BUT WE NEED WAY MORE DENSITY OF INFO. #9, You do a good job of overcoming so much text on our site and making it look pretty despite us having so much text.
The problem is how in god's name would one implement this on a daily basis. Every other font is a different color. It would be a nightmare to implement and isn't practical.
Also, for your news items, you have picked special things to highlight which are easier to make pretty. The fact is much of the daily news is just links to small articles. It's not original content (which we often highlight in a diff color).
What would your site look like if say you used today (January 10th) as your basis. Lots of important but not sexy news. Not sure if that would work with your design. It would be interesting to see that.
#7 and 8,
We're going to want each column to be at least 300.
We realized after getting the first few designs that we need to make one thing clear. We need at least two columns for news. The whole point of the design contest is to get rid of what is our current left column and put a horizontal nav bar across the top. Make it more like this sketch:https://www.letsrun.com/photos/2009/rojosketch.jpg
We don't need any of that crap in the left column Make your left column news.
We edited the brief to reflect this change.
Please note: At least two of the columns must be for news. It's important for people to realize that we post 12-15 new news item per day. That is what the site is all about.
#6, Your design looks clean and I can see why a graphics guy would produce it, but it doesn't really reflect how our site works. Our site is all about news. It's like the drudgereport.com but for running. It will never be the prettiest site. Your "Recent Articles" and "Latest News" sections enable your design to look clean but those things are exactly the same thing on our site.
All graphics people instantly try to section our site off into neat little sections which don't exist.
We're not scared by the density of info on our site and in fact want to get 10-15 stories up there quickly (See our editing of the brief - it appears in red).
We've told a lot of other people that we'd be interested in seeing their design redone buta keep the quote of the day where it currently is on our site - in the middle above the nav bar.
#3, I think your design is very clean and a good start. Ideally however, I think there needs to be 2 columns of news in the center instead of the 1 you have. Perhaps you could accomplish this by having more news on the right hand column. Feel free to leave out the 2nd video player (we could interchange it with the photos below it and only have 1 300*250 in that spot) and put more news there. My other concern is the 728*90 in the middle. With the two Roadrunner banners next to them you fill up the whole screen (probably 1000+ pixels which is good) but it seems like there might be wasted space. What about perhaps moving hte 728*90 up to the top next to the logo? Not sure if that would work. The current quote of the day with the photo looks good. But I'm worried on some days we may not have a photo and there could be a lot of wasted space. This last comment is just more me thinking out loud and not a major concern. hope this feedback helps. The main thing is to get a 2nd column of news in there and feel free to take out either the photo or video thing on the right as I think that is key to how we like to present our news. Your design is very clean. ** 2nd post** #3 (The co-founders of the site are twins - this is the other co-founder writing). I really like your as its clean and simple and reminds us of our current site. We'll have to decide to we want something similar or not. We've edited the brief to state that we need to columns for news. So just change your left column to news. We don't need any of that info that we have there currently on our homepage. Also move the "On The Boards" To the right just below the video ad. That's historically where we put our message board stuff. You were one of the few to really promote the quote of the day which is good. Unlike my brother, I'm not as concerned about the wasted space by the 720 x 90. I feel like we could use that road runner space for something else if we wanted to or needed to.
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Runner's World &
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