30 Minute Redesigns Have Moved to Blogs.FanExtra

Most of you will already be familiar with the hugely successful post series 30 Minute Redesigns which we launched nearly 2 years ago (wow, doesn’t time fly!) at our design blog PSD.FanExtra. The series has seen 75 redesigns, received hundreds of awesome comments and a lot of support from the blogging and design communities.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, each week I allow readers to suggest their own websites for a ‘free 30 minute redesign’. I then host a poll where our community votes which site is most deserving of the redesign. Then later that week I redesign the homepage of the winning website in just 30 minutes (yes I can work really fast when needed!).

The point of the series is to show just how drastically most websites can be improved upon, and how it doesn’t need to take loads of time and resources. I always document the strengths and weaknesses of the original website and talk about my aims for the redesign. The aim is not merely to make one website prettier, but to educate people about the fundamentals of design that often go ignored.

An example of a recent 30 minute redesign, hosted at PSD.FanExtra

Why the Move?

The simple answer is that I feel the series will fit better at Blogs.FanExtra. PSD.FanExtra is a design blog, but has always been more Photoshop focused, often looking more at digital art than web theory. Many of you guys are specifically looking how to improve your blogs, so it seemed like the natural solution to teach web design theory here.

I will tell you that we’ve got some great improvements planned for the course. Whilst the redesigns will still be achieved within 30 minutes, I’ll be extending the theory behind the redesigns and make it really clear why I’m making certain design decisions.

We Need Suggestions for Our First Redesign

To get this new version of the series started I need some suggestions of websites to redesign. Ideally I’m looking for blogs, but any website will do, as long as it’s English language (so I can properly understand the content and context) and it’s YOUR website.

Simply leave a comment below suggesting your website and I’ll pick my favorite site for a redesign this Saturday. In future weeks we’ll integrate the voting system again, but for this first redesign I’d just like to get the ball rolling.

I’m really excited to unveil the new series and hope many of you will enjoy reading it and getting involved.

About the Author:

Tom is the chief editor at Blogs.FanExtra and founder of the FanExtra network. He loves interacting with the community, so if you have any questions hit up the contact page and he'll get back to you.

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6 Comments:

Tricia says:

January 19, 2012 at 8:39 pm

Oh, wow, I love what you are doing here! I spent some time perusing your previous redesigns, and your advice is really excellent, I’ve already learned a lot! :) I figured I would take a stab at a redesign suggestion, since I’ve been dragging my feet on redesigning my sites. lol. My personal site (blog) is at magickalmusings.net, and I have a portfolio site at digitalmagick.net. Either one could definitely be better off with an overhaul, although the portfolio design is much older.

Thank you again for the opportunity! :D

Reply
- Tom says:
  
  January 19, 2012 at 11:58 pm
  
  Thanks so much for the support Tricia, it’s awesome having so many people involved in the community here already. I can’t wait to get started with ‘version 2′ of the redesign series.
  
  Had a look over your blog and it looks pretty cool! Of course there are areas for improvement so I’ll certainly bear it in mind for this weeks redesign.
  
  Reply
Su Hall says:

January 20, 2012 at 2:13 am

Hi, Tom,

May I suggest a re-design on my blog? I would be both honored and flattered if you could ‘show me’ on my blog, A Lady in Florida. As you can see, it is a ‘clean slate’. Actually, I removed all the old content to start over, but, don’t know where to begin. LOL
I am open for any help you may be able to give me. I’ve been looking forward to this Blog.Fan.Extra site to open to hopefully begin using that blog.
I don’t know what all information you would need, but, perhaps a look at the blog I use now, Suruha-Freespirit would give you an idea of my needs. I want to move away from Brand-X.
I am really looking forward to this if I am chosen!
Thank you in advance!

Su

Reply
- Tom says:
  
  January 20, 2012 at 3:25 am
  
  Hey Su, thanks for the suggestions. It’s actually pretty tough to redesign a site without any content, as the content helps shape the design. Would you consider letting me redesign your main blog (Suruha-Freespirit), as I can see a lot of design pointers to use there?
  
  Reply
Xps says:

January 21, 2012 at 2:59 am

I’ll be sure to update my bookmark. I’ve enjoyed your “30 Minute Redesign” series for a while because it provides inspiration on how I can modify things for my own site. I’ve always considered myself a developer rather than a designer because I don’t have that natural creativity many designers have. I’m more of a modifier than a creator and I’m more comfortable in Notepad++ than Photoshop. I also got formal education in software and web development rather than print-ad/web design. Although I haven’t in the past, I’d like to finally submit my website for consideration of a 30 minute redesign. I’d like to see adjustments a designer would make. Edit: Do you plan to migrate this series from PSDfan?

Reply
- Tom says:
  
  January 21, 2012 at 5:06 pm
  
  Thanks Xps. That’s exactly what I aim for – the series isn’t just to help out those who receive the redesign, but everybody reading by teaching basic design principles. I know what you mean natural talents. I love designing but I can’t code to save my life!
  
  Thanks for the suggestion though I’m afraid you just missed out on this week’s redesign. If you leave a comment on the redesign post though you’ll 100% get entered into the poll for next Saturday’s redesign.
  
  Reply

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