To the uninitiated, the current CNN home page is cluttered and overpopulated to say the least. So when I saw that CNN was launching a beta site with a redesign I was very interested to see the new direction. I have been aware of the issues on the CNN home page for some time now, and thought a new design was in order, and well overdue.
The blog reviews I have read about the new beta design have been mixed, but for mine I would say that, although not fantastic, it is a step in the right direction.
I can say this because I’ve already considered the design direction in which CNN should be headed. Here’s one I prepared earlier. Literally. Over 4 months ago I took some time to redesign the CNN homepage addressing some design and layout issues.
As you can see, the current CNN design is quite busy, clumsy division of information segments and a bit flat. The site isn’t 100% crap, but I saw room for improvement.
My first concept took inspiration from the design direction of CNN’s on air titles (or bumpers).
The restriction was to include all the content CNN had on their front web page and The goal was to create a well-balanced layout and clean design that gave CNN a defined style to their web presence, while equally allowing the content to shine.
The below are my design solutions (and recommendations to Turner)
Concept 01 strips back to simplicity and compliments the network tv titles; a bold black, white and red color palette was used. The layout is very modular, and easily scanned for content.
Concept 02 presents a simple and progressive design style giving the content more space to breathe with clear definition of information.
Click images for full size versions.
Designed by Rhett Dashwood at wadestudios.com
The discovery of the CNN beta site was my main motivation for publishing my design alternatives that I had completed several months back. I’d be really happy if these designs somehow found their way to CNN or Turner staff (especially marketing and design dept), so if you know someone :) I’d more than welcome their comments.
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