I want to redesign the Bitcoin.org website

[perfecthue]

I think the content on there is great but could use some work visually.

I just graduated and have some free time before I start working full-time, so I want to design the entire site and maybe code it (it'll need to be responsive) and hopefully get it live.

Any feedback would definitely be appreciated. Do you think the Bitcoin foundation would be supportive?

Here is my attempt at the home page: (I've also posted this on /r/bitcoin)

https://i.imgur.com/Cy3uDBs.jpg

[bg002h]

I think the content on there is great but could use some work visually.

I just graduated and have some free time before I start working full-time, so I want to design the entire site and maybe code it (it'll need to be responsive) and hopefully get it live.

Any feedback would definitely be appreciated. Do you think the Bitcoin foundation would be supportive?

Here is my attempt at the home page: (I've also posted this on /r/bitcoin)

Welcome. Your design looks great. The site just got overhauled very recently.

A big visual challenge that hasn't been well met, IMHO, is how to graphically depict the block chain...

I'm also all for a new Bitcoin logo 

[misterbigg]

A big visual challenge that hasn't been well met, IMHO, is how to graphically depict the block chain...

Yep, that's EXACTLY what people want! Except they don't. People need a simple, clear, easy to understand explanation of Bitcoin that doesn't involve Urkle-Merkle or the SHA of Iran. The problem with the current site is that it is designed for nerds and not normal humans.

If you want Bitcoin to become mainstream, then it needs to be presented that way.

[coincepts]

regardless of whether or not they use your work, it looks nice man.

[relm9]

I think this looks much better than the current design, good job.

[aceking]

it is very good

[maz]

Thats a nice design, good job. Nicer than the current one for sure!

[kiko]

Congratulations, it's an improvement! I had forgotten what the homepage looked like, studied yours, then went over to the .org and was pleasantly disappointed. So you've succeeded in my book.

But you asked for feedback so here it is:

• I like the top header row with the clean/clear buttons
• Colour palette needs work; I get that you are using tones of the bitcoin orange, but it's too hazy looking overall and the green with the background it's on just don't go. I think you've got a few too many colours overall
• The big orange button bar is good
• I think we can lose the duplication of the two summary sentences (left side). Maybe it could just read 'Benefits' or 'Why Bitcoin?' before the 3 listed advantages.I get that you lifted the text directly but it's different now that the order of reading is not fully linear. Then make the 2nd summary bigger.
• If we have a giant developers button I don't think we need the menu option at the top. But I could be wrong on that.
• Stick with an exclamation mark not a key for the important info icon.

As a content matter, rather than layout. I think 'How to get it' should be immediately click-able from the homepage not buried in a wiki-style FAQ section.

I hope you don't think I was too harsh. It's good overall.
Your best bet for adoption is to get at least the front page done, and issue a pull request to the github repo. Lower the barrier to adoption for everyone. At least specific comments there (directly on the pull request) should be forthcoming.
Thanks for the enthusiasm, I hope you won't be dismissed just because changes were recently made.

Edit: I'm glad to see that people have been positive, while I was typing.

[perfecthue]

Congratulations, it's an improvement! I had forgotten what the homepage looked like, studied yours, then went over to the .org and was pleasantly disappointed. So you've succeeded in my book.

But you asked for feedback so here it is:

• I like the top header row with the clean/clear buttons
• Colour palette needs work; I get that you are using tones of the bitcoin orange, but it's too hazy looking overall and the green with the background it's on just don't go. I think you've got a few too many colours overall
• The big orange button bar is good
• I think we can lose the duplication of the two summary sentences (left side). Maybe it could just read 'Benefits' or 'Why Bitcoin?' before the 3 listed advantages.I get that you lifted the text directly but it's different now that the order of reading is not fully linear. Then make the 2nd summary bigger.
• If we have a giant developers button I don't think we need the menu option at the top. But I could be wrong on that.
• Stick with an exclamation mark not a key for the important info icon.

As a content matter, rather than layout. I think 'How to get it' should be immediately click-able from the homepage not buried in a wiki-style FAQ section.

I hope you don't think I was too harsh. It's good overall.
Your best bet for adoption is to get at least the front page done, and issue a pull request to the github repo. Lower the barrier to adoption for everyone. At least specific comments there (directly on the pull request) should be forthcoming.
Thanks for the enthusiasm, I hope you won't be dismissed just because changes were recently made.

Edit: I'm glad to see that people have been positive, while I was typing.

Awesome, thank you, this is exactly what I'm looking for. Everything you mentioned makes complete sense - I'll work on another iteration tonight once I get more feedback.

I also realize the site was recently changed, but I'm mainly looking to change the aesthetics rather than the content. They did a great job at explaining everything but it's not presented in the most exciting way in my opinion.  

I've never used github before but I'll look into what you said once I'm confident enough to start the coding part. Thanks again!

[kiko]

No problem. Github and git itself are very good investments of your time if you are looking to get deeper involved with bitcoin. You didn't say what you graduated, I assumed you were a programmer.

I figured out why I didn't like the colours: it reminded me of every scary photo I've ever seen of Beijing air pollution!

[giantdragon]

Looks nice! I hope this design will be deployed on Bitcoin.org.

[grue]

Can you put up a demo site?

[maaku]

Cool. Submit a pull request:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.org

[blockgenesis]

Hey! Nice to see this happening!

I am the one who actually reworked the new bitcoin.org and I handle most of the updates on it since a few months. The layout of the menu has been just recently changed to a dropdown menu in order to make the layout less cluttered while allowing some more room for content like an "Events" page. You might want to re-consider your design based on these recent changes. The "Press" and "Enthusiasts" pages were not considered relevant by many at the same level than "Individuals", "Businesses" and "Developers". Press is now a resource and "Enthusiasts" is now "Innovation". I planned to suggest a complete rewrite of this page to focus on concrete technical innovations and their potential uses and good sides.

If you want to continue this re-design project until we get something concrete, well tested and with enough consensus from everyone that it's better, improvements are welcome. There are a few challenges, including compatibility with mobile devices and IE6 (for Chinese users), which I succeeded to provide in the last months with various other work. I also agree that the actual main page is probably too sober. Though however, in general, from the comments I received, people always had the opposite opinion for all other pages : the design became more sober over time to fit those comments. So this might actually be something to work on with your design.

For what it's worth, I personally think that there is a potential nice start here but that further work would be good.

There was also this attempt in the past, but I didn't get an answer from the designer who did it when I contacted him recently.
http://forrst.com/posts/Rebranding_of_Bitcoin-Ft5

The current website (with build instructions) is on github : https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.org and you can indeed add a pull request for review here when you have something you feel is ready for review. I can assist you if you have questions and I can help integrating your work with the current website code.

Edit1 : I forgot to mention that the current design is also translation friendly : All contents scale or provide enough space so that translations with variation in sizes won't cause ugly overflows with buttons, menus and such. From what I see, the three icons "Instant P2P transactions", "Worldwide payments".. could hit problems with that.

Edit2 : bitcoin.org is mainly managed by Bitcoin core developers and me so far. Having the opinion of Bitcoin foundation members is good, but not a requirement.

[blockgenesis]

A big visual challenge that hasn't been well met, IMHO, is how to graphically depict the block chain...

Yes, +1 for this. I did what I could, and I still think it's better than before. But still, you are not the only one to think this. Improvements welcome.

[nimda]

That's an impressive design
I'd just note that those buttons on the right side (Choose your wallet, etc) don't really work with the rest of the design. They seem kinda Windows 95-y.

[blockgenesis]

I'm also all for a new Bitcoin logo  

I would like to suggest to keep this question seperate and do incremental work instead. Because whole Bitcoin identity is spreading everywhere using current logo. Changing this is likely to be much more difficult and require some sort of very wide consensus. This can very well be done after (or concurrently) if this idea ever succeeds without blocking current redesign work.