Design RFP

To Apply: Please send portfolio, resume and price estimate to design@wisebread.com.

• Project Overview
• Design Objectives
• Templates
• Specific Design Changes

Project Overview

Wise Bread.com is a lifestyle blog about personal finance and frugal living. But our website is more complicated than a simple personal blog: We have a lot of content, multiple bloggers, and we cover four different topic areas. Therefore, the site design must be clean, elegant, simple to navigate and peruse, and stay cohesive and logical so our readers don't feel overwhelmed by our content, nor get distracted by a complicated design.

We want to update the "look and feel" of the website interface without changing its general layout, navigational structure, or functionality. As the designer, you will be expected to offer:

• 3 initial and stylistically different sets of working comps that each include:

  • A choice of color schemes;

  • Graphic elements (navigation bar/menu, buttons, featured post boxes, section titles, article heading treatments, article footers and additional elements, as you see fit, such as buttons, background tiles/images, section dividers, etc).

• 3 rounds of revisions, following our approval of one design option;

• Finalized CSS and PSD files. We'd prefer if the CSS didn't conflict with the existing PHP templates, if possible.

• Cross-check design in IE 7, IE 6, Firefox 2, Firefox 1.5 and Safari (Safari 3 is in beta). This may be done at http://www.browsercam.com

Design Objectives

Reader Experience and Usability

This is our highest priority. We want generous use of white space, our text should be clear and easily read in any browser, and our "call to action" elements (e.g. the RSS subscription graphic/link) need to be prominent but unobtrusive.

The design should create an open and inviting atmosphere for our readers; we want to encourage visitors to return often by having our content presented in a friendly and easy-to-follow style.

Visually Compelling

The consensus about our current design is that it is too boring and generic. We would like the designer to offer alternative color schemes and fresh design elements to make our site look a little less conservative yet still be fun, interesting and graphically elegant while allowing for easy navigation and scanning for posts and topics.

However, we are not looking for anything too visually cluttered (i.e. overloaded with graphics, too many typefaces, etc), since the reader’s experience on the site is still our number one concern.

Examples

Here are some of our favorite website designs. We think they have achieved a good balance between usability and visual appeal:

• Mighty Goods
• Pearsonified
• The Apple Blog
• Real Simple
• Just Organize Your Stuff
• Times Online

Templates

There are 5 basic templates we need to have designed:

1. Homepage

   • http://www.wisebread.com

2. Article Page

   • Baby carrots the frugal idea that isn't
   • How to get high end electronics with one simple question
   • The greatest story ever sold is a fantasy covered in blood
   • How to get rid of your junk
   • 101 fantastic freebies for your PC
   • Top 5 ways to hustle free drinks
   • Can I conquer my vanity for the sake of my sanity?
   • Ain't it a gas? Fuel price finder

3. Channel and Sub Channel Pages

   • Personal Finance channel
   • Life Hacks channel
   • Taxes sub channel
   • Consumer Affairs sub channel

4. Blogger's Homepage

   • Andrea Dickson
   • Paul Michael
   • Will Chen
   • Julie Rains

5. Blogger's Profile Page

   • Sarah Winfrey
   • Andrea Dickson
   • Will Chen
   • Paul Michael

Specific Design Changes

This is a list of website elements we would like to change and/or update. Of course, if in your opinion, as the designer, an element we’ve included in this list doesn't need to be altered for the new design, or if you think something that wasn't listed does need to be changed to stay consistent with your vision, feel free to exercise your discretion:

• General changes (sitewide):

  • The current color scheme; adding more splashes of color to make the website more lively (i.e top article box, sidebars, etc);

  • Stylize the slogan and links in the header (Personal Finance and Frugal Living Guide | About | Contact | Login);

  • Offer alternatives to the red navigation bar and search box;

  • Right column feature boxes, such as "Welcome to Wise Bread," "What's Popular," "What's New," and "List of Bloggers.";

  • Footer.

• Homepage:

  • The top feature box: We want this box to appear more prominently. Color? Text? ;

  • "Latest Posts" section title;

  • Article items: title, byline, channel (i.e. category), names, links to comments, etc.;

  • Divider between each article teaser;

  • Advertisement/channel-highlight boxes inserted between article teasers.

• Article Pages:

  • Navigation breadcrumbs.

  • Article teasers: title, byline, channel (i.e. category) names, links to comments, etc.

  • In-article quote boxes;

  • ‘About blogger’ box;

  • Social Bookmarking icons and links;

  • Comments boxes

• Channel Pages:

  • Title header: e.g. the title header for the Personal Finance channel is the big "Personal Finance" text located at upper left hand corner of the website;

  • "About Channel" and "Popular in Channel" box located beneath the title header.

  • Showcase the subchannels. For example, in the Personal Finance channel, we provide navigation to the subchannels by linking to them in the "About Channel" paragraph ("Plain English tips for managing and investing your money. Topics include credit cards, investments, taxes ..."). If possible, we would like to see a different way to feature these subchannels. Easier or more direct navigation links might be better.

• Sub Channel Pages:

  • Navigation breadcrumbs.

• Blogger Homepage:

  • Page title (e.g. "Andrea Dickson's blog")

  • "About Blogger" and "Popular Posts" boxes.

• Blogger Profile Page:

  • Make the profile more visually appealing. The profile should portray our bloggers as professional, friendly, and approachable.