HTML whizz's and a digital/interactive designer wanted

Basically, this site is big... big as in #4 in the world for cycling forums big. Big as in 280,000 unique visitors a month. Big as in 250,000+ pages indexed on Google. Big as in the largest website for fixed-gear cycling in the world.

So it's pretty crappy that whilst it's functionally rich the look and feel of this site is at best clunky, and at worst a spaghetti of links which leaves everyone slightly confused as to what they're actually doing.

I get the impression that the site is pretty confusing from the navigation perspective, and looks a bit 1990's from the style perspective (which is probably OK, as that will come back into fashion soon).

What I'd like to do is to sit down with a few talented people and re-design it.

I'd like it to be really elegant code, really simple to use, really obvious, and to have content easy to find.

First thoughts are to re-design the header... make search way more prominent, so much so that it could drive navigation. Put more simple links in the navbar, but remove the dumb ones that just make it confusing. Group things better. Make it look nicer, but take up less room too. Improve the breadcrumb appearance.

To give you an idea of work involved to do the whole site: The navbar is just 1 or 2 templates. vBulletin has hundreds of templates.

So what am I looking for?

My weaknesses are:
1) Design
2) Time

From a design perspective I want to find someone who has experience of designing web sites, who understands template based systems and the constraints that they bring, who gets design metaphors and use of colour and space to communicate them onscreen, and who is adept at creating the under-stated details that make or break sites (edges, borders, icons, colour use).

From a time perspective I want to find someone who is totally fluent in HTML and CSS. To the point that you are able to semantically describe a page and then style it perfectly... you should know how to make forms look incredible, and you should know how to make HTML lists into horizontal lists. You should know when to use a DIV, and when to use a TABLE, and why. You should know how to take a photoshop image provided by the designer and make the semantic HTML that implements it.

I know I can't design for toffee... hence the need for a designer.
I know I can't do every piece of HTML on my own... hence the need for another pair of hands (or two).

What are the commercials for this? Well this site makes no money, none at all. We have enough money to get us through for the next 4 months or so but none set aside to make it look good. So there's no money. I can pay out of my own pocket, but this isn't bottomless and really I'd be looking for people who, like me, are willing to put the effort in with the return being what they get out of the site existing and being a better place than it is today. Should we make any revenue from advertising that produces a profit, then I would be willing to split this revenue so that a part of it goes to re-imburse you for the time you've given.

If anyone is interested, PM or email me.

Thanks.

"Big as in 250,000+ pages indexed on Google" and that's just my midget comments.

I'm a computer science student and I'm totally fluent in HTML, CSS, JS and all sorts of server-side technologies (not really needed here, I understand). I'm happy to write HTML but I'm, too, not very good with the old "making it look amazing".

You may have seen my spoke length calculator.

So, to summarise, if there is mockups I'm happy to implement them.

Oooh, I like your spoke calculator.

And you've got jQuery on there as well as nicely formatted source. Good work.

Where are you doing your degree?

And I'd be happy to work with you :)

UCL, just down the road from you. We chatted techie in the Crabtree a week-ish ago.

Yup, just clicked when I got your email.

Responded via email :)

Also just clicked that this would be a hell of a CV item. It's a pretty big site and I intend on making it bigger simply by making it easier to use and faster.

You might want to get an Internet Architecture boffin to cast an eye over the site. I have found that designing pages from a well thought out set of wireframes can save loads of time. Not sure if there are any IA specialists on here though.

I'd hope that the designer we got on board understood grid layout from a print perspective at the least. The general ratios and rules for grid layout transfer well to the web.

Two constraints on this are:
1) This site uses flow layout rather than fixed, and I would want to keep that.
2) I'm not looking to re-write vBulletin's template system, which means that whatever grid overlay is applied, it would have to use existing HTML templates to implement it.

Quick question about not wanting fixed width. Why? It makes any site look like a techies dream rather than a considered design. It also makes grids painful.

Fixed width places a massive assumption on the device that is being used to view the site, as well as the capabilities of that device.

Given the visitor rate mentioned in post #1, you could imagine that we cover even the weird devices (playstations browse this site, as do samsung mobile phones and there's a hell of a lot of netbooks with not so high-res screens out there).

A fluid layout that could collapse nearly should work everywhere, a fixed layout would force horizontal scrolling as well as vertical on quite a few devices.

If we went for a narrow grid then the vast majority of people who use wide-screen laptops and desktops would have space everywhere and pages that scrolled for ages.

If we went for a wide grid then you have horizontal scrolling.

Fluid layout just fits regardless. Even though the downside is non-optimal words per line and lack of control over wireframe ratios for the expanding vertical column.

Excellent point. I suppose making device dependent templates and CSS is a bit of a minefield.

What do the stats look like for various devices? I often wonder about the ROI on developing for every possible permeation of browser/platform etc.

To much time producing marketing collateral I suppose. This is a community, not a shameless attempt to sell people stuff they don't need.

[slopes off back to the Classified & Shopping thread]

Ok, VB, I know you're too proud to ask me directly but I'll do it.

ps; what does HTML mean?

Highly Testing Means of Layout or Huge Tits More Love, I often forget.

Actually, I know what it means. Well, what it stands for.
The laundry lost one of my favourite socks today.

I found two socks in the cupboard yesterday. They don't match.

i still think that a site that's no .4 in the world ( fucking impressive stuff that ) should be making a better income to pay for VB's trouble ( and no doubt a few more exotic bikes for him), and to pay for stuff like designers to do development work like this.
by this i mean that i for one certainly wouldn't mind if there were banner ads on the forum that companies paid for per 100k impressions - whether those companies be Specialized, Trek or other equally unpopular 'giants' of the cycling world.

I would. I like how fast the site is now. I don't like banner ads.

i still think that a site that's no .4 in the world ( fucking impressive stuff that ) should be making a better income to pay for VB's trouble ( and no doubt a few more exotic bikes for him), and to pay for stuff like designers to do development work like this.
by this i mean that i for one certainly wouldn't mind if there were banner ads on the forum that companies paid for per 100k impressions - whether those companies be Specialized, Trek or other equally unpopular 'giants' of the cycling world.

But isn't it the strength of this page that it is purely community-driven non-commercial place? I mean, we could just make a group on Facebook and sell stuff on ebay but that wouldn't be the same. I'm not against some money for VB and I think that banner ads will be unavoidable in the long run but I think that LondonFGSS shouldn't become a brand.

hi, looks like you found help already, but willing to assist in required.

You'll all be relieved to know that I found my missing sock. Thanks to everyone who has PMd with offers of replacement socks and links to sock-related web sites.

PM'd

I beg to d'iffer.

But isn't it the strength of this page that it is purely community-driven non-commercial place? I mean, we could just make a group on Facebook and sell stuff on ebay but that wouldn't be the same. I'm not against some money for VB and I think that banner ads will be unavoidable in the long run but I think that LondonFGSS shouldn't become a brand.

a few banner ads does not make it a commercially driven site - just a sensible one.

I would. I like how fast the site is now. I don't like banner ads.

why would banner ads slow it down? a 12k banner probably won't put too much strain on the server.