[Foundation-l] Design for wikipedia's front page (and corporate)

Fri May 19 02:36:14 UTC 2006

Ben Yates wrote:
> There was a proposal to overhaul wikipedia's front-page design, and
> wikimedia's corporate design, by holding a contest:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Design_overhaul%2C_2006
>
> But designers are mostly opposed to contests, and pro designers don't
> usually compete in them (contests also pose problems for organizations
> on the recieving end) -- see Talk,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Design_overhaul%2C_2006
>
> So it looks like we have an offer from a visible designer to help us
> find pro-bono firms and designers who'd be willing to do the site for
> free (just not on spec).  We should put out a call for portfolios.
>   

Having been in several organizations that have brought in outside 
designers (or design firms) to revamp their websites, I'm pretty wary of 
it; the results, while sometimes nice-looking, often display a stunning 
ignorance of what the site is actually *for*, and make it nearly 
impossible to get actual information from it.

What would be ideal to avoid such a situation is to have a designer who 
is very closely familiar with Wikipedia and how both its editors and 
readers work.  And of course, Wikipedians ought to have a veto over any 
final design.

-Mark