Comments on: Showdown Series (Season One): Week 1

By: Showdown Series (Season One): Week 2 | WooThemes

Showdown Series (Season One): Week 2 | WooThemes — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:39:37 +0000

[...] the resounding success of Week 1’s showdown we are quite excited about this second installment. After a good while browsing through all the [...]

By: ithemesdotnet

ithemesdotnet — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:19:31 +0000

Sweet looks like I picked the winner.

By: David

David — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:08:10 +0000

Jeez, I’m wordy today! But, I had also meant to say in my first post that the Your Mental Wealth site has some great design and layout ideas that I’d like to incorporate into some sites I’m planning for my clients, and it made me think about some of the missed marketing opportunities on my own site. So, kudos again to the YMW site!

By: David Bailey

David Bailey — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:44:38 +0000

Code got cut from the post… Please do a search in the forums for: “Replacing Featured Tabber with Flash Banner in the Station”

By: David Bailey

David Bailey — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:37:45 +0000

Firstly, let me shout out a big “Thank You” to Woo Themes for creating some really fantastic WP themes–they’ve changed the way I’m thinking about my business (which is a BIG deal!) Secondly, thanks to everyone who voted and provided feedback. Mostly, though I want to say thanks to Tyler Trask at Strategic Blend. This is, in a sense, a mismatched contest in that Tyler’s site design is for a client, and as such it has to serve the client’s needs and wants, and stay faithful to their branding. My site is for my business, so I’m serving myself essentially (which if you are a designer can have its own set of hurdles). The contest was a little bit “apples vs. oranges,” but I think the dialog is great. In fact, I have a suggestion: it would be truly helpful if there was a specific place in the Support Forums where designers could enter their site designs for (polite and respectful) peer review, especially as many of us here primarily work alone. This could be a fantastic resource and really add to the community spirit.

A few people have asked about the Flash Banner on my home page. Here’s the code (thanks to some help from the Woo Ninjas!):

We just replaced the code in the featured-tabs.php with this (changing the urls/file names to match the flash file). I used Swf N’ Slide to build the flash animation.

Cheers!

By: stuart

stuart — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:15:16 +0000

I think the big thing here is a site is only as good as the assets and color scheme (which can be driven by the client).

Imagery aside, the functionality of the YMW site is hands down superior to the DBDA site.

By: Denver SEO

Denver SEO — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:14:15 +0000

I think YMW is a great design, and they’ve definitely put their personal touch on the theme. I think the DBDA site is better from a graphical standpoint, but the depth of content on the YMW site is impressive, and in the seo world content is king.

Tough vote for different reasons – graphically the DBDA site is better, but I’m giving the nod to YMW for the depth of content and the organization, and inclusion of videos.

By: Jarrod Skeggs

Jarrod Skeggs — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:31:29 +0000

DBDA. I like it a lot because it’s clean and minimal. Especially for the type of business that they are promoting. Our firm does the same type work and I have definitely learned a few things from a quick visit to their site.

Thanks for hosting the showdown WooThemes! You guys rock!

By: Enk.

Enk. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:30:19 +0000

Both are great.. but +1 to DBDA !

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:17:02 +0000

Definitely DBDA. Looks superb.

Any chance of sharing how DBDA did the animation? Not sure I’ve seen a plugin with such good animation. Whatever the case, suggest WooThemes incorporate such an option into some of its themes… .

Cheers
Richard

By: Mark Forrester

Mark Forrester — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:44:33 +0000

Seems like the common feedback here. YMW = Great layout but needs some TLC in design/style

By: Mark Forrester

Mark Forrester — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:43:42 +0000

Interesting thoughts on the colour scheme. I’m sure very informative to the more amateur web designers. Give your web design’s colour palette some serious thought!

By: Mike Smith

Mike Smith — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:40:14 +0000

DBDA gets my vote. Yes, the YMW site has a lot of customizations and edits, but the design/style is just NOT my cup of tea.

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:36:27 +0000

YMW’s green color scheme was a turn-off. Trying to simulate the color of money was not the way to go here. Instead, I would suggest using stark white as the background with dark navy blue for borders, fonts, text and some headers.

Add to that mix a few accents of a gold color on some headers and as the outer background color, I think as a whole that would have packed a lot more punch. Navy blue, white and gold signify wealth and class. This website is dedicated to your financial wealth. The doctors promoting this philosophy need to be positioned as wealthy and wise. Using the colors of navy blue, white and gold would have imbued these doctors with a certain cache. Instead, positioned against that putrid green, they look quite ordinary and lackluster.

By: phatoz

phatoz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:24:52 +0000

I shouldn’t have looked at these two sites with this blazing headache. But I did. The DBDA site is a cool balm while the YMW simply aggravates the pain behind the eyes.

I voted based on presentation of the site: colors, textures.
In short, the DBDA site felt like a well presented gourmet meal while the YMW felt like a pie in the face.

After browsing each site I must give props to a well designed layout to YMW. If there was less ‘action/contast’ in the colours and textures I would have voted for it instead of the DBDA site.

By: DBDA in Showcase Showdown! | DBDA

DBDA in Showcase Showdown! | DBDA — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:51:48 +0000

[...] we designed our new website using one of Woo Themes’ superb and sublime WordPress themes, we submitted our URL to their customized theme showcase. Now, [...]

By: James Blond

James Blond — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:32:13 +0000

the clean and clutterless space above the navigation bar and around the logo,
the overall organization and presentation of the site,
wins our vote,

Congratulations to DBDA Studio!!! Woo Hoo

James Blond
Freemium.pl

By: Cyrius

Cyrius — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:07:20 +0000

DBDA is a little simple, but simple is nice these days!

By: Todd Herman

Todd Herman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:56:31 +0000

DBDA. Nice work!

By: Kiki

Kiki — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:56:09 +0000

I vote for DBDA!!!