Site re-design contest £250 ($500) to the winner.

[gedtee]

Hi,
I am offering a prize of £250 ($500), paid through pay pal, to the winner of this contest.
The contest will end at midnight on Saturday 29th March 2008 (GMT).
The winner will be announced on here by Sunday 30th March.

My present site has 10 pages and was built by me using X Site Pro software, but I know the present design leaves much to be desired, hence the re-design contest.

I have just bought Microsoft Expression Web software and will use this in future to upgrade and edit my site, a645tradingpost.co.uk.

The rules for the contest are:-

1.Can be built with DREAMWEAVER, provided the final design is compatible with Microsoft Expression Web (i.e no PHP) and use the existing site content and copy.

2.Easy to edit and update, using CSS to enable easier site wide editing.
(I have very limited experience in using web design software).

3.All links, existing content, google verification code and google ads etc.
must be retained, although they do not have to be positioned in
exactly the same locations. (The google site verification must remain where it is).

4.I will have copyright of the finished winning design.


5.I would like the design to have some degree of SEO built in.
(If this entails changing some keywords, or the order of the copy on the page, that would be ok).

6.Easy site navigation, with easy to see text and visually appealing,
(I do not want colours which are too strident or make text hard to read)

7.The finished site must comply with current W3C and accessibility standards.

If you are interested in taking part, or have any questions, please post in this thread.
Regards Gerald.

 

[temi]

Excellent offer gedtee, I will help you get the word out.

 

[gedtee]

Thank's Temi.
Hope I get some entrants.

 

[Goldjobber]

Howdy again from the Left coast. I have some questions not so much about the contest, but rather this. I cut my sites and CSS in DW. I presume that with it being standard W3C stuff, my coding should work with your program right? I mean at the heart of it is still the same old code right?
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[gedtee]

Hi, Goldjobber,
Thank you for your interest.
I think it probably would work with Expression Web, but I''m not sure.
Maybe someone on here could give a definite answer to that.
In the meantime I will search on the web to see if I can find out.
Cheers Gerald.

Howdy again from the Left coast. I have some questions not so much about the contest, but rather this. I cut my sites and CSS in DW. I presume that with it being standard W3C stuff, my coding should work with your program right? I mean at the heart of it is still the same old code right?
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[xhan]

is it bad that I've never even heard of Expression Web :s

 

[gedtee]

Hi again Goldjobber,
just found this article on the web.

"Both Dreamweaver and Expression Web allow developers to visually generate server-side code. However, both programs have limitations in this department. In the case of Dreamweaver, support for ASP.Net and PHP is fairly limited and the overall server-side functionality has not been enhanced for several years. In the case of Expression Web, only ASP.Net is supported; there is no support for PHP, ColdFusion or JSP."

Hope this helps.
xhan,
Expression web is available to download free as a trial from the Microsoft website.

 

[temi]

is it bad that I've never even heard of Expression Web :s

I have been trying to convince gedtee of the same thing, I have not heard of Expression Web, nor most of the designers I know, about 95% of designers I know use DW or other popular development platform but certainly not expression web.
You cannot change habits easily, no one will leave the comfort of the application the know well for a platform they do not know nor will use after this contest.

 

[gedtee]

Hi Temi,
I have added Dreamweaver to the contest rules. Hope this helps to get more interest.

 

[temi]

It will help tremendously

Hi Temi,
I have added Dreamweaver to the contest rules. Hope this helps to get more interest.

 

[mikeinlincs]

what's wrong with good old html / css / php ? Expression Web is another attempt from MS a bit like Frontpage it's so full of crap code you don't want or need.

give me notepad any day...lol

good luck with your contest gedtee.

Mike

 

[temi]

Resonate, I appriciate that very much, thanks

 

[gedtee]

Thanks Resonate, thats some list. I have put it on Squidoo and a few forums too.

 

[irockit72]

couple of question

Can people from the U.S. enter this as well? And for the initial entry, you are just wanting a comped jpg correct?

 

[gedtee]

Can people from the U.S. enter this as well? And for the initial entry, you are just wanting a comped jpg correct?

Hi,
anyone can join, from anywhere in the world.
Excuse my ignorance, I am only a beginner and I don't know what a comped jpg is.

 

[temi]

Can people from the U.S. enter this as well? And for the initial entry, you are just wanting a comped jpg correct?

You can post the concept in jpg but if your design is chosen, you need to turn the jpg to HTML.
Thanks

 

[xhan]

The immediate thing putting me off this project is no php - I dont know about anyone else but php includes are VITAL to nearly all my design projects. I've never created a site without using php - hence why you can count me out on this one.

(not to mention I'm allergic to .NET I've suffered enough at its hands this term already!)

Can I ask why you want it to be compatable with dw/that other program? If its for ease of updating then why not consider using a CMS? I'm sure theres loads of people here willing to promote their favourite one

 

[temi]

Xhan,
The owner of the project is a new to all this web stuff, he cannot tell PHP from .NET etc. All he wants is a nice well designed site that he can manage with the Microsoft think he bought, my understanding is that the Microsoft expression web is standards compatible so just a design concept, which if approved is then turn to HTML, I think its very straight forward.

The immediate thing putting me off this project is no php - I dont know about anyone else but php includes are VITAL to nearly all my design projects. I've never created a site without using php - hence why you can count me out on this one.

(not to mention I'm allergic to .NET I've suffered enough at its hands this term already!)

Can I ask why you want it to be compatable with dw/that other program? If its for ease of updating then why not consider using a CMS? I'm sure theres loads of people here willing to promote their favourite one

 

[wood1e]

Hi, shame that it is soo heavily Microsoft based...Frontpage by another name.

It would have been better to offer a larger prize and ran a comp for a bespoke design/with CMS giving you flexibility not tied to any DW or MS. Which may lead to you offering another comp later on to get what you actually want

good luck to you

 

[temi]

I think you need to read it properly, its NOT Microsoft based, use any thing you like to create it, just has to be standards compatible.
Thanks

Hi, shame that it is soo heavily Microsoft based...Frontpage by another name.

It would have been better to offer a larger prize and ran a comp for a bespoke design/with CMS giving you flexibility not tied to any DW or MS. Which may lead to you offering another comp later on to get what you actually want

good luck to you