Apple Website Redesign
A while back there was some news of Apple hiring some website re-design consultants. The rumors of a new face on apple.com began to surface.
Anyone have an update on this? When do you expect a re-designed Apple website?
More topical, what would you like to see in a re-designed apple.com.
Anyone have an update on this? When do you expect a re-designed Apple website?
More topical, what would you like to see in a re-designed apple.com.
Comments
Originally posted by orangeu
A while back there was some news of Apple hiring some website re-design consultants. The rumors of a new face on apple.com began to surface.
I believe it was Doug Bowman (Stop Design) and Jeffrey Zeldman (Happy Cog Studios) who were hired. You can definitely see a distinct visual evolution of the site within the various subsections (e.g., iMac, Aperture, Holiday Promo subsites, etc.). There's a structure in place that's much more flexible visually, while remaining consistent and reasonably easy to use. In addition, there has been a steady shift in the code toward web standards, which is undoubtedly the work of Bowman and Zeldman, and is not necessarily an easy thing to do with a gigantic corporate site and (presumably) complex content management system such as Apple's.
All in all, then, a lot has changed, though admittedly, it's been evolutionary, not revolutionary. The reason the navigation system hasn't changed that much is because it works. Apple's site is frequently cited as one of the best; it's also intrinsic to their brand identity. But I see a clear movement toward a different design layout, typography, use of color, and of course, code. For fun, check archive.org and compare an older version of the site (say, the iMac pages) with the current one. Things have changed pretty substantially! So, change has been steady -- but you're right, they have not broken with the past in any dramatic way.
The one bit of visual vocabulary that's remained unchanged are the tabs at the top -- they still have the overdone striping from the 10.0-10.1 days. This has struck me as particularly odd given the enhancements and improvements going on "under" those tabs. I've often wondered if these will change with the launch of Leopard, or if there is some other significant event they have been waiting for, since the look of those tabs sticks out like a sore thumb.
Originally posted by Placebo
Use of Flash?
They are already doing this slowly. Case in point:
http://www.apple.com/education/hed/students/
http://www.apple.com/dotmac/
http://www.apple.com/aperture/
http://www.apple.com/itunes/ (top banner)
Those just to name a few. But they are getting more and more into the whole Flash scene. But another thing to consider is quicktime. What many can do with Flash, Apple can do with quicktime.
As far as their web design, I could see the whole tabs at the top structure changing. That has been there FOREVER. The content of the webpages have been evolving slowly over time. In my opinion though, Apple's website structure, layout, graphics, etc, is far superior to the structure of microsoft's.
don't redesign just for the heck of it, you know, unless your branding is changing!
Originally posted by rageous
I think Apple should throw a huge Intel Inside logo in the dead center of every page of the site, but only if it saves me at least $5 on my next Mac purchase. I don't want to see Steve cave or anything...
actually, they are just going to some smart CSS cursor property and have an intel logo as your cursor whenever you move around their website... NOW THAT IS THE FUTURE!
I definitely have noticed the use of Flash starting to become more prevalent. I first noticed it on the "Aperture" section, and seems to be expanding. I've also noticed the refinement of many of the sections within the site. But, in terms of a redesign, I was expecting more along the lines of what "aecheylon" commented on, the navigation tabs. They are so 10.0!
yeahhh we need to move beyond stripes!! and no brushed metal either
don't fix, what is not broken.
On the other hand:
well, Apples webpages pick up
more and more Patina.
I don't know if this is a good sign.