A great idea – wish I thought of it

A few years ago, I pitched around the idea of a site-redesign portal.

The idea was this:

Designers and developers – known surely for the amount of time they scour the Net – often come across poorly designed Web sites.

If a poorly designed Web site was found, a URL could be grabbed and submitted to my portal, where we (site admins and moderators) would scan the site, removing and identifying information (replaced with Lorum where possible), and post the screenshots of the site for other designers to comment, rate, and pitch a one-page redesign (think “Worth1000″).

Once enough one-page designs were submitted and rated (by the users), the best two or three designs would be submitted in a friendly mannor to the actual site-owner (we’d be as pleasant and gentle as possible – nobody wants to receive an e-mail saying “Your site sucks! Here’s some better ideas”).

The site owner would have the option of contacting the developer directly for design work.

Well, that was an idea I hatched a few years ago, and as with many of my ideas it never went anywhere.

That’s why I’m a little tickled to see these two new services/portals:

Should Redesign (http://www.shouldredesign.com/) and  Concept Feedback (http://www.conceptfeedback.com/).

Both allow for the submission of URL’s to be reviewed, with Should Redesign having a simple “yes/no” ranking selection, and Concept Feedback allowing for members to deeply comment on the design and workings of a submitted site.

I’m impressed with the depth that some comments reach on Concept Feedback, and also just as impressed with the simplicity of Should Redesign.

Both make me feel like my idea might not have been worthless after all. While neither allows for the “pitch” from designers/developers, the sites do make good use of screenshots, comments, rankings, etc.

Update:

Probably not what they wanted to be seen

After tinkering with Should Redesign a little further, I noticed they have a session/cookie problem: Once you submit a vote for a site, you will have a hard time navigating the Web site (as you’re redirected to a “recently voted on” page). Looks like somebody’s MVC framework is a little wonky. Hopefully this will be corrected soon.