Kevin Rose is the man with a seemingly golden touch on any web
start-up he is involved with.
Already well known for being the brains behind Digg, and now
Pownce, he also has an Internet video start-up on the go in the form of
Revision3.
Revision3.com has recently undergone some design revisions,
and the new look gives usability, rather than aesthetics, the upper
hand.
A Simplified Homepage
The homepage has been simplified providing an immediate focus
with a
large feature box that rotates through different site promotions. Each
show now has it’s own section which is easily accessible from
the
“Shows” drop down menu along the top of every
page.
Streaming video
flash players on each episode page have been bumped up to
555×337 which
really draws viewers in. Each show has a plethora of different
subscription formats which are only a tab away from the recent episode
list.
At Expense Of Visual Design
The overall restructuring is a welcome improvement, but
unfortunately it came at the expense of visual design.
The new color scheme is drab and bland with a
“corporate” feeling
that first comes to mind. I suppose this is to appeal to advertisers
that Revision3 is trying to attract to buy ad inventory but it feels
like something from early 2000.
The Old Design Was More Cutting Edge
The old design (pictured below) felt
slick and cutting edge just like the network itself. But the worst
offender of this new look is the typography.
For one, it is a light
grey (hex code #666666) and could stand to be darker (like #333333) for
increased contrast
and thus increased readability.
The line-height is also not set leaving lines scrunched
together making
it harder to read. In short, the new design is missing the final polish
which used to set it apart from other media websites on the net.
Back To The Drawing Board
Daniel Burka
has been the
lead designer on most of Kevin Rose’s web projects but it
looks like he
didn’t have a hand in the new Revision3.com.
He must be too busy
working on Digg
and Pownce,
two sites I really admire from a design perspective. Luckily I have no
reason to visit the Revision3 site on a regular basis except to
subscribe to new shows.
I hope they take a second look at things and
update the style to match the new functionality.
Russell Heimlich is a digital media engineer and technology journalist. Catch his thoughts put into words at russellheimlich.com
