Xavier Mathieu On The Design Of 99designs.com

SitePoint: I noticed a lot of the feedback that came in from the 99designs users related to the site's features and the functionality. Was there much other feedback that influenced the design as well?

Yeah, there was quite a bit. It's a bit weird, sometimes, watching your design get tweaked until you finally settle upon a compromise between your original vision and what the users want. But that's often the case, and the 99designs guys are very much about listening to their users, so it's important. The changes were all quite small anyway -- the main layout and the general feel remained unchanged.

SitePoint: It's quite a big move away from the original design, given that the site was originally part of SitePoint Contests.

Yeah, it is. We wanted to provide easy, friendly access to the information about what people can do on the site, especially for new visitors who need to understand very easily how to use the site.

Because 99designs.com is a new company, we wanted a new image, so this was certainly more of a "redesign" than a "realign." But of course we also had to take into account the thousands of existing users who were going to need to change the way they interacted with the site once it was redesigned.

For the front page, the main aim was to provide a very clear entry point for the two kinds of people that come to the site: contest holders and designers. Before, the front page listed lots of options, but now you can only choose one of two options: launch a contest, or find a contest to compete in. And, as I mentioned, we now have a colour scheme that reflects those two options, and two nice big buttons for each type of visitor.

As you can see, under those buttons we chose to list popular contests and popular designs. The Popular Contests list is based on the number of entries a contest is receiving, and the amount of feedback that's being provided by the contest holder. The Popular Designs list shows thumbnails of highly rated designs. I think it's a very good way of showing that there's a lot of activity on the site, and the result is very colourful too.

SitePoint: Even though the colour halftone effect didn't make it into the final design, I see you still managed to include some elements from the print world in the design.

I really wanted to use some ideas and inspiration from traditional design. The icons use paper -- the plane and the folder, for example -- to reinforce the purpose of the site. And the layout uses lots of white, I guess like white paper, to really let the entries shine and give them a place, rather than having the entries compete with the site's own colour scheme.

SitePoint: From exploring the site, it definitely feels less cluttered and cleaner than when it was part of SitePoint. But all of the functionality is still there, isn't it?

That's right -- and more, actually. There are some new features for facilitating better discussion between the contest holder and the designer, and making it clear which entry is being discussed, which I quite like. It's really useful in terms of the feedback that the designer gets.

SitePoint: My final question is about the nature of the site. Some professional designers are against the idea of design contests because they think of it as spec work. What are your thoughts on this?

It's a good question, and it was actually a concern for me when I first started. When I first took a look through the site, I saw some designs that looked like clip art, or basically weren't very good and were a bit amateurish. But as I browsed further and looked at more contests, I started to see that there were lots of high-quality designs being submitted as well.

My view is that if the prize is reasonable, then a site like 99designs.com is a great way to get people from all over the world working on projects and exchanging ideas. A lot of the discussion that happens is between designers who support and help each other. These designers are learning a lot from the feedback they get on their entries, and they're building their portfolios and constantly improving.

What you'll also find is that many of the more experienced freelancer designers end up getting ongoing work from the contests they win, so they're using 99designs.com more for marketing purposes and lead generation than to simply win a prize. There are many designers in the community now who make their living from 99designs.com.

If it's done properly, I think design contests are a good thing.

I do worry sometimes when I see contest holders offering a low prize for a logo, or not giving lots of feedback -- it says to me that the client doesn't understand the importance of building a visual identity. A logo is the foundation of a company, so to offer only $100 and expect that good designers will enter your contest is a bit misguided, I think.

That said, 99designs seems to be popular with lots of open source projects, not-for-profits and charities that don't have big budgets for their branding. These are organisations that are never going to engage an expensive design studio to build their visual branding, so they represent quite a different market.

SitePoint: So you're not worried about losing your job as a designer because of design contests, then?

Ha ha, no! I think there will always be a place for someone with excellent creative skills to work closely with clients. And many design projects simply aren't suited to the design contest format. But I think that even for designers who work full-time, 99designs.com can be a fun way to practice your skills and discover new projects that are different from your day job, and if you happen to win, it's a bonus!

SitePoint: Xavier, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

No problem Matt, thank you!

Related links: 99designs.com