Being an almost-daily reader of Slashdot, I’m glad I didn’t miss Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda’s announcement of the Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest. I can’t pass up the chance to win a new MacBook Pro, so I’m going to see what my design skills can cook up. I’ll take a nice progressive approach and share my thoughts and results here over the next couple weeks. Comment on the designs if you want. You can tell me I suck or give encouragement. I’m game for any sort of feedback. So, without further ado… here’s my first Photoshop mockup:

Obviously, it isn’t overly ambitious. I wanted to start small. I kept the same general layout, but I polished things up all around. CmdrTaco specifically stated that he’d like the logo’s font and the site’s base color (#006060) to stay the same if possible. A little depth and shine to the logo makes a big difference. Likewise, the slightest shift in color makes things look better. Some gradients help a little too.

I’d like to change more. CSS is pretty powerful, and I could do quite a bit with the existing content. Look at the Zen Garden if you want proof of flexibility. I think for my next draft, I’m going to try changing a lot more. Then, I’ll take ideas from both drafts to determine the final result. Once I’m happy with the look, I’ll dive into the actual CSS and produce what will hopefully be the winning entry. 😉