As you know it's about 7 years ago since NordicBots started. In those 7 years a lot of things have changed, renewed and updated, with the exception of one essential part: the design for our website. One of our goals this year is to start new with a fresh look and a new and improved website. For this, we need your help! There are no real web designers in our staff, which is why we are starting the first website design contest for our website.


This contest is open to all who are interested. To enter, please submit the website files (.html/.css/etc) or a screenshot of the design that show the front page and at least one different page for our website. The deadline for these submissions July 14th, 2007. NordicBots staff will select the top 5 candidates, which will be posted publicly for everyone to review. The community will then select the final version through a voting process.



Entrants should submit the website files (.html/.css/etc) or a screenshot of the design.

The final 5 candidates will be chosen based on a number of criteria including:

• Overall design -- does it look ugly.
• Navigation -- can people find their way around easily.
• Render time -- how long will pages take to load?
• Flexibility and Scalability of design -- can we add new pages and sections easily to allow for future growth.
• Cool factor -- totally subjective interpretation of the submission. Does it "wow" us.

Designs relying on flash animation or other proprietary formats will be penalized heavily. Your best bet is to stick with open formats.

By submitting your design, you are also indicating that you are willing to design and create the necessary graphics for our web sites. This is a one-time only task and don't require a great deal of time and effort. Only the initial design will take time and effort. You are also indicating that you are willing and able to supply us with the PSD files of your design and graphics, so we can do our own adjustments in the future.

The submitter of the winning design will have the opportunity to place a link at the bottom of every page that says "Design provided by " and links to a web page of your choosing. (We reserve the right to change or remove the link if it points to objectionable content, such as a porn site). The right to display this link is contingent on the submitter actually completing the design as described above.



All designs should at least have a menu and a logo. You can use the existing logo, or you can create your own. Let your imagination go wild! :)

• Main Page
  • A few areas of news type items (Filled with "Lorem Ipsum" - http://www.lipsum.com/)
    
  • Extra points if you add a nice and attractive way to quickly request a bot
  
  
• Second Page (for example the request page)
  • Some way to change the language of the page (design, of course - no scripting by you is needed)
  • A few paragraphs of content (can be anything, lorem ipsum if you have no idea :))

Submissions should be sent to contest @ nordicbots . com and must be received by July 14th, 2007.



Q: Can I submit multiple designs?

Yes, but only if they are each unique. Please do not submit multiple variations of a single design, such as different colors. In that case, pick the one you like best and submit it.

Q: What do you consider "ugly"? Isn't that very subjective?

We are seeking a design that is clean and is appealing to a large group of people. We are not seeking "fringe" designs that may be considered beautiful by a small subset of people, but are unlikely to be appreciated by the bulk of our user base.

Q: What do you mean by "Cool factor"? Isn't that very subjective?

The "Cool factor" is something that is impossible to describe. It simply means that, when we look at a submission and say "wow, that's cool", then you've achieved it. It may be a unique feature of the site or a different way of designing things. It can be anything that you think will cause us to go "wow, that's cool". And yes, it's 100% subjective.

Q: Why not let the community pick from all available entries instead of just 5 that are selected by a group of developers?

We expect the community to pick a site largely based on its look. We also need to consider other factors, such as navigation, etc, so we will select the best 5 candidates that meet all of the criteria listed above before presenting it to the community.

Q: What if you don't get any good submissions?

We will stick with the current design.

Q: Can we see the designs that were rejected after the contest?

We will not own the copyright to any of the rejected designs and thus may not legally display them. If individual submitters wish to show their own designs on their own sites, they may do so at their own discretion. If the author agrees, the rejected design can be placed somehwere on the site.

Q: I have additional questions that aren't answered here.

Please contact contest @ nordicbots . com

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