I suggest hiring Nobox to do the job.

(All of these mockups are really bad)

We will continue to refine and improve what we’ve got so far, and I’ll share the results as we go. Stay tuned, and thanks again!

-John

Worldwide has a slightly culty feel (mostly because of the stickered faces which aren’t obvious at first—and then think of someone who hasn’t really seen the firefox logo much).

Open: I think it looks great. Great idea, which kind of dawns on you as you read it (though the different meanings of ‘open’ will be hidden to most). But the grey makes it look mechanical and slightly geeky.

I agree that the pages look slightly cluttered. But it’s great to make it much more of a portal to ‘all things mozilla’.

As you already mentioned… these are ‘general’ design directions and therefore I will try to focus on the look and feel as oppose to specifics which can easily be modified in later versions…

I think the “look and feel” of a piece is something that is communicated fairly quickly, and the audience will at least on a subconscious level already have made their judgment within the first moments of interaction with the site… so first impressions are important.

With that said, as I glanced at the different design concepts, I immediately found Concept 1 “Global” and Concept 3 “Open” to be visually more appealing than the rest – with Concept 1 being my top choice.

Both “Global” and “Open” had a cleaner and more professional layout while still communicating the mozilla brand. The others, Concepts 2 & 4, looked more like a cluttered mess, with tooo many visual elements competing for attention. I personally wanted to leave those pages the moment I clicked on them.

I think simplicity works best in today’s world and appeals to a much broader audience. As we all remember, Google showed everyone how less is more… by maintaining an overly simplified yet effective homepage against the flashy competition…Ask has also redesigned their site for a similar appeal. Facebook’s success against Myspace is also related to their more simple page layout. It definitely works.

I also took a look at Microsoft/IE’s website for a quick comparison. Although their website is somewhat boring to me, the soft color palette and simple layout make it visually more appealing and easier to navigate.

Concept 1 “Global”
——————–

* Simple and clean layout, stronger unity within the elements on the page

* Soft color palette. Blue and orange hue selections are consistent with the firefox logo. Referring to the color psychology, blue is a more global color and represents openness, loyalty, and calm spirits, while orange is a more attention grabbing and energetic color. Both colors tie in nicely into the mozilla/firefox brand, therefore creating a more consistent look and feel to the website.

* Collage photograph illustrates the diverse/global community involved in the product, communicates the fun anti-corporate culture of the brand. But the detailed photographs covering most of the space can also be confusing, if not a distraction from the more important elements on the page. Perhaps simpler graphic images, or silhouettes would create a better result. I noticed some silhouettes used in the 3rd page of this concept design.

Concept 3 “Open” was second on my list mainly due to its simpler design layout. But I believe the color palette is a bit dull–>making it look and feel more like a tech-support site than one representing a fun Internet brand.

As general design concepts, I think “Global” and “Open”, along with their variations were stronger.