Groundhog Day

“ahhhhhh!”

— is what I tweeted on this fine Sunday evening. (And some people choose not to follow me?) What provoked this dramatic outburst was every designers’ worst nightmare; a sudden urge to “redesign” their website.

June 2009, August 2009, June 2010, May 2011, February 2012. At this point the cycle is hardly a surprise and I guess I should embrace the prospect rather than tweet about it. Last time I said:

A complete overhaul of the build and a touch of class to the design. You’re seeing it now (unless you’ve arrived here from a future redesign. In that case, how long did this one last?)

About seven months then? I’m actually really happy with my current iteration. It concluded an idea and style I’d be honing for several years. At some point along the journey I even stumbling upon the value of adding screenshots to each launch article (makes for a less confusing read in retrospective).

So why the change of heart?

I just feel there’s something too formal about this design. It’s too easy. At every angle it says “blog” and that’s boring. A product rooted firmly in history. In one sense this design does a perfect job — analytics and feedback agree — and I’ll feel hard pressed to let it go, but I also sense an opportunity to do something radical, something positively modern — that I can’t ignore.

Whatever is next will be online soon. I’ve already built an early prototype and I like where it is going. This is my biggest platform to experiment with and I know you’ll be very vocal about the result. I look forward to that! In the meantime, tell me your personal design story. I know I’m not the only redesign addict.