Site design contest is getting started - PHP Classes blog

By Manuel Lemos
manuellemos.net
<email contact>

Contents

* It is finally the time...

* You still have time to participate

* Evaluate and comment on the current proposals

* Let the users see your proposals before voting, or not?

* Improve your submitted proposal

* Prizes and fame are waiting for the winner

* Runner-ups also win prizes


* It is finally the time...

It took a lot of time and effort to develop a system that is capable of taking site redesign proposals from any interested designer, and put them for evaluation of the users, so they can vote on the one they think it is the best to use in the site.

So it is finally the time to see what is the result of this initiative. I have not seen any similar initiative in any other site. So the expectation is huge.

I am sure that some things will not go as well as I hoped. But I am afraid I will only realize later what did not went so well.


* You still have time to participate

The submission deadline was supposed to end yesterday, November 30.

However, due to requests of several authors that still would like to participate and send good proposals, I decided to postpone just once until December 15.

After that, the vote period will start. It will end on December 31. I think that is enough time for any interested user to vote on his favorite proposal.


* Evaluate and comment on the current proposals

Several proposals were submitted and approved. You can browse and evaluate them by going to this page:

http://www.phpclasses.org/design/

There you can view each proposal individually and eventually preview them to see how it will look like in different resolutions, for different types of users and in different types of pages.

Once you see a proposal, please post your comments. Try to be positive and encourage the authors to improve, preferably before the submission period ends. After that, the authors cannot make any changes.

So, if you find details in a proposal that are not so good in your opinion, make suggestions to improve what you do not like.

Please be respectful and constructive. The authors spent a lot of time creating the design proposals that you see. It was not easy.

If you do not like a proposal at all, that is OK, nobody can please everybody. But please respect the fact that the author tried to provide a better design than what the site has. If you like to make comments, keep that in mind and try to help the author to improve his work.


* Let the users see your proposals before voting, or not?

Some authors expressed a concern that if they submit their proposal before the voting period start, others could steal their ideas and use them in their proposals.

It is a valid concern. So I added an option to the design submission form to let authors decide whether or not other users may see their proposals before voting. That is why some proposals cannot be previewed yet.

Still, I think there is no great reason for concern. The authors that clearly steal and copy ideas will be disqualified.

Even if the copy is not so evident, users will be able to notice who submitted first and eventually not consider copycat proposals.

On the other hand, once you submit your design proposal before the voting period starts, the users will be able to make comments and suggestions to improve your design. That may help you create a proposal that has greater acceptance.


* Improve your submitted proposal

If you have time, you can still resubmit an improved proposal. All you need to do is to go in the design editing page and click on the link that says "cancel the design submission".

http://www.phpclasses.org/design.html

Then you can make changes to your design and submit again.

Keep in mind that the final deadline is December 15. So, you must not forget to resubmit your proposal until then.


* Prizes and fame are waiting for the winner

As you may already be aware, the main prize for the winner is USD $3,000.00 in cash, to be paid only via Paypal.

Other than that, the winner will be entitled to a lifetime PHPClasses premium subscription and a big elePHPant plush toy.

http://www.phpclasses.org/premium/

As a matter of fact, I just got a notice from Damien Seguy, the producer of the elePHPant plush toys, that the elePHPant prize is on its way to the PHPClasses office, waiting to be delivered to the winner.

http://files.phpclasses.org/graphics/elephpant.png

Additionally, the winner will be invited for an interview to be published in the PHPClasses blog after the contest. Considering that the PHPClasses has great visibility among the PHP developers and Web designers, besides prizes this is your chance to get fame. That may help boosting your Web design career.


* Runner-ups also win prizes

Creating a design proposal takes a great deal of time and dedication. However, only one will be the winner.

It would be unfair only if one candidate would win anything from this contest. Therefore, I decided to gather as many sponsors as possible to provide prizes for the runner-up candidates.

As you may see in the design award page, several companies are sponsoring this contest by providing prizes for the runner-up candidates, like: Apress, Manning, Microsoft, O'Reilly and Packt.

http://www.phpclasses.org/award/design/

Runner-ups will also be mentioned in the interview article with the winner, as mentioned above, to be published in the PHPClasses site blog.

So, even if you do not win, you still have a good chance to get some nice prizes and some fame.


* Send your proposal now

What are you waiting for? You still have two weeks to send a proposal. The sooner you send your proposal, the sooner you may get feedback from the users. Just go here to edit and submit your proposal.

http://www.phpclasses.org/design.html

If you still have doubts or questions you would like to ask, feel free to post a comment to this article.