Mint.com Redesign
A fresher and more up-to-date website.
Mint.com is a website that I use to manage my finances. Although the functionality of the website is great, the design is a bit dated. I took it upon myself to redesign the homepage and freshen it up a bit. This is purely a visual design exercise to challenge myself. For the most part, I tried to keep most of the content of the website the same. I changed up a few areas but I wanted to keep as much of the original content because I don't have the proper data/research to be able to make certain judgements as to what will lead to more sign-ups, conversions, etc.
Logo Refresh
I flattened the colors of the current logo and removed the gradients to match the new style of the website. Also, I decided to remove the .from the logo to keep it as simple as possible. I made this decision based on the fact that Mint is already a very well-known product and I don't see the need for the .com when the user will already be on the mint.com website.
Simplified Navigation
As far as the navigation was concerned, I decided to do a couple of things. First, I removed the log-in fields. I thought it added clutter to the page, and why not just have a overlay modal on click, or bring the user to a new page.
Secondly, I moved the three links (Find Savings / Community / Company) with less importance to the top and made them smaller. By doing so, the two main navigation links are much clearer and hold more visual weight.
More Breathing Room
The old website was designed a few years ago, and it was optimized for a 1024x768 screen. The new website I designed had responsiveness in mind so that it looks good on every screen/device. Also, I added more whitespace in between the different sections of the page, so there is a much clearer separation and the page is easier to scan / navigate.
Lessons Learned
I did this design exercise because a friend of mine challenged me to do it. As designers, we should always strive to keep learning and improving. The next thing I want to do is to actually do a more in-depth redesign of an existing website. I want to go through the entire process of market research, brainstorming, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, all the way to the final mockups. I also plan to do a more exhaustive case study explaining the thinking behind each design decision that was made through the redesign process.
This post was also published on my website.
