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I am not a designer and with my limited design skills, I put together a website that doesn't look anything close to a professional site. I'd like to redesign my site to look more like other Web 2.0 sites out there. Ex:

https://cheddargetter.com/

https://www.mailfinch.com/

http://basecamphq.com/

All of them seem to follow a similar layout which makes me want to say that there is a theme out there that I can easily integrate onto my website built on ASP.NET. Is there one or do I need to spend money hiring a designer?

PS: I know about Wordpress themes but not sure if they are compatible with Master pages in ASP.NET

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Wordpress is not compatible with ASP.NET because it is written in PHP. However, almost any host will support PHP. – Virtuosi Media Nov 26 '10 at 4:45

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

Here's what you do:

  1. Put a dark header across with a few links
  2. Put some clipart-style graphics in the middle
  3. Add some blurb below
  4. Stick a corporate footer at the bottom.

... but seriously...

Web 2.0 is mainly refers to technologies used to build a site - not the way it looks.

The look a feel similarities, that you're probably referring to, has a lot to do with templating and open source libraries and classes, that are frequently reused by many people.

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I totally understand that Web 2.0 refers to use of certain technologies. However, all sites seem so much similiar looking. I was interested in what templates to use for a site built on ASP.NET – Nick H Nov 25 '10 at 17:36
up vote 3 down vote

I disagree, web 2.0 carries a specyfic design taste that's trendy right now. Colorful, minimalistic, usable... for a simple answer, reduce text to the very minimum, 1.5 or double-space it, use a font like Arial, reduce contrast (dark gray text against white background looks better than black), use big fonts in titles and headings, different color , links not underlined unless mouse-over and color should be not too different from text (if text is gray, dark blue do fine), borders should have good padding and be 1px wide maximum with low contrast (gray against white again). Introduce big colorful graphics to explain your service/product or a pro picture.

Look at this websites for inspiration. Here

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Absolutely. All these sites have the characterisitcs you mentioned (colorful, minimalistic etc). I am sure there are templates that I can use with a ASP.NET site that makes this easy instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. – Nick H Nov 25 '10 at 17:38
@Nick, this is by far the best answer so far. If you are looking for templates take a look at CSShub or themeforest.net (under the html section). Web 2.0 means many things, SAAS, Web Services, Social Networking, and of course design. Make sure you have a consistent color scheme for all your business collateral. Make sure you use the same fonts, and that there is a high level of consistency. Last, nothing says web 2.0 like the large site footer that contains important link. This is sometimes called the sitemap footer. And for extra dazzle use neat Jquery effects, and a bit of ajax. – Frank Nov 26 '10 at 8:42
up vote 1 down vote

Some design guidelines are:

  1. Simple and clean
  2. Content are centralized
  3. Big & clear navigation

However, that is all personal preference.

Some guideline from other sites: 1. http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design/web-2-0-design-style-guide/

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up vote 1 down vote

There is not common template which you can use. The websites you referring have astonishing look but they are NOT similar from Graphic Design perspective. Every project need it's own designer.

If you cannot afford expensive designer, I suggest to take a look to 99designs which you can find talented designers which compete to satisfy you. You can choose the budget yourself.

They deliver you the final result in PSD format and you have to implement it into ASP.NET Master Pages.

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