Revision to Apple.com, the homepage

At the moment, I am working on a full revision of Apple’s Homepage, Store, Support Center, and Forums. It’s a big project, but this is a sample of what I’m doing. This is for my portfolio/graduate school application.

I focused on structure, not content. The adjustments were minor, so flip back and forth between this and the current one (see below) to notice the differences. Hopefully… you do.

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For comparison, here is the current home page: http://bit.ly/g7Aj20

I had a few issues with the current design:

1. It’s structure was separate elements and boxes, each with their own, separate contents. Even the navigation is separate from the page; nothing “lived together.”
2. The top navigation buttons were also “kitsch” (we know they’re buttons; they don’t have to overdo that metaphor) with their dark grey and heavy bevel. 
3. Apple products, however, are known for being unified, seamless, and integrated… unlike this homepage.
4. In short, the home page didn’t reflect the company and the products that it creates.

I fixed this by unifying the page elements together into one block (not separate, disjointed boxes), and by reducing the “kitsch” and cartoony look. In the end, it’s subtle changes, but I went with a typical web design mantra: REALIGN, not redesign.