From Chaos to Zen. The new CSSDA.

By CSSDA crew 24 Sep 2017 update

Welcome to Zen.

Today we say goodbye to the previous v5 CSSDA site titled "Chaos and Candy" and welcome a new experience we call "Zen". The purpose of Chaos and Candy was to be big and bold while the goal of Zen is to provide an elegantly simple site that puts content and UX above all else. It's an "easy on the eyes" experience with soft-minimalist values at its core.

So what's new?

Apart from a completely new look and feel, the new CSSDA site has undergone a well considered UX reboot. We've designed the new site to be a more enjoyable place to browse sites on a daily basis and removed any superfluous distractions. The biggest change to the new CSSDA site is the revamped daily judging system for the Jpanel and the introduction of our new Public Vote Awards for UI, UX and Innovation. This new dual award system includes the existing WOTD (Website of the Day) Jpanel system along with the new public vote system that uses a hybrid of both public votes and the scores from the judges.

The new Public Vote Awards for UI, UX and Innovation.

The new Public Vote Awards include the opportunity to win awards for UI Design, UX Design and Innovative tech and development. To win, sites must receive a pre-set amount of votes from the public plus a total average score from the judges that is also above a pre-set threshold. The public do not require an account to vote which makes it easy for designers to call for votes from their fans and followers. Scores and votes are updated throughout the judging period so that site creators can revisit and refresh their nomination page to keep an eye on their site's progress.

A 96 hour timer and a total of 7 award opportunities.

All nominated sites are now coded to a 96 hour countdown giving them 4 days to accrue the necessary scores and votes for the new dual award system. The dual award system brings the total amount of award opportunities to seven which includes: UI Design, UX Design, Innovation, WOTD, Special Kudos, WOTM (monthly) and WOTY (yearly). On top of this is our end of year DOTY (Designer of the Year) and Best In Class awards.

New Solo, Studio and Agency categories for DOTY.

This year we've gone one step further in our quest to provide a level playing field for DOTY by introducing a third category. The categories are Solo (1 + 1 collaborator), Studio (2-10 people) or Agency (10+ people). A winner from each category will be chosen at the end of the year and receive a prestigious DOTY trophy including worldwide shipping. Runners-up are also recognized via multiple Best In Class categories.

The new CSSDA. Be inspired, be inspiring!

The new CSSDA site went through many iterations before arriving at the one you see now. Our heartfelt thanks go out to the following experimental site collaborators that started this journey with us. Each of them helped in their own unique way and it is their commitment and enthusiasm that inspired us to ultimately find Zen. Special thanks go out to our new dev team for completing the coding of Zen v6.2.

In first-name alphabetical order