Skout.com is a location based social network that's currently re-positioning itself to be an iphone dating site.  At first impression Skout.com is a busy looking dating site cliche.  It's only after you look past the clutter that you notice their visual hints of their location based functionality.  

The Name

Skout has a bit of a different conotation to it than what the site is meant for.  I'm supposed to be looking for friendship and love not recruiting the next hottest NBA player.  But on a good note, it's short and easy to remember.   

Branding and Design Elements

 I've numbered a few elements of the site so you can see what I'm talking about through out this review.

1.  The Brand Identity / Logo

With a nice color combination and use of a clean font, the logo is easy on the eyes.  I feel that the font has been overused in the social networking sector, but it does the job.  I'm really surprised that they are not using the gradient and reflection effects that most social media sites use, but it's a good thing.

I don't feel that the identity is original or memorable, using a target symbol is both literal and expected.  I'm also against using icons as letters in the midst of your company name.  The "O" being a target symbol creates a discontinuity that's both distracting and breaks up the name.  This type of treatment weakens the brands overall image.  It's saying that we don't have an icon that can stand on it's own and we didn't put enough effort into a great concept. Lack of concept and quality work creates a subtle mis-trust with the end-user that most would miss.

2.  Imagery and Photography

Even thought the photo has a great quality to it, it doesn't portray the sites new direction.  The photo is wonderful for your standard dating site, but if Skout wants people to notice the fact that they are mobile, they need to find a more conceptual photo.

The iPhone photo could be sharper.  But overall it does the job.

3.  Illustrations and Icons

The identity symbol has been over-used in the illustrations in my opinion.  Even though I don't mind the glass pins, I don't feel it matches the overall design of the site.  Using the symbol as a background illustration is yet another example of using the identity in a non-effective way.  

4.  Typography

Using image based type is usually not a good thing and it's no exception here.  It stops search engines from picking up keywords that are important to SEO.  The lack of care in laying out the type, kerning and aligning has created a mess of a page.  The black background muddies up the text and is very hard on they eyes.

 5.  Navigation and Hierarchy

The navigation is bulky and in no particular order.  The top left navigation needs to be much smaller as it is competing with the main Navigation tab system.  I'm not a big fan of tabs as the main navigation, I mean there is no reason. 

The action menu is bulky and looks like they were just trying to fill space.

6.  Site Elements

These illustration elements are there for one reason only and that's to make the site look a bit richer.  But with the extra long page and juvinile illustrations the elements are just that. Elements.

7.  Visual Navigation and Buttons

These buttons are overworked, bulky and just plain unsightly.  They are also repeating functionality that has navigation sitting right next to it.

Recomendations

Here are some of my recomendations on making the site shine.

1.  Clean up.  Get rid of all the clutter.

2.  Find a branding agency that knows and understands positioning, branding, and strategy based design.

3.  The logo needs to be a strong non-literal representaion of your site, design with that in mind.

4.  Make the site more inviting by opening it up visually.  Let it breath.  All that black is bad for you.

5.  Get away from gimicky illustrations that have no purpose.

6.  Study the best sites for examples of effective navigation and sign-up process.

7.  Find a visual remarkable way of standing out from the clutter of dating sites out their.  You have a unique position (for good or bad), use it.

Conclusion

Working with all sorts of social sites, I know that at the end of the day with enough money and effort your site will gain members.  But the quality of those members and the ease of conversion will depend on how much care you've put into the side both front and back-end.

The above observations are my personal opinion based on both experience and taste, hopefully they are helpful to Skout.com and all designers out there working on building effictive branded sites.

Update on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 11:01PM by Sabet

As promised by Skout Founder, Christian Wiklund - the homepage of Skout.com has been redesigned.  I feel that some great improvements were made, and at the same time some elements took a turn for the worst.

Here are some notes on the design.  I'll just break it down quickly from top down.

1.  The heart + the target icon.  Completely out of place and doesn't match the forward thinking idea of the site.  The illustration is more of hand done classic look.  It's also a bit misplaced, throwing of the balance of the homepage.  It also pushes the logo to the right quite a bit, creating another distraction and imbalance. 

2.  The text menu isn't aligned with anything, so it's a bit float and out of place.  

3.  The Login, Signup and Search buttons are overpowering in essence and underwhelming in execution.  

4.  I like the use of the slide show to point out what the site does.  It's a great add.

5.  The buttons are so big and bright, the search section of the site underneath sign up looks like an after thought.

6.  A little more work on the boxes that carry the phones and member could go a long way.  

7.  Use of a more updated phone would freshen' things up a bit.

8.  I would love a shot at this home page!! 

With these points said, I really appreciate the fact that they are trying to move forward and it seems like great design matters to Chris and his wonderful team.