This is quite a brave, interesting series of posts, so thanks for that; long may they continue.
I like the way you're breaking the grid here with the person in the white coat, which helps this feel less like a standard startup template, and more something tailored. Having someone hold/interact with the app also humanises it (as compared to their existing page), which is a lesson many tech startups (from pebble to this one) would do well to heed if they want to attract people who are not technical. The colours are very important, and I think you're right to go with white here with splashes of colour, in fact I think the dark blue is a mistake for the very reasons you argue in your post against grey/dark colours.
These 'trust us, the nytimes does' links seem to be de rigueur for startup sites now, but I'm not sure that they really deserve this placement. I'd boost the actual users of the product instead and leave the press links for lower down the page.
The only place I feel this redesign falls down is in its presentation of the key points lower down on the page. You have identified that they are not working, but I'm not convinced by the replacement:
The key points on the old website are ugly, and inconsistent (why two different styles of presentation for 6 different points, and then unrelated user testimonial beside the lower ones?).
The key points on your redesign are repeats from above, and are hidden by distracting chrome - presented in some sort of slider widget which doesn't do them justice. This is a home page - if you are going to present USPs there should be 1-3 major selling points/calls to action which you extract from the client, and those should be presented beautifully with supporting illustrations and clear actions. Navigation chrome is just getting in the way here - if necessary present them as a grid with more than 3, but there should be no clicking just to see more IMHO.
PS As a meta-point, I really feel you lose something in these blog posts by not comparing the two pages directly with a screenshot of the site as it was. These sites are likely to change, which will make your commentary and redesign difficult or impossible to understand, and also I'm lazy and don't want to have to click another link :)
I like the way you're breaking the grid here with the person in the white coat, which helps this feel less like a standard startup template, and more something tailored. Having someone hold/interact with the app also humanises it (as compared to their existing page), which is a lesson many tech startups (from pebble to this one) would do well to heed if they want to attract people who are not technical. The colours are very important, and I think you're right to go with white here with splashes of colour, in fact I think the dark blue is a mistake for the very reasons you argue in your post against grey/dark colours.
These 'trust us, the nytimes does' links seem to be de rigueur for startup sites now, but I'm not sure that they really deserve this placement. I'd boost the actual users of the product instead and leave the press links for lower down the page.
The only place I feel this redesign falls down is in its presentation of the key points lower down on the page. You have identified that they are not working, but I'm not convinced by the replacement:
The key points on the old website are ugly, and inconsistent (why two different styles of presentation for 6 different points, and then unrelated user testimonial beside the lower ones?).
The key points on your redesign are repeats from above, and are hidden by distracting chrome - presented in some sort of slider widget which doesn't do them justice. This is a home page - if you are going to present USPs there should be 1-3 major selling points/calls to action which you extract from the client, and those should be presented beautifully with supporting illustrations and clear actions. Navigation chrome is just getting in the way here - if necessary present them as a grid with more than 3, but there should be no clicking just to see more IMHO.
PS As a meta-point, I really feel you lose something in these blog posts by not comparing the two pages directly with a screenshot of the site as it was. These sites are likely to change, which will make your commentary and redesign difficult or impossible to understand, and also I'm lazy and don't want to have to click another link :)