Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Redesign

It's about 1am here, and I have just gone live with the new design. I would have preferred more time before going live, but isn't that always the way?

The problem (or one of them) was that just after I took the site down and started messing about with structure etc, Blogger went down. For just long enough to screw with my schedule.

Anyway, it's up now, but I wouldn't say complete yet. Definitely tweaking to be done all over the gaff. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you spot something broken or generally crap LET ME KNOW!!!

I have no idea yet how this well affect our Google rankings and what-not. I have tried to maintain my focus on findability, but with this redesign I focussed more on usability. So usability and brand took priority over findability. As always I have tried to meld both in my design, but when it comes to the crunch sometimes you have to make tough decisions.

For example our homepage is now a lot cleaner and crisper and less cluttered. However this may result in less for Google to appreciate on it.

Overall I hope the site is easier on the eye, easier to navigate and generally more pleasing.

As I said to Bif earlier, hopefully whatever we lose when it comes to Google we will make up with more sticky visitors due to a more cohesive site. Especially since we plan to run banner ads soon.

So I hope you like the new look, and I hope more improvements will be on the way too.