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Hey everyone! How’s it going? Jeff here, just checking in.
I’m going to be around most of the weekend, online and doing some BigBlueBall housekeeping. You can find me in the IRC channel, or on IM.
I’m planning to write a few articles for the front page, which also brings me to a subject that I’d like your feedback on. Way back before the redesign, I had feedback from some of you that you’d like the homepage to be more “interesting” and Neowin.net was mentioned as an example. I think it is more interesting than it was, but still struggle to update content regularly.
The redesign introduced four separate content sections: the featured content (the big rotating graphics that I’m embarrassed to say haven’t changed in ages); and the Instant Messaging, Social Networking and Mobile Technology categories. While this looks cool, the latest articles don’t necessarily show up in any logical order. Sometimes there’s a lot of news about social networks and not much about IM, so lots of change in that category, and nothing in the other.
Here’s what I’m currently thinking:
First, the featured content section (the big graphic) I’m thinking of expanding to include a lot of the popular “reference” stuff on the site (the latest IM progs page, chat lingo, etc.). This is “timeless” in a sense, and has some lasting value. We can still add in more topical features when there’s big news (any suggestions?).
Second, I’m thinking of displaying all articles from all categories in a single, chronological list with thumbnails, rather than showing articles from only three categories. This is more aligned with what you’d see at neowin.net, as an example. This is a big change, and I’d really like your thoughts before I do this. There are infinite possibilities. I could also keep the two top sections, possibly shortening them to only two or three entries and use them to point to fairly “static” content that doesn’t change, then use the section at the bottom for news from all categories.
Any suggestions, feedback or ideas to make the home page more “fun” and interesting? I’d love to hear them!
And a bit of good news…. since the redesign, the RSS feed for the homepage news (not the forums) has grown to 1045 subscribers.
I think having the reference stuff easily accessible is a fantastic idea. I personally find it a little difficult to find articles when I want them. To be fair, I don’t look that often, but if people are searching and coming to BBB for some basic information it would be better to make it easier to find.
As for the list with thumbnails – I don’t really have any preference (I get updates via RSS so I don’t hit the page all that often), but it would be nice to have publish dates visible. At a minimum the change would encourage readers to scroll past the articles rather than dismissing them for not being in their category of interest.
Jeff wrote:I’m thinking of expanding to include a lot of the popular “reference” stuff on the site (the latest IM progs page, chat lingo, etc.)I think this is a great idea and will make it more varied and interesting.
Jeff wrote:I’m thinking of displaying all articles from all categories in a single, chronological list with thumbnails, rather than showing articles from only three categories.I -really- like the sound of this. I think it will work better than the current set-up.
Doris wrote:At a minimum the change would encourage readers to scroll past the articles rather than dismissing them for not being in their category of interest.My thought exactly!
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