'Net Features : redesign

Blekko Redesigns Search Experience

Allison Howen — Thu, 30 May 2013 17:35:00 GMT

One of the Web’s alternative search engines, Blekko, has launched a site redesign that aims to reinvigorate the search experience for its users.

Blekko’s new design breaks down search results into categories that offer links to curated results from verified content sources around the Web. In addition, the new categories offer users more results on a single page than previously. In fact, Blekko developed the categories over the past several months in order to better serve its user base that has grown to about 12.5 million, and includes more than 5 million searches a day.

“It’s a great testament to our team that we’ve reached a usage level that almost no other search startup has managed to achieve in the past decade,” said Rich Skrenta, CEO of Blekko. “And now we’re ready to take things to the next level by radically redefining the search results page. Now every search is going to instantly return results from the best sources on the Web and break them down into categories to provide a richer, more accurate list of real information, not just links.”

The newly designed search engine also features a responsive design along with a colorful and more image-rich layout. When users conduct a search, the results are broken down into categories. Users are able to quickly select the category that best matches their interest, as well as see an expanded list of links to the best content sources for their specific search. For example, a search for “Australian Shepherd” will break results down into categories like Top Results, Dogs, Pets and Latest. These categories allow Blekko to better identify search intent so users can quickly scan the page and find the type of content they were searching for.

“We found a way to take the guesswork out of search and instead empower users to quickly get to the best content for a particular query,” said Skrenta. “Blekko search results now allow users to more quickly get to great sources of information rather than scan through a list of blue links.”

The Brand Revamp Process

Allison Howen — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

The only thing that is constant in life is change, and this concept is all too familiar within the digital world.

In fact, keeping up with new technology on the ’Net is a full-time job, which can make it very difficult for any brand, including yours, to keep its Web presence modern. It is impossible to incorporate every piece of new technology into a digital existence and bells and whistles aren't really what keep visitors coming back, but it is important to take advantage of new solutions that exist (especially ones that improve the user experience) and to keep websites and social media profiles working alongside evolving brand initiatives. Sometimes, the best way to do this is with a total brand “revamp.”

A brand revamp doesn’t only include a redesigned website, but also an overhaul of a company’s image. But before a single change is implemented, a thorough plan is needed.

When is it time to start thinking about a brand revamp?

There are many reasons why a business might decide to revamp its brand, but according to David Smith, the creative director for B2B marketing agency McBru, businesses will typically refresh their brand prior to a major company event, such as a merger or launch of a new product line. McBru’s 20th anniversary triggered its revamp.

“In part it was that we had outgrown our previous brand," said Smith. "We had brought in some new services that were making us more metrics driven and able to focus more on the end results of our marketing. There had been some desire to update the brand for about a year, but then the final thing that fell into place was our upcoming 20th anniversary, and we thought, 'alright, we don’t need any other reason to go ahead and do this,' because that’s a big anniversary.”

But once the decision to embark on a brand revamp is made, there are still numerous other factors to consider.

How do you begin?

Before any business undergoes a digital facelift, a clear strategy needs to be determined. And the best way to do this is by setting goals to define what success means and plan how to get there.

How to improve the user experience should top the goal-setting list. Josh Otten, managing partner and creative director at Screenpush agrees.

"Nice colors, shapes and copy are all good, but the most important element is how a user/customer interacts with the product or site,” said Otten “Once someone lands on a site, the user experience should inherently show the worth and purpose of the brand, while presenting proper calls-to-action and funneling the user toward the brand's end-goal."

For instance, in McBru’s case, the goal was to support business development. And since the company helps its clients with social media strategies, this was accomplished by prominently featuring social content on its new site.

“One of the big changes this time around was integrating our social media strategy with the website strategy so it was really kind of just one, online strategy,” Smith explained. “That was a really good exercise to go through, because you can do a lot of the content and a lot of the engagement with people through social media, and that puts a lot less demand on the website. For example, on our site, our portfolio is largely existent on Pinterest and YouTube. We didn’t build out pages and pages of portfolios on the website. That was great, it saved us a lot of time and effort, and Pinterest and YouTube are a lot easier to update.”

In fact, incorporating social elements into websites is a design trend that continues to increase in popularity regardless of industry, as it helps companies engage their site visitors and grow word-of-mouth marketing. Likewise, the abundance of services and plugins available on the ’Net has made it easy for brands to more prominently feature social on their sites. Interscope Records, for example, leveraged Echo’s pinboard visualization plugin last October in order to display real-time social content in a pinboard-style layout on its site. Plus, a multitude of sites on the ’Net have leveraged Facebook extensions, like the Recommendations Bar or Comments plugin, which help to boost metrics like engagement rates, time-on-site and page views per visitor.

However, creating a better user experience and more engaging website is only one step of the brand revamp process, because during this overhaul, a brand also needs to take other digital destinations into consideration.

What digital properties are impacted by a revamp?

Since the whole point of a revamp is to alter, improve and modernize a brand’s image, this process typically impacts every channel where a brand has a presence. For example, if your brand’s revamp includes an updated logo or color scheme (which should be decided upon during the initial planning process), this new appearance needs to be represented within your social profiles, advertisements and mobile presence, as well.

“Social websites like Facebook and Twitter are powerful marketing mediums for any business, and that means creating a consistent image and messaging across your entire online presence for your brand’s digital identity,” said Garret Bever, graphic designer at MyCorporation.com. “Many customers now research a potential purchase across a variety of sites, be it social media or crowd sourced reviews, before making any commitment. So it is to the advantage of any business to ensure they focus some energy on revamping their social platforms along with their website.”

In addition to social, businesses need to keep their mobile presence in mind when implementing a revamp, because the popularity of these devices is on an upswing with no signs of slowing down. Nick Gorski, senior graphic designer with Walker Sands Communications, states that focusing on mobile when revamping a brand in 2013 is a “no-brainer.”

“Having a great-looking, functional mobile presence shows that you respect your users enough to help them easily access your content on their terms,” said Gorski. “Those working on current rebranding projects should also consider building a fully responsive site, which eliminates the need to build separate ‘mobile’ versions, and creates a consistent branded experience that translates across most platforms. I would also recommend learning to take advantage of retina and other high-resolution displays, which will be found on more and more smartphones, tablets, and laptops moving forward. A rebrand should be viewed as an opportunity to get as far ahead of the technology curve as possible so that your digital presence is up-to-date long after the update. The farther you are ahead of the curve, the longer it will be before your digital presence requires another update.”

Unfortunately, obtaining a great-looking and functional mobile site doesn’t come easy, which is why brands should take advantage of mobile testing tools to help them optimize their mobile presence to achieve the best user-experience possible for on-the-go customers. Resources like Keynote System’s DeviceAnywhere, for instance, allow developers to check mobile Web content on actual mobile devices in real-time. Moreover, tools like Plunk allow developers to assemble quick click tests to discover how easy or difficult it is for visitors to navigate through a mobile site.

That said, after a brand’s website, social profiles, mobile site and other channels are renovated, one question remains…

When should you launch?

This question can only by answered by your team’s creative heads, who need to come together and decide the date of the relaunch. On this date, everything from ads to social profiles and the website should be switched over simultaneously.

That said, the launch isn’t the end of this project; it is merely a new leg of the journey. Once your brand’s new image and website is live, it is time to collect feedback from your visitors and continuously test new elements and strategies. This helps discover what features provide the best user experience to your customers, and thus, help your brand achieve optimal performance levels.

Ecommerce Design: Dickies Goes to Work on Online Store

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:45:00 GMT

Simple navigation, clear communication, comprehensive product information and easier checkout are among the new and improved features and functionality of DickiesStore.co.uk, which go lives May 7.

As the exclusive provider of Dickies Branded Clothing, DickiesStore.co.uk upgrades are a solid benchmark for other online merchants to be measured by:

Simple Navigation

With a strong focus on intuitive navigation, DickiesStore.co.uk has ensured that the path toward finding that perfect product is clearly marked. In addition, a substantially improved search feature allows an even more precise shopping experience for visitors.

Clear Communication

DickiesStore.co.uk has placed a lot of emphasis on keeping visitors informed and for this reason notifications about changes in stock will be much more prevalent. Another new feature on the re-launched site is a live chat function where visitors’ queries can be more directly addressed.

Comprehensive Product Information

In addition to improved functionality, the look and feel of the site has been given increased attention and has undergone a more modern makeover. Informational product videos have also been included to facilitate a much more comprehensive understanding of each product.

Easier Checkout

Completing the payment process has been considerably simplified on the new website. Making a purchase is more fluid with PayPal and Google Checkout enabled and now the DickiesStore.co.uk shopping experience can be completed anywhere, as the site has been fully optimized for mobile use.

Recently DickiesStore.co.uk uncovered an archive of Dickies advertising material dated as far back as the 1930s, demonstrating the history of its marketing communications. At the same time DickiesStore.co.uk is very much looking to the future after consulting customer response in order to constantly improve the functioning of its online store.

Pinterest Redesign Tackles the Big Pictures

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:00:00 GMT

Bigger is better – at least, that seems to be the philosophy that Pinterest is following when it comes to the social pinboarding site’s freshly launched new redesign.

The updated look is mostly notable for including bigger pictures, more linkage and enhanced discovery features, which were initially tested on select users starting back in January. Pinterest’s goal seems to be getting users to pin more and increase engagement with the images on the site.

In order to accomplish this task, the website has now added things like the ability to explore the pins on a user’s board without leaving the page that you’re currently visiting, along with links to related pins to those things that you’ve already pinned on the site. All of this will appear in new discovery tabs that will be alongside main images, meaning it will mirror sites like YouTube, which provide content discovery options from the page that a user is already on.

Plus, you’ll now be given pinning recommendations about what other users are pinning based on the content that you’ve flagged on your own board(s). This feature is also about to be released on the Pinterest mobile applications for iOS and Android.

Additionally, Pinterest also now has bigger pins and offers a better way to navigate back through your recent browsing history to find recently viewed content with a new back button.

And don’t forget, Pinterest also just released a new analytics service to help brand’s identify their most popular and best-performing content on the site. This, coupled with the new redesign, makes one think that Pinterest may just be getting ready to think about monetizing its service.

Say Hello to the New eBay

Allison Howen — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:43:00 GMT

eBay has released a series of design and general experience updates intended to improve user engagement and also compete with the popular daily deal site, Groupon.

The changes include a site redesign, a new daily deal section and a tool that will help one of eBay's largest customer segments – collectors. Learn more about the updates below:

eBay Feeds

It seems as though eBay is embracing change, because the company’s recently updated logo is now accompanied by a redesigned website. The most prominent site change is the eBay Feed, which is a personalized page of items that are displayed in a Pinterest-style layout of image tiles. The Feeds are completely customizable, with the displayed products being tailored to the categories or items that users choose to follow. It is safe to say that the new image-oriented design focuses on usability, because it provides users with a simple way to quickly discover new products.

Lifestyle Deals

While the eBay Feeds take a page out of Pinterest's design handbook, the auction site’s new daily deal feature takes a page out of Groupon's business model. The new service, which is called Lifestyle Deals, currently runs offers in a limited number of cities, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The deals are arranged through a partnership with a company called Signpost, which assembles deals with local merchants and posts them online. In the past, eBay has focused on offering deals for products, so jumping into the deal industry with a focus on services is definitely a big step for the company.

Setify

Aside from the new site design and daily deal venture, eBay has also launched a new tool that focuses on helping one of the company’s most popular customer segments – collectors. To many people, collecting is more than just a hobby. However, the collection process can be very time consuming because it requires a lot of research, tracking and even at times, some networking. This is why eBay has made the collection process a little easier with the launch of a free tool called Setify. Currently in beta, Setisfy helps collectors track the items that they own, share their collections, build wish lists and shop for additional collectibles. Although Setify currently only supports comic book and coin collectors, support for more categories is expected to come in the future. Those who are interested can request a beta invitation here.

Simplicity Rules the Day for LinkedIn Design Change

Linc Wonham — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:30:00 GMT

I suppose you could chalk it up to a crazy coincidence or merely to the fact that I was in a newsletter-reading frame of mind for a change, but for the first time since I’d begun receiving them some time ago, I read this morning’s edition of LinkedIn Today that appeared in my inbox.

LinkedIn Today is the professional network’s social news product which, in my case, appears quite randomly and usually receives a quick glance if it’s not getting altogether ignored. But that wasn’t the case this morning.

In fact, I opened the email, clicked onto the site, consumed several news items and, obediently completing all of the tasks a newsletter is supposed to invite me to do, poked around the site a little while longer and read some more content from the LinkedIn blog. If we were grading newsletters on their individual results, this morning’s LinkedIn Today that landed in my mailbox would easily get an A+.

Imagine my surprise then, when I clicked on yesterday’s post from the LinkedIn blog and began reading about the new redesign of LinkedIn Today. Senior user experience designer Joann Wu writes that the goal was to “not only make the product easier to navigate, we’ve completely re-imagined the look and feel so you can get quicker access and customized ways to consume the news that matters most to you.”

She continued to say that, “One of the key design principles that drove the approach for the visual change was to simplify the experience; creating an elegant, delightful and customized experience for news consumption.”

The simpler user interface shown below perfectly combines images and text to create a blocky grid-like layout and makes it exceptionally easy to scan content. The new interface also emphasizes the user experience by making it easy to share articles with your connections throughout the LinkedIn network, and to see which connections are following and sharing certain items. Users can also customize what kinds of stories they will see with the Customize Your News tab, also shown below.

But come on, that seems like a pretty big coincidence to me. The first time I choose to engage with the product happens to be the first day I receive the completely overhauled, redesigned version. And I didn’t just skim it, either – you could say that I vigorously consumed the darned thing before spending 30 more minutes of my morning on the LinkedIn site.

And there’s that word again: simple; or, in this case, “simplify the experience.” Clearly, that’s what my subconscious mind was waiting for, a simplified social news experience from LinkedIn. And, really, that’s what all of us as Web users demand today, simplified experiences in the form of simpler, user-friendly designs. Bing’s de-cluttering of its search results pages is just one of thousands of examples in the very recent past.

Whether my experience this morning was a coincidence or not, it is definitely not a coincidence that LinkedIn Today received its new look barely two weeks after the launch of the professional network’s iPad application. The app is simple and sleek, which is the look the news feed now has, “creating an elegant, delightful and customized experience for news consumption.”

So, for LinkedIn, a smart move on their redesign that, if I am any indication, should serve the company well in the future. For the Web design community, just more irrefutable evidence that simpler design is the course we are on and the direction in which we are headed.

MSN Jumps Aboard the Redesign Bandwagon

Mike Phillips — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:21:00 GMT

Several major media properties have undergone redesigns within the past year or so; including a handful of Tribune properties, CNN.com and ESPN.com. Now you can officially add MSN to the mix. And all of these redesigns share some commonalities; including simplicity, clean design, bright and large imagery, and a focus on the user and their evolving Web savvy.

Let's take a look at some of the changes. The top image is the old MSN.com and the bottom image is the new redesign. What you will notice first is the addition of white space, or the removal of MSN's trademark blue, depending on your view. Immediately, the site feels much more relaxing and easier to scan, much like the redesign of the LA Time's website. "MSN blue" has not disappeared entirely, however. You can still see it above the Bing search bar, between page sections, and outlining tabs. And speaking of tabs, many redesigns are switching from simple links to a tabbed browsing style. This makes it much easier for the reader to understand where they are on the page. It also limits downward scrolling -- something of which advertisers should take notice, when considering ad placement above or below the fold.

A few more observations:

Images are huge -- figuratively and literally. Every redesign these days includes large, bright images to capture the user's attention and entice a click. MSN even uses a slider, something traditionally reserved for blogs. However, MSN is known much more for entertainment than news, so the slider is appropriate. Either way, websites are evolving to reach out to the user, instead of forcing the user to dig for what they want. On that note ...

Links are fewer. Again, like the LA Times, the amount of links has been drastically reduced. Above the fold, the new MSN design has about 37 different places to click. The old design featured more than 60 clickable links. Fewer links not only makes the page easier to read and digest, but also focuses user attention on important parts of the page.

Blue links are dying. We saw this trend with the LA Times' redesign. On many websites, traditional blue links are being phased out. Web readers already know that just about every headline is clickable. Instead, text is now being formatted to better fit the look of the website and to not distract readers from their scanning behavior.

Online video is ubiquitous. On the old MSN.com, you will notice a section to the left titled "Video Highlights." There is direction for the user ('click to play') and the video is framed in a video player. Today's Web user is intimately familiar with online video. Now, the only indication of video is a simple "play" button - either on an image or next to a link itself. You will also notice that video highlights are integrated with regular, text links. There's no stronger indication that video is expected and demanded by users. It is no longer a luxury item.

Airing it out. As mentioned previously, MSN now has much more white space. And they are not the only ones. Most redesigns are headed in this direction. The focus is (as it should be) on the user. Web pages are becoming easier to read and less chaotic. The availability of information online is forcing websites to rethink how they deliver that information and to make the user experience comfortable and inviting. When you look at the old MSN, it resembles search engine results. The new site is a destination.

Thinking about a redesign? Don't miss Website Magazine's upcoming May edition, where we address the criteria and strategies of a website redesign.

Read about CNN's redesign (where we talk about some below-the-fold issues) and the LA Times' redesign.

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