Internal: The Tweaked Look
A couple of weeks ago I pushed live a minor tweak to the look of EE Insider. The focus of the change was to eliminate the stuff that was barely used (as deemed so through analytics) and make the site easier to read. I eliminated almost everything on the sidebar of the site and made it the new home for the ads that support the site and share some awesome products and services with the community.
I also eliminated everything but the most useful stuff from the navigation. We’re a savvy bunch, so there was no need to highlight things like the RSS feed. The biggest change was removing navigation access to the EE Insider Tips section of the site. The section is still around and completely functional and you can get a link in the footer on any page of the site.
One complaint I received was that readers had to hunt for the search box. I moved it to the top of the sidebar and simplified it: no submit button and the label is hidden. Again, we’re savvy and can handle buttonless search forms.
So, right now EE Insider is focused on three areas: the blog (this), the how-to articles (have one? you get paid to publish here) and the videos section. It feels better and looks better. What do you think?
Posted on Nov 07, 2011 by Ryan Irelan
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Brendan Underwood — 18:40 on 11.07.2011
I think you need to put a clearfix or something to stop the #secondary-content breaking out of the #primary-content on short pages.
While you’re at it, the ‘notify_me’ field in the #comment-form-field could do with a label wrapped around it so that clicking on the ‘Please notify me of follow-up comments.’ selects the checkbox. Something like this:
<label><input type=“checkbox” name=“notify_me” value=“yes” /> Please notify me of follow-up comments.</label>
Fix your other labels while you’re at it.
Cheers
Brendan
PS> Still love the site.
Steven Hambleton — 18:40 on 11.07.2011
How about a before and after screenshot? I do like what I see though!
Juan — 07:17 on 11.08.2011
Good looking site. Why not include in that side bar what’s new on Mijingo…
Emmanuel — 11:49 on 11.08.2011
Still not liking the search bar that much. Would it be better positionned on the same row as the navbar (News, Article, Videos…), just below the first add?
The font size also is dramatically small regarding to current design trends.
BUT: content is fresh and documented…by far the most important item, isn’t it?