2008 is the year of Change (inspired by Obama) and this is what we have done as well – i.e. changed pluGGd.in’s layout.
Let me walk you through few triggers that led to the decision:
- We carried out the heatmap analysis (have a look at a day’s click-analysis) for a month or so (using crazyegg) and realized that there were a few ‘dead zones’ in the site (with negligible CTRs) – we wanted to get rid of them.
We also tried out certain different styles in the last 2 weeks and realized that user activity hasn’t been impacted much – so a magazine styled layout fit the bill. - Most Importantly, surfacing great content (from the past):
Yep, we (esp. few guest authors) have produced some real great content which evoked some great discussions. Most of the times, these articles gets buried in the flow of new content and we really wanted to find out a way to surface these contents.
And that’s what you will notice in the carousel section.
So is this a move from being a blog to content portal?
Well, without ranting too much on the new design (and features etc), I request you to give the new look a spin and share your feedback/suggestions in the comment section (have also enabled ‘wall’ in the footer section, for you to add generic feedback on pluGGd.in)
Awesome!
How did you do the heatmap analysis? Did you use any software to track eye movement or did you analyze outgoing link analysis alone?
Hate it – not ranting, its feedback. Not sure what your mix of new vs repeat it, but the new layout punishes regular visitors by making the latest content less discoverable. Suggest swapping the featured content and latest content piece – at the least.
Hi .. gud work ..
Frankly speaking in today scenario .. CONTENT IS KING .. if the articles are gud .. then the design issue is negligible .. i found previous design much easier.. no HOCH POCH .
Regards
Suraj
I think the new design is a lot less amateurish than it’s predecessor. I think though the flash moving right and left thing on the front page could be changed a bit.
some comments.
– Move your comments/most viewed etc to the top and push google adsense down.
– Featured posts aren’t highlight as much
– Why do you have so many intrusions of Google Adsense in between? Push them all to the bottom
I really like the new look compared to the older one. Good job and thank god for not using Helvetica.
I love the redesign, much cleaner, indicates pluggd.in is more like a news site. But, I agree with Vikas, would love to see longer snippets for the latest entries. Not sure if the thumbnails above Featured content are worth this much real estate! Also, Previous/Next links are screwed up on homepage.
Pretty neat .. I also find this more more professional
The new redesign looks more professional that the last one. But I found it a bit too cluttered, you can do away with with the adsense block under More News section.
The flash recap with thumbnail is a welcome change.
I am just worried about the top logo. It somehow feels a really low res image! While I love the redesign and the crisp white space, the logo seems too low res =|! Is it just me?
Older one looks more good than this
Looks better than the previous theme by many miles.
It is not a heatmap, its a click map
@Paras – it’s both. what i have linked is a clickmap and what i have used to understand user flow is heatmap.
To me, social media is like fast food. Crunch through lot of news in a short span of time. Some how magazine style presentation doesn’t seem to impress me.
Thanks all for the feedback – will take into account these feedbacks and expect next version in a few days
looks good