Posts Tagged ‘redesign’
BView redesign is now live!
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Hi there, Kat the designer here!
Myself and the whole rest of BView have been working really hard in the last few months to redesign BView. It’s gone live today… Go have a look around. We haven’t changed any of the functionality; instead, we’ve just made the look more modern, and the ability to move through and contribute to the site easier! It’s going to be refined over the next few months, but I hope you like it as much as I do (or if you don’t, please let me know)! Here’s a few highlights from the design.
Search for vouchers and businesses
before, you could only search for businesses, and the display wasn't very prominent
We’ve made the ability for you to search for businesses, or switch to search for vouchers as a function of the search, front and centre at the top of the page. We have a very good, very fast search function, and it’s the easiest way to find businesses and money saving.
Now, it's the dominant feature on the page, and you can specify whether you want to search for businesses or vouchers
Simplified home page
Before it wasn't very clear what our company did from the homepage
In the past, we had been packing as much info as possible onto the homepage, but it meant that first time users who landed on the page were overwhelmed and couldn’t get a quick sense of what we do. The new version picks out the most important aspects of our site and mirrors our slogan, gives people some navigation to get exploring and gives some solid examples of content for those areas.
Now, we have a simplified homepage focusing on our strengths
Review entry right on the business profile
Before, people had to navigate to a new page in order to write a review. Now, it’s right there on the business profile page. We’ve also put in helpers to describe what the ratings mean.
Users don't have to navigate away from the main page to write their reviews
Simplified navigation
Before, navigation and actions were all over the page, and difficult to find for first time users
Before, navigation wasn’t consistently in the same place, buttons were all over the place, and the actions for a business weren’t very prominent. Now, actions are always in the green menu, in the same place and prominently designed.
Now, actions displayed on business profile, user profile and voucher pages in the same place, and prominently placed in the green note card
Simplified voucher display
Before, the logo (and business name and category) was repeated for every voucher, even though it was displayed just above
Voucher search results display the logo, business name and category to give you a quick picture of the offerings, but when you’re on a business profile, that stuff is already there, and in the same frame in the business details. So, we’ve simplified the voucher display for the business profile page to stop the repetition.
New display looks much cleaner, especially for businesses with multiple vouchers
Focus on the business
Before, related content was included right in the business's profile, with nothing to distinguish it
Before, we put a lot of related content in with the business profile. For the redesign we’ve made a real effort to put the spotlight on the business, and a clear distinction from related content. This has meant a more simplified sidebar with less content, and the related businesses and reviews being put into the footer. This way, we’ve let the primary content shine through, and people will be able to visually understand what is part of that business and what is not.
Now, related content is now in the footer, and obviously separate from the business, and related vouchers are in the sidebar
Bolder, more colourful design
Before, the layout felt cramped and grey
We’ve brought in some reds, greens and blues along with the tan to make the whole page feel friendlier. We’ve also made sure to let the content have room to breath.
The new design has more space, more context and more colour
Consistency and hierarchy
We’ve spent a lot of time creating a hierarchy of links and buttons. This means that we’ve been thinking a lot more about how people view the page, what they notice, and what fades into the background. Because we have so many links on an average page (sometimes more than 75!), we’ve made a big effort to make important links stand out, and to let the rest still look like links, but blend in enough so on first glance they are not the first thing you see.
We’ve also brought the font of the logo into the design (on buttons and header bars) in order to make the whole design look more cohesive. This new hierarchy also means that when we’re putting features into the page, there’s a system in place that the new element must fit in to. If you’re interested in the more in-depth discussion on the design and hierarchy, you can read about it here. I go through the hierarchy and more on the process behind it.
What do you think?
I would love your feedback (whether it’s scalding or not) on what you think works or what you think doesn’t!
Tags: BView, design, new style, redesign
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