You might reasonably have expected a post from me first thing, but things have been... busy.
Site redesigns are like that, and if you're voluntarily reading something called a 'web editor's blog' there's a chance you've experienced one first hand.
So what have we done? Well, there's nothing in the site redesign as radical as the magazine's shift from a 'trade' look to a consumer one. But and there are four things I want to highlight.
1. Comments, forums and photos
We finally have comments on articles. I know, I know. In our defence, we were for many years on a legacy system and in a corporate structure that made implementing comments very difficult.
It was among the first requirements I laid down when we started talking about a redesign after we were bought out.
Suffice to say I've long been embarrassed by it, and the biggest thrill I got yesterday was seeing comments start to come in almost immediately (couple of funny ones on the 'robot agents' story).
You can see which articles are being commented on in the 'Most Read/Most Commented' widget, which appears on every page at the bottom of the right-hand column.
We've also given forum chat and user photos from travelhub a more prominent spot on the homepage... which is the same as saying we're offering you a more prominent spot on the homepage.
2. Article width
The editable area I used to have to play with on an article was about 450 pixels - barely enough to embed a youtube video. I've now got just over 600, which is a far friendlier size for dropping in videos, maps and nice big images.
The site works best at a screen resolution of 1280x800. (Right-click on your desktop, hit 'properties' and go to the 'settings' tab.)
3. Hero panels
The scrolling boxes at the top left of our home and channel pages. You'll have seen these before - they're all over the web.
But again, it gives me the opportunity to use larger images to promote articles, so a big story or a particularly fun feature gets the impact it deserves. I think it works brilliantly with something like the retro ad gallery on travelhub. (Part of the 'Commercal Break' group I've just set up.)
I can also use them to embed video. Previously I could only do that on articles, which meant you had to click through if you wanted to watch a clip I was promoting on the homepage.
4. Competitions page
We had a competitions page years ago, but it was jerry-rigged and didn't work terribly well.
The new one is a proper channel page and appears on top-level navigation. It reflects All For You, a new competition and incentive-focused page in print.
