It’s always a scary moment when you decide to change something that’s been the same for a long time. In the case of Newsshooter, Dan and Matt have built an incredibly popular website using the tools that were available to them when they started blogging six years ago.
In many ways the site still stood up in 2015 – it had a spare design and the layout was all about the words and pictures. We weren’t stuck using Flash or other legacy technologies. But the web has changed dramatically since 2009 and collectively we realised we needed to adapt to the new realities of publishing online.
The biggest problem with the old Newsshooter was how it looked on mobile. The future of browsing the web almost certainly lies in a greater variety of small screens rather than big desktop machines and we were using a design that didn’t cater for that potentially enormous audience.
So we enlisted the help of the incredibly talented David Griffin to work out some designs for a new site. We knew it had to be responsive to work seamlessly across different browsers and screen sizes; and we wanted an elegant look and feel to show off what we’re producing, as well as more up-to-date inventory for our advertisers.
David’s experience takes in the Washington Post and National Geographic and now his own studio – and we couldn’t be happier with the designs he’s come up with for us. The site’s appearance is cleaner and clearer and should be easier to navigate. And although Newsshooter will continue to evolve we think we’ve got a great foundation for the next five years.
Of course great designs need to be translated into great code, and we’re fortunate to have had a terrific developer in John Puddephatt of Let’s Dance. He’s taken David’s designs and our many (many) questions and requirements and wrangled them into a new platform that’s faster, more flexible and just plain prettier than what we had before.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the redesign is that it’s only the beginning. Once we’re up and running we’ll be adding a new platform for commenting (the calibre of conversation it’s possible to have below the line here is always really impressive), launching a newsletter and expanding our offerings on other channels like YouTube and Instagram. And that’s just for starters.
But the site comes first. We’ve worked hard to make it the best we can and we hope you enjoy it: do let us know what you think and what we can do better.
