I'm very pleased to announce a brand new design for ReadWriteWeb, including a new look n' feel and new logo. The design was created and implemented by San Francisco design firm Ideacodes - specifically Emily Chang, Max Kiesler and Bryan Collick. Personally I've been a big fan of Ideacodes for a long time, so I was thrilled to work with them on this new design.
It's been a year or so since our last major re-design. And this is the first RWW design where I haven't been involved in the coding myself.
The goal of the re-design was to achieve a fresh and bold new look, with cleaner layout and CSS. We also hope the new design will encourage more community on RWW, enhance the way our content is presented, and overall give the brand some oomph.
First up, you will notice that we have a new logo. We've kept the yin-yang symbol, as that to me has always represented 'read/write' and the harmony of that concept - but the symbol has been modernized. The logo type is bolder and emphasizes the letters RWW. And can you spot the subtle thing that's been removed from the logo? The '/' between Read and Write is now gone. Although I have always thought that the slash was meaningful (or maybe I just thought it was cool!), in practical terms it was a slight hindrance - in terms of spelling our name and perhaps even making it difficult to type the URL. So from now on we'll be calling ourselves ReadWriteWeb, or RWW for short.
Finally on the logo, the design buffs among you will appreciate me telling you that the font is univers. For the body text, the font is Arial - a cleaner, more modern and readable font than the Lucinda Grande/Verdana we previously used there.
The other major change is that the site now has a white background, with a distinctive red header. Over the past year I had felt the red background of our old design was overwhelming for some readers. On the other hand the red is closely associated with ReadWriteWeb and lots of people like it, so I was keen to keep it in some form. The new header, I hope you'll agree, is distinctive and the bold splash of red makes our brand stand out.
Personally I love the new logo and header, but I am certain they will provoke different opinions. Why? Because that was the case with the ReadWriteWeb authors during the design process! That's good though - I'd much rather have a bold design that gets different reactions, than a bland one that gets no reaction ;-)
Other new features you will see on the new ReadWriteWeb:
Plus of course we've kept and enhanced features such as 'Featured Posts', 'Recent Jobs', the swicki search and more.
We have more new features in the works, so keep an eye out for those over the next month or so.
A huge thanks to Ideacodes for their inspiring vision and hard work. I want to also thank our web hosts Media Temple, who worked beyond the call of duty to help us get the new site up and running. Also thank you to Six Apart for their help and advice regarding Movable Type 4.
Let us know what you think of the new design in the comments. As with any new design rollout, there may be a few little bugs to be cleaned up, bits to tweak, things to align, etc. The OpenID login for example isn't quite ready. So the new design is still a bit of a 'Work in Progress'.
We're keen to hear your feedback and any suggestions! And shout out if you come across things that need fixing.
Comments
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Congratulations, Richard! We've really enjoyed working with on this and the next phase of features. Look forward to reader comments.
Posted by: Emily Chang | December 17, 2007 12:07 PM
The new design makes RRW look more a mainstream site than ever before..but I need to get used to it first.
Posted by: Yakov | December 17, 2007 12:49 PM
Absolutely fantastic. Emily knows that usability thingy. Congratulations! ideacodes and rww.
I recommend everyone to add ideacodes's ehub to shortlist too.
Posted by: Sinan Ata | December 17, 2007 12:50 PM
Top notch redesign, hats off to all involved. Very easy on the eyes, classy, cool.
Posted by: Jeff Crites | December 17, 2007 12:51 PM
Richard I really like the new design. It was a long time overdue. Additionally, i like the new features and more importantly the readability of this site compared to the rest. It is a lot better because your posts are summerised to only 1 para which gives a user more chance to quickly browse the site more efficiently and also give u a chance to gain more page views. Overall, well done.
Posted by: Steven Finch | December 17, 2007 12:52 PM
Richard,
Great job on the new look and feel. I quite prefer the white/red color scheme, and the empty space makes it feel very web 2.0.
Also, the addition of navigation by subject area across the top is a huge improvement for me and makes it a lot easier to quickly find content in targeted areas.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Brian Flannery | December 17, 2007 1:01 PM
I really like the layout and simplicity of the new design. Congratulations on a great success. Keep it up.
Posted by: Matthew Griffin | December 17, 2007 1:11 PM
Great job on the re-design. Very effective. Well done.
Posted by: Jonathan Hill | December 17, 2007 1:14 PM
Website design is good, but logo is really, really bad.
Overall, I'm sorry to say that your old look was much better.
Cheers,
Adrian
Posted by: Adrian | December 17, 2007 1:27 PM
Nice redesign, I like the clean look and greater use of white space. It's a lot easier on the eyes.
Posted by: Rick Curran | December 17, 2007 1:31 PM
I think somebody is in serious denial :)
Posted by: Adrian | December 17, 2007 1:45 PM
Very well done. I particularly like the RSS emphasis in the header space. Kudos!
Posted by: Jason Falls | December 17, 2007 1:51 PM
Really great site design. Wish I had the cash to get Emily to design our site!
Posted by: Jack | December 17, 2007 1:58 PM
Guys it looks awesome! Much easier to navigate!
Posted by: Lapp | December 17, 2007 2:00 PM
Rock on, Read/WriteWeb!!!
Posted by: Alex Iskold | December 17, 2007 2:06 PM
great!!!...good look..!!!
Posted by: Anpy | December 17, 2007 2:16 PM
I love the redesign, congrats!
Posted by: Peter Dorsi | December 17, 2007 2:26 PM
Some criticism, intended to be constructive as I am a regular reader.
Overall, its overstated and so far overrated.
Arial in a logo is nothing to brag about. It is, however, one of the more readable fonts displayed on screen- for copy.
The idea that RWW is short for Read Write Web is not true phonetically. Try saying the 2 and you'll see what I mean. So it does not have the advantage that say, CNN, has over it's full name. Read/Write is superior. And the slash is nothing to be ashamed about, it makes sense: you can't do both at the same time. It's read or write. As for successful examples of the slash in branding, see slashdot and slashfilm.
But going with abbreviation execution, the RWW is overstated in the arial logotype. The RWW letters are solid black on a white bg and more than double the size of the rest of the text in grey. The kerning is so bad I thought it was rendered by the browser until I noticed I couldn't select it- maybe it is. The black, red, and white is a lot of high contrast. Again, heavily overstated, both generally and in the abbreviation theme, which is not strong to begin with.
Moving out from the logo to navigation. Rounded and squared corners can fit together, but I don't think they do here. May be it's the seemingly arbitrary difference in padding height between the above and below nav. I would say pick round or squared and get be consistent with padding. Again, the hovers are overstated.. subtlety suggested. This high contrast is unnecessary. And then after all that high contrast hover, the 'tab' doesn't even show state after clicked! Referring to the below logo nav, and the above logo sends me away to another design.
Overall, overstated, a little sloppy and unfinished. Back to the drawing board to think this branding and ui through. Guessing that this may be the result of attempting to appease conflicting opinions through out the design process. Save opinions till the comp is fully fleshed out, then select one.. no mixing and matching.
If you want to modernize and go 2.0, then do it. Go with a softer color palette, mix in some MS Trebuchet, bump up your font sizes, sprinkle in some bigger buttons and spread on your ajax library: jquery, prototype.. or abstract the js altogether with ext.
Posted by: Winston | December 17, 2007 2:27 PM
I never visit your site (hooray for rss), but the new design looks nice. I'm not so sure about the typography of the new logo though.. The difference in fontsizes is too great and the big screaming letters don't feel right next to the yin-yang symbol.
Posted by: Wout | December 17, 2007 2:27 PM
Everyone saying the design is great must have their ad blocker turned on because its pretty disgusting having a giant ad take up the first 100 or more pixels of your site. Get realistic and let the readers enjoy your site without trying to jam a $2k dollar a month ad down our throats. Without the ad the design is ok but having that ad just totally kills any thought of having a good design in both a graphic design and user experience design.
I can't remember if you had a big ad at the top before but if it was it wasn't done to this degree of ugliness.
Posted by: Dan Shields | December 17, 2007 2:36 PM
It definitely looks clean, but I find on the article body area that there is too much white. It may be because on the left hand of the article you have a white margin to the edge of the page, then on the right hand side there's just ads (especially at the beginning of an article).
Having some more color on the site to make it easier for my eyes to focus on the content would be helpful.
Posted by: Malcolm Bastien | December 17, 2007 2:46 PM
i don't like it. the logo looks aweful and the red is killing my eyes.
Posted by: dirk | December 17, 2007 2:56 PM
What a brilliant idea, very cool... I specifically like the "Popular Posts" at the top of the page, It's very easy to navigate. Can't wait to see other features guys!
Nhick
http://www.itrush.com
Posted by: ITrush | December 17, 2007 2:59 PM
I can't get past the logo. It's horrible. It's as if it was designed in Microsoft Word using base fonts by a sales manager 5 minutes before a PowerPoint presentation. Really, this is not the identifier for a brand, it's a wireframe sketch for a hierarchy of how to address the name of the company. Please, please for the love of good design and leadership, REDESIGN that logo NOW. It will be the bane of your site for years to come. Other than that, I like the new design, and of course, the content of the site is world-class.
Posted by: Mark | December 17, 2007 3:17 PM
I really dont like the new logo.
Posted by: Nico | December 17, 2007 3:25 PM
Although I am really a huge fan of #B80201 (the "Read/Write Red") and I love the use of so much negative space, I must agree with some of the posts above that the new logo isn't all that flattering.
I'm a regular reader of R/W2 and I believe that it is one of the best web technology blogs out there. It's smart, sophisticated and well-written. If I read something on another similar blog, I know I can count on R/W2 to cover the same story with a lot more useful commentary and a whole better editing.
The new logo doesn't bring any of those thoughts or emotions unto my head. Don't get me wrong, I love the Yin-Yang button thingy--but for the sake of all that is typographically flattering, please change the typography for the main title. The kerning is a bit off, and frankly, the choice of type doesn't reflect the blog's personality well.
I also agree with Winston with the use of "RWW".. Personally, I love the slash in the former "name", and I'm keeping it in my RSS Reader. Don't expect me to change the title to RWW soon--cause frankly, I just doesn't work.
And finally, I hope you do something about the rest of your page. Sure you put a lot of effort over getting the header/top-part of the page right--with all the navigational goodness you could cramp into the 191pixels of the header div.. But you forgot about the rest of your page, like your footer (which deserves some attention--it's as bland as Arial.)
Hope to see more improvements.. And Hooray for R/W Web.. :P
Posted by: Keeto | December 17, 2007 3:30 PM
It feels as if I am on TechCrunch but with the green replaced by red...
The old design was warmer and more welcoming, this one feels cold and impersonal.
Sorry, but I really prefer the old design...
Posted by: Johan | December 17, 2007 3:32 PM
where is the design? red colored bar across top. I'm blown. logo as said before is really really bad. sorry, this is not doing it for me, i hope it didn't take longer than 2 days to build it sure don't look like it.
Posted by: Mike B | December 17, 2007 3:48 PM
Despite having a 1280x1024 monitor at work, it's rare that I have my Firefox 2.x set to fullscreen. Currently I have my browser sized so that about 20% of your page is set to scroll to the right, leaving 0px margin on the left which unappealing and awkward to read.
Also, I find the red overpowering and NOT great visual design that it is so much wider than the banner ad at the top.
Posted by: anonymous | December 17, 2007 3:52 PM
Ideacodes seems to have done some nice site redesigns for others so I presume the problem here was client intervention/meddling as RWW does not reflect their normal quality. There is nothing positive that can be said about that design -101, F grade logo. Sorry Richard.
There's other things I like but the logo/header distracts me from those.
Posted by: PXLated | December 17, 2007 4:01 PM
I like the new design. But what's up with that logo? Jing-jang? WTF!?
Posted by: Sotek | December 17, 2007 4:16 PM
I'd have to agree. The type for your logo is not exactly up to par with the writing on this site.
Posted by: Dennis | December 17, 2007 4:42 PM
i think i liked the older one, mainly the logo and the background tile.
Posted by: Tom | December 17, 2007 4:45 PM
I must agree with Winston's constructive criticism concerning the logo: The kerning in the logo is slightly off and the harsh contrast makes it hard on the eyes.
But overall I love reading Read Write Web (with or without the slash) and congratulations with the redesign.
Posted by: Anne Helmond | December 17, 2007 5:50 PM
I like it, I've been looking for a way to present my current lead story, along with summaries of other recent stories, along with recent comments, etc - and this combines them all. The only criticisms I would voice would be the header banner ad; I really think it pushes everything down too far, I prefer not having that whtspace above, and just have the ad integrated into the header; but I'm sure that was considered. Also, the line sep the main content from the right columns; it intersects with a line on the footer, but not on the header...just doesn't tie together like the rest of the site.
Overall, looks like a great upgrade - final query; would you be releasing this theme, perhaps in a neutral colour? I can see it being really nice for anyone looking to upgrade their site.
Posted by: fak3r | December 17, 2007 5:51 PM
Congrats to the whole RWW team, and good work as always from Ideacodes!
Posted by: Anil Dash
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December 17, 2007 6:06 PM
Can we get a nice print css file? That would be helpful to save paper when I print some of these out to read at weekly staff meetings. :)
Posted by: Rylan | December 17, 2007 6:07 PM
A good design.
What I like is the details, like the transparent boxes when you enter your information in the comment section. Details make the difference.
Well Done
Posted by: JohnofScribbleSheet | December 17, 2007 6:31 PM
Very nice design. This one is cleaner than the old one.
Nice work.
Posted by: Marino | December 17, 2007 6:46 PM
The Logo wastes a lot of space and looks like my one that my son in junior high created. (The YinYang is really trite - you gotta kill that.) I know the previous color palette was red but this seems bolder and red means stop to many of us.
The formatting of the posts with image badge is really nice. I like it much more than many of the other blogs I read.
Also, where did those Snaps go they were helpful.
Posted by: Steven Thomas | December 17, 2007 7:17 PM
I'm a BIG fan of RWW, but this look'n feel will probably require a lot of getting used to. The key learning fm a similar change we made a Tribe was that plain white backgrounds with vibrant red and black give people headaches. It was tough for me to believe this too, but it's just not pleasant to look at w/o squinting a bit. Anyway, as w/any change, it's tough to make every one happy, but I can't help but to think that this vibrant mix will really turn a lot of people off.
Posted by: P-Air | December 17, 2007 7:51 PM
The new design is great.
The logo is, um, not great at all.
OK, really, the logo is a complete turn off. It looks hokey.
Posted by: Eric Gruber | December 17, 2007 8:14 PM
I'm sorry, but this new design looks like a step in the wrong direction, especially the logo type. Also, what happened to the /? I thought that was the whole point - "Read/Write Web", not "Read, Write, Web"?
Posted by: Aesqe | December 17, 2007 8:21 PM
sorry this is probably the last time I'll visit your site, now I'll simply stick to the feed.
The site is nothing to rave about - never really been a fan of Emily Chung's work. Not my taste.
As many have said here, the logo, is well not really a logo at all. It's a Yin/Yang symbol with over sized text along side.
The top red block, looks like the navigation was slapped on as an afterthought, and kinda gets lost. And as for that honking great big banner at the top *shudder*
A good site redesign recently was GigaOm, elegant, clean, fresh. This new design here is ... well not so nice - sorry Richard.
Posted by: Mr K | December 17, 2007 8:25 PM
Sorry that should be Emily Chang in my post above.
Also, what happened to the feeds? No longer does my browser auto-detect your feeds. Sorry, I really think this design has missed the fundamentals
Posted by: Mr K | December 17, 2007 8:35 PM
I don't really like the style - looks like a red clone of TechCrunch - and in particular, the logo is terrible! Perhaps a better logo will help the site look more professional, but it looks like the logo was created with MS Paint, or Word Art.
Posted by: stuart | December 17, 2007 8:42 PM
Thank God for RSS readers...
I actually liked the old look and feel A LOT better than this. I'm sure part of it is just getting used to a new look, but I'm not sure about the logo (specifically the font part) at all.
Posted by: hash | December 17, 2007 10:02 PM
Hi Richard (and Team),
I agree with most people who said that they didn't like the logo. It looks "weird", like something unfinished, or I don't know.
Then the site is a bit "too" white. There is some weird use of whitespace (the footer for instance) and looks "poor" overall. The tag cloud is nice, but lost in the middle of so many ads... I liked the old one better, even though there are some good ideas in this new design too (categories, popular posts...)
Sorry if this comment is not really constructive, I just "don't get" the new design...
Posted by: Tim | December 17, 2007 10:13 PM
Looks great Richard - congrats.
Posted by: Don Jones | December 17, 2007 10:29 PM
Bring back the old logo, please.
Posted by: chris | December 17, 2007 11:21 PM
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