TP Website Redesign - the Blog

In keeping with the title convention for our site redesign threads, let’s use this thread to discuss changes to the blog format.

Our goals for the blog redesign:

  • Move to a standard, supported template
  • Better navigation for popular topics and writers
  • Better support for mobile devices

Here’s how to see the template we’re working with:

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

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I really like it :star_struck:
The format really entices me to check out the blog.
I tend to only look at the blog if someone posts a link, but the layout is intuitive and welcoming and I really should check it out more often.

A couple of observations…

Since you said,

I was immediately drawn to the fact that the first photo on the landing page isn’t mobile friendly…

I was also initially confused that the ‘Popular Topics’ and the ‘Destinations’ expanded menu were the same, but then I realised that ‘Popular Topics’ could be expanded further, so that makes sense.

With new users in mind, I do wonder if the top menu option should be Featured Series since new users won’t know what these all mean to begin with.
Personally though, seeing the option to filter straight to Saturday Six is very appealing :smiley::smiley:

I look forward to being more proactive about reading the blogs on this new format… :+1:t2::smiley:

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I love this @len

I don’t read the blogs unless, like @Shmebulock said, someone links to it or at least references it. And without a link I found it hard to navigate.

This could just get me reading it.

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I like this!

Only comment: what’s going to happen to the silly fonts on the thumbnails? The new image scaling/covering makes it wonky on the image. Nonetheless, they have a lot of character, why not integrate it into the blog somehow?

I’ve seen some personal blogs that took this basic idea and ran with it in a way (I’ll have to dig some up, it’s been a while) where they applied entirely different styles to their content based on the type of post (eg personal, technical, food, shopping, relating to a specific convention…), kind of maintaining each category as a separate identity. Kind of neat to navigate; although I’m not sure looking exactly like tumblr is practical by any means :grin:

Some mobile usability problems

Possible contrast issues on the hero:

Banner can take up quite a bit of vertical room:

Maybe make the headers smaller on mobile? These look desktop-sized:

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Ditto to ALL of this. I have had a hard time finding the blog. I could google it but I would like a link to see the blog and some sort of navigation menu to see past blogs or blogs by tag/ category.

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That must be why I have it bookmarked separately, I think it used to be a pain to get to for me too. Once you’re on the main blog page though, it’s easy to sort by topic. Just click on any of the categories in the header of each blog article. And there is a search bar too. Once you get really good at it, you know the morning blog will get uploaded at 11:05am :nerd_face: :joy:

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I just usually don’t take the extra steps to search for the blog. I’d love to see a link to it on my dashboard. I’d probably go to it MUCH more. I also like to see most recent too. Sometimes I google search and come across a TP post that is outdated in info.

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Is there an email subscription with periodic updates to the blogs? I thought received a TP Blog email many years ago. I looked and searched but can’t seem to find anything.

I do enjoy the new blog layout!

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