InstantShift’s Website Redesign
Something has changed! Are you with us? Something has definitely changed here. As our reader strength grows day by day, we have also needed to make certain changes for both our needs and those of our readers. So starting today, we’re rolling out a brand new version of instantShift (iShift) design that makes it easier than ever to enjoy new and interesting developments from across the design community.
It’s been months since we started working on our new site design, and today it’s finally here. InstantShift has had the same theme for three years, so now is a good time to give it a little shift. There was nothing wrong with our old design, but after receiving many requests from our readers and looking to meet the need of a more user-friendly environment while boosting our visibility, we sought to create a more accessible and more minimal version of iShift.
We’ve kept the site layout the same, but we have made some major changes in site functionality and user experience, including a revamped site design, a new logo, a shaped up sidebar, and many more future possibilities.
This write-up shares with you the insights about our new theme features as well as info related to the new design.
What’s New in Design?
The Design in General:
The aim is to achieve more accessibility and a more user-friendly environment. To that end, we’ve reduced the number of ads and unwanted scripts to give more priority to site content.
The total width of the site has been reduced, and sidebar size has also been reduced to make the articles more accessible. A few minor changes in the sidebar include the layout and size of banner ads and submitting a new section design.
Header links have been moved to the top, along with a categories dropdown, which is included to give you quick access to popular categories and tags.
The popular posts section has been moved from the sidebar to the article list section. Now it has a more highlighted appearance than ever.
To improve communication with our readers, we’ve removed the captcha from our comment forms. The comments format was also updated to include multi-threaded comments. You can now leave threaded replies to comments.
Our website is faster than ever before. We have been testing and optimizing the website on a number of platforms to provide you with a better user experience.
New Logo:
We also had our logo redesigned by one of our talented readers from Brazil. The new logo is a mixed combination of illustration art and typography.
New Footer:
For the first time in iShift’s history, we have included a new footer in our family. Our footer contains useful links related to the site and options to contact us. There is small “back to top” link included as well to give you quick scroll up to the header.
Multi-Device Compatibility:
iShift is now compatible with a range of devices, including iPhone/mobile devices, iPad/tablets, and full-screen desktops. Media queries are used to make our site optimized for different devices.
InstantShift Found a New Home
Our Hosting:
We’ve shifted around from many hosts in the last three years. Since iShift began, the blog has been visited by more than 25 million people, and that number is growing every month. As the number of readers has increased, we have put more and more pressure on our host. This time, we’ve migrated into Media Temple (mt), a web hosting and cloud services provider that serves businesses and consumers around the world with professional-class service to host websites, applications, virtual servers, email, and other rich Internet content.
We’ve been on Media Temple (mt) for the last four months, and so far we haven’t experienced a single noticeable downtime. As many of you may know, a few weeks ago we were hacked—along with many well-known websites. No leak occurred from the Media Temple (mt) side.
We’re more than happy with our decision to choose Media Temple (mt) as our new home.
Our Cloud Network:
We’ve been on MaxCDN’s cloud for the last year, and we’d like to thank the staff from MaxCDN and NetDNA for making sure iShift is always running at the fastest possible speed. In their own words, “MaxCDN strives for one ultimate cause: giving you the most powerful and one of the fastest CDN products, at a price that will not make you heart skip a beat.”
Found a Bug?
This redesign is a work in progress. Although we’ve done extensive testing on the current site’s design and functionality, if you find any bug, error, or problem related to the new design, help us fix it by reporting it to us. To report a bug, ypu can post your comment here or use the link “Report a bug” from the footer and write us about the bug in detail.
Every opinion matters to us. We are open to all types of design-related suggestions, and we are ready to make those changes via your help. Feel free to send us your comments, suggestions, or criticisms about our new design.
Hi DKumar! The present design of the website is somewhat looking better. I hope it would be more helpful to the readers if some more new concept oriented articles have been posted.
@Henry, first of all thank you for your appreciation.
Yes we have big plans for this year. We will be posting more of such articles. :)
Looks great! Congratulations.
Thanks you. :)
I love the old version of site (first page) :(
I agree with you Adrian :)
This new design is good but the old version is better. As a web design and inspiration blog, it should be catchy, colorful and fine. Honestly, the initial design makes me glad whenever I come around. But all the same, this one is good. At least, content is the most important thing.
Happy 2012.
Very clean design… Keep up the good work! :D
Though some of your old friend may like your new design, but the right hand side bar look little bit clumsy and it does not feel perfect with the current design. I think this is due to your advertising obligation. otherwise the whole experience with the old design was much more pleasant.
You are correct about the ads in sidebar. We are working with our advertisers to change their banner sizes.
I honestly don’t like the new top navigation bar. the old one was much better and made your homepage much more unique. Also, The new LOGO is absolutely a downgrade from the previous one, especially the FONT part. The comments form is definitely mush better and the footer section is also a great addition. The place for your Popular Topics section is not well chosen, It would make more scene to have it on the sidebar (But I could be wrong, if is it’s working best for your conversion rate (revenue…)). Anyway, I know this is my first impression as a frequent reader here, I’ll eventually get used the new staff, but….
Best,
Hi Rachid,
I like how you explained/pointed it out. We are still performing some tests on Popular Topics section. Let’s see how these goes.
Also, we are expecting some major/minor changes in design and website in upcoming weeks. So please stay with us and send us/comment your feedbacks. These are very valuable to us to finalize final output. :)
New site looks great! We appreciate the (mt) mention, and are overjoyed to see that things are going well. Feel free to contact us if you need help with anything in the new year. Best of luck in 2012, you’re already off to a great start.
Have to say I am not a big fan of the new logo, nothing there to be liked.
it looks nice..
thanks a lot!
have a nice year!
:)
Thank you. :)
I like old one, and this one so so… :(
But i like ur new footer.. its looks clean..
Happy new year! and congrats for the new designs. I like it alot. I noticed you put more focus on content now and your sidebar is less crowded. Well done with the job. But as other readers pointed out, I am totally agree with them on header and logo.
I personally thinks that new is always better in terms of accessibility and features but I somehow like old header that you guys had earlier as well as logo. :)
I am sure, I will get used to new things here. :) Thanks.
Keep the good work guys!
God bless you!
Yeah, the new site design is kind of boring. And the new logo is not good. Looks like Helvetica with a random Arabic icon next to it. It doesn’t capture anything of what this blog is about. The new navigation needs to be rethought. Half your categories are hidden in the More menu, and also duplicated in there as well.
Your old site was better.
Have your navigation go all the way across the top and show all of your categories.
Starting the new year with new design, eh? :)
This one is better, looks nice and generally is more cleaner.
Good job!
Everything looks perfect except from header.However, simplicity and usefulness was provided very well.Congratulations.Innovation is allways better.
The new design is looks better. Keep working on the top-nav though.
Looking Very minimal than before and yes very much wishes from our side ! you have been inspiration to us from the Beginning .
Good Luck !
I feel you can re size your sidebar little larger. and add a little dark background for authors bio.
another one – why your facebook fan page has very little fans ! it can be ! you are such a successful and professional blog – how come very less fans ! Dkumar !
Keep on amazing us !
Thank you
SriGanesh.M
After a long time does not stop at this website I was surprised with how it looks simple but luxurious
Static content may also be dynamically generated either periodically, or if certain conditions for regeneration occur in order to avoid the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per user or per connection basis. Thanks.