by
Firstly: Why the redesign? Well. The old front page had advantages - it listed a good number of the most recent articles in each section right there on the front page. The disadvantage of this was of course that this left very little room to make a fuss about the various other features of the site - gig listings, our bands database and release information to name a few. Other criticisms were that it had very little scope for us to pick out selected content and bands to feature on the front page, and didn't have much in the way of photos and graphics.
So a section-by section tour of the new front page. firstly:
Articles
At the top of the page, there is space for 3 featured articles. These will be selected by our editors on a regular basis from all sections of the site, and will be linked with a photo. Underneath is a brief listing of the most recent additions to each section. Clicking on the 'latest articles' link will lead you to the old front page (yes it still remains intact, and you can bookmark it if you really hate the new one). The idea is that if you want a longer listing of all the new articles in each section, that's where to look. Alternatively you can get a longer listing of recent articles in each section individually by clicking on the section title. But at a glance you can still see what the latest in each section is from the front page.
Sections wise anyway - poetry and prose have combined into a new 'creative' section, and the mp3s and audio section has been renamed to 'E-content'. Links to the latest mp3, real audio and video links will now be featured on the front page under E-content, and more info and music links can be found in the section itself.
News
Nothing much has changed here, except the news is a bit more prominent in the layout, more articles are listed, and it now lists the date for each news article.
Gigs
In order to draw a bit more attention to the hard work put in by our staff and friends at Probemusic compiling gig listings, we'll now be featuring two recommended gigs on the front page, with handy drop-down links to our listings pages for various days of the week and locations.
Bands
Drowned in Sound staff will be picking out new bands to feature in this section of the front page. Each with a photo, brief introduction, a link to their Drowned in Sound profile for more articles and information, and any audio/video links we have for the band. The bands section also has a handy search form and alphabetical index for our bands index.
Releases
This one's a recent addition - we've been posting lists of releases in our news section for a while but we've now decided to go all the way and compile a proper database of them. Some selected upcoming releases will feature on the front page, and the rest will be listed for the upcoming weeks and way back into obscurity (well, since we started adding them anyway) on the releases page itself. A band's upcoming and recent releases will also be listed in their band profile on the site.
Interact
At the moment this section is a home for our message boards and chat room, although it may well expand to include other interactive features in the future - keep an eye out.
Overall then - enjoy the site, keep coming back and if you want a regular email with details of new articles added, feel free to join our mailing list
Matthew Willson
Webmaster
