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A Brave New World: Welcome to the Get Rich Slowly Re-Design Print
Thursday, 14th May 2009 (by J.D.)This article is about Administration
It’s been a tough day for me — a weekday without a new money-related article. Not posting something new sends me into withdrawal!
It couldn’t be helped, though, as my elves have been helping me roll out the long-awaited redesign around here. I know it’s not flashy or web 2.0, but that’s okay. Get Rich Slowly isn’t, either.
I’m sure there are some things that aren’t working the way we intended or that are simply bad choices. (I hope there aren’t many, but I do expect some.) So, this is your chance to provide feedback on your initial impression.
I set up a Get Rich Slowly site-redesign survey over at Survey Monkey. It’s easy: six quick questions, including space for feedback on what you do and do not like about the redesign. I’d be grateful if you took two minutes to give me your impressions — both good and bad.
Thanks for your patience over the last 24 hours. GRS will be back in the morning with new personal-finance content!
p.s. One thing that just occurred to me: I’ve never really kept a blogroll with links to other sites. Would that interest you? Would you like to see a list of other personal-finance and self-improvement sites that I recommend?
p.p.s. If you still see the old layout, refresh your browser and/or purge your cache!
May 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Welcome back!!! I’ve been doing a little technical work on my site as well, though nothing near as complex and complete as you!!! Looks nice!
May 14th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Looks good. You’re right, it’s not too flashy and 2.0 like, but it’s functional and suits the content well.
I’m not sure about the adsense ad right at the top, generally they take people away from your site (that’s the only way you make money from them, by people leaving), hope it doesn’t affect you negatively.
My only nicer to haves would have been a sharper logo, it’s a bit dithered, and roll-overs on the menu to guide your eye.
Long time reader, first time commenter btw, good work JD!
May 14th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
The redesign looks good, glad to see you picked a logo from all those options. Are t-shirts next?
As for a blogroll, it would be nice but the only benefit I would likely get from it is if I was on it.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I would love if you had a blogroll
May 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
LOVE IT!
Keep the content coming. The site design isn’t all that important when the “meat” of the site, your writing is such high quality stuff that get’s us thinking and commenting, you have done a nice job of it though.
My first thought upon clicking the tab was “What the hell?” After I realized it was a new design it only took a minute or two to decide I like it. I love the logo as well, it communicates more than the website name, well done.
TW
May 14th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
@Weakonomist
I’m hoping for t-shirts and mugs and who knows what else. That’d be fun!
Right now, though, I’m going through and MANUALLY moving over the last few comments that got lost in the update. There are a few important ones that got lost in the ether. T-e-d-i-o-u-s.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Looks good although I wish you had selected the coin logo. This one is too old school.
Don’t need the dated archives - does anyone actually use those? (Unless you want the SEO links from your home page.)
The bright colors on your sidebar Quicken ads are overwhelming your non-ad sections. In fact, your Quicken ads are brighter than everything. Is that what you intended?
May 14th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
i’d love to see a blogroll
May 14th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
“I know it’s not flashy or web 2.0, but that’s okay”
You do not want to go overboard
May 14th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Blogroll would be great.
One comment - the site is quite wide on my system, and the right-hand side content is cut off and I have to scroll to the right to read all of it. There’s lots of space on the left, though.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Love the new design! I’d also love to see a blogroll, I’m always looking for new blogs to add to me reading list.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I think the new design looks great! I honestly don’t think you have to make it too web 2.0ish because the value is what you bring to the table with your writing. I really like the look and think it pulls attention to the important portion (i.e. your content/writing)
May 14th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
J.D. The new design is nice! I’m not computer savy but this is one site that I check out regularly. Its nice to have “kindred spirits” even tho we are all from different backgounds and localities. Your writing and content of the site is what draws me here; that and the chance to write back and forth with all of you on this site. Our sharing of ideas and philosophies is fun to read, as well as informative. See ya later!
May 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I could nitpick plenty (you probably know I’m good at that by now) but overall, I like the new site better. And I do like the blogroll idea, as long as it’s “these are the sites *I* read regularly” rather than “these are sties that said they’d send me traffic if I put a link to them here”. Sort of like being able to see who you’re following on twitter.
May 14th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
My compliments. The new design is easy to read and navigate. I also enjoy the logo. All that said, what keeps me returning is the outstanding writing on interesting topics. Finally, your podcasts with Jim are fun and informative.
May 14th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Site looks good!
check out what Fred Wilson uses for a blogroll (http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/04/blogrollr-two-months-later-my-top-ten.html) bit more dynamic than a simple list, and automatically changes reflecting what you’re reading over time.
May 14th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
While reading your post and the comments, I did not find myself distracted by ad “noise” so I believe you’ve achieved sufficient simplicity.
People naturally read from left to right so I don’t foresee any potential for distraction unless you allow those annoying animated ads.
As for a blog roll, that’s a personal choice for you, J.D. You can borrow my idea if you want but what I do instead of a blog roll is publish a “blog portfolio” once per year that includes a diverse mix of blogs, similar to an investment portfolio, that includes around eight or 10 blogs.
In summary, if you change nothing about GRS from this point, I believe you will still have something outstanding.
“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
May 14th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Wow — looking good! I love this design over the last one. Very simple, clean and to the point. I love the logo.
A blogroll would be a nice touch. Speaking of blogrolls, I need to update mine…
I think I just link out to WSJ and such… ::goes to find blogs for blogroll::
May 14th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Looks really nice!
May 14th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I think you can skip the blogroll.
Instead of a bunch of static links, I prefer to see when you link to someone and interact with this person on a case-by-case scenario. Either an interview, or commenting a blog post, or whatever.
It’s more dynamic, more relevant, more conversational. BTW, the posts I like the most are the ones when you describe the conversations you had with friends.
Best,
Diogo
May 14th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Love the redesign, actually. It’s much cleaner and easier to navigate than your old theme. I’ve been thinking of switching to something similar for my own blog, in fact. I think the new right sidebar layout will help with monetization, as well. Simple, not too busy, easy to navigate, focus on the content…nice.
As for the blogroll question, it’s probably unnecessary. Most of your readers probably already know of the blogs you’d be most likely to link to (flexo, nickel, etc) and those guys probably don’t need the link juice, either. I’d only do it if you mostly populated it with smaller, less popular blogs your readers probably don’t know about. It doesn’t do much of a service to your readers telling them what they already know, in my opinion.
May 14th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I think it looks great JD, but what really matters is How Do YOU Like It?
May 14th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Hey JD, First of all the site feels really cool, calm, colorful, pro and attractive (too many adjctvs there ;)) and the logo also suits exemplifying “Slowly”
I would like to see blogroll and btw who’ll get the t-shirts???
May 14th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I’m a great fan of MoneyRates.com and you have placed that window on the top right just so neatly. I can use it even more frequently now
May 14th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
i think the new design is a step in the right direction! who do you use for site design, web services, etc?
and yes yes yes to blogroll…and add GloombergNews to it!
May 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Overall, I quite like it. Very nicely done.
My suggestions would be to add a rollover effect to the navigation and increase the font size on your links to articles on the right.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
The redesign looks great and reads well on a 1024 x 768 monitor. I like the idea of adding a blogroll - it is a good way for readers to find more information related to Get Rich Slowly’s topics.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Made me come out from behind my google reader. Looks great!
May 14th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Love the simplicity of it. Good choice in logos. Congrats, JD!!
May 14th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Long-time reader, first time commenter.
I just want to give encouragement on the new design. The old one was rather tired. Good time to switch.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
> One thing that just occurred to me: I’ve never really kept a blogroll with links to other sites. Would that interest you? Would you like to see a list of other personal-finance and self-improvement sites that I recommend?
HELL NO. The entire right colum is just a load of crap. You think anyone gets ANYTHING useful out of that? It’s a wall of text. A wall of worthless junk.
Trim it down to something small, usable and usable or get rid of it all.
Recent articles, “Best off”, money skills, news letter, archive, all the spammy and crappy ads. Get rid of those for starters. Create ONE, ONE page that indexes all your posts in an organized fashion and/or have them sortable. None of this “random crap” on the side bar. Seriously, it’s ugly as hell and not usable or useful at all. Are you retarded, seriously, this stuff people knew was dumb in 2004
May 14th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I added all your ads (that aren’t already blocked) to a couple black lists. It’ll propagate out to those sites in 24 - 48 hours. Seriously, animated flash ads are bad.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Actually, I’m going to go ahead and blacklist and filter out all your stupid side bars while I’m at it.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
wooo-hooo. Looks great (not a professional, just a reader), but the font overall seems small. LOVE turtles, so I’d get that new logo as my next tattoo. Kidding - i’d prefer a CafePress t-shirt when you get around to rewarding my lurker-hood.
May 14th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
LOVE the turtle.
May 14th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I think it looks good, JD.
I don’t know if you kept in mind that not everyone has sooper dooper high speed internet or not, but it’s nice to see a site that isn’t filled with excessively large and flashy graphics.
The blog roll is a good idea so we know what sites you like and may find a new one or two that we don’t already know about.
May 14th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
So far it looks good, though I never had any problems with the old design.
I tried posting a message on the forum earlier today, but I got an error (”broken link”) message when I clicked “submit.” Was this a casualty of the redesign?
May 14th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I really, really recommend adding an option to the quiz, “I get GRS content through my RSS feed and thus never interact with the actual site.”
I want to help and give feedback by taking the survey, but my feedback makes no sense without an “RSS feed” option.
But, then again, this is a site geared towards the mass public, most of whom probably don’t use RSS readers. It may not matter.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I like the double columns for archives and categories
May 14th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
love the new design! very clean and fresh! A blogroll would be something interesting to look at while on your site.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
@RJ (#37)
I’ll see what I can find out about the forums. I’ll admit I haven’t paid much attention to them lately…
May 14th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Hi JD
Looongtime reader.
I miss the old site
The color scheme of the new site is a bit drab. If the blog titles were something other than black, that would probably help.
Good job on doing all of the work. I’m a bit change-averse, so take what you will from my comment.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Also, I prefer the old font.
But I do like the improvements to the side columns
May 14th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Hey,
I just noticed that a “regular” RSS subscription is either missing or hard to find. I can see the email subscription, but not the regular feed url.
Just a heads up. Still love the turtle.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Oh! I see it now. I’m an idiot.
I was looking for it near the email subscription thing, since that’s where it usually is.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:24 am
JD,
Your efforts to keep us informed and host this exellent blog is appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Overall love the new design, but a small quibble. I miss having the number of comments listed at the top of the article. I like to see what other people’s opinions are, and I’m finding it harder to notice activity when the only place to see it is at the bottom of the article.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Simple and nice, I like it - though I miss the old font too
May 15th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Looks good to me. I’ve already forgotten what the old site looked like! A blogroll would be nice, so we could see who you’re reading. Time to head over to the survey…
May 15th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I don’t know if it’s just me but I am getting invalid PDF files on some of your links. Could this be because of the redesign? Specifically the PDF’s on this post.
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/02/16/save-money-with-regular-home-maintenance/
On another note, the redesign is very nice JD.
Good work!
May 15th, 2009 at 4:41 am
“My only nicer to haves would have been a sharper logo, it’s a bit dithered, and roll-overs on the menu to guide your eye.”
I agree with Josh. A revised logo… slightly sharper.
And definitely do the rollovers. Maybe use the same green as the background for the rollover highlight? And only on the menus.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:05 am
I like it, J.D. Nice work.
I, too, would like to see the number of comments at the top of the post. I’m not sure why that matters to me, but I do like seeing it there.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:20 am
hey jd, i like the new site! the new logo is great, but the header has a lot of white space. i might experiment with taking a little off the top and bottom, and MAYBE going with a solid background color. otherwise, love it.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:43 am
I would like a blogroll. I have to disagree with Kyle (#21) - I’m a regular reader of this blog but still in the learning stages of personal finance. I didn’t know about the two sites he mentioned as being obvious. So for me adding in the basics would be really helpful.
But I also like Tyler’s point about keeping it constrained to sites that you actually frequent. They don’t even need to be finance related. A lot of readers connect to your blog because of how personal you make it - I like connecting in to see what other sorts of sites you might recommend.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:54 am
Overall, I think the new layout looks great. I love the turtle!
A few things that could be improved: the red quicken ads look really bright against the light background, and this was mentioned before but rollovers along the top would look nice. Also, your sidebar would be more functional if you moved the links and categories above the ads and survey and put them right below the email signup area.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Well done on the redesign! I’d love a blogroll - the power of a referral works well for blogs - I’ve found some of my favorite sites from blogrolls of folks I trust.
I’d also love to see you showing off that beautiful new logo a bit bigger in the blog header - show off your new re-brand!
May 15th, 2009 at 5:58 am
I am so not a techno savy person but I can tell you I think it looks great to little old me!
May 15th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Wait, you have WebElves? Where did you get them? I want some!
May 15th, 2009 at 7:11 am
no blogroll!!!
site looks nice
May 15th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Well, I’ve never heard the term “blogroll” before… but a list of links would be GREAT for me. Maybe not useful to those already savvy about their finances, but for someone like me — just STARTING to educate myself, a list of links (or books) would be very helpful. In fact I’ve come to this site a couple times looking for links, then realizing there weren’t any.
I sortof miss the green (wasn’t the background green?) I must admit.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Nice look and I really like the new logo!
JD, please print some t-shirts and I think you should have a contest and give away some free t-shirts!
May 15th, 2009 at 7:46 am
For the most part I’m digging the new design: clean, simple, easy on the eyes. I especially enjoy the turtle logo. I feel like it reflects the spirit of the site well.
My only (small) gripe is about the ad at the top of the post, immediately below the “next post” link. My reading habits tend to be that I stop by once a day or a few times a week, so I’ll read a post and its comments, then click to the next post via that link. I can see myself accidentally clicking this Quicken ad: the link is practically sitting on top of it. And I’m lazy. Any way to add a little space there?
I know, if THAT’s my only problem with such a consistent source of great information, I need to get over myself!
May 15th, 2009 at 7:47 am
too much white space at the top. if anything, make the logo a lot bigger to have it stand out more and eat up some of that white space. it doesn’t look great. or center the logo or something.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Yes to the blogroll.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Also, I’d be all over a mug with the cool turtle logo! Just what I need for work!
May 15th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Yes to a blog roll.
No to the ad at the top of the page. I find it distracting and, to put it gently, not consistent with the quality I have come to love on this site. (To put it more directly, it looks kind of cheap.)
Thank you for all your work and the great site.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:09 am
All posts from the 12th and 13th are missing from the Forum. JerichoHill is looking into it.
I’ve got no other probs the new redesign so far.
THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS!!
Ian
May 15th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I can’t believe everyone likes this redesign
Very generic - just like the tropicana redesign!
What a disappointment to log on today and have this pop up!
Need comment link back at the top
Ads at the side now seem to overpower the article, whereas before they were in balance.
Did you ask any women with a design sense for their opinion before you made these changes?
May 15th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I miss the old tree banner, but the turtle logo is very cute! I like the site redesign a lot. It’s very clean.
I would love to see a blogroll (and to appear on it), mainly because I use them to regular surf my favorite sites and discover new ones selected by other bloggers.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Honestly JD? I liked your old layout better. It was like checking in with a buddy. Don’t ask me why. I just really liked it. I’m not a fan of sites with a “magazine” type layout. They all look the same and strike me as impersonal. There are so many sites with this same design out there now. Your previous design seemed to set you apart from the “crowd”. I don’t stay on those sites as long either. If it ain’t broke, why try to fix it.
May 15th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I can’t say that I like the redesign or the new logo. I’m not a fan of so much green, and the ad placement and magazine layout give me a kind of “cheesy” feel that the old layout did not have. I still love the blog, but give a thunbs down to the layout. Just one opinion…
May 15th, 2009 at 9:18 am
it’s a good look! no complaints here
you have to change / feng shui / re-design every once in a blue moon =D
May 15th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I just did the survey but I will note here too: I am surprised that so many like the new design. I think it’s too much white. The old one was so nice to look at.
I think the ad at the top is not too intrusive but it is nicer on a browser that has an ad-blocker that’s for sure.
I also don’t like the new logo, sigh, and I miss the old font. The part that I really don’t like is the part where it says ‘you may be interested to read these older posts’ and then has the old posts in this intrusive looking font and blue links.
Sorry, I guess I am a crabby conservative when it comes to this blog.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I’m sure I will adapt quickly, but I think I liked the old site better.
As for blog roles, I like them.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:37 am
It looks fine! The content is still good.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Nice look!
I would also agree with making the logo bigger to fill up some of the whitespace in the top middle.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am
It would also be nice to have your forums integrated with your site, at least with the same logo.
http://www.columbusunderground.com does this really well, I think it would make your forums unify with your site.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Hey! I love the tortoise logo. Wonderful job!!
May 15th, 2009 at 10:59 am
The new site looks fantastic!
May 15th, 2009 at 11:28 am
I hope there was an underlying reason you updated the site because I liked it better the way it was. I stop by for your content and positive vibe so please know that I’ll continue to visit. I’m just the sort of person who is bummed when a product I like is changed or discontinued. It reminds me of motorcycle companies who made major revisions to a bike the year before. Same bike this year, it’s just touted as having bold new graphics. Your product is still the same it just now has bold new graphics.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Adding my votes to the chorus.
PRO: I like the turtle logo and the clean look. (I quite liked the ill-fated Tropicana redesign, too, for what it’s worth.) I think the actual GRS elements on the sidebar (Best Of, Recent, Categories) are useful and convenient. And I like the new, wider comment format; wider format means less vertical scrolling.
CON: I wish the ads could come lower on the sidebar, below the GRS content. I miss having the number of comments at the top of the entry. I find the new font harder to read (and I have a high-resolution monitor).
As others have said, though, it’s the content that keeps me coming back every day. Keep up the great work!
May 15th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I would love a blogroll. I often bounce around from one blog to another when there is a common interest link. And I have been know to go back through your archives to find where you mentioned another site to track one down.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
After 1 day of use, I just want to second the opinions that the old font was better, a color other than black would be good for post titles, and # of comments at top was nice.
That said, I still overall think it’s a big improvement. Well done!
May 15th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
JD, your new site design hurts my eyes. Too much white and not enough contrast between text and background colors. Just my two cents.
May 15th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I like the design and LOVE the white space. I think the font is easier to read. I don’t like websites on colored backgrounds.
I do agree with the one poster though that the header is a little wide — for the header, it would be nice if you could tighten it up and I’d like to see the header done in reverse on a colored background (like the hunter green).
May 16th, 2009 at 1:45 am
new design is sweet. text are readable now. haha.
some modules seems to be a bit slow loading though.. but i’m sure the tech monkeys will tweak them as time go by.
May 16th, 2009 at 3:01 am
I think a blogroll would be good. I occasionally find myself trawling through the GRS archives looking for a particular blog that you recommended in the past. It would be really useful to have these in the sidebar.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Blogrolls are stupid. If a site is truly worth linking, they’ll post something worthy of being cited in one of your posts.
I feel like blogrolls completely defeat the original purpose of the internet and hyperlinks in general, by removing context and importance. They are the refined sugar of web content.
May 17th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
It would be nice to have a comment count and link up near the title of each article. Otherwise you have to scroll down to the end of the article to see what (if anything) is new.
May 18th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Nice redesign, but I read you for the content– it could be pure text if it had to be . . .
May 18th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Overall I like the redesign better than the original.
If I have to nitpick I’d like the logo to be bigger and the color to be just a bit bolder. After all even though we all believe in getting rich slowly it doesn’t have to be boring.
I’d also love to see a blogroll, and would hope someday you’d include me, but I’m guessing if you added every Tom, Dick and Sally that had a personal finance blog that would be pretty long!
May 18th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I like a blogroll, but I don’t think it needs to be on every page. Not everyone knows what a “blogroll” is, (unless you’re a blogger) so it’s sometimes good to call it something else. Oh and do you know WHY I like blogrolls? Because that’s how I find new sites - that’s how I found GRS!
I agree with the earlier commenter that said that it is hard to find the feed. You should have the feed subscription links right near the email subscription links, or at least get an RSS icon somewhere near the top of the page. Some readers will skim your site, decide they want to read it, and immediately start looking for the feed - some people like to read blogs in feed readers, and not navigate to the site daily.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:41 am
Any chance you could make the comment count (at the top of the article) clickable? I typically read your articles first thing in the morning, then come back during the day to see the comment count and read through a few. It’s really just a convenience link more than anything for me.
Great redesign!
May 24th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I like the new look!
May 27th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
i would love to see a blogroll, myself.
also, love the new layout! the tortise looks great (i remember the discussions about it from a few months ago. :D)