A Brave New World: Welcome to the Get Rich Slowly Re-Design
Published on - May 14th, 2009 (by J.D. Roth) 
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!
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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I am so not a techno savy person but I can tell you I think it looks great to little old me!
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Wait, you have WebElves? Where did you get them? I want some!
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no blogroll!!!
site looks nice
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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Yes to the blogroll.
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Also, I’d be all over a mug with the cool turtle logo! Just what I need for work!
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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…
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it’s a good look! no complaints here
you have to change / feng shui / re-design every once in a blue moon =D
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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.
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I’m sure I will adapt quickly, but I think I liked the old site better.
As for blog roles, I like them.
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It looks fine! The content is still good.
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Nice look!
I would also agree with making the logo bigger to fill up some of the whitespace in the top middle.
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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.
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Hey! I love the tortoise logo. Wonderful job!!
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The new site looks fantastic!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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JD, your new site design hurts my eyes. Too much white and not enough contrast between text and background colors. Just my two cents.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Nice redesign, but I read you for the content– it could be pure text if it had to be . . .
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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!
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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.
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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!
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I like the new look!
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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.
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