Icrontic went through a major shakeup this past weekend: we rolled out a new design and moved our three WordPress sites (Tech, Gaming, and Life) into a single WordPress MU install.
To understand why we did this, you have to know how we got here. Icrontic launched as a casual PC hardware news site back in 2000 and existed on a string of home-brew content management systems. By 2008 we were doing full-time technology coverage and had moved to WordPress. In November of 2008, we launched Icrontic Gaming, and this past summer we launched Icrontic Life. To accomplish this, we added new WordPress installs on new subdomains.
The Problem
The three-install setup was problematic because we were still only showing Icrontic Tech (what we lovingly refer to as ‘Blue’ internally) on the Icrontic.com home page. It gave casual guests an inaccurate picture of “what Icrontic is.” We also looked very blog-like; the previous Icrontic theme was our first major WordPress project, so we didn’t get very daring with it. On top of that, it was an administrative nightmare–everyone had four user accounts! It took a lot of code to keep three WordPress accounts in sync with each forum account.
Next, you have to understand what’s in store for the future. We currently have member blogs through our vBulletin forum and, frankly, the software sucks; it’s confusing, unintuitive, and just plain hard to use (and even worse to theme and customize). Moving to WordPress MU gives us the framework for the next phase of the Icrontic Master Plan, part of which is to move those member blogs into WordPress.
The Process
Let’s talk about this crazy new look. How did it happen? It started with listing our problems: only Tech articles on the home page, confusing navigation, and not enough cross-pollination of content between sections. Then there were stylistic concerns: the theme was “soft” with rounded corners and fades that didn’t match the attitude we were trying to convey. It needed less “slick blog theme” and more “this is Icrontic, dammit.” The site’s design needed to grow up, join the big leagues, and make a statement.
We wanted something bold and iconic that focused on all three parts of Icrontic: Tech, Gaming, and Life. It should have a section that mixed features from all three. Most importantly, we wanted it to focus on the people behind the content and act as a gateway to our superb community.
Here is a quick-n-dirty sketch from August 20th, 2009:
After we let it percolate for a bit, an HTML mockup was created on August 30th:
From there, it was a month of periodic design revisions with the staff, a month of refinements, and then three weeks to make it all work in a WordPress template. Color-coded sections, easier archive browsing, improved legibility, and a grid-based layout are some of the major improvements.
The Master Plan
As we alluded to, this is only the first phase of a broader plan for Icrontic’s development. This past year has seen a lot of growth on Icrontic and a solidification of its new identity. The second phase will include migrating our forum onto a new, extensible platform that will take our community to the next level.
Icrontic is already pretty rare in both the caliber of our forum community and how connected it is (via both the code and staff) to the site’s front page content. We have a unique vision of what “community” really means online, and we’re going to develop an experience that captures that.
This redesign was a big project, but it was just a warm-up for what’s next.