FreelanceFolder Gets a Fresh Design
Posted September 10, 2009 in News 34 Comments »
Almost a full year after our first full site redesign, we’re happy to announce that we’ve updated and improved the look of FreelanceFolder again! We’re pretty excited about cleaning up the look of the website, and we’re doing our best to make site even more useful to everyone.
Many of the changes we made were based on reader feedback (see this Open Thread), and we’re hoping to implement even more of your suggestions and ideas in the next few months. Keep your eyes open, as we’ll be making some more changes in the coming days, weeks, and months.
Read on for the details about what’s new.
The Highlights:
Here are some of the best parts of the design refresh:
We’ve got a logo! We finally have something that’s almost professional looking. I’m sure most of you will agree with me that the off-the-shelf icon we were using was less than attractive :-) As always, we’re still looking to make improvements, so let us know if you have any suggestions.
The search is back! We know it was far too long not have an easy to use search, but it’s now back and in its rightful, prominent place. Over the next few days we’ll be installing some advanced search functions and working with the algorithms to improve the results (which aren’t great just yet). Our goal is to make it easier than ever to refer back to old posts or look for information on a specific topic.
Cleaned up navigation bar! We’ve tried to make the navigation bar easier to use by focusing on the pages that matter, making everything nice, big, and easy to read, and adding some icons that represent each page. We’ve also tried to showcase some of the resources we’ve been working on so intensely, such as The Unlimited Freelancer and our Getting Started Guides.
Upcoming Improvements:
Along with the things we launched today, there were at least twice as many others that we couldn’t finish in time. Here’s a sneak peak at what’s to come:
New and Improved Forums! The forums had a great start last fall, but as many of you know we’ve had some major spam issues. We just closed the forums down, temporarily, so that we can work out some of our issues and get things up and running again. We should be re-opening them in the next few weeks, with significantly better spam control, dedicated moderators, and couple of other improvements too.
Freelance Video! We just received our Canon HF10 HD camcorder yesterday (which, let me tell you, did not make launching the redesign any easier) and have been itching to get started with video on FreelanceFolder. So far all we have are a few Hi-Def recordings of cats, but I promise we’ll be doing something useful in the next few weeks :-) If you have any ideas for specific videos, let us know in the comments!
What do you think?
So, how’d we do? What do you think of the design refresh? Do you have any new suggestions, or is there anything we should change or adjust? Are there (gasp) any problems with the new site?
Let us know in the comments!
About the author: Mason Hipp is an entrepreneur, marketing guru, and writer. He blogs about life and business at FreelanceFolder.com and is co-author of the Book The Unlimited Freelancer. Follow him on twitter @MasonHipp
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34 Comments
Ben Ho
September 10th, 2009 at 4:27 amThe new design looks sharp! Looks better but doesn’t stray too much away from the old one which I think is good as it still gives people the familiar feeling.
Good job! :)
Luis Lopez
September 10th, 2009 at 5:04 amExcellent new design, is better than before and as you said the logo was not that good, this one is better.
Keep working and congrats for the redesign
fwolf
September 10th, 2009 at 7:31 amSo at least the one thing that I didnt like about this site is FINALLY gone ;)
The new design doesnt so much resemble a 08/15-generic web 2.0-something site anymore – well done!
cu, w0lf.
James
September 10th, 2009 at 7:51 amNice work, I’ve featured the site on http://www.nicelydonecss.com for you, love the icons/nav bar, very clean.
Luke Jones
September 10th, 2009 at 8:19 amMuch nicer… One thing I will _always_ dislike a little is the size of the fonts on the site. If they were smaller, it’d look a little more sleek. At the moment it makes it look a little childish.
Everything else is absolutely perfect though.
Chris
September 10th, 2009 at 8:30 amIt looks really nice. I agree with Ben, it looks familiar but much nicer. Isn’t it awesome to see blogs grow?
Keith Johnson
September 10th, 2009 at 8:40 amThis new GUI is really nice!
Good luck to the whole team at Freelance Folder :)
All The Best,
Keith Johnson
Documentation Specialist
Hallandale Beach, FL, USA
Lexi Rodrigo
September 10th, 2009 at 8:45 amCongratulations on the updated look! I like it, so clean and fresh looking.
Love the nav bar, too. Unlike Luke, I appreciate this size of fonts. Maybe it’s just my age, LOL.
Mike Smith
September 10th, 2009 at 10:47 amNice touch up of the design. I like how it’s a blend of the old design with new elements mixed in. Great work
Michael Comfort
September 10th, 2009 at 11:16 amI like the logo! And the colors!
Vin Thomas
September 10th, 2009 at 12:06 pmLooks really great guys!
Timothy Long
September 10th, 2009 at 12:42 pmAbsolutely gorgeous, and a well thought out UI!
Jon Phillips
September 10th, 2009 at 3:09 pmOk, now that’s really an improvement! Love the nav bar! :)
Brandon Miniman
September 10th, 2009 at 6:27 pmFantastic. Very pretty
Gabe Diaz
September 10th, 2009 at 7:49 pmGreat work, love the new look…so fresh and so clean!
Julian
September 10th, 2009 at 9:10 pmLove the new design! The logo really speaks to the name “Freelance Folder”.
I do miss the social bookmarking widget for the articles. I like to quickly save ones that I find particularly relevant to my situation.
Mike Wedick
September 10th, 2009 at 9:22 pmwow the new design is definitely an improvement! good work!
BebopDesigner
September 11th, 2009 at 12:08 amLooks absolutely fantastic! Love the navigation bar… looks brilliant!
Carla
September 11th, 2009 at 12:38 amI love the design, logo and color scheme! Great job.
Hegyeli Hunor
September 11th, 2009 at 1:50 amGood job!
I love the menu and the icons, but the logo is not the best…
Dustin Lakin
September 11th, 2009 at 4:02 amReally liking the new menu. Nothing better than showing off a new website layout.
Matt Keegan
September 11th, 2009 at 6:41 amI like the new look. And, I especially like it that even after all these changes, your page loads up quickly. Too many “new” designs slow things down as people throw in one script after another.
Mason Hipp
September 11th, 2009 at 12:26 pmHey guys, thanks for all of the comments! I’m really glad to hear everyone likes the changes to the site.
@Julian — Don’t worry, we’ll be adding the social media buttons back, and in better shape than before. They were one of the design changes that we didn’t quite finish in time…so…check back in a few days :-)
@Hegyeli — I think you’ll agree that the new logo is at least better than the last one, and if you can think of something better to do I’m always open to suggestions.
Thanks again everyone!
– Mason
matt
September 11th, 2009 at 12:32 pmHey John and Mason…My first visit
Nice clean nav, easy to use…
Instead of just the normal great comments I am come from a place of continuous improvement and honesty…so please do not hate my comments…
Color Palette is a bit old school for me.
Logo Font is also a bit clunky and does not ring fresh and young…more 1990s
WP Themed Sameness…
More Importantly: GREAT CONTENT and really hits home with the issues of today’s market place
Que tengas Suerte!!…
Nos Vemos….
Ed Gandia
September 11th, 2009 at 3:21 pmGreat work guys! Love the new look!! You’re once again setting the standard for freelancer blogs!
Jeremy
September 12th, 2009 at 11:50 amNicely done, excellent improvement no a familiar design. Feels a bit “cleaner” and refreshed. Digging this submit button down here by the way.
Ollie Wells
September 14th, 2009 at 4:54 am- Love the colourscheme
- Like the layout
- Very nice CSS
- Not a fan of the logo. The folder is a little squished, and looks a little “shoved it at the last minute”.
Just my opinion. :)
Steve Atkinson
September 14th, 2009 at 5:40 pmAll in all, I come to the site to read the articles and if you hadn’t told me it was changed I probably wouldn’t have noticed.
Keep the good information coming.
Kjones
September 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pmNEW DESIGN LOOKS COOL,BUT IT DONT REALLY STAND OUT AS BEFORE
ITS MORE DULL NOW, LIKE A DUSTY LOOK
Michael Restuccia
September 30th, 2009 at 1:55 amTheres a bug when using the search function, when there is only one page it’ll actually say, “Page 1 of 0″, awesome redesign. I’m just nitpicking
Karl Bowers
October 30th, 2009 at 3:03 pmLooking Nice – loving the icons in the navigation section :-)
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