by 19 people |
On the road to a new layout
THE SHORT VERSION: The new layouts will dramatically increase the exposure your lenses get, highlighting your content, highlighting you and making it easier for people to follow your work. We're also betting they'll earn more royalties for you. Will it take some time? Of course it will. But we're there for you.
Why bother with a redesign?
It's not like painting your house
1. We needed a standard layout as a foundation for all the stuff we're building. The various layouts at Squidoo evolved over the course of two years, and they were stepping on each other (technically).
2. We realized that different visitors want and need different things. Veteran lensmasters (like you, perhaps) want a different default view than someone who has never been to the site before. Makes sense, right? So we're going to use some smart technology to show different looks of your lens to different people. The content you put up will never ever change, but the ads, sidebars and input options will.
What's the point of website design?
I don't think a website design is supposed to be popular. It's not supposed to be guided by the fact that 6 out of 10 people prefer purple backgrounds. We might as well design a site around whether you prefer Star Trek or Star Wars. (Wait a second...)
Rather, I think website design is intended to tell a story and to generate action. It's about what works for the people who matter--you, and your readers.
The story, and the first (and second and third) impression is told based on things like (yes, here it's relevant) color, and font size, and copy, and placement of images, and lots more stuff. This is how, without even reading the page, you know when you've landed on the NYT.com vs. a Webkinz site vs. a porno site vs. personal blog about video games.
We have lots of goals with the new lens layout process we're embarking on, and each is a little different depending on the audience. If you've never been to Squidoo before, we're going to hope you'll do vastly different things than, say, a Giant Squid with 100 lenses would.
Please note!
At least once a week, forever until the end of time, we're going to be evolving and testing and tweaking our lens designs. The goal: improve performance. Which means good things for you, too.
Our priority list
When you embark on a design, you can't do everything. Here's our list of what we're trying to do. It's a plexo, so you can vote on it, but your priorities may very well differ from ours...
Increase revenue for lensmasters
Even though most of the other priorities contribute to this, it's worth saying. We are trying to create an experience that delivers authority and generates monetizable actions.28 points
Generate click outs and word of mouth
Great lenses should get stumbled, dugg, returned to, subscribed to and more.12 points
Increase the number of pages per visit
We've found that successful users are those that explore. It also increases the chances that people will buy things, click on ads, interact with lensmasters, etc.8 points
Encourage interaction
That means rating lenses, favoriting them, posting to the Guestbook, voting in a Plexo or building your own lens7 points
Improve User Experience
Any change in web design should have the consumer (reader) firmly in mind. It should result in improved readability, ease of use and overall user experience. Improvements to such things as revenue, clickouts, pages read, whilst important, should be secondary.6 points
Showcase lensmasters
The people who build our pages are the star of the show, and we want to make that clear.2 points
Make lensmasters happy
So, we've got five actionable priorities. This last one is a way of summarizing the first five. There's no doubt (zero) that some of the stuff we're doing will delight you, but at the same time, change is hard and some of it will annoy you. Hang in there with us... our goals are your goals, and we will continue to tweak our data until we get it right. So, if you don't like the color... sorry.2 points
Reading and enjoying the content of the lens....
Maybe this is part of the user-experience, but the new design moves the content of the lens down a lot - I don't like that.2 points
What do you want to see?
When you look at your lenses...
When you look at your lenses, what jumps to mind (go ahead and vote, or add your own)
I want to be able to toggle to see what everyone else sees
If there are multiple views, we want to give you control to see all of them--this is on the list!15 points
I want to see ways I might improve that lens
Learning how to improve your lenses fast makes you money and gets you traffic15 points
I want to be able to pick the More Lenses By Me
Where it reccomends other lenses by the lensmaster, I would like the lensmaster have the option to choose which lenses it recommends. This would allow us to make a series of lenses that they could go through easily.10 points
Zazzle module
Zazzle has a nice module that allows you to update your designs on Zazzle, and they are automatically updated where you have that module. I use it on myspace and facebook - would love to be able to use it here!9 points
I want to see my stats for that lens
A shortcut to your stats saves you time8 points
I want to easily integrate my blog into a lens.
I would love to be able to include my Cowabunga! blog on all my Hey MonkeyBrain lenses with 1 click!7 points
I want my visitors to be able to "search" my lens page.
Ok, maybe not search it - but why can't we have a "find on this page" box that simply highlights the keyword?6 points
I want an Amazon Slide Show Module
Beautiful big photos that pause and show info and links when pointed to with your mouse! my request, and example is also on the forum :)5 points
Web design is about numbers
With 16,000,000 pageviews a month, we now have a great base to work from. The tweaks we make will be based on what our users actually do. This may sound like a "no duh" moment, but previously our decisions were mostly theoretical, and not always data-driven. So your feedback will be essential to our brainstorming, of course, and marketing always matters, but our decisions will be made on the data.
As Charles Darwin could have said, "whatever works, do it more."
What's up with the ads?
Yep, Squidoo lenses have ads on them. It's a fact of life on the Interwebs. We run Google Adsense ads at the top and bottom, clearly marked as such. We also have signed on with Glam Media to run tasteful, targeted ads in the sidebar (NOT in the middle of your content!) of lenses.Our hope is that this advertising model can help
a) Fund Squidoo, so we can keep running it for you. So far we haven't taken on any investors or VC funding, so we're able to run the site as a lifestyle project, a passion, and not just as a bottom line business. That's a lot of fun for us and we want to keep at it.
b) Help you earn more revenue: remember, we give 50% of our advertising revenue to lensmasters
c) And finally, help you deliver starter content to surfers. The reason every site out there uses an advertising model is that guess what, it actually works! And it works because surfers actually enjoy clicking on ads when they match up with what they were looking for. So, if your page can deliver personal, authentic, great content that you handbuilt and handcurated, as well as some powerful ads, then your surfer is bound to click on something that benefits you.
Your opinion on the new design
How much do you hate the changes?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byI hate the changes more than a New Yorker hates the Red Sox.
waynekat says:
I hate tofu, don't know who Anne Coulter is and I don't care for baseball (? is it? LOL) So I don't know which to pick. That being said, my friends call me a change junkie. All change is good change because there is always something to be learned. You go guys!! Great work!!
Posted March 12, 2008
seitler says:
Increasing lensmaster revenue by making the interruptions (ads) more obnoxious? Y'all are SO not getting it.
How is a Flash ad for a bra relevant to either me (a guy) or this lens (on effective web design)? Yeah, I'm *really* excited about these Glam ads... it's like seeing Febreze commercials during 24.
The only thing I can think must be going through the designers' heads right now is that "ugly web sites make more money."
Posted March 06, 2008
webseitler says:
Oh... you guys just had to take away the Max checkbox from the Dashboard, huh? ;) I'm not going to go through all 50. Ugh! But I'm protesting in my heart. ;)
If you do one thing to improve this look, PLEASE remove the dark blue. It's very hard to focus on the content of the page. It doesn't make me want to stay and read a lens--it makes me want to hit the back button to get away from it! Imagine my surprise when I viewed my own lens. o_O
Posted March 05, 2008
webseitler says:
Wow. I am not happy with this new look at all. Dark blue?! It's hard on my eyes. I've put a lot of time and energy into the layout and overall design of my 50-plus lenses. And I'm not looking forward to all the work I'm going to have to do on my Flickr modules (to track down MORE photos to have an enough to fit the page). I'm sure this change will also confuse my returning visitors. Nope, sorry. I'm not happy at all.
I would have been more pleased to see small improvement to the old layout, not such a drastic redesign. You guys keep moving sidebars and ads... people who are not members here must get very lost and confused! Heck, I feel lost and confused right now. You're making me miss the good old days. I'm going to go and un-max all my lenses now.
Posted March 05, 2008
Graceonline says:
I don't hate the changes, but I am disappointed that lensmaster content is shoved to the left side, where our eyes have been newspaper-trained not expect the juicy stuff. I get that profit is important and to get that you feel you have to push the reader off our page and onto that shiny car ad where their eye is instantly drawn. Still, it's disappointing to have our hard work obscured in all the business-busyness above the fold, buried in a cluttered field. Below the fold, the solid blue bar on the right makes me feel like I'm drowning in the murky deep, and I want out, quick. As for Red Sox or Anne Coulter, since I don't hate the changes, eenie meenie minie mo ...
Posted March 04, 2008
Valery504 says:
I don't really like it:(Especially the colors...But it's the first opinion. I hope I'll find the advantages;)
Posted March 04, 2008
deb_mc says:
I like it alot. I would like to see icons on the lens roll entries again though.
Posted March 03, 2008
charlino says:
If it increases profitability, enhances performance, and improves my traffic, what's there to hate?
Posted March 03, 2008
saumie says:
At first glance, I wasn't pleased with it. However, You guys know a whole lot more about this stuff than I do and am confident that the changes will be for the good of all of us utilizing all that Squidoo has to offer. Keep up the good work gang and give yourselves a collective pat on the back.
Posted March 03, 2008
Chip_Westley says:
I neither hate the changes nor the Yankees!!! However, I am not fond of the Red Sox.
Posted March 03, 2008
I hate the changes more than Anne Coulter hates tofu.
LeckyT says:
I... kinda like the new look. It's cleaner somehow.
But you know what I *really* like? It's the new (okay, not so new) Intro+Contents module. Revamped like it is, I find it much better for new lenses than the old TOC module was.
And, you can always opt out of the 'related lenses' option...
Posted May 15, 2008
spirituality says:
I don't hate it. I thought the orange stuck out like sore thumb. Now that it's blue, it's less annoying, but I still would like my visitors to see more of my content before clicking out to other lenses. Isn't a first-time squidoo visitor going to think that's the end of the lens already?
Posted April 20, 2008
RyanRE says:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it... I mean... change is typically for the better, but it takes a while to get used to it.
Posted April 17, 2008
AnneEasterling says:
I don't care what Ann Coulter (which is how she spells her name actually) likes tofu or not... but no, I'm not happy with the new maxed layout. It feels like MySpace and all those other cluttered sites that make you look for the information. This version of Squidoo doesn't seem to be about recognizing that we are all experts in something or the value of the information being posted.
Posted March 10, 2008
healthbeauty says:
I hate the width of the sidebar, make it thinner! I now have to go and edit all my lenses as my first module is amazon, thumbnails and the 5th one now gets bumped down to a second line and it looks awful! plus agree with Seitler as i have yet to see an ad that has any kind of relevance to my lens!
Posted March 07, 2008
seitler says:
"I don't think the game is to find new ways to interrupt people in annoying ways, is it?" - Seth Godin
http://tinyurl.com/264veu
Posted March 06, 2008
PotPieGirl says:
(looks like half my comment got chopped off...lol)
Summary - More than 5 words in the title area makes the lens look messy and squished. The
Posted March 05, 2008
PotPieGirl says:
First off, I want to say how wonderful it is to work with a company that constantly strives to be better....and doesn't settle to be just 'good enough' (uh, yes Squidoo..that company would be YOU..lol).
All in all, I like the new layout. It is a fresh new look for Squidoo lenses...and that, to me, is a very good thing.
From an SEO view-point, I am very concerned about the title tag. The top area of the new layout has a bit of a 'squished' look and if lensmasters properly use their
Posted March 05, 2008
xtnshun says:
Looks like a bad myspace profile. Squidoo looks professional, I think that is getting lost. The seo reasoning is fine, it just looks bad!
Posted March 04, 2008
BeautyTalk says:
I don't like the new lay out! I just really don't like the look of it and I do agree it is distracting from the content. Don't like the dark blue (it takes almost as much space as the lense, and it is dark and depressing). The top of the lens (the first thing that anybody will see!) is confusing - i feel like i don't understand what I am suposed to read and if the content is on the right or on the left side or in the middle.. Glam ad is overwhelming... Perhaps I need to get used to it but I just really liked the layout we had before... It was so nice an harmonious! I miss it... Is there any chance we can choose?
Posted March 04, 2008
My favorite YouTube video
Smile. Everything will work out just fine in the end.
Monty Python - Argument Clinic
A very funny skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus
Runtime: 2:29
1774593 views
10 Comments:
by MeganCasey
Before starting Squidoo, Megan spent 6 year... (more)
