New Here & Now Redesign, originally uploaded by WBUR.
For eons now I have been tempting listeners with promises of a shiny and improved Here & Now website. My initial post bemoaned the show logo itself, a flawed, convex monstrosity, sprinkled with what for all the world looked liked expletives plucked from cartoon bubbles (an unfortunate resemblance not unnoticed by a certain public radio host who shall remain nameless).
It really had to go. And with it the rest of the facade itself, and of course the entire arthritic scotch tape and paper clip scaffolding holding up the entire thing.
The folks at Here & Now, a dedicated nose-to-the-grindstone bunch of public radio servants, deserve far better.
And they are getting it. Oh so very shortly.
As an exclusive to those few who read this blog, I present the new site. And like On Point before it, the bones are WordPress. Don’t let the gaping content holes panic you. We aren’t yet finished. The official launch isn’t likely until the other side of the new year.
Whaddaya think?
Also, I was naturally delighted to see that Paul Levy, Beth Israel’s CEO and recent Here & Now guest, took me up on my challenge to embed 90.9 audio in his blog. Still looking for more trailblazers like Paul or Michael Goldberg.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you require my help.
Looks snazzy! Excellent work with the clean WordPress theme, dem’s is good bones.
Looking forward to the site filling out with content; I’m confident that the content is abundant, and only needs to be popped into place.
Excellent improvement.. the new logo reminds me of a kind of morning talk show a la Regis & Kelly.
Yeah, we gotta fill them holes. And I hope you both drop by the site from time to time and fill it up with some of your comments.
And yes, as Andrea observed, with got a thing for WordPress.
But Amy…Regis & Kelly?
I am a going to have to hope over to their site and scope out that logo.
Total amazement. Looking very good. In fact, I’m generally amazed at what’s happening there with you guys. Hope to stop by sometime offline — maybe I can even qualify for a tweet-up, seeing as I am a thirty-something male with glasses ::) Congrats to Here and Now for shedding its ragged old design. Looks great.
Okay, maybe not Regis & Kelly exactly, but the blockiness with just two different color types (sorry, I know *nothing* about graphic design, so I’m not using official words or necessarily even conveying what I mean well) gave me an immediate feeling of “Morning Talk Show”
I like the lead story on the top left, followed by the RSS like feed with summaries on the right.
I also like the option for reader comments as visible and accessible on the home page. It shows the lead story is important you can see the conversation.
Not sure if it is intended this way, but I would format it so you could leave the listener comments of the lead story right on the front page, so you didn’t have to go to another page to see them and so all the other content still displayed.
It would be good to have links to your RSS reader, Facebook page, blog, twitter and other online social networks on the home page.
Good work!
Will, Amy and Aaron. Thank you and apologies for the tardy response. Holiday madness and travel had me a bit distracted of late. Nothing a gallon of coffee and weeks of slow recovery won’t fix.
Glad you all liked the design. Aaron: Most excellent suggestions regarding linking up the site with other sites in the social networking space. Putting that on our to do list.
Amy: I was kidding re: Regis & Kelly. But I get your drift regarding the logo.
Will: Yes! Please join us at a Tweet-Up!