Changes to Scentrist.com
The only thing constant and predictable in life is “change”, and such it is with our site. We’ve made some changes both visibly and under-the-hood, some of which will be more noticeable than others. There’s a bit of background to explain why, however.
Since we launched, we’ve been running with the same look-and-feel as well as functionality under the covers. Over a year and nearly 200 entries later, a number of flaws became apparent and the ability to expand on that base was limited. Also, it was built on some older technology. So while it was a clean design and familiar, changes were long overdue and it was time we implemented something new. With that, we launched the new design late Tuesday night after a lot of personal kicking, screaming, and pulling out what little hair I have left (ok, it wasn’t that bad as far as upgrades go, but it could have been smoother).
Fortunately, the new design isn’t so much different from the prior one, but there are some changes.
- New Image Tapestry/Carousel. We launched the new tapestry function, and this actually works on just about every browser platform. I’ve tested on Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer, and it works the same way on each, every time.
- Recent Articles. The four (4) most recent articles can be chosen by paging through the tapestry (left or right) or clicking on one of the dots in the order (upper-left of the tapestry).
- Prior Articles. Older articles now appear in order, so the Tapestry/Carousel isn’t simply a repeat of those (at least now that it actually ‘works’).
- HTML5/CSS3 platform. That may not mean anything to non-geeks out there, but it means we can do a lot more in time.
- Slightly cleaner design. The current design supports better menu functions than the old one, although we don’t have or much need them. Yet. Stay tuned.
- Feedback Form. People have been after me to provide some method of direct feedback. Click on About > Feedback and you’ll see a form that sends feedback directly to the site administrator.
- Categories & Archives. I almost got away with excluding these, but based on a couple of tweaks and some late testing, they’ve both returned in some form. You can pull based on the category, the month of the article, or even the tag (though be careful of this, the next bullet explains).
- “Ok, so how do I get to older articles?“ I’m glad you asked (or I’ve pre-empted the question). The site is indexed, and any article can be searched by keywords. If you’re seeking an article on a particular fragrance, use the Search Box and type in a key word or any part of the name or perfumer (even the individual fragrance notes), and you’ll find everything that matches.
Amidst all the changes, this means that we’ve given a couple of things up.
- The Blogroll. While it got some attention, we are looking to return it shortly or implement something else to take its place.
Future plans? We don’t pre-announce changes before we’ve worked out the kinks (and we had more than a few Tuesday), but once we can cleanly launch those features, we’ll let you know what we have planned. We’re thinking of a few things now.
One more thing — for those following on Twitter, we’ve changed our tweeting scheme, so for posts and updates either from Scentrist.com or our Facebook Page, you’ll need to follow @scentrist for announcements. If you were following @andrewbuck…well, you can follow that too, but add @Scentrist to your Twitter feed as it will have updates when they happen
As for feedback, we enjoy hearing it whether it’s good or constructive. Leave us a comment!
Thanks for your patience through these changes and for your support!
Changes sometimes are a good thing, to start a bright New Year. Bravo, Mr Irreverent. ( Sorry the joke, please)…
S'ok, and thanks.
The changes should make things easier and more flexible in the long run.
Hi Andy,
I really like the new site! Much cleaner and I like the carousel.
Cheers,
Gaby
Cheers, Gaby. I know we still have some challenges with the tapestry in IE7, but then that's also an older browser and people should be upgrading for security's sake. Appreciate the feedback!