The following is a brief post-mortem for the recent redevelopment of my company's Web site. We also make great games, so be sure to check that out too. Anyway, this post-mortem covers the six-month redesign retrospectively. I divided the document into two parts. The first part discusses the website alone and the second part discusses the forums.
Web Site
CMS Considerations
Content management systems are useful web applications (sometimes a collection of applications) that enable easy creation, management, and publishing of website content. As a pre-production exercise, I examined a few systems. (1,2,3)
None of the systems seemed to provide the development platform I was looking for. As a result, I used a collection of my own custom scripts to drive the dynamic site content. This gave me the advantage of a familiar code base as well as easily customizable data types. However, it left me with the additional task of developing a web based content management tool - which I have yet to do.
Design and Delivery
The goals for the design and delivery of the new site could be summarized as fixing weaknesses in the old design. I say this because the old design was a strong foundation to work from, particularly in information architecture.
These goals include:
Strong visual appeal.
Minimal implementation of Flash elements.
Low bandwidth delivery.
Validating CSS/XHTML design.
Easy digestion for search indexing.
Minimal annoyances (audio/popups/etc.)
Ample room for content expansion.
Spam protection (no exposed e-mail addresses)
In addition to these goals, I focused on providing an accessible resource to the growing community on the Gearbox forums.
Content Decisions
Most of the data from the original site is on the new site. Much of the content on the new site is just an expansion of the old content. For example, the projects page grew into a games page that included considerably more detail on each title. Some of the content on the new site was built off of content that had expired and been removed from the old site. As an example, the talent page was brought back with updated photos, names, and bios.
The new site has considerably more content than the old. Additional content sections include news, press releases, a webcam, a mailing list, downloads, FAQs, and a developer's diary called GearBlogs. To seed content for GearBlogs, I launched a simple pilot diary website and updated it regularly during the redesign.
Frequently updated content such as the news and press releases were added to help keep the community well informed. The webcam provides an occasional quick peek inside the office. GearBlogs provides a rather personal account of the business, the labor, and the culture behind Gearbox Software. All of these features allow our community to look in the box.
Community members collected and developed useful content such as FAQs and lists of downloads. Unfortunately, the only way the community could post this content was through a forum 'sticky' - and these cluttered the forum. This content found a new home in the redesigned website. Now the information is cross-linked with the associated game and easily accessible by any website visitors.
Overall Accomplishments
All goals were met to a relatively high degree. The new site seems to retain higher traffic levels than the previous site. The new site ranks higher in Google. We've maintained steady production and delivery of original content. The website looks clean, professional, and attractive while still being valid, lightweight, and accessible.
Potential Improvements
Navigation could be improved. Drop down lists could allow for more than the one depth. The site would also benefit from a breadcrumb.
The URL scheme is full of variables and should use clean URLs instead. This would help spiders index the site and improve overall linkability to the site. Additionally, the URL shouldn't require that silly www. prefix to resolve.
Regularly updated content sections such as Gearblogs should have RSS feeds, quality polls/feedback, and user comment sections.
Forum
Software Considerations
Branding and Design
Overall Accomplishments
Potential Improvements
Conclusions and Projections