Apparently, September is the month of redesigns. Following some gorgeous updates to the Alison Designs site and my bedroom last week, I’m kicking off this week with another site launch, this time at the new digs. Introducing Almost Hollywood.
We approached the redesign with a few basic goals: give the existing site a fresh look, boost engagement and improve SEO. While that seems simple enough, there are no fewer than 1,001 ways to achieve each of those things and there is always much more to consider as you dig deeper into the project. With the support of an awesome team and some good energy for tackling a new site – this project set itself up to be a fun one.
Starting from the strong foundation of the original design, we looked for the strongest performing areas and compared them with common patterns across the web. We also identified some experimental elements that would allow us to gather data to support additional changes as the site evolves. With a fresh new color palette and lengthened layout, we embraced some white space and looked to provide intentional direction for users. With some phenomenal logic on our developer’s end, clearly labeled recommended content now offers users highly relevant video suggestions. The pattern is laid over an energizing geometric pattern – adding a punch of color and some nice dimension using parallax.
Below that, videos from a related category lazy load into the page, providing watchers with a nearly endless supply of entertainment. While users can choose to reveal video titles on hover, the pattern currently allows us to test the effectiveness of image-only browsing using some of the most wildly recognizable faces on the web.
Giving the site a makeover has been fun – and I’m pumped to see how it performs over a longer stretch. With some incredible talent lifting to pull a project like this together, there are definitely some good things to come!