We launched a new look for our Healthy & Green Living editorial section on Care2 yesterday. The section contains more than 4,000 articles with tips on living a healthy and eco-conscious lifestyle. It’s the premier web destination for topics such as non-toxic cleaning and natural beauty.
new design
The redesign was in response to a series of focus groups that revealed that our Healthy & Green Living homepage wasn’t meeting user expectations. The previous design used blog style formatting with the latest article being highlighted with a large image above the fold. We originally thought the large image would draw people in, but it had a drawback we hadn’t foreseen. With only one article above the fold, we only had one shot to communicate what the entire section was about, and capture the user’s interest.
Previous Blog Style Design
With the redesign, we now have multiple entry points above the fold and are doing a much better job of telling the story of what you’ll find.
Lessons learned:
1) Women want entry pages to provide an overview. They want to make the choice about which content to dive in to. Don’t make the choice for them.
2) Even though you are providing more choices, keep it simple! Try to limit yourself to headlines and photos only. Women want to scan the page, get a feel for what’s there and quickly choose the story that is most interesting for them. Don’t bog them down with too much detail at this level.
3) Mix it up! A magazine style layout can go a long way to keep a user’s interest. We are finding more and more that blog style formatting isn’t terribly engaging for our female audience.
