Thurrott.com

Thurrott.com

Our objective was to optimise the website's performance and user experience by implementing new features and functionalities.

  • Project Delivery Time

    • Design: 1 month
    • Implementation: 2 months

  • Platform

  • Project Source

George Coll

George Coll

CEO BWW Media Group

The BWW Media Group has been partnered with Robert and the Enlivy team for quite some time, and their expertise and passion pour through in everything they do. Together we embarked on an aggressive plan to completely overhaul and relaunch Thurrott.com. From UI design and the technical architecture through implementation, they were thoughtful, smart, and precise. Our members have expressed tremendous enthusiasm for the new site!

Overview

Enlivy was tasked with revitalising Thurrott.com by creating and implementing a new design that would optimise the website's performance and improve the user experience.
We were given a detailed set of specifications from the client, BWW Media, which we meticulously executed to guarantee that the final product conformed to their expectations and requirements.

The objective

The project's main objective was to transform the website into a faster, more user-friendly platform by implementing new features and functionalities.

We aimed to create a modern website to provide an enhanced user experience for its visitors and subscribers. This project involved a complete overhaul of the website's design and technical infrastructure to improve the website's performance, speed, and responsiveness, as well as adding new features and functions to the website that would enhance the user experience.

Context and Challenge

Thurrott.com delivers a wide range of technology-related articles, including news and different types of analysis. The website also provides podcasts created by the editorial team and a premium subscription service that offers members exclusive content.

The client, BWW Media, came to us with the main requirement of modernising and increasing the speed of their website, Thurrott.com. The website was outdated, with poor performance, for example a logged-in experience taking up to 3 seconds.

The project requirements for the web development:

  • Mobile compatibility for the website, including forums and accessibility

  • Implementation of a mobile-specific design and functionality

  • Incorporation of search functionality

  • Cleanup and removal of retired or outdated features and functions

  • Dark mode option for users

  • Premium-only access to full RSS feed and Firehose

  • Archive of content from Editor's Desk

  • Addition of Read Later and Favorites functionality

  • Profile and administration features for members, including Payment and Membership management

  • New feature for basic members to have 3 free tokens for premium access

  • Basic RSS functionality

  • Optimisation of website's speed and performance on both desktop and mobile

To meet these requirements, we began by conducting a thorough analysis of the website's current design and performance. We discovered that the website was using an old theme, which was causing poor performance and several security issues. In addition we found more areas in which the website needed improvements, one example being that the website's forum was only using text, which was not user-friendly or engaging.

To address these issues and comply with the client's requirements, we decided to develop and implement a new theme for the website. Since the website had a lot of content around Microsoft and Windows, we suggested implementing a design that will make the website look similar to a Windows App.

We used Figma to create a modern and visually pleasing design for the website, while also solving the security issues and increasing the website's overall speed. This was done by covering all the pages of the website and all the scenarios, such as a free member's access to 3 premium content articles and the ability to redeem tokens.

We also made significant changes to the website's forum, including the implementation of a "What you see is what you get" editor, which greatly improved the user experience.

Result of our redesign, the logged-in experience on the website went from taking 2.5 to 3 seconds to taking between 1.2 and 1.6 seconds, a significant improvement.

Throughout the redesign process, we closely collaborated with the client to ensure that we met their requirements and delivered a website that was modern, fast, and easy to use for their audience. We are confident that the new design and improvements we made will greatly enhance the user experience on Thurrott.com, and provide a better platform for BWW Media to reach their audience and deliver their content.

The process and Insight

The creative concept for the website redesign was focused on creating a modern, visually appealing design that emulates the aesthetic of a Windows App. Our goal was to provide a visually pleasing, easy-to-navigate, and user-friendly interface.

Our design decisions included incorporating a minimalist layout emphasising large, high-resolution images and integrating user-friendly filtering options and streamlined navigation to enhance the user experience. We implemented a WYSIWYG editor to improve the user's interaction on the website's forum.

The design phase of the Thurrott.com project began with the creation of wireframes and mockups utilising Figma. This phase covered all pages of the website and all scenarios to ensure all requirements were met.

Once the initial design was completed, usability testing was conducted to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement. Based on the feedback received, design iterations were made to optimise elements such as layout, navigation, and filtering options to enhance the user experience.

Challenges

Throughout the redesign process, we collaborated closely with the client to ensure that all their requirements were met and that the final product was a modern, high-performance, and user-friendly website for their audience.

Overall, developing the new theme was a complex task that required extensive planning, development, and testing to ensure it met client requirements and provided a better user experience.

When developing the new theme for Thurrott.com, we faced several challenges, including:

  • Outdated infrastructure requiring significant changes and upgrades to meet new design and performance requirements.

  • Security vulnerabilities that needed to be addressed and adherence to industry best practices for website security.

  • Complex task of migrating existing content and creating a custom utility to import them.

  • Optimisation for speed and performance on both desktop and mobile.

  • Integration of new features and functionality such as dark mode and filtering options.

  • Preserve SEO ranking by maintaining URLs and avoiding broken links.

The solution

We executed a comprehensive redesign of the website, implementing a new theme that adheres to the client's specifications, resulting in a modernised and improved version of Thurrott.com. The website now boasts updated aesthetics, optimised performance, and additional user-centric features.

We made several changes to Thurrott.com in order to enhance the user experience and provide a more modern and visually appealing website. These changes include:

Overall, these changes aimed to provide a more modern, visually pleasing, and user-friendly website for Thurrott.com's users. The changes were developed, implemented, and tested to ensure that the website met the client's requirements and provided a better user experience.

Our development process started by creating the general brand guidelines for the website, then planning the new design in Figma.

Creating the new theme was a multi-step effort that required both design and implementation phases. The initial design phase, which involved the conceptualisation and development of new features, took approximately one month to complete.

We spent an additional two months working on implementing those designs, then we continued to polish all the elements that lead to the final redesign of Thurrott.com.

The results

Enlivy developed and implemented a new theme and other changes to Thurrott.com's website to increase website speed and performance, improve visual aesthetics, and enhance overall user experience.

The new theme was optimized for speed and performance and included a modern, minimalistic design and dark mode feature. Changes to the website's user interface and user experience were also developed to make the website more intuitive and user-friendly for visitors.

Before

After

We are thrilled to report that our client is delighted with the development work we have done for their website. They have said that the new design and features we have implemented have significantly improved their website's overall look and feel and have received positive feedback from their users.

The client has reported that the new theme, which includes a modern and minimalistic aesthetic and a dark mode feature, has dramatically enhanced the visual appeal of their website.

The new design has also been well received by their users, who have found it more visually appealing and easy to navigate.

  • w.

    w.

    23 February, 2023

    Really looking forward to this. I hope everything runs smoothly!

  • S.H.

    S.H.

    23 February, 2023

    WOW nice Christmas present. Thanks for a great year of work on the site. I switched to dark mode immediately. 😛 Happy holidays.

  • i.

    i.

    23 February, 2023

    Looks good, and hope the rest of it goes smoothly. Will take a bit of getting used to, though, with the most recent posts being constrained to one panel.

  • g.

    g.

    23 February, 2023

    Hi Thurrott team, the new site looks great! Like many others, I immediately switched to dark mode. I look forward to continuing visiting this site daily and engaging with the community in the coming year.

  • wright_is

    wright_is

    23 February, 2023

    Really looking forward to this. I hope everything runs smoothly!

  • m.

    m.

    23 February, 2023

    The new site looks great and everything looks better.

  • d.

    d.

    21 February, 2023

    Gorgeous

  • g.

    g.

    13 February, 2023

    I like the look, and it's faster!
    I just wish that there was a way to go back to the chronological view of all news articles. That's easier for catching up.

  • mattbg

    mattbg

    31 January, 2023

    The new site looks great and everything looks better.

  • m.

    m.

    10 March, 2023

    The new site looks great and everything looks better.

  • L.

    L.

    27 February, 2023

    It's not just pretty and modern, it seems faster too 👍

  • g.

    g.

    07 March, 2023

    I like the look, and it's faster!
    I just wish that there was a way to go back to the chronological view of all news articles. That's easier for catching up.

  • s.

    s.

    18 February, 2023

    Looks great 🔥

  • Chris_Kez

    Chris_Kez

    02 February, 2023

    Congrats to the team; looks great!

  • y.

    y.

    10 February, 2023

    This looks fantastic!

User comments can be accessed here:

The redesign of Thurrott.com required extensive development efforts, with a total of 34,000 lines of code. However, due to our adherence to the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) coding standard, the line count was significantly lower than it would have been without it, reducing the codebase by a factor of 5.

  • 15369

    php lines of code

  • 7484

    js lines of code uncompressed

  • 11743

    scss lines of code uncompressed

Hire Enlivy for your next Project

To get in touch for an estimate, please use the contact form. Or schedule a free 15 minute consultation call.

It would be my pleasure to show you what's possible to achieve, especially within WordPress, which, in my opinion, is the only CMS that puts the End User ( you ) first.

Minimum Project Budget: $2000.
Hourly Rate : $120