“Well, we’ve finally done it! We’ve given ExposureRoom a brand new look and navigation system. The whole effort has been a grueling yet extremely satisfying 4 month affair. I hope most if not everyone will love the outcome of this effort.
Many of you write in on a daily basis to tell us how much you love the way the site looks and functions. Yet there are some who find the site cluttered and difficult to navigate. So we had to take a deep dive into trying to understand the reasons for this. The whole process of re-designing the site and navigation system started last August by way of a discussion we had in the forums and private emails. We then went back and digested every single suggestion and/or complaint about readability, navigation, clutter and general intuitiveness of the site.
Not only did we digest what ExposureRoom members had to say but (more importantly, probably) we listened to site visitors as well. Some are pretty vocal and speak their mind while others ask a “how to” question. We listened to all of them. Once we had this huge list, we had to digest it into a more systematic beast. That process took a couple of months
After that, we went to the drawing board. The primary group that participated in the initial rounds consisted of designers, engineers, support, marketing and business. Each department was a stakeholder in this process and each had valuable input to give to the design and engineering teams that addressed the concerns from members and visitors and also future direction of ExposureRoom.
Once we felt the needs and concerns of all stakeholders were addressed in the preliminary design phase, the design and engineering teams went to work. That process took 2 months. Everyone here has worked their butts off and for me it was especially nice to see the bonding between the (seemingly) disparate teams. Once the design was finalized the engineering team has their work cut out for them. Of course, even in engineering we have design and so back to the drawing board it was. This time taking the “requirements” and designing the backend system to accommodate the visual design and navigation and future extensibility of the system and site.
I’d like to take a moment to thank our members for being vocal and voicing their opinions and concerns, without which we’d not have ventured down such a bold path. I’d like to thank the visitors who have taken the time to give us a piece of their mind and finally the XR team for putting in a tremendous effort, working towards a common goal and exceeding my expectations by a long shot.
This was a complete overhaul and not just a tweak here and there. The new navigation system should allow you to go from one end of the site to the other in a single click. Not only that, you may actually discover areas of the site you didn’t know existed!”
Shiv Kumar (XR)
HDW : Poor Shiv some of the XR crew do not like the new look and the new navigation, personally I think it’s far better and it’s just a matter of getting used to the new navigation tools.
