Traditional Dark Kitchen Remodel

The Scholarly Kitchen has been around for nearly four years now (3.5, so I’m rounding up). During that time, the initial design proved useful and quite durable. We created a brand with the lovely graphics, and featured blogging, micro-blogging (via Twitter), and robust discussions. But having so many great posts, many published a day after each other, showed us there was room for improvement.

So, a few months ago, we asked you for nice examples of blog design, incorporated your advice with our own observations as the authors and editors, and took the problem to the site’s original designer, Nicole Colovos.

The new design debuts today. Here’s what I think and hope we’ve accomplished:

  1. It’s easier to see recent and featured posts. Since we publish almost daily, publishing the full post each time pushed recent posts down too far and too fast. Now, an abbreviated entry for each post means you can see more if you visit the home page. We can feature posts we think deserve a longer shelf life.
  2. It’s easier to explore the archive.
  3. It’s easier to follow Stewart Wills’ Twitter feed.
  4. The blog looks more lively and inviting.
  5. The new look shows our commitment to improvement.

The next week or two may be a little shaky as we “learn the look” — understand how to make this new design work best, learn the behind-the-scenes tools, and optimize the experience.

Thanks for reading the Scholarly Kitchen for this long. I hope these changes reinvigorate an already great blog and help us grow and thrive for a long time to come.

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Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson is the CEO of RedLink and RedLink Network, a past-President of SSP, and the founder of the Scholarly Kitchen. He has worked as Publisher at AAAS/Science, CEO/Publisher of JBJS, Inc., a publishing executive at the Massachusetts Medical Society, Publishing Director of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Director of Medical Journals at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Opinions on social media or blogs are his own.

Discussion

4 Thoughts on "Renovation and Remodeling — The Scholarly Kitchen Gets a Refresh"

Thanks! Nicole Colovos is a marvel. She took our needs, our audience’s faves, and made it all come together beautifully!

I think The Scholarly Kitchen is an important blog and I’m afraid, to my eyes, the design jfails to convey that – somehow the design makes the blog look minor.

Thanks for the feedback. We had specific goals, one of which was to surface as many posts as possible since there is so much good content. I think we accomplished that. Please stick with us, give it time, and see if it grows on you. I’ve been living with the new design for a while, and I’m feeling it now.

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