Game Music 4 All full site redesign

It’s been nearly five years since a website I run, gamemusic4all.com, has seen a cosmetic change. Back then it would have been impossible to predict what path the site would be going down all these years later.

Now, the latest cover art from a weekly featured artist graces the page in it’s full glory, simple and reminiscent of the incredible artwork that grace many vinyl album covers. This marks the first time in the site’s history that the blogroll feature has not been prominently shown, instead it has been shifted below.

Instead of links and menu’s cluttering the upper half of the screen, a new image rich display his been implemented. The upper half consists of the latest news stories, while the lower half highlights recent and ongoing activities from Game Music 4 All itself. The highly visual nature of the new layout highlights the amazing art in the video game community while also maintaining an ease of navigation, even for new visitors to the site.

The previous version of the site featured a three-column blog layout. The blogroll was prominently featured in the center column while the two thinner side columns were used to highlight current links and site information. Over time, more information and links were added, leading to a bloated look for the site. This also meant slower loading times, difficulty navigating, and a lack of focus in the layout.

The most important information, along with a variety of social media links to foster a relationship with site visitors complete the page.

The four column layout established further up allows these four columns to be easily understood and simple to browse. The visuals of the blog also stop at the bottom of the page, allowing a strong transition between the white “main area” of the site from the dark blue “information” area below due to the increase in text-based information. The bottom of the page is intended to be engaging to readers, allowing them to interact with both the site and it’s writers in a variety of ways.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you check out the site and let me know what you think!