All new Techtree.com - Site Re-design for Independence day...
Friday, 15. August 2008, 04:35:29
Whoa ! today is Aug 15 "Jai Hind"..and the guys at www.techtree.com gave me a wonderful surprise! An all new site re-design!
I have been reading techtree everyday..it's my daily morning read after Tomshardware.com. For almost two years, the site didn't change much. The old site had a contemporary navigation focusing news in the primary column and Reviews in the secondary column. Recently they increased the count of reviews shown at a time from one to two. And below, it is followed by "Download of the day" and "Future watch".
The new site features design inspirations from most of the leading tech websites all over the world. The Featured Articles contain a mix of news and reviews (i guess) and the news occupies the secondary prime location, which is followed by the Reviews.
Commenting on visual design, the site is a big leap and refreshing than the previous old beer bottle design. The new site is appealing with more use of gray along with subtle blue variants. Good show for a re-design.
I haven't played much with the new website, so I cannot comment on the usability aspects of the site.
Overall, I have praises for the site re-design. Still techtree.com is not my favorite site because the site fails to stick to the spirit of "buying made easy" which is their tagline. The site misses two core things of a technology website ..
1. Reviews
2. Buying options - Online shopping links or at least Seller's contact details.
As of now, Techtree.com just lists out the seller's name in the review section which is of no use to the readers. How can interested people reach a seller? There should be a column where people can get the address of the sellers.
People are not interested in news, coz it is abundant and can be sourced from any website around the web. Everybody has their own fav news sources. But reviews are one of a kind, and especially for products available in India, they are valued more. Techtree should focus more on reviews rather than being a news-aggregator.
To be honest, Tech2.com scores more on the reviews section. They do not write extensive reviews, but they do score points in that section because their site focuses equally on reviews and news.
Concluding, I wish to give my kudos for the techtree guys from the brand new re-design and blows for failing to stick to their tagline "buying made easy". Come on guys.. u can do.
- Rajesh Sundaram
I have been reading techtree everyday..it's my daily morning read after Tomshardware.com. For almost two years, the site didn't change much. The old site had a contemporary navigation focusing news in the primary column and Reviews in the secondary column. Recently they increased the count of reviews shown at a time from one to two. And below, it is followed by "Download of the day" and "Future watch".
The new site features design inspirations from most of the leading tech websites all over the world. The Featured Articles contain a mix of news and reviews (i guess) and the news occupies the secondary prime location, which is followed by the Reviews.
Commenting on visual design, the site is a big leap and refreshing than the previous old beer bottle design. The new site is appealing with more use of gray along with subtle blue variants. Good show for a re-design.
I haven't played much with the new website, so I cannot comment on the usability aspects of the site.
Overall, I have praises for the site re-design. Still techtree.com is not my favorite site because the site fails to stick to the spirit of "buying made easy" which is their tagline. The site misses two core things of a technology website ..
1. Reviews
2. Buying options - Online shopping links or at least Seller's contact details.
As of now, Techtree.com just lists out the seller's name in the review section which is of no use to the readers. How can interested people reach a seller? There should be a column where people can get the address of the sellers.
People are not interested in news, coz it is abundant and can be sourced from any website around the web. Everybody has their own fav news sources. But reviews are one of a kind, and especially for products available in India, they are valued more. Techtree should focus more on reviews rather than being a news-aggregator.
To be honest, Tech2.com scores more on the reviews section. They do not write extensive reviews, but they do score points in that section because their site focuses equally on reviews and news.
Concluding, I wish to give my kudos for the techtree guys from the brand new re-design and blows for failing to stick to their tagline "buying made easy". Come on guys.. u can do.
- Rajesh Sundaram
WIDGETIZE