Sometimes you just need to do something because it feels right. This new design is just that.
In an online world filled with talk of optimization, conversion rates and sales, I’m taking my own little stand. Don’t get me wrong – I want to make a living as much as the next person – but I don’t want to compromise my principles in the process. And that’s why I’ve launched this new design.
You see, the previous design was “commercialized”, for want of a better word. It was designed to attract and convert. It was a beast too – image-heavy and slow to load.
In short, I was fed up with it. I also happen to be a geek at heart, and I wanted a crack at creating the new design myself. I wanted something clean and simple; quick to load and easy to navigate. Most importantly, I wanted the focus to be on the content: that is what you’re here for after all!
So here it is folks. Let me know what you think about the new design in the comments section below. It’s something of a work in progress, so your constructive criticism will be carefully considered and perhaps acted upon!
Scott Jacob says
Looks fantastic on a tablet!
Tom Ewer says
Great Scott! I was definitely going for a clean design that would adapt well to smaller devices 🙂
Laura Ginn says
It’s really strange looking at a website without advertising. Nice design though!
Tom Ewer says
Good strange I hope Laura 😉
Thanks!
Katharine @ Katharine Writes says
So true, Laura… but very refreshing! Love the way it just focuses on the content and nothing else.
Tom Ewer says
I’m glad that what I intended to happen is happening!
Zak Cagaros says
Hi Tom,
I think the design looks great! It’s a nice clean, minimalist design, which is what all top website have nowadays. I like the sign up box and it’s color, and I think you’ll have great conversions with that. Since you have the focus on content, I would make the top menu sticky, so that when the visitor is reading through the text it sticks to the top and they can navigate to different areas on your site without having to scroll all the way up. But, all in all, I think it looks good and the colors are also consistent with your previous design.
Tom Ewer says
That’s a good suggestion Zak. I’m a little hesitant though, as sticky menus tend to irritate me. Perhaps a fixed “back to top” button might be a good alternative…
Sue Bennett says
That would be a better answer IMO
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Auntie Susie! You are I think the second family member to ever comment on my blog 😉
Michal Być Własnym Szefem says
It’s kind of minimalistic, but at the same time stylish 🙂
Tom Ewer says
I’ll happily go along with that assessment Michal 🙂
Ángel Candelaria says
Well, as the old saying goes, “less is more”. I do agree the previous website was a little slow. But this new design is a BIG improvement over the old one in terms of speed. And the simple design makes it easier to navigate.
You might also consider using some sort of caching plugin and maybe a CDN (if you are not already). That helps a lot in terms of speed.
Congratulations on the new design! It looks and feels nice.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Ángel! I’ve had problems with caching plugins and CDNs in the past, so I’m a little hesitant to implement them. They’re both good suggestions; just not sure I can handle the issues that can crop up.
Tim Soulo says
Hey Tom! Just a few weeks ago I redesigned my own blog a bit, so this topic is super relevant to me!
With your new design you got me really puzzled – where’s the catch?
I’ve seen pretty much the same design on SparringMind and I wonder what makes you guys want to get rid of the sidebar? I guess the CTR of stuff in the sidebar is super weak, right?
Actually, while promoting my TweetDis plugin on my own blog I’ve noticed that people convert a lot better by reading relevant articles rather than just clicking on the banner ad that I have in my sidebar.
And lately in blogosphere and on the market of infoproducts I’ve noticed a new trend – you don’t reveal your audience the product until you overwhelm them with TONS of value.
So I guess that’s what you’re trying to do with your design – you’re not pushing anything to your audience, you just want to GIVE them some great information so that they would feel they owe you for making their lives better 🙂
Am I right?
and regarding the design – since it’s super minimal, I would suggest you to invest some money into development of your own unique font, which would be super-duper memorable. All the big brands have custom designed fons (you know that, don’t you) 🙂
Anyways.. it’s awesome to follow your journey, mate! Good luck with this new neat design!
Tom Ewer says
Hi Tim,
You’ve thought the design through a lot more than I did 🙂
I set out to make a design that would be easy to read across multiple devices, with few distractions. That was it really.
Cheers,
Tom
Ziah J says
If super clean is what you were going for, then you hit it on the mark. I am curious though as well as the last commenter, because most blogs about making money online aren’t so clean. There’s no advertising, just an email sign up. Email marketing, as I know it, is the number one way to make money online. I read an article where its proven there is not even a close second. So maybe this is your entire focus. In anyway, I wish you much success and hope I can become even more successful online learning what I can from you.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Ziah!
You’re right – email subscribers are valuable. I also consider email to be the best way to keep in touch with my readers, so it’s definitely in my interests to have people become subscribers.
Cheers,
Tom
Amie says
Very readable on my mobile device – so that’s good! Go forth and prosper!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Amie!
thewritegrl says
I love it. During the course of my day as a researcher/writer, I visit dozens of websites on a wide variety of topics . Many of the sites are cluttered and messy. The sidebars are usually full of distracting ads (and I hate, hate, hate those annoying dancing animals offering me a deal on auto insurance!). This site is like a breath of fresh air! I love the way your Resources page is laid out, and the absence of a million hyperlinks. As a reader, I’m visiting blogs and sites to immerse myself in a topic through the language. I want to lose myself in the words on the page. I look forward to reading your blog on this beautiful new site.
I’m in the process of finally putting together a writing website and a blog. I hope that both will be as clean and understated as this.
My only suggestion is that I’d love to have a search bar or index of past articles. Best wishes for your continuing success.
Tom Ewer says
Hey there,
Thanks for the kind words! You’re absolutely right about search and/or archives. I’ll be incorporating something along those lines soon.
Cheers,
Tom
Adam says
Tom, great looking site. I love clean and simple sites.
The only thing I notice that kind of sticks out is the “available for work” legacy graphic you have on the “hire me” page. Something about it doesn’t quite match the new look/feel – color, font maybe. Just seems to add a bit of visual clutter.
Of course, that’s one subjective opinion. The site looks great!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks for pointing that out Adam; you could be right. I’ll give it some thought!
Page Wood says
Bravo for simplicity!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Page 🙂
Iva Ursano says
Love it! Nice, clean, simple, few distractions. This is perfect for those of us with shiny object syndrome. Good job Tom!!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Iva!
David Yarde says
I love the new website design. Clean and to the point. Awesome job!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks David! 🙂
Lisa Byrne says
Simple, sensible, & practical.
I like the clean look and can appreciate it in a world full of too much noise.
It reminds me of my slant on the popular “less is more”….Less is less, there’s no need for more.
Good job Tom!
lb
Tom Ewer says
Thank you, as always, Lisa!
Saleem Rana says
It’s perfect!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Salem; not sure about perfect though 😉
Paul says
Minimalist! I like it. Probably I like this more than the previous.
As you said, previously design to convert with the big opt-in box and etc, which many bloggers do it, some with pop-up which they said it helps convert, but I never subscribe to pop-up opt-in form.
But this one simple and straight to the content. If people love your content, they will find the way to keep in touch with you.
Tom Ewer says
My thinking exactly Paul. Thanks!
Corina says
Hi Tom,
I really like the new facelift much better. I have one word for it: it´s clean!
One comment: I inserted my email address to subscribe (though I am already subscribed)and did not received any feedback like: “you already are subscribed”.
Thought you should know.
Cheers,
Corina
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Corina…I’ll look into that.
Brin says
How about a fancy header image rather than just the simple white text-like title “Leaving Work Behind” on a blue background… maybe stylize the text a bit for stronger, more impressive, more memorable branding?
Tom Ewer says
I’d love to Brin. I had someone working on a logo but I really didn’t like the designs. Maybe I should do a logo contest here on LWB 😉
Brin says
I really rather like the fonts in the ‘Available for Work’ graphic on your ‘Hire Me’ page… I think something along those lines could be ace! If you’re luck, a good graphic should only cost a few hundred dollars and could, in my opinion, could set the blog header off really nicely! Food for thought perhaps…
Brin says
…darn, just noticed all my typos (pushed ‘Post Comment’ without checking yet again!). lol. Sorry.
Tom Ewer says
Ha – someone else said that graphic wasn’t in keeping with the design of the site. Just goes to show how subjective it all is, eh?
Brad says
Hi Tom. One word: Awesome! That is all…
Tom Ewer says
Awesome works for me Brad 🙂
Sylvia says
Wow. What a huge change. I too just recently did a complete redesign of my site, but I went in the polar opposite direction. My original had a very plain home page. It is now full of pics with tons of choices. Very colorful and lively. While I personally feel it is too busy, my stats have improved considerably. The bounce rate is much improved.
I would second the suggestion of the sticky top bar. It is VERY irritating to have to scroll all the way back to top to look around the other pages.
Also, to me the missing right side navigation bar makes the site look like you have nothing more to offer. If I enjoy a site and want to learn more I look for learning opportunities which are usually in the left or right nav bar. Of course if someone is really interested in learning more they will go to the trouble of scrolling to the top and clicking Resources. But people are lazy and expect things to be immediately at hand.
I believe that is why my own redesign has seen less bounce and longer stays; there is a lot right on that home page. They don’t have to go searching for it.
Let us know how your stats fare after a few weeks.
Tom Ewer says
Hey Sylvia,
Thanks for sharing! Duly noted RE the sticky nav bar…what do you think about a fixed “back to top” button in say the bottom right of the screen as an alternative? I’m just mindful of the fact that some people don’t like sticky bars.
I get what you’re saying about the sidebar. I will definitely be sharing my stats in a few week’s time.
Cheers,
Tom
Sylvia says
If you are really that much opposed to making your top menu bar sticky, then a fixed button at the bottom is better than nothing. I tend to ignore those bottom, right side pop ups or buttons.
I just checked my bounce rate again and it’s gone from the 60’s to the 30’s in about a month’s time. Can’t wait to see your results. Good luck to you!
Tom Ewer says
That’s incredible Sylvia! Thank you!
Michelle Schroeder says
I love how clean your website looks. Congrats on the new design!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Michelle!
Heather Gomez says
Hello Tom, I am glad you chose to change out your format for a much more ‘reader easy’ site. I agree it looks much more clean and user friendly.
Tom Ewer says
That’s great to read Heather; thanks 🙂
Jason says
Really like it. I’m a big fan of blue. Clean and page load times are great!
Tom Ewer says
Yep, I love blue. I am probably guilty of over-using it massively 😉
Topher says
Hi Tom, I love your willingness to make big changes and I like how simple and direct the new design is—which seems like a mantra behind many of your tips as well. I agree with the other commenters about a sticky header menu and working in a search/recent post/popular post sidebar.
I wonder if it might be worthwhile to do A/B testing with your landing page. If a visitor signs up for the newsletter they go to the main blog page, if they choose no they end up on a featured posts landing page of sorts with popular and recent post excerpts highlighted. The idea being to get people to sign-up after a little more content value is revealed. Just a thought. But again, I love your example of trying new things.
Tom Ewer says
That’s a really interesting idea Topher…I’m going to think about that. Thank you!
Brin says
Incidentally, three quick and easy things you can do to the design for even better speeds (maybe shave another considerable faction of a sec off — an already impressive 2 seconds — perhaps) would be load even more of the .js at the bottom, gzip compression and browser caching – bit of .htaccess word would prob’ sort this in a jiffy!
Gustavo Keener says
Everything looks great and it loads fast!
The font in this ‘Comment’ textarea seems to be a little tiny.
Potential fix:
textarea{ font-size: 1em; } /*seems to work across devices as tested via emulation*/
Brin says
– what Gustavo Keener said! That’s an absolute must-do one for sure!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks for pointing that out Gustavo; you’re absolutely right. I’ll get that sorted ASAP.
Jackson Anderson says
Hey bud!
I definitely rate the design and must say it took me by a massive surprise when I opened up LWB last night haha.
I do agree though with an above comment that a logo wouldn’t be a bad idea so you can still get away with branding and minimalism – it wouldn’t need to be anything crazy even just a unique font in a like a thin white rectangle border you know, just something to make it pop a bit more!
I also wonder how this new design fits in with your new financial goals or if it’s kind of totally disregarded and just wanted the blog to look how you wanted it?
All the best mate because I have no doubt as long as the content is as strong as always, the success will continue.
Cheers,
Jax
Tom Ewer says
Hey Jax,
You’re right on the second count: financial goals disregarded, I just wanted the blog to look this way. I’ll never make a good internet marketer 🙂
Cheers,
Tom
Patrick Partner says
My first comment here (have followed your blog on feedly for about 3 months now)-I like the fact that it is minimalist, but that you have not optimized it for mobile for non-mobile viewers.
Just to give an example, adobe.com presents a minimalist design that forces users who have the space on their screen to take an extra click to get to the menu by clicking on the 3 bar square. A waste of time for a large site like theirs where you will never find what you need on the homepage, which can be chalked up to grossly overpaid Silicon Valley UX designers. I always attempt to make information available in as few clicks as possible, without cluttering up the screen.
Anyway, it is a great design.
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Patrick!
Chris Winterfrey says
I miss the old design, but I like this one too. Re: the header logo; it doesn’t have to be fancy; maybe make WORK smaller and a darker shade so it looks like it’s behind the other words. I know, I know, I’m a genius. lol
Tom Ewer says
Haha, thanks for the suggestion Chris 😉
Beth says
I like it! You need a favicon. And the only reason I noticed that is because someone pointed out that I didn’t have one. 🙂
Tom Ewer says
Yes I do! I’m on it 🙂
Dennis Schafer says
I like the KISS approach and it certainly makes it easy to navigate. The only problem may be for your first time visitors. When this page opens up there is nothing that tells me who you are or what you do/what you offer. A simple tag line under the “company” name could help. Or a headline with a very short lead in could let me know that you can help me learn how to create a profitable blog site. Give me a reason to click or scroll down and read some more.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that too many web sites are full of distractions that simply repel many of their visitors. I especially hate pop ups asking me to sign up for a newsletter before I even know what the company does or offers. Even worse are the instant pop ups asking me to fill our a survey before I even have a chance to read anything on the page! So your very simple and clean layout is easy and feels safe.
Dennis S
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Dennis. You’re totally right about the site’s subject matter being somewhat ambiguous at first glance. I’ll give this some thought.
Corey Pemberton says
Looking sharp, Tom! I definitely appreciate the single column layout because it helps me focus on the content. I’m toying with the idea of changing my layout to be less “commercial” as well. If it flops, it’d at least be a good experiment. Definitely something to think about!
Tom Ewer says
I just design what I like; totally selfish 😉
Lori Parr says
new site; nice, clean, easy, no bull. love your list of resources. thanks
Tom Ewer says
My pleasure Lori!
Debi says
You obviously put a lot of thought into the redesign, Tom, and I like the clean look. Good on you for letting your Geek Flag fly! 🙂
You know you have achieved perfection in design,
not when you have nothing more to add, but when you
have nothing more to take away. ~Antoine de Saint Exupery
One thing I noticed, though: On the main Blog category page…
http://leavingworkbehind.com/blog/
…there wasn’t a “Keep Reading” link for this (the most current) post. I returned to the Blog after checking out the look of your new home page (nicely done!) and that’s when I noticed it. I’ll be interested to hear how the new design affects your list building efforts.
Tom Ewer says
Hey Debi,
That’s because I included the whole post. So there’s nothing left to read (apart from the comments, admittedly – I need to put a comments link in).
Cheers,
Tom
Nicholas Scalice says
Tom, I love it. You’re taking a stand and you hit the nail on the head. It’s not about commercializing your blog, it’s about focusing on quality content. I think this is a very smart move!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Nicholas!
Lauren Tharp says
Whew! This is going to take some getting used to!! lol.
I know you’ve been looking forward to the redesign for a long time though, so I wanted to stop by and offer my hearty congratulations. 🙂 You’ll probably change the design a few more times over the years (website tinkering never ends!), but I know how great that first unveiling feels after going months — or years — feeling unsatisfied with the previous design.
Best of luck!
Tom Ewer says
Thank you Lauren; great to have you here!
Akosua Albritton says
I’m another fan of this crisp look. The focus is on the word and far less Sell! Sell!
You’re one for frequent self-evaluation.
Tom Ewer says
I am indeed…too much so I think 😉
Nishant Bazzad says
Hey Tom, Its great to see a blog without any advertisement and to just focus on content. I love the design.
Tom Ewer says
Fantastic; thank you Nishant!
Joseph Ho says
simple and good ! i kind of like it!
Tom Ewer says
I’ll go along with that Joseph 🙂
Dev says
Simple, clean, and awesome :).
Love the new design, Tom. Great job.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Dev!
Jamie Alexander says
I think it looks great!
Your last design was pretty good too, but this one definitely looks a lot cleaner.
It would be interesting if you talked about some of the results once you get some stats in. Looks like you’ve still got important things in the right places, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more effective than the last one. Then again, I guess you never know when it comes to designs. I’ve heard of people having more success with highly-cluttered blogs than attractive ones.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Jamie!
Early results are encouraging analytics-wise, and I will definitely be writing a followup post in 2-3 weeks.
That said, I’d rather have a clean-looking blog that doesn’t covert as well rather than a clutter blog that does better. Call me crazy 🙂
Bonita says
I really admire your bravery in offering up the new look for critique. I’m not sure I’d be so thick-skinned.
I like the minimalist appearance because it’s clean, simple, and truly puts all the focus on the content. Hope it works out really well for you.
That said, I do have an opinion or two to offer to the mix.
You will need to make absolute certain that your content is stellar. It is, but if this was my first visit to your blog I might not know that. Since content is the focus, you’ll need to make absolute certain that every post and page grabs the reader immediately and keeps attention.
Along those same lines, while a minimalist feel is great, most of us have been inadvertently trained to expect visual stimulation of some sort online. For example, when I look at your blog posts I find them more appealing because they have a nice picture with them. The risk here is that visitors might click on your site and find it boring, like you have nothing to offer. As others mentioned, a logo would help with that. A change of font would help too so it’s not mistaken for an infomercial site.
For what it’s worth, I’d read your blog if you had purple dancing elephants in the background because I like your content. Just want to make sure new visitors who are used to seeing glitz and glam stick around to see what you have to offer.
Tom Ewer says
Thank you for the feedback Bonita!
I agree 100%. But then, feeling challenged to put out good content is a good thing, right?
P.S. I’m working on the logo 🙂
KETEF says
Ijust love your new brand design i think this is a result of your work persistance .Thanks for your g nawing desire to be our hightling candle.
Tom Ewer says
My pleasure Ketef 🙂