The website that most readers are familiar with launched in late-2011, shortly before the release of the first edition of The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide. It was designed by Bracia, which like my company is mostly a one-man operation, and was a technological leap in my web presence. Its aesthetic was vastly superior to the preceding website, and the WordPress framework allowed me to more easily publish content, respond to reader comments, and take book orders.
When we launched, it was hard to imagine that in the next seven years I would write over 700 blog posts, create guides for six routes and trails, and guide more than 80 trips with 500 clients.
But the website was well designed and flexible, and it was able to grow with me. A few tweaks were necessary — like making it “responsive” to mobile traffic, and hosting it with KornDev as traffic increased — but it was essentially the same site until yesterday.
This latest redesign was again done by Bracia, and I’m again thrilled with the end product. It has a cleaner and more modern look, but should still feel familiar. Its mega-menu is awesomely functional, especially on mobile. And its back-end is more up to date and supported. We also fixed a few things that were bothering me about the old site (e.g. multi-post series like campsite selection are now listed in descending order, and images and charts are no longer limited to 640 pixels in width).
As I toured it last night, I found a few items that need fixing. If you see anything that’s amiss, leave a comment and I’ll get it addressed.
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Can I get a random article button? It sounds weird, but I like to browse the rarely read stuff.
I want this too!
Been a reader for several years, first comment. Love the redesign. Much easier on the eyes. Thank you.
Even at 38, I really like the generously sized font sizes, too.
I like the new look, but it seems to have some scaling issues with ultrawide monitors. 21:9, etc. Photos look out of focus.
All of them, or only certain ones (e.g. specific ratio sizes, specific pages)?
The picture with the ice axe and crampon article is in focus. The others look blurred in some way. I am viewing with a Lenovo Thinkpad.
When we was launched? under the pre-2011 picture
The new design looks awesome on my phone and tablet but not so hot on my laptop with a 15-inch, 4K monitor. The display scaling on my laptop is set to 225% and the browser scaling is set to 100% (the default settings).
The homepage is fine but the blog posts don’t seem to scale properly and everything looks jammed into the middle 3rd of the screen leaving a lot of white space on either side of the main text. What I am seeing is about 65% of my screen empty with a column down the middle of the page. I get the same results using both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. I’m also seeing blurry photos as someone else had mentioned. I’ll be happy to email a screen shot if you want.
The menu works great on all my mobile devices and is much improved over the old design.
Cant sign up for emails. Mailchimp account not active?
Thanks, clearly need to get that fixed.
Please send a screenshot. I can’t seem to replicate that.
Ditto with the low resolution images. For example, the blog index page is upscaling 150×150 pixel images to triple size making them look blurry.
https://26ebru3fogag2ce2bw4a6246-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/new-homgepage-screenshot-150×150.png
Fyi. On my cell phone the first two of pictures doesnt fit on the screen.
The first two images on this page?
Good catch. I meant first and third images. The leftmost (“Guided Trips”) and and rightmost (“Andrew Skurka”) in the trio of pictures under the banner are clipped.
Can you post or send me a screenshot? I think the designer plans to work or things today or tomorrow.
Redesign looks great. There are some photo resolution/scaling issues. Here’s what I’m seeing for the blog section on the home page:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5pd69n9b6m51fq/temp%20blog%20home.png?dl=0
Article images with the blog section are blurry:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxmw823fi85qe7m/temp%20blog.png?dl=0
I’m seeing these as well, so thanks for confirming it’s widespread.
Currently planning a WRHR section hike and I noticed that the “Section Hike Overview” link at the beginning of the “Part 1 – Before You Go” guidebook redirects to the Kings Canyon High Basin Route “Primary Route + Section Hikes” page.
Hmm, interesting. I don’t know why that link is redirecting to KCHBR, but it should be fixed now. Can you confirm?
Yup, looks like it’s fixed now!
I like the redesign! One thing I notice is that the thumbnail photos for posts are out of focus/blurry for me. They’re fine once I navigate to the actual post, though.