DIAMOND CANDLES BLOG REDESIGN
The Diamond Candles Blog started out on a legacy Wordpress theme. I was tasked with reimagining the blog to increase engagement and readership. We began by looking at a few of our favorite sites. From the start, we knew we wanted to prioritize the visual elements of the posts, using the cover images to speak for the post and serve as the headline for our content, and keep the design as clean as possible.
Ultimately, the metric for the site is to grow our engagement and our blog following, so we placed email capture boxes prominently: on the home page sidebar, on the article page sidebar, embedded at the end of the article on desktop, and a fly in at the end of the article on mobile.
Homepage Redesign
Easy on the Eyes
We also wanted to ensure that content was readable on all devices, which is why we selected a serif font and font size that is highly readable on desktop and mobile with the aim of an effortless read and approachability. On desktop, we narrowed the width of the article text from 800px to 650px. We also wanted to utilize the extra margin space created to recommend additional content to readers to keep them engaged with the site, never having to toggle back and forward, and back again.
Colorful Language
We used different colors to denote the different categories of content that we feature on the blog: DIY & Crafts, Food, Health & Fitness, and Home Decor. Between the navigation and design elements on the article post page, there is a color for each category that connects content type that is under one category. For example, we used pink to denote the DIY & Crafts content category.
Category Colors : DIY
The same visual language is carried over on mobile and we ensured that the menu doesn't cover the content when expanded so that the user doesn't feel cut off from the experience of the site.
There was no change in content from the old design to the new design. Since we implemented the redesign, there has been nearly a 100% increase in average session duration, a 40% decrease in bounce rate and 7% more pages per session. With the increase in engagement on site as a result of the redesign, I'm excited to hone our content to match what our readers are showing the most interest in.