Comments on: Yes, BMWBLOG is getting a FACELIFT

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:17:03 +0000

Thanks Silvia, great to see readers from all over the world

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:14:30 +0000

tk, you’re absolutely correct. We wanted to look more modern also and yes, widescreens are more and more popular.

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:12:47 +0000

The old design was great, we had it for almost 2 years and only changed minor things. Some people thought it was too simple, but that was the whole point.

Now with us having more and more content, we decided to make it easily available and “upfront”. The blog also managed to create a nice community around it, so it was time to offer more.

And yes, we didn’t communicate in advance the change since we wanted to surprise everyone.

By: BMfan

BMfan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:36:39 +0000

I was off-web for like two days came back and thought I opened another site. Will miss the former design format but will soon get used to this right on. May get to appreciate it more as the days go.

By: monte_cristo

monte_cristo — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:04:16 +0000

Great redesign Horatiu.
I may not comment much but I’m here every day and greatly enjoy your work.

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:16:36 +0000

Thanks for the kind words! Honestly, beside the the front work, there is so much behind the scenes, technical, admin, etc…plus we get about 100 emails a day that we try to respond to all of them…

Anyway, moving on…l’m glad so far the response has been fairly positive.

By: tk

tk — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:11:23 +0000

you have to realize owning and operating an established blog, such as bmwblog.com, can be a full-time job. i suspect Horatiu’s 45 hrs/wk estimate is conservative. furthermore, this site receives about 45,000 daily visitors (according to alexa estimates, via wolfram alpha search), which amounts to considerable server costs. are you going to pay his bills? what about compensation for the 100’s of hrs per week he spends on this site?

i, for one, am glad such a blog exists. for the convenience of all BMW-related news organized on one easy-to-read website, i’m happy to look at a few ads.

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:43:02 +0000

Funny Matt…didn’t even think about it….it would have been cool to build the excitement and then release the new design

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:42:06 +0000

I really don’t want to comment on this….all I have to say is that there are more than 45 hrs a week spent working on the blog…

But your concern was noted, we’ll see what the future brings

By: samK

samK — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:35:24 +0000

Get rid of your ads on your top banner please. Its really irritating. Too much ads and it clutters the whole site. I am disappointed. This looks like a ‘hey i am an ad, please click me!!!!!!!!!’ site rather than a BMW site.

By: seven40i

seven40i — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:51:12 +0000

great job!
Looks very nice and clean.

By: tk

tk — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:13:12 +0000

noticed this last night. the site looks great and usability has improved.

i also like how you’ve adopted a slightly wider aspect ratio. the old design was a bit narrow and was wasting a lot of my screen real estate. in this day and age, widescreen monitors are ubiquitous. i’m not sure why every website still uses designs meant for 9:16 (sic) monitors.

By: russian

russian — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:49:06 +0000

супер!!! ещё бы русский язык добавили!!! ))))))

By: Teamspeed.com

Teamspeed.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:39:34 +0000

Guys the new look is amazing , well done!
Your pals @ teamspeed.com

By: Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:38:17 +0000

How come it wasn’t wearing some funky FEP camouflage in the final days before the change over..?

By: www.X5.by

www.X5.by — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:28:31 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

By: Haitham

Haitham — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:12:25 +0000

1000 congrats on this new facelift, loved the website now in love with it!!
Keeeep up the good work!!
BMW RULZZZZZ

By: BA

BA — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:48:47 +0000

nice job!

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:44:56 +0000

Alex, we started the design and planning 4-6 months ago. Believe me, Not even a slight chance we copied anything from anyone, especially a BMW forum wannabe blog now. We stick to our original concept, not trying to become something else. Oh and their “new design” came up 2 weeks ago, kinds late for us to go back to the drawing board and steal an idea.

We believe we’ve done something different, unique and very user friendly.

Noted all the other things you mentioned.

By: AlexD

AlexD — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:28:28 +0000

Overall I like the redesign, my only comment is that I think alot of originality was lost with this redesign as its just a copy of bimmerpost.com’s website design

I do like the top articles and latest comments boxes on the side I find those useful.

I know you made a point that you wanted the fonts to be larger but I do think the fonts are a little too large, I feel like this is a playschool site in that sense with big letters, most of us already have our computer fonts and resolutions optimized for what we like to read.

Overall a clean and functional work