48MoH: Toward a redesign

by

Good morning.

We moved the furniture last night. We know you’re used to plopping down on the couch and making yourself comfortable. And now you’re wondering, “Guys, where did you put the couch?” It’s still here, we promise.

We’ve wanted to do a site redesign for many months. We’ve had several false starts, but now it’s finally coming together. We’re calling this a soft relaunch.

What’s the story, and what’s soft about the relaunch?

48MoH is a content-driven site. This has always been the intention, and it remains our governing principle. But one thing we’ve learned over the past couple years is that we have intelligent, loyal readers — this is me talking about you. We wanted to develop a site that is more befitting of the community that 48MoH has become. This morning marks the beginning of that process.

We’re calling this a soft launch because we’re just scratching the surface. It’s a start. We thought it would better to roll out the changes gradually. We’ll be adding lots of cool stuff in the coming weeks and months. Actually, we’re adding more cool stuff yet this week. We’re sure we’ll hit snags. We appreciate your patience while we get it right.

What’s new this morning?

  • more attractive layout
  • more functional layout
  • improved comment threads
  • social media integration (that reminds me, take a moment to Like and Follow us)

What else is coming? We’re not telling. Patience is rewarded. But we’re more excited about next week than this week. Unless the Spurs lose three games this week. If that happens, I’ll dread next week. Who wants to see that?

This next part is the most exciting. In addition to the new layout, we’ve added a special guest columnist: David H. Menendez Aran. David isn’t a stranger to Spurs fans. Many of you know him as Latin_D, one of the many gems at Pounding the Rock. He’s also a contributing writer at Spurs Planet. David is also my favorite Spurs writer, which is saying something, and setting the bar ridiculously high. Sorry, David. Deal with it.

I want to extend a note of gratitude to some of the people who helped us as we thought through a new site: Wayne Vore, Ben Byers, Ron Copeland, and Douglas Fessler. Thanks, guys.

And a very big note of gratitude to Micah Nyamari, of Nyamari Designs, whose artistic vision and hard work accounts for 99% of what you see here. Micah is great at what he does. Hire him.

As noted earlier, there is more to come. Sorry for taking up your time with my prattle. There’s a game today, right?

  • Mundanemundin

    I’m getting used to it, but my overall impression of the redesign is two thumbs up!

  • TP1992

    Great job !
    Just in time for the playoffs !

  • Gomezd

    Like the new layout a lot! not a big fan of the colour for the number 48 though, Id much rather you guys keep it with the black and white, its more spursy.

    Great work tho!

  • Scott

    Dig the fiesta colors! Keep up the great work!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZHD2BFLSGAKSIALZ4C55N3JCFA Edward E

    I love it. It’s got a bit of an 80’s feel to it, mostly having to do with the colors and font! Looking forward to more changes.

  • andy

    ahhhh! the fiesta colors! they burn! my eyes! my eyes!

    i otherwise dig the redesign.

  • andy

    also dig the corbu reference.

  • idahospur

    Show less articles on the home screen, it’s kind of hard to navigate through.

  • idahospur

    Show less articles on the home screen, it’s kind of hard to navigate through.

  • http://regularfan.blogspot.com/ Humberto

    Thanks for updating the site, I look forward to reading how the Spurs beat the Grizzlies all week!

  • GMT

    Wow, what a change! I had to reclick my bookmark because I thought it was a different site, haha.

  • Kintaro

    I like the move towards a “busier” home page, fits in much more nicely with contemporary web design. Good work chaps!

  • Mark B

    Whoa. The old Taco Cabana color scheme from the Mid-2000s is back. I haven’t seen those colors associated with the Spurs since about the time Sean Elliot retired. I kind of prefer the silver-and-black, but I like all of the new functionality.

  • ChillFAN

    Great site, great memories.

    Who bleeds teal, orange and pink, baby? Hilarious. The Spurs used to have this “Fast Breakin’ Fiesta” TV commercial of a pinata baketball that would explode with confetti. Those warm-ups were horrawful, too.

    Shame on ESPN/ABC for missing the opportunity to showcase Knicks Celts or even Durant and the Thunder/Nuggets today! Instead they roll out the same tired hype, lazy interviews and LA worship. What a joke. If you want good ratings, always show the more interesting game! Whoever thinks the league will get better by contraction knows nothing about mass marketing. But sure, lets playcate the Kobes, LeBrons, and Carmelos of the world, even though if left on their own, those fools would quickly make moves that cripple franchises (Kobe wanted to leave LA or wanted Bynum’s a- shipped out, remember?). By the time ABC goes to show Knicks Celts again the series will be decided and the Knicks exposed. Unless of course the referees can decide the outcomes. Sigh. And they wonder why the NFL kicks their butt in revenue every step of the way….

  • austinspur

    I wish there was still the skeleton design on the front, was relevant to san antonio and the name of the blog

  • Hobson13

    Whoa! Cool upgrade. From what I’ve seen, very few NBA teams have a blog site this cool. You guys outdid yourselves this time.

  • Junierizzle

    Looks cool!

  • http://www.facebook.com/YouNeedAlvin Alvin Patacsil

    The new logo is reminiscent of the old 90’s Spurs logo colors. What’s not to like? 😀 Very Nice revamp!

  • Lvmainman

    Please list the Number of Comments attached to each article on the front page as before. Thanks.

  • Lvmainman

    Please list the Number of Comments attached to each article on the front page as before. Thanks.

  • Bruno

    This is horrible, change back

  • Titletown99030507d

    kinda busy. Alot to take in for the moment.

  • Titletown99030507d

    kinda busy. Alot to take in for the moment.

  • DBAGuy

    Don’t really like it, and its difficult on a mobile device

  • DBAGuy

    This is pretty bad, posts don’t even show on a correct timeline, maybe someone forgot to account for timezones? Way too busy for a blog… sorry!!!!!

  • DBAGuy

    I also think that the release of the new design could not have happened at a worst time. Playoffs when we want to discuss the game and now the site has all these problems. Sorry guys but really bad decision making here…

  • Times

    Very clean I love it. The best I have seen…..

  • Kims7430

    From a designer point of view holy sh##t this is awesome. I wish I could do this. Greattttt design.

  • Senorglory

    the change to your format is what killed the spurs today. way to go.

  • grego

    I like it. The comment system, which seems to be a big part of the quality here is a good improvement.

  • td4life

    The logo looks like it’s for a bridal shower, or a Manhattan cupcake boutique, or some other place worthy of “Sex and the City.” Seriously guys, come on! The script for “of hell” is bad enough, but the fiesta colors are just too much.

    If you can swallow your pride and change the header, please, please, please give us some SILVER AND BLACK!

    silverandblacksilverandblacksilverandblacksilverandblacksilverandblacksilverandblacksilverandblacksilverandblack

  • Mark B

    Looks like you still have some infrastructure issues. The twitter feed on the front page seems to be filled with ‘Twitter did not respond, try again later’ messages about half of the time for me. And I got an error 500 (internal server error) on one of my refreshes.

    All new software is buggy. While I’m liking 48MOH 2.0, I’m hoping that 48MOH2.1 is rolled out soon, and it’s going to be a little more stable.

  • Mark B

    Looks like you still have some infrastructure issues. The twitter feed on the front page seems to be filled with ‘Twitter did not respond, try again later’ messages about half of the time for me. And I got an error 500 (internal server error) on one of my refreshes.

    All new software is buggy. While I’m liking 48MOH 2.0, I’m hoping that 48MOH2.1 is rolled out soon, and it’s going to be a little more stable.

  • Mark B

    And as far as design goes, I really liked the old design. I realize this design is much more modern, and the fiesta colors heaken back to the old Spurs logos. I think the new design is much better from a design professional point of view, much brighter and more interesting, but I just kind of liked it thte way it was.

    All of the new technology is great. I suppose I’ll get used to the candy cane colors eventually, but I don’t really have to like it right now.

  • NDSpursFan

    Yes the old 48MOH header needs to come back! The retro colors are okay but we’ve moved on from that like td4life says give us more Silver AND BLACK! Otherwise I think the new layout will be pretty cool once all of the kinks are worked out and I get a feel for it. I don’t like how the newly posted comments are randomely posted throughout the old comments though….not sure why that is?

  • Anonymous

    Overall I like the new look. The promise of added content is terrific. Like others I’m not too crazy about the new logo, but I’ll get used to it. One HUGE problem, though, is the article headlines getting truncated. The entire point of a headline is to preview the article. You’re making me click on the article just to read the headline? Seriously? Come on, the Spurs are supposed to be about fundamentals. This is basic stuff. Let the headlines wrap so we can read them. Better yet, cut down the width of the left-hand Twitter-centric column (tweets are inherently small, no?) and give that space to the headlines.

  • Timothy Varner

    Gents and ladies,

    Thanks for all the comments, good and bad. We’re fixing some stuff. The site is more buggy than we anticipated, especially our Twitter widget and the truncation issue with post titles. We’re aware of both of them, and they’re high on our priority list. We’re working on solutions right now, and then we’ll start to add new stuff, which will be fun for all of you.

    Thanks for your patience as we work through the bugs.

  • WaterBuffalo

    Symbolically, Visually or Emotionally: There is nothing about the new design that alludes to the quote this blog’s title comes from. The new design looks like ice cream sprinkles and candy canes, while 48 Minutes of Hell refers to the physical and emotional distress the Spurs cause other teams. Not to mention the visual references in the old graphic to Los Dias de Los Muertos (Days of the Dead), a San Antonio tradition and an obvious tie to the hell the Spurs could strike into the hearts of mortal teams. No wonder Tony Parker stopped and popped a jumper when he could have drove the lane with a minute left and possibly picked up more free throws. We’re back to the Fiesta Spurs, ready to melt in the hot sun of the playoffs.

  • Anonymous

    I like the new look and feel but wished that the old banner was retained.

  • Anonymous

    I like the new look and feel but wished that the old banner was retained.

  • spurzztop

    i liked the old page with the skells
    but i havent seen the spurs fiesta colors since my 99 sweat shirt

  • DannyHolloway

    Overall, I do like it. Great job. One commentary: Brink back the calaveras at the top of the page! It was a great touch!!! But again, excellent job on the new layout.