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MSDN Magazine Web Site Gets a Makeover

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No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. The MSDN Magazine Web site has gotten a makeover. One that we hope will do an even better job of serving our readers and making accessible the valuable how-to features and columns published in every issue of MSDN Magazine.

This is the first significant site redesign for MSDN Magazine in two years, and the new look reflects some of the evolving priorities for the magazine. The most important thing to note is that our monthly columns, always popular among readers, have been elevated above the fold. Previously, these columns were buried under the seven or more features that run each month. You had to do some serious scrolling to find marquee authors like Julie Lerman and David Platt and Dino Esposito.

The new site design in a sense mimics the cover format of the print magazine, with its table of contents theme. Features appear in the primary left column while columns appear just to their right. The top-most boxes spotlight significant features and columns. On the right edge, you'll find the latest MSDN Magazine blog posts, the most popular magazine articles, and links to both the current issue and back issue archive of MSDN Magazine.

As Keri Grassl, the Microsoft program manager responsible for the Web site design and production told me: "The key goals were to surface the features and columns in a more prominent manner, to build more of a magazine feeling online, and to add more congruency with the print magazine."

Well, Keri, mission accomplished. Nice job.

As with any home improvement project, the work is never quite done. And we invite your feedback and comments about the design and ways we might improve it in the weeks and months to come.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2011
    Not really related to the new design, but did you notice that the article about juneau in latest september issue does not forward to the correct content ?

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2011
    Thanks for the great update! Although the new layout is very hard to read on Windows Phone Mango IE as the text does not wrap, a viewport meta tag or similar is probably needed.