So, about two months ago we radically redesigned the look of Techzim to suit the new direction we were pursuing as a business. What we didn’t do however is walk you through this new redesign. The downside of being part of the team working on a new product is that you assume (wrongly, might I add) that end users know the product as much as you do, even though you have had months with the product.
I think this applies to the approach we took with the redesign but after countless complaints of people who have been facing some challenges navigating the site, it’s clear something had to be done. Now, let’s talk about the redesign and hopefully someone out there will find this useful. Better late than never, right?
Take it from the top
The sidebar which contained a number of useful links did not make it to the new design (RIP sidebar). The sidebar contained the following links:
- Telecom Sector Reports
- Pindula News Stories
- Financial Gazette Stories
- Join WhatsApp Groups
- Bitcoin In Zimbabwe
- Tech Events Calendar
- List Of Developers
- Feedly
- RSS
Clearly, it was an integral part of the website but now that it’s no longer there , there has been some confusion about how to access this information. Well, it’s not too difficult. The new header contains a Useful Links section and hovering above this link with your mouse will produce a drop down menu containing the very same links.
In the header, the search bar was also redesigned to make it much more visible as some people had no idea there was a search bar in the old design.
Categories
On the old Techzim, the categories were embedded inside the featured images of articles and this meant they took a back seat and most people didn’t know that these tags were actually clickable. To address this, the categories now appear as standalone links just above the latest articles. The seven categories displayed are not all the categories on the site but they are the most popular and you can get to see the rest of the categories by clicking More, the last button among the list of categories.
Latest Articles
Though latest articles are placed front and centre when you open the site, it seems there is some confusion as to how to access these articles. In the latest section, you are shown 5 of the most recent articles that have been posted on the site by default. If you want to access the rest of the most recent articles just click on the Discover More button right below the latest articles and you’ll be taken to a chronological view of the articles
Market Place
With a growing focus on eCommerce, the Market Place is a stand-alone section that will contain reviews and recommendations of products you can purchase. The Discover More button works just like it does in the latest section. If you click it you will be taken to all the Marketplace content that we have produced thus far.
How To
The How To section is self-explanatory. It contains links to articles that are meant to contain guides on how to do stuff. You want to know how to transfer airtime on any network or you want to stay safe and avoid the debit card cloning craze that seems to be widespread? The How To section is where you find that type of content.
Videos and Podcast
VIDEOS AND PODCASTS! Need I say more? Ok, for those of you who just need an explanation, this section contains all the articles with videos. Think interviews, Livestreams and that sort of thing. Every Tuesday, we will also be adding a new Podcast from the Techzim crew and we recently uploaded our first podcast in a while and we were talking about the recent design trends in smartphones.
Most Read
Ok, on Videos and Podcasts I gave an explanation, but do we really have to go down this route with the Most Read section? Good…
So are there any other questions you need answered when it comes to the redesigned Techzim? Some things you still don’t understand? Fire away in the comments section and we’ll address those questions.
Techzim Insights
Having introduced some longer form content that is being sold, there are some changes being introduced in the way you buy these reports. Before you would send money to our EcoCash manually and then send a follow-up email notifying us of your purchase. We would verify your purchase and then send back the document. This will be changing and the process will now be automated.
This is the interface you will now interact with and as soon as you have the payment, the report will be sent to you. Simple as ABC.
In article changes
Not much has changed once you click to read the articles. As mentioned before the sidebar is gone but everything else is largely the same. There is however new share buttons at the bottom of the page and clicking on any one of these will allow you to share the article to your site of choice.
16 comments
did you guys just create a “user manual” on how to use your site? lol, thats probably a sign that its not designed well enough
Could be, but does that also mean every product/service that comes with a user manual is poorly designed?
When did you read the user manual? Of anything, really. Moreso a tutorial on how to use a website on the website 😂😂😂. IMHO it’s those who complained who are at fault
A website, of this nature, with a manual is definately a sign of poor design. I’m sure if you were critiquing TechZim as someone elses product or app, the article would be full of phrases like “don’t make me think”, or “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. It’s just that you represent TechZim, so you don’t see the foulness of the new design.
Instead of writing a “manual”, you should have reviewed the complaints and asked yourselves what should be changed, to make the site easier to navigate and accomodating to it’s visitors.
When the site was redesigned we took into consideration the thoughts that were contributed by readers through our contact form. As with any change, there will be those who are for it and those who are against it. That is normal and the criticism is always welcome and taken into consideration.
Have you made a single change at all, to the design, based on any positive/negative feedback? I’m just curious.
sorry you cant just publish an article telling people that your site is better.. and if you follow steps X, Y or Z you’ll get the best experience. people cant navigate this site, find it hard to use for a reason and complained about it. you probably dont have the necessary experience to understand that not much thought or groundwork was put into this design, and would rather squabble with the readers who post comments.
yawn, how boring. its like dstv advertising itself on dstv channels!! ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………..
Just go back to the old design. makutadza basa… apa you ddnt even apologise for the late explanation
This redesign is off the mark. The color scheme and negative space filled with black – its just not good.
Terrible design i preferred the old look, used to visit everyday now l rarely visit
You made the website worse to navigate than it was before. Please bring back the old design/site. You terribly misfired here. With all due respect of course. Thank you.
The new design will take some getting used to however arranging stories by category was a good move. I suggest adding a footer section with all the hidden features like the useful links section.
Radical design change will always receive. Just like getting use to a new phone
The new design sucks!!!
new design is terrible. I hope this site fails and becomes a documented lesson on how not to design a website
Well, that’s drastic…