Mike’s Bloggity Blog Enters A New Era

“Mike’s Bloggity Blog”:http://mikesbloggityblog.com is easily one of the most popular Entertainment blogs in Canada. Winning numerous awards for his posts covering the ever growing Canadian television and pop-culture landscape, Mike’s Bloggity Blog reaches more than 20,000 readers a month. (and growing)

Earlier last year, we had the fantastic opportunity to work with Mike on the first redesign of his site. It was the first step in the site’s continuous evolution, one in which the site transitioned over from it’s humble roots at Blogger.com to a self-hosted professional entity. And now this week, we’re happy to showcase the second iteration of Mike’s Bloggity and a new era for this fantastic site.

As mentioned, our first design was a bold new step for the site. It took the original, highly popular web site, shifting it from it’s humble Blogger origins and plunking it down on it’s own piece of wonderful internet real estate. Our goal for “the original design”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/the-redesign-of-mike-s-bloggity-blog was to create a unique layout that would showcase Mike’s vibrant humour and personality, while helping to build on his following.

With this latest rendition, we’ve taken the best elements of the previous design and ramped up the sensibility and professionalism. With this design, we’ve aimed to provide a more conscious focus on Mike’s writing and content, while adding the flexibility to allow for other elements of Mike’s growing business to foster.

Design wise, we removed the blocky header and navigation system and streamlined it. Creating a simple yet elegant horizontal header, with a more intuitive navigation system which better incorporates the Social Media elements of the site. We also opened up the content body to give the feeling of openness and of less restriction. The sidebar is also a more open design, which feels more like an element of the content rather than an add-on. We’ve also ramped up the footer of the site, removing some of the more awkward elements and creating a new slicker more textured design.

In terms of functionality, this new design gives Mike’s Bloggity Blog far more flexibility for growth. We’ve introduced a concentrated area for Mike to promote his growing collection of special contests, while also allowing him the flexibility to expand in to the world of online advertising.

It’s this combination of functionality and design sensibility that excites us the most about this redesign.

It’s been a pleasure to work with Mike and to watch as his audience continues to grow. We’re excited about this new launch and we look forward to working with him as he continues to work towards dominating the Canadian Entertainment Blogosphere.