An Even Faster Lane: Why We’re Redesigning the Blog
Christopher Barger
Director, Global Communications Technology
You’ve probably noticed as you logged on this morning that we have a new look for FastLane. Welcome to FastLane 2.0! We’ve redesigned FastLane for a few reasons, and I wanted to go through the changes with you.
The most obvious change is the new look. We started FastLane in January 2005, and, with some tweaks, it’s had the same look throughout its lifetime. Three and a half years is an eternity online, so it was high time for a fresh look – one that incorporates more of 2008’s web experience.
You’ll notice that we’ve updated the design to fit higher-resolution monitors. More and more people have swankier monitors these days, and many of you were asking for the capability to show off bigger pictures – so we’ve accommodated that request.
We’ve made it easier to find more of our web properties. Since FastLane first launched, a whole new set of communicative tools have emerged – and while we’ve adopted them, we didn’t always make it easy for you to find them. So now there’s an embedded YouTube player with the latest GM video, a larger Twitter box with the latest activity in our feed, and a pull of our Flickr photos that we post.
We’re now streaming user comments, so you can more easily keep up with not only what GM has to say, but how other members of this community are responding to us, and what you have to say about the subjects we cover.
You’ll notice that our category selection now shows the most recent post in that grouping. It’s just a small way to make it easier for you to find the most recent developments in areas that particularly interest you.
We’ve added a new category, too – Concept Cars. Since so many people enjoy the possibilities and design cues that can be found in GM’s concept vehicles – and since some of these vehicles will be important to GM’s future – we wanted to add a category for those of you who dig on our concepts.
We’re making these changes to get FastLane a little more up with the times. We’re going to make our content more accessible to a 2008 audience. At the end of the day, it’s our content that drives whether FastLane is relevant to you as a reader – and we’re planning to offer you meatier posts in the coming weeks and months. But in the meantime, these design changes are a great way to start making our blog more relevant and useful in today’s social media environment.
We’re looking your feedback on the design changes here on FastLane. Please let us know what you think– we’d love to hear!
- Posted in Business
Brock
Looks good, but it doesn’t render properly with JavaScript turned off, which is a negative. Of course, that’s also fairly normal these days, but it would be nice to have a cleaner fall-back when JS is not on/available.
Scott Monty
Chris - Nice relaunch with the new look here. It’s very slick and easy on the eyes. I particularly like how you didn’t call Twitter updates “Twitter Updates,” in order to keep it understandable to the non-technical people who may read the blog.
Congratulations on the continued evolution of GM’s digital footprint. You set a great example for the rest of us!
Rum Doodle
What happened to the preview mode?
edvard
This is a big improvement from the previous design. All in all, a very “Web 2.0″ treatment. As a designer myself, I only had a few nit-picky comments. To me at least, the colors at the top look a bit muddy. I think this is due to having the slight blur on the Fastlane Blog text. I would eliminate the blur. Secondly, the new shiny GM logo which has it’s own Web 2.0 treatment would look crisper and more refreshing if it were on a lighter green background. As it is now, the colors don’t compliment as well. There isn’t as dramatic of a contrast so the logo and BG sort of blend together. I think you could accomplish this by having a gradual gradient from left to right. Lastly, get rid of the floating ‘bubble’ to the left of the car pic- that single whitish looking one. It sticks out a bit much.
Other then that, the new design looks great. I personally like sites that have dark backgrounds to highlight the text. Good job!
Christopher Barger
Hi guys. Just a few reactions:
Brock - good point, and thanks for pointing it out. I’m cutting and pasting your comment and taking it to our tech gurus to try and solve this issue. I appreciate the feedback, and we’ll get a response asap on this one.
Scott - hey, thanks. A public welcome to you in your new job here in Detroit, by the way. As for the non-technical people reading the blog, count me as one of them… I write what I understand.
Rum Doodle - do you mean the ability to preview your comments before posting them? (If not, please let me know what you’re referring to.)
Edvard - thanks! It’s always good to have the input of someone who does this stuff for a living. I’m making your suggestions available to the tech team here. Again, thanks for the kind comments and your input!
Christopher Barger
Just checking back in. On the JS issue, here’s what our tech team told me:
“With JS turned off on your computer, you miss out on the fun stuff like some of the design elements, our Flickr photos, etc. But, even with it off, you still get the meat of the site. You’re able to see and read all the blog posts without any problems.”
On the preview issue, this is the answer:
“Yep, that was in regard to previewing comments, we believe. That wasn’t an “out-of-the-box” function on our new hosting platform, and since we never had a lot of readers mention it to us, we didn’t bring it over for the redesign. However, it something we can add and our programmers are reviewing it for the site updates.”
So there we go… hope those answers were useful to you.
Rum Doodle
“Rum Doodle - do you mean the ability to preview your comments before posting them? (If not, please let me know what you’re referring to.)”
Yes, that’s what I mean. When trying to link to another website, it’s useful to be able to preview to make sure the link is correct.
SteveG
I dig it.
Now change the name of the Cruze to something that doesn’t make us want to hurl.
Sorry, had to add that.
Ralph L
How about larger text size, at least as an option package with the side air bags?
jamie
Two comments:
One, I agree with Edvard that the text is too blurry. Glad to see that you will be looking into that.
Also, I miss the photos that used to accompany the articles. One photo is worth a thousand words…just look at the latest Camaro photo, for example!
Otherwise, I love the new makeover. You can’t wear the same clothes forever. Change is good. Automakers have totally embraced that concept for decades. Kudos.
Edward Hayes
Well it’s nice to see that the fastlane is on the GM seven year standard product update rotation.
I was considering legislation to have the GM site considered a national historic landmark.
Alright enouph with the jokes, its always good to see GM not loose its sense of humor, and my own web site has gotten some much needed updates as well.
Still it’s always high time to return to the basics, for you product and engine technology and for me, the written word. In the end it appears that this update seems to make submitting of these comments less of an effort, sort of like going from parchment and coal to a pen and a legal pad.
Thanks, well then, you will be hearing more from me I guess.