IndustryWeek Rolls Out New Website Design

If you’re a regular reader of IndustryWeek, you’ll notice a new look today. Our parent company, EndeavorB2B, has been updating each brand’s website with a simpler, streamlined format to address changes to technology and the business environment.

On the homepage, the biggest difference you’ll see is a large reduction in the number of articles we highlight at the top of the page. Our older format featured as many as 13 articles on the top third of the page, while the new design limits that to about six. To be clear, we’re publishing as many articles as we traditionally have, but we’re giving more real estate to each new article.

That change will improve the site’s look and feel, especially on mobile devices, and it will also make clear which articles our editors feel are the most important. The updated design also highlights sign-up options for our daily and weekly newsletters, a great way to receive regular updates from our editors on important developments in manufacturing supply chains, leadership, continuous improvement, talent and technology.

On the individual article or video or podcast pages, we’ve removed several of the boxes on the sides of the pages to make the text clearer and easier to read. Icons above the main images on articles make it easier to comment on stories or share articles with friends and colleagues.

We’ve switched to a slightly larger and slightly thinner font. With the whiter backgrounds, I find the text easier to read with my rapidly aging eyes, but if you feel different, please let us know. Also, instead of showing links in our IndustryWeek shade of red, we’ve gone back to the early days of the Internet and made links blue and underlined. We have received feedback throughout the years that links were sometimes hard to spot in red, especially for people who have difficulties differentiating colors. The high contrast between white, black and blue should make links easier to spot in the new design.

To be clear, all of these changes are cosmetic. Our dedication to providing the best information possible to our audience is unchanged. Our editorial staff continues to chase stories to provide the information that manufacturing industry leaders need to make the best decisions possible for their operations.

So, if you like or loathe the changes, please let me know. Like any major redesign, we’ll likely have to make changes in the weeks and months to come, so let me know what you think doesn’t work, and we’ll strive to change those things.