WashTech Redesign

A week or so back I visited one of my favorite web sites, www.washingtontechnology.com. And I was stunned.

What was previously an easy to navigate news site is now ... well, I'm not sure.

When you visited the WT site before, the news regarding the government contracting community was clearly visible- front and center, with the "Top Stories" list on the right (most read and most emailed stories), breaking news down the middle, and on the left side the major categories for the GovCon market. It was easy to find what you were looking for.

I liked the "most read/most emailed" feature as it let me know what was trending in the market. It is gone.

Now we have the top navigation bar with Nick Wakeman's blog (worth reading), contract news and Top 100 news. The we have one visible opinion column until you scroll down and get past the ads on the right side.

Before when you read a story, there are "related stories" next to or under the text. I liked that as I could get more information on a specific topic. I don't see that now.

Remember when Coke launched "New Coke"? I don't find the new design to be a user friendly experience compared to what was there before and I think this redesign will lead to less traffic and shorter visits to the site. 

It has certainly made my visits shorter. I want the Classic WT.

10/18/12 UPDATE

WashTech has revoved the "one story above the fold" look and now it is relatively easy to scroll down and see some news. Still not what it was, but much better than their first pass.