Goals for Redesigning Wave Radio

Goals for Redesigning Wave Radio

This week I've started working on a major redesign of Wave Radio and it's becoming a lot bigger than I anticipated. While I'm testing out new ideas and trying to find the best one I think I need to keep in mind the reasons for this redesign along the way. It's easy to change things for aesthetic reasons only but I think every decision must have a clear reason behind it.

Goals

Extensibility

The current design leaves little room for adding more. It's a simple two-column layout and already important information is below the fold. There are a ton of things I'd like to add to improve navigation and for future features and the current design makes finding space a struggle.

Simplicity

Whatever changes I make the design needs to remain simple. A lot of features have been added since launch and more will be added in the future. But no matter how many features I add the site should remain simple for new users and existing ones alike. Clutter is overwhelming and I need to remove things that aren't used enough while seamlessly integrating new ideas.

Efficiency

The current design wastes a lot of valuable space. Especially on large screen devices. Empty space is important but it can easily become wasted space if it's too much. I'd like to make elements on the page more compact while also making better use of the full device screen than the current design.

With these goals in mind hopefully the new design can better serve user's needs and improve their experience on the site.