We’ve been wrestling with how to make SetSail more user friendly for both longtime SetSailors and newcomers. Sarah, our technical Guru (amongst other duties), has been working with this for the past year. The new look is the result of those labors. We are not yet ready to share, but the new year will bring new exciting FPB developments with application outside our normal sphere of operation.
Speaking of sharing, our annual Google Analytics check on SetSail traffic last year showed 464,987 visits, 1,408,100 pages viewed, and 27,125 hours of time spent on SetSail. Thank you for spending so much time with us.
Which brings us back to the new SetSail look. For frequent visitors, you will find new posts related to designing and building in the middle right column. The far right column will have posts on a variety of other topics, mainly focused on the cruising lifestyle. The two left hand columns are for those who want information on the FPBs. These will remain relatively static (although sometime this spring we need to update these pages).
We are off to New Zealand this evening. There will be lots to report on, and time permitting, we’ll try and update daily.
Thanks again for making SetSail one of the most visited cruising websites on the Internet.
Posted by Steve Dashew (January 10, 2013)
January 11th, 2013 at 1:41 am
The new layout looks and feels really good. I’m not sure about your traffic stats but.. my wife reckons they are just for me! For a long time SetSail has been and is a regular stop-off for me, through even busy days. A great source of information, inspiration and enjoyment from both the technical and real-world marine stuff and especially the wonderful photography. Thanks for sharing. Keep it coming.
January 11th, 2013 at 11:54 am
Steve/Sarah
Happy New Year
Like the new look of the website – but on the posts, the text runs right across my wide screen which makes it quite hard to read – the eye struggles to stay lined up! You might like to fiddle with wordpress and keep the text somehow indented with the photos into a narrower column to make it easier to read. I think that would improve usability!
Best of luck with the new projects – look forward to hearing about them
January 11th, 2013 at 12:23 pm
looks like a catamaran
January 12th, 2013 at 9:49 am
New look is a mess on my smartphone… It took me 5 mins to find latest entry and was close to sending email telling something had gone wrong with your website…
January 12th, 2013 at 1:27 pm
What sort of smartphone? And, now that you know the right two columns have the latest data, is this still a problem?
January 15th, 2013 at 2:41 pm
It works good on my Android phone and iPad. I do sometimes wish clicking on an article would go forward in this window rather than always opening another window. Extra windows on the smart phone can get to be an issue. Am I missing a way to change that?
January 16th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
I second Daryl’s wish that clicking on an article goes forward in that window rather than always opening another window … It can be a bother at times … Or are we mIssing something?
January 17th, 2013 at 11:12 am
Hi, not liking the new design, it does not come naturally to have to review four sections to identify new content, serial delivery is better like any other blog. Great content, thanks for keeping us all interested
January 18th, 2013 at 10:50 pm
New articles are always going to show up on the two right hand columns.
January 18th, 2013 at 6:34 pm
As for the Catamaran possibility, I think Steve has already discounted that idea in other posts. The forward pilot house looks interesting though. Can’t wait to see it…..