Welcome to the new StartupSmart

After several months of analysing anonymised data, conceptualising, designing and building our new StartupSmart, we’ve moved in.

Just like Uber, we’ve had a complete design overhaul.

Our objectives were simple and challenging: We were sorely overdue for a cross-device friendly site. We needed to decrease load time. We wanted to modernize and refresh while maintaining our core pillars and brand identity. We needed to reduce some of the crowding we’d developed over the years in the way we organised content.

Things you will notice:

Responsive design: Our last redesign was undertaken in a PC-centric world – hard to imagine now I know. We know that almost 30% of you read our site on mobile devices. You will now be accessing a version of a single site to suit the device you are using.

Reduced load time: Yes, it takes less time for the site to load now.

Changes to the way we organise information: Some pathways to content that you’re used to have been shifted, consolidated or renamed. In making these changes, we’ve considered what is most meaningful to our readers and what best represents what we do every day. We want you to be able to browse and discover content quicker.

New colours and fonts: While we’ve retained our core logo, we have made changes to colours and fonts. Our font choices are visually and technically driven, motivated by what will adapt well across devices and we made adjustments to text size and layout across mobile and desktop to create a clearer, more comfortable reading experience.

And we’ve introduced a new section called Sh*t Startups Say to keep things playful and as a reminder not to take it all too seriously. Keep your ear to the ground, and submit your fresh stuff here.

Finally, we’re going to be more multimedia focused, increasing our creation of audio and visual content.

If you are still seeing the old website, please clear your cache.

Just like with all beta phases, it’s not all going to work perfect. Some parts of the website will render content differently. Some older content won’t adapt seamlessly to our new design. Content migrations are a little tricky, and things take a while to propagate and then to retrofit. We’re working on getting all of our content to look as fresh as our new daily content in the coming period.

We’re very much in beta mode in here as we continue to rollout products and features, some which we have started working on and others that you will tell us about. This time is all about settling in and prioritising these rollouts.

As with all living things, this is a process, and we want to hear from you with what may be buggy, awkward or absent over at product@smartcompany.com.au. For all other feedback, contact us here.

Thank you for all your support, and we hope you enjoy the new site.

Denham Sadler, StartupSmart Editor and Nadine Raydan, Head of Product

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