Introducing our new review format - making the content you want easier to find

 

 

This year you've watched us update the overall look of our site, bringing onboard a new logo and generally sprucing the place up a bit. Now, we're rolling out a whole new review layout to go along with our new look.

Once upon a time, we decided to pull content from the various tabs and subtabs of our reviews back onto the main landing page, so readers wouldn't have to click as much to get to what they wanted. That worked well at the time, and many readers liked the change. As time has gone on and our reviews have continued to evolve, though, we've arrived at the point where it's time to go back in the other direction.

We're proud that we're putting up what we believe are some of the best camera reviews on the Internet, but our main home pages for cameras have been getting longer and longer and loooonger in the process. Even reading and referring to the material ourselves, we've been conscious of how much scrolling it takes to access it all.

The new layout is designed to give you (and us!) a more cohesive and user-friendly experience. We're moving important review sections to their own pages, and giving you a quick-glance preview of them on the camera's homepage, beneath each camera's general overview section. This will let you very quickly browse through what we've posted, and pick what you're most interested in reading. Each little "preview pod" gives you taste of what the section is about, and you can click the link at the bottom, or anywhere within the preview pod itself to go read it.

 

This is an example of one of our new preview pods from a recent Shooter's Report

These new preview pods include our shooter's reports, technical write-ups, image quality comparisons, etc. The compact nature should make it much easier for you to browse for content and find what you're looking for much faster. And if you already know where you'd like to go, you can also access all of the content via the tabs at the top of every page of the review (including the ever-popular "conclusion" tab for those of you who just can't wait), or in the dropdown jump menu on the right side of the review page.

Thus far, we've offered this new format in the Pentax K-3, Olympus E-M10 and Panasonic GM1 reviews, and will have a few more reworked early next week. We'll gradually work through the most popular older reviews on our site, and will be adopting the new format for all new reviews going forward. Feel free to have a browse through and see what you think!

As with all new endeavors we're currently working through a few minor bugs, but even with it still a little rough around the edges, we're very excited, and hope that you'll like our new approach. As always, we're more than interested in what you (our bosses) have to say. So please visit the comments section at the bottom of this page and let us know your thoughts on this new layout concept.

And, as always, thanks for being a part of our community!

-The IR Editorial Team

[quick links: Pentax K-3 Review • Olympus E-M10 Review • Panasonic GM1 Review]