In times of old, site relaunches tended to occur on the simple Rule of Sexy and/or Cool: If your site’s design looks old and busted, you create a new site design and relaunch, trumpeting with the glory of a dehydrated Coachella attendee on psychotropics. With the new site design, people will come back and think of your site as cool and sexy again and keep coming back… assuming, of course, you made a good site design. Design, like content, is King (thus making the two Co-Kings), and is an important aspect of making sure your site is with it.
In the case of seminal site Decoder Magazine, they kind of did that last Thursday. However, their motives were more than just getting sexy down: back in February, we (or rather, I) announced the end of another seminal site, Foxy Digitalis. In its conclusion, owner Brad Rose stated that, in working with editor Dwight Pavlovic at Decoder, the writing staff would be joining the latter site as part of the now-hip relaunch (exception given supposedly to Jonathan Patrick, who was found mewing on Mr P’s doorstep on the Floating Platform one morning). Originally, the planned relaunch was said to be February. However, as any site designer will tell you, you should read any completion date and add three weeks or three months to it, depending on how much the designer is paid.
In any event, the new site design is a lot less bloggy, and a lot more site-y. Previous entries pre-launch remain mysteriously hidden from human sight, but that may be subject to change. Additionally, the site hints at possibly expanding its scope, with links to future articles on food, fashion, literature, and art. Hopefully, this means we will finally get to learn how Michael Gira makes spicy fondue. I hear it’s a hit at house shows.
• Decoder: http://www.secretdecoder.net