Exberliner has with us for many years and is one of our favorite magazines. Whether or not you live in Berlin, you'll enjoy their great stories that touch on timely and sometimes challenging subjects that we all can identify with. This year it was time for to refresh their website design as well as strategy, which we did in collaboration with their team.
Project highlights:
- New visual design
- New section editor and sprockets
- Sponsored content
- Custom ad zones and targeting with Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers
Because they had been a client for many years, their custom design needed adjusting to make use of the newer section layout system. In addition, they also wanted to diversify their revenue opportunities by offering sponsored content. These needs touched both design and sales which meant we needed to create workflows that were flexible, as well, as easy to update so that Exberliner could take full advantage of the customization we were implementing.
Exberliner Magazine
Exberliner's redesign website
One of the challenges of doing a site refresh with a client that has been with us for a while is how to reorganize the structure. Some things, like redirects when content is moved, are taken care of by our application. Other things, like updating ad slots, moving and renaming sections, and pruning tags take some planning. The starting point of a refresh project is to create a sandbox site which is a duplicate of the existing site. This is where all the work takes place without disrupting the existing site. Moving and renaming sections, creating new sections, pruning tags, and adding new sprockets and ad slots all happen in the sandbox. While the editorial team is busy with building the new structure out, the new design is being developed in parallel. Weekly meetings allow for the various teams to discuss any issues, questions, or challenges that come up. This process usually lasts 12 weeks.
So, after about 3 months of working together, we are proud to present the new site. The typefaces and colors work well with the brand identity. More whitespace and larger body text make for a better reading experience. Some little details like special blockquote styling and sections styled like labels feel well thought out and informative.
A big shout out to the Exberliner team on a really nice relaunch. As with other relaunch projects, once the 12 weeks is over, there is a period of about 6 weeks where we continue to be in contact to help with issues and/or questions that come up.
If you are interested finding out more about Metro Publisher’s launch projects, contact us:
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