Glass Magazine rings in the New Year with a relaunch of its website, GlassMagazine.com. The new website offers essential glass industry content and news in a more organized, accessible and mobile-friendly format. It is designed to better connect readers with the information they need to meet customer demands, address leading challenges, keep up with trends and run more profitable glass businesses.
“This is the first major change to the website in a little over 10 years,” says Bethany Stough, senior manager, digital media, for Glass Magazine’s publisher, the National Glass Association. “In 10 years, our industry, our readers, the NGA and the magazine have all changed, and the new website both reflects those changes and is designed to keep pace with further change in the future.”
Many of the changes to the site reflect the evolution in reader habits during the previous decade. “A website is no longer an additional vehicle for content sharing; it is a unique content sharing platform—one that is approached and read very differently from print—and for some readers, is the primary source for content,” says Stough. “To that end, the new website design and functionality makes it easier for staff to curate content for the web and makes it easier for users to find and consume content. At the same time, the website seeks to showcase content in a web-friendly format—using communicative headlines, pithy blurbs, multimedia—all in an appealing design that is accessible and mobile friendly.”
A major site development is a complete reorganization around content topics. “We have found that our readers search the site for specific topics and want content published on that topic available without much digging. The new site does that by including an ‘All Topics’ navigation tab as well as a more robust search functionality to display all relevant, topic-based content.”
Additionally:
- Readers can expect direct access to the digital version of the magazine, right within the site. And, there is a clearer connection to our newsletter, social media, and ways to engage with and contribute to the magazine.
- A sidebar has been added to connect readers to related content for further reading.
- Products, the most-read section of the magazine, now has a prominent place on the site, and a design that reflects the importance of this section. Users can filter products by name, type or publication date to find just what they’re looking for. In this section, readers can again find related information and more products easily.
Glass Magazine’s new digital platform also presents additional content and resources for readers. “We can include beautiful photo galleries, educational videos, resource toolkits, digital product guides. The site is also connected to the NGA family of sites, including glass.org, glassbuild.com and windowanddoor.com. This means that no matter what site you’re on, you have the latest relevant information from NGA, from GlassBuild America and from our sister publication. Engaging with the NGA and benefiting from its resources has never been easier.”
