It seems like only recently we gave this very site a fresh coat of paint and we're at it again. In the early hours of this morning we launched a new look Sidepodcast homepage.

In the current spirit of clearing the decks and starting afresh, it's out with the perfectly adequate and in with the brand new, barely tested and somewhat suboptimal replacement. It isn't finished, but it does make for a nice start.

Admittedly this isn't the normal way one ought to go about such matters, but it is an extremely rapid way of experimenting with new ideas.

More, more, more

The primary change we're keen to play around with is the promotion of the 'more' concept from the old design. The notion of concealing a collection of useful links behind a slide-out panel has worked extremely well since it was introduced back in 2010, but was easily overlooked amongst a cluttered menu.

Newly renamed and moved into a prime position, 'Contents' provides a one-stop solution for navigating Sidepodcast.

We are playing around with shapes and colours more than we have before, but you'll need an up-to-date browser to appreciate the full-on experience. No single browser can be named the best anymore - Firefox users will see the expander chip rotate rather than jump to its destination, Chrome users can search the site using speech to text. Be sure you're using the latest and greatest version of your chosen weapon, whatever it may be.

I've heard of more relaxing holidays

So it turns out sitting on a beach isn't exactly our thing. Freedom to experiment is a type of holiday and we're gorging ourselves on experimention at the moment. If you're not a big fan of change for the sake of it, you might find these pages a little unnerving in the interim. Stuff will move around (and probably move right back again) continually from now until whenever.

A big note of thanks to Lea, Paul and a whole host of top notch designers and developers who make making this stuff much fun!

Do let us know what you think, is it a ✔ or a ✖, have your say in the comments and look out for more updates... soonish.

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