The new look of The Big Takeover

The Big Takeover is a 30-year old, bi-annual music magazine written and published in NYC by the enthusiastic Jack Rabid. It includes some great record and concert reviews and is an important voice in the independent music scene. More than anything (at least for me), it's THE place to discover new music. The BT website is a good companion which features the one of the main revenue drivers: subscriptions to the magazine!

The homepage just underwent a redesign that drastically improved the layout. The page now uses clear section headers (Concerts, Recordings) which logically match the main navigation options and the use of white space helps users to direct their attention appropriately.

However, it's not clear why the navigation is placed above the ads away from the content. Although the location of Search meets expectations, the navigation should be closer to the content. Moving the navigation below the ads (suggested wireframe below) would create a more efficient experience for the user (less distance for the mouse to move, eyes to travel) while simply increasing its visibility.

Overall, the homepage redesign is a major improvement and I look forward to other new pages (including the subscription workflow) soon.

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music UX